Wednesday, July 1

Lovely drive today among some coastal mountains and along the Mediterranean coat. Traffic bad in the cities, but that was expected. Just a couple of miles from the airport, so that's the very last segment and I'm on the way home tomorrow. See everyone soon.

Tuesday, June 30

So after the frustration of yesterday, I made up 2/3 of the distance to the airport. So I'm heading in the right direction and almost there. I've stopped in a little city called Brignolles. Like all old town there's an old section with narrow streets and lots of history. The Augustinians have a chapel here and Eucharistic adoration was available. Not a lot of people but several. So that was nice. Tomorrow I think I'll even take the scenic route and enjoy the drive. Thinking of you all, with love.

Monday, June 29

Well, the best laid plans oft go astray! But I guess these plans weren't laid too well. As I was on the way to Barcelona, I was realizing that it was farther than I had counted on, and that if I stuck to my plans it would a very long drive back to the airport on Wednesday and was already trying to figure out how to cut my trip short and begin the trip back. Well I made it to the outskirts of Barcelona, took the wrong exit and found myself in the most confusing mess. It was an old part of town, the streets were narrow, one lane, one way, with cars parked along both side, in more than an hour of driving around in circles, I never found a single parking place, I did find the street where the hostel was located and there was construction closing the street, which was one way and impossible to get in from the other direction, so when I found myself back on the highway ramp, I said the heck with it and headed back. So I'm back in Narbonne, and will be taking my time tomorrow and Wednesday driving on back toward Nice and the airport. So while I was a little slow realizing I had bit off too much, I am happy to be heading in the right direction anyway.
Enjoying another peaceful evening. Miss you all.

Sunday, June 28 Narbonne France

Sunday a day off rest, and I did just that; I canceled my own plans to spend the day visiting more gothic cathedrals. They are just too much farther than I thought they would be, or they seemed to be by a casual glance at a map. I had always planned on two nights here in Narbonne, traveling today and returning here tonight, I've just skipped the traveling and rested. Tomorrow I'll travel on down to Barcelona, to see Sagrada Familia on Tuesday, my birthday.
So today was just walking around the old city: it goes back to Roman times. There was a bazaar on the plaza, which I'm finding is pretty typical. Instead of going to church to worship the living God, people worship this world's secular god - materialism.
I did spend more time in the cathedral. It is actually a very exquisite gothic construction, unfortunately, only the choir, the area around the altar, was ever built. The crossing and nave were never built, they just built a wall to end the building. Many have said it was the pride of the medieval church to attempt to build such massive structures, and its failure. A place like Bouvais, attempting to build the very highest cathedral, reached too far, and failed. There again is only the choir, and now that has to be propped with ugly iron beams to keep from collapsing. Such are the problems with cathedral building.
Actually it is quite hot here, not like the cool mountain air of Aiguines. Guess I forget I'm on the Mediterranean, and traveling south. This room is great - with air conditioning! Just found it on the Internet.
Miss you all. Anxious to be home, see you soon.

Saturday, June 27

Well the woodturning classes are over and I have a few days of vacation. This must have been one of those, as long as you are here, you may as well. ... As long as you're already in France, you may as well go see some of the cathedrals you didn't see last year. Yeah sounds good, I just should have looked more closely and figured out a little closer how far these cathedrals are I want to visit.
Leaving Aiguines was a beautiful drive. Each village has a unique and ancient history, there was just to much to see. I did stop at one grand old church, in some small town,  but then just pushed on. And it became a push too. After the country roads,it became expedient to get on the highways and try to cover some ground, only to be backed up in traffic jams all over the place. I'm sure it was a solid 45 minutes, stop and go, to get through the toll both at one point. I hope it was because it was a Saturday that the roads were so crazy. But that being said I really had no problem, and even came straight to my room here in Narbonne. Left at 8 am and got here at 3pm.
After a little rest, I realized that there might be Mass at 5 or 6 at the cathedral. At least I already have one of the cathedrals checked off the list. It's a nice little gothic cathedral, but nothing like the great cathedrals of northern France. But there was no Mass there. Mass would be a at St. Paul's basilica, in another part of town, at 6 pm. So I had my tourist map and headed in that direction. Found it in plenty of time, and stayed for Mass. Actually they did a pretty nice job. There was a great organ sound that really filed the space and it was really prayerful and peaceful. I wonder why that kind of peace and otherworldlyness doesn't appeal to the younger generation. I think they should try it, they just might like it.
Thinking of you all, God bless.
Hope this goes off, now is a question of finding a WiFi connection a and actually getting connected. Last night I couldn't get connected although I should have been able. I'll try Sunday morning.

Friday, June 26

In my class taught by Jean-François Escoulen, was Christophe, Lionel, Christophe, and myself. In the jewelry making class taught by Nathalie, was Yves, Franck, and Françoise.
Well today was our last day. It was putting the finishing touches on my trembleur, then making a cap for the top, and a base to stand it in. The simpler projects took longer than they should have, I had to adapt my stand after it was done to make it more stable, and then redo it to get it right. It took two people to get it off the lathe, and then it was done! I managed to turn a trembleur. I had understood the process just from reading about it, but it was good to have all the right tools and equipment, the wisdom of experience from someone who has turned many, and a good teacher who is able to share that knowledge.
Then it was cleanup, watching the other guys finish up their projects, only Christophe was attempting a trembleur. His also came out quite nice, a little better than mine in fact as he managed to turn his stems down to about 1.7 mm, mine are at least 2.5 mm, due to the vibration problem I had at the beginning, and the fact that I am going to have to carry mine on an airplane, while he only has a few hours drive to get home. Lionel and the other Christophe, were doing escentric turning. Jean-François is rather famous for his escentric, usually whimsical, turnings. So they didn't have one big project, but were learning the principles and skills needed for such work.
So the shop is all cleaned up, everything is back in its place, and everyone is relaxing. For a class treat we went to the village square, sat at an outdoor sidewalk café, and had someone else fox and serve our supper. Of course, in the French tradition we didn't set off  until after 8 pm, and didn't get up until after 10. One of the reasons they like sitting so long, I figured out, is that by the time the sun sets and it cools off a bit, the flies and bugs go away! I had some shrimp pasta, the others had hamburgers.
So ends this part of my adventure. I have certainly enjoyed it, and hope I have learned a lot.
See everyone soon.

Thursday, June 25

Back to my trembleur today. The vibration problem continued, so we switched to a heavy duty steady rest, that helped allot, and by the time I was able to get a few more inches done, it was short enough to spin nice and smooth. So the turning became a real joy from then on, and i was able to experience how the tool and wood is supposed to interact. I could have probably gone down under 2 mm (1/10 in), but since I am planning on bringing it home, and it will have to travel a bit, Jean-François said to keep it at 2.5 mm.
So basically it is done. I didn't have any disasters, praise God. There is just a little finishing on the end, or maybe even redo it, as I was just winging it at the end and am not too pleased with that part, but that's a small thing. So it was a good day. Hope yours was also.