Monday April 21, 2014 - Trip Preparations

9 Days until we leave for our exciting 45 days in France.  Emilie from "France Just For You" has created an adventure filled experience that will take us from Paris to Burgundy, to Provence, to Dordogne, to Bordeaux, to Loire, and finally back to Paris.  So many adventures await and we are EXCITED.

Emilie sent us 2 spiral-bound books containing over 700 pages with detailed travel arrangements, history and commentary.  We are enjoying studying the books and feel that this will prepare us for this new adventure.  She has arranged all of the B&B accommodations, rental car, many tours including castles, vineyards, and truffle hunting, and several meals, including a 2 star Michelin restaurant in Bordeaux for my birthday.  She also made arrangements for a hot air balloon ride in The Loire Valley, and a day in Reims to see the beautiful cathedral and a tour or the Veuve Cliquot Champagne facility. 

The tasks over the next few days are to pack "appropriately" for such a long trip without taking too much, finish reading the travel books, and prepare the condo for our absence. 

Packing:  My approach on packing is to lay things out on the bed in one of the guest rooms, "count" how many of each thing I'm taking versus the target number of days to pack (10-14), and then add or take away based on planning outfits.  We know that we'll have to do laundry once or twice and Emilie has given us some pointers on that.  We are hoping we can find laundry services to do this so we don't have to spend our travel time in a Laundromat in France!!!!

Reading:  Emilie has provided very complete travel books.  We are very impressed with what we have received so far.  Tim and I are both finished with Book 1.  He has read Book 2 and now it's my turn.  Will get that done this week.

Condo Prep:  Our good friend, Melody, is going to take care of the condo while we are gone - getting mail, watering the plants, taking care of rental checks that come in, and starting the cars.  She's such a good friend.

So we anxiously spend the next 9 days getting ready for the trip, becoming more excited and anxiously awaiting our 45 Days in France.