With the best of intentions...

This is about traveling we DIDN'T do - and why it was perfectly all right.

On the 19th, I posted while people got ready to depart for one excursion or the other, ready to put away the computer whenever it was time to leave for Saissac, Montolieu and points in between.

And then we never made it farther than Soreze, about 3 km from Durfort. With one errand and another, Cathy and I found ourselves looking for a parking place there about 11:30 a.m., long after we had planned to be on the road. One of our tasks was to find a place for a group farewell dinner that evening, an endeavor complicated by unannounced closing days and impenetrable voice mail messages.

Without a lot of discussion, we decided it was a day to stay close to home. After picking up a loaf of bread, we went back to La Cascade, where we put together a satisfying lunch for ourselves and Carolyn, from an assortment of tasty dinner leftovers, cheese, fruit and vegetables. It was warm enough to eat out on the terrace, and we had some excellent wine to make it a celebration.

After lunch came an invitation to visit the house of another expatriate artist, as it was being readied for visitors. Later, since we were already in Soreze, Carolyn suggested we try to visit Mme. Fontanilles, who, at age 97, is still painting portraits, making elaborately-costumed collectible dolls, and writing stories based on their imagined lives.


Her favorite subject is Anais, a little Soreze girl of the 1860's, whose portrait is on the sign above her shop.

Madame and her young home helper were at home, and pleased to have company. We were entranced by her energy and liveliness. She has lived in Soreze her entire life, but now has family scattered through Europe. From Carolyn we learned that during WWII she participated in the Resistance, and occasionally hid downed Allied pilots in her house.

That night we had a festive farewell dinner at an elegant restaurant located in a building that was once an abbey, then a military school, and now contains two hotels and a conference center.


Next morning I had time for a few more Durfort photos, including this one, of the fountain where everyone in town gets drinking water that comes straight down from a protected source in the nearby foothills.