The trees at St Guillaume du Desert explode with the promise of spring

Guillaume got understandably tired of being the father of 10 so changed careers to become a monk at age 50 and built an abbey and medieval church

on one of the four French roads which thousands of pilgrims walked during the Middle Ages to Spain’s Saint Jacques deCompostela. Thousands of tourists visit the St Guillaume du Desert World Heritage Site today, including this OnVaSortir group with my friend Marie-Martine who is being knighted by Katia.

After a half-day tour, refreshments create yet another opportunity for socializing in the lovely out of doors.

The following week Bob and I took off for a surprise visit to hear my sister sing in a concert in California. We wanted to hear her sing, of course, and also couldn’t bear to miss the party she organized before and after the concert. She couldn’t even speak when she saw us waiting for her at the restaurant in San Clemente.

The following day was filled with a walk on the beach with Kiki, my brother Mike from New York, his wife Julie, Bob and myself followed by a wonderful family dinner overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Saturday was the concert where most of us cried like babies as (having memorized the words) Kiki established eye contact with us while singing,“Think of me, Think of me fondly when we say good-bye” from Phantom of the Opera.

She invited 62 to the concert and party and 100 came. So she handwrote nametags with an icon on each telling of her relationship with that person.

Rented tables and chairs nestled in her garden bursting with color, the best it has ever looked.

For those of you who don’t know, my sister was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer 21 months ago. After starting a new treatment last week after the concert and party, she feels, after two months of touch and go, that once again, she has years to live.

Other events in Montpellier just in the last week, all free to the public…last night the museums in all of France were opened their doors for free admission, many with candles. In Montpellier, the docents created a Sherlock Holmes medieval mystery as they presented to the background of medieval art and music. A new photography exhibit opened at the Pavilion Populaire. An Amazonian Indian woman spoke to record breaking crowds of her fight to save the forests of the Amazon. The directors of the orchestras of France competed against each other to see who was the best. So, at one end of Montpellier, the older folks went for free to the museum and the symphony, at the other end of Montpellier 350,000 people, mostly under 25, watched the best extreme sports in the world—rollers, BMX, skateboarding, VTT and wakeboarding—a Festival of Extreme Sports in which the city Montpellier invests over 500,000 €.

We get the keys to our apartment this week so much of our free time has been devoted to the business of creating a more permanent home here before we return to the USA for the summer on June 19th.

Now, here is Bob...the photo man.

For this week's photo club, I volunteered to present a series of photos on some theme of my choice so I decided on a group of photos that were taken on the shores of the Pacific Ocean including both the Washington coast and the California coast at San Clemente.  I actually had an extra week to finish since last Thursday was Ascension Sunday (and event not well known to me and probably to only a few in the US) and it is a state holiday in France. Trying to get directions straight when they are given in French continues to be a challenge as does much of the oral communications.   Anyway the series can be seen in thumbnails and if you like you can go on to a slide show if the images are of interest.