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International Travel Meeting - Sunday, June 29 @ 9:30 a.m. Pacific Time

Because I will be traveling in July on our normal first Sunday we will have the meeting a week early. Every meeting we have two topics, a country, region or city in Europe and a more general topic. I’m always interested to hear any topics you would like to talk about. You can mention them on this post, during the meeting or send me a PM.

Topics for this month:
*France outside of Paris
*Planning around events and holidays. Do you plan to enjoy the events or avoid them?

It was decided by the group that we will devote the first hour to the first topic, take a short break and then continue to the second topic.

YOU MUST RESPOND EACH MONTH TO THAT MONTHS MEETING POST IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO ATTEND. If you have attended before I already have your email address. If not, you need to send it to me in a PM. I will not have time to ask you for it if you neglect to do this. The emails with the zoom link will be emailed 1 - 2 hours before the meeting begins. I will post here when I’ve sent them. If you didn’t get it check your junk/spam folder and if it’s not there contact me ASAP. Once the meeting begins I will be unable to do anything.

Every month I get meeting requests from people with 1 post (the one requesting to join) or PM’s from people with 0 posts. We welcome everyone, but without a posting history I am asking you to private message me and tell me a little about yourself and provide your real first name. Please don’t forget to give me your email address in a PM, do not post it on the public forum.

Future meetings:
*Sunday August 3
I may schedule another meeting in late August. I will be in Europe in September, October and November.

EDITED TO ADD THAT I AM CONSIDERING THIS TO BE OUR JULY MEETING. I STARTED THIS GROUP IN JULY 2020 IN THE MIDST OF COVID AND HERE WE ARE 5 YEARS LATER, STILL GOING STRONG. THIS GROUP WOULDN'T BE WHAT IT IS WITHOUT ALL OF THE PARTICIPANTS. I APPRECIATE YOU ALL.

Posted by
11040 posts

Laurie Beth, thanks for pointing out I omitted the day of the week. I’ve edited the title.

Posted by
4610 posts

I’m bummed I can’t make it. My local scouts are having their Court of Honor Sunday and since my friend is the scout master I’m helping out. But I’ll be there in August.

Posted by
382 posts

I’d like to attend. I have a possible schedule conflict but I’ll update you closer to the date if it turns out that I can’t attend.

Posted by
35348 posts

not sure because of a big meeting the next day for which I need to be asleep early but I'll try

Posted by
11040 posts

For those of you who aren’t sure, I’ve put you on the list. Please let me know if you find you can’t make it.

mln, thanks for coming to our Sacramento meeting on Saturday. It’s always nice to see you in person and you fit right with the group.

Posted by
382 posts

Hi, Andrea. My tentative schedule conflict is gone so I will be able to attend.

Posted by
151 posts

Count me in! As ever, Thank you Andrea for all the work you put into these meetings. I enjoy them so much!!!

Posted by
8624 posts

Hi Andrea, I possibly could make this one and would love to hear both of the topics. Thank you!

Posted by
15826 posts

Hi Andrea,

I would very much like to attend. And thank you again for continuing these zooms.

Posted by
609 posts

I hope to be there; please count me in. Glad you mentioned the date in another thread as I'd forgotten it's early.

Posted by
9885 posts

I wish I could be there, Andrea, but I have a conflict. However, I'll definitely be there in August.

Posted by
11040 posts

Mardee, sorry you can make it. I hope to see you in August.

I’m looking forward to seeing everyone that will be able to attend.

Posted by
11040 posts

Last call to sign up for the meeting. If you haven’t made a request by 07:00 Sunday morning Pacific Time I will not be able to add you. I will send the zoom link between 07:30-08:30 and will post here after I’ve done this. Please let me know asap if you didn’t get it. After 09:00 I will not be able to trouble shoot it for you. Check your spam/junk folder if you don’t see it in your regular email.

I typically log on to the meeting at 09:15 if you want to join early to chit chat.

See you tomorrow!

Posted by
9453 posts

If there is room, please add me. Looking forward to seeing a lot of familiar faces.

Posted by
11040 posts

Jó, I put you on the list. It will be good to see you.

Posted by
432 posts

Hi everyone. The suggested places I mentioned around Bordeaux include:
1. Marché des Capucins (covered market)
2. Chartrons neighborhood (antique markets, great food, beautiful streets. Oldest bakery "Au Pétrin Moissagais"; Le Carré is one of my favorite restos there)
3. Jardin Publique on a nice day. Grab sandwiches from Eriu Deli (only open for lunch) and eat at the park.
4. Musée d'Aquitaine is wonderful and offers a complet history on the region.
5. Take a boat over across the river to the Bastide neighborhood and visit the Darwin area (think French Hippy.) The boats are included in your tram/public transport tickets
6. Archachon - great seaside town with amazing fresh seafood, charming art deco style, lovely promenade along the beach
7. St. Émilion - UNESCO World Heritage site. Ooozing with charm, interesting monolithic church (get tickets through tourist office online or in person), Les Cordiliers https://www.lescordeliers.com/en/ and so many good restaurants.

Happy travels!

Posted by
8624 posts

Thank you SO much, KimberlySEA! That’s very helpful!

Thanks for hosting this meeting, Andrea! Enjoy your upcoming travels!

Posted by
11040 posts

Thanks to everyone who attended. I know a couple of people were having problems with their connection, so I apologize for that.

Thank you so much, KimberlySEA! I appreciate all your great information about Bordeaux and the surrounding area. I’m really looking forward to exploring and hope we can meet up for a glass of wine or something while we are there. I very much enjoy meeting up with people from the forum.

Posted by
11174 posts

In the south of France along the coast, the areas I mentioned were Menton and Nice on the Riviera. Menton is slightly warmer due to its microclimate in winter. Chani spoke about Villefranche and Antibes. Further west, after Cannes, you will start running into strong Mistral winds out of the Alps.

West of the Rhône, the area around Montpellier doesn't get a lot of winter winds. Further west toward Carcassonne the Tramontana winds get stronger again. Montpellier is 40-60 in winter. Menton is 70.

Ventimiglia is the town on the Italian side of the border from Menton that Nigel mentioned. The commuter train that originates in Nice and stops all along the coast can take you over the border and back. It has a huge market on Fridays where vendors come north from all over Italy to sell. For anyone who wants to keep moving along, Ventimiglia to Milan is 3.5 hours by direct train.

Posted by
180 posts

Thank you so much, KimberlySEA and Elizabeth! I’ve spent time in other parts of France, but southern France and the Bordeaux area are two areas I have not been to. I appreciate the suggestions from both of you.

And thank you, Andrea, for hosting the meeting!

Posted by
365 posts

A lot of wonderful ideas shared this meeting, thank you to all!

Andrea, just saw your note upthread, thank you, I enjoyed the Sacramento meeting, such a fun, nice group :)

Posted by
826 posts

Fun meeting today with a lot of inspiration! Thank you KimberlySEA and Elizabeth for sharing and posting the information discussed. I'm going to bookmark our meeting post now!

As I mentioned, Beaune is a delightful French town to visit in Burgundy. Rick covers it well in his guidebook. https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/france/burgundy Also, here is some more information about the summer light show in Beaune. https://www.beaune-tourisme.fr/profiter/patrimoine-et-culture-savoirfaire/lumieres-beaune/

Posted by
2245 posts

Today was especially fun. These calls are always a high point of my month. Thank you everyone for all the information you shared and a special thank you as always to Andrea and Jim for hosting the call. I made so many notes and so many things discussed are included in this post, I've bookmarked it. I really hope this next surgery will be the last for awhile and I can go across the pond the next year-maybe even more than once.

Posted by
151 posts

It's a couple of days later and I'm still happily researching some of the things we talked about....and THEN I opened up this post to tell you all how much I enjoyed our meeting. Great information KimberlySEA and Elizabeth, thank you so much. Always grateful to you, Andrea and Jim....Was such a fun meeting! Missed you, Jo. Glad you w!ere able to attend! See you all next meeting!

Posted by
15826 posts

Andrea, thank you for continuing to host these meetings. For me they are a welcome relief from . . . well, lots of stuff.

Please check out the High Desert Museum in Bend.

Posted by
382 posts

Thanks, Andrea and Jim, for having hosted these meetings for 5 years. I really enjoy these meetings and seeing everyone.

Posted by
11040 posts

You guys are the best. I look forward to meetings as much, or probably more, than you. I have learned so much and made new friends because of them.