The Trail's Our Thing

Kelly looked very stylish and grown up. She wore her new top (bought on Rue Mouffetard) on the trip home and carried the duffel bag she found at Les Halles. I probably look a little tired, and in desperate need of a haircut!

We took the Roissybus from the Opera House to Charles de Gaulle airport, a great recommendation from Kim on Slow Travel. I thought this was a lot easier than trying to deal with our luggage down in the Metro and underground train station-- and it was an economical solution too (8.50 euro per person). A bus leaves the Opera House every 15 minutes. We waited only about five minutes before our departure, and the trip took about 45 minutes. We took a very interesting route through Monmartre, and I enjoyed seeing some new areas of Paris. Our terminal was the first stop. We arrived at the Continental check-in desk almost an hour before they even started checking-in for our plane. We really could have spent that time walking in Paris. After changing planes in Newark, we arrived home in Knoxville about 10:00 pm... a very long day.

So now my summer in France is over... at least for another year. I had a great trip-- my three weeks in Aix studying French, our five weeks as a family back in Bonnieux, and then this three days in Paris with Kelly. We enjoyed seeing so many friends in Bonnieux, and we made new friends in Aix and in the Luberon-- many of them people I know we'll see again. This was my first international trip alone and our first mother-daughter trip. Our thoughts are with Charley, who now has a couple more days in Bonnieux finishing up our housesitting and then will begin his own solo adventure, traveling in the Alpine areas of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. He's traveling in a much different way than our family trips, where I always have all our accommodations arranged. He has only one accommodation pre-planned-- in St. Gilgen, Austria. Part of his trip will involve researching two other "Experience" trips we're considering offering: The Bavarian Experience and The Salzkammergut Experience, potentially in 2009.

So now what lies ahead for the Wood family? Kelly started back to school on Wednesday, less than three days after we returned home. She's now in 9th grade... high school! And I'vejust officially joined the faculty at the University of Tennessee (I was an adjunct faculty member before), so I was back to work quickly too... several days of leadership coaching this week with the Physician Executive MBA program and getting ready for my first day of classes on August 23. I also have several consulting jobs, including one for a technical company working on a huge international project in Provence. I'm also excited about my new involvement as a Slow Travel moderator.

On September 14th I'll fly back to Marseille and rejoin Charley. We have two Luberon Experience groups in September. I'm looking forward to being with my husband again and to sharing the Luberon with 20 people, some of whom are coming to France for the very first time.

Interest in our Luberon Experience trips has been really great. I've gotten so many inquiries over the summer. We're already fully booked for our two weeks in September 2008, and we've added a third week in May 2008. We even have two couples (one in May, one in September) from Australia who will be with us next year.

We're talking about the possibility of a Christmas trip somewhere-- maybe in the USA or Europe, depending on how we could use frequent flyer miles and Marriott points. We're also seriously talking about going back to Bonnieux for spring break in March 2008. We would rent Christine's house and try again to finish up our hiking guidebook. And we feel pretty sure that we will spend much of the summer of 2008 in Europe. I want to go to the language school in Aix again (for at least two and maybe even four weeks), which I could do while Kelly goes to another Duke camp. We don't think our friends will need housesitters next year, but hopefully we could find an economical way to spend a few weeks in Bonnieux. It would be strange to go to Europe and not go there at all. But maybe it is time to explore some new places or revisit some of the other places we love... we are drawn to many different parts of of Europe. We would really like to do another long-distance walk next summer, at least two weeks-- maybe the circuit around Mont Blanc or perhaps another long walk in England.

Our lives have changed so much since we left on our long trip in June 2004. I feel good about the new path I'm pursuing-- teaching, consulting, our Luberon Experience trips. I like the flexibility of working some at home, having the connection with the university, working with young people, and having the summers off.

Our family has spent the last four summers in Europe, and that's a tradition we plan to continue. Travel is a very big part of who we are.