One of the problems of going to France for a short break is that there are so many nice places to visit, you just never have enough time to do everything you want to do. Michelle has a couple of meetings to attend in Lyon this week and again next week – so we decided to take the 4 days in-between to relax & do some visiting. It will be our first reasonably long break we’ve had alone together this year since Bangkok in January. Sure we’ve spent a couple of weekends away this springtime in Reykjavik & Rome, and others with visiting friends & family over the summer here in the UK, but this is: 4 days. Alone. Together.

I love France and have done since 1989 when I spent 6 months living in Paris on barely nothing. If you ask my friend Kerry she’ll tell you that I’ve had a thing for France and everything French ever since. If it’s french I will have eaten it, tasted it, read it, looked it up in the dictionary, discussed it, written about it, or whatever – as applicable… (she will even claim that it is what led me to Montreal in the first place – and she might even be right!)

Now the heat of my love-affair with France has been in Paris, but I have spent some time travelling about. From Mont St Michel in the north, through the Loire and then down the west Atlantic coast, across the Pyrenees, plenty of time in the Languedoc/canal du midi area, following the Mediterranean coast, a brief flirt with Provence, the Cote d’Azur – with a quick visit to Les Arcs for skiing one festive period. All this, but I’ve never done anything more than drive through the Rhone/Lyon area.

Now we have a couple of days to spend as we like. We have a car and no firm plans. It could be perfect, only I have family in France. Family that lives 4 hours drive from Lyon. Family that runs a very busy property management business – that doesn’t close down (not that they should) when a wayward daughter passes through the country. Family that includes a little brother (5yr) who only gets to see his big sister once a year. And you know what ‘family’ means. I can’t be so close and not go seem them; not so close to christmas; not when I haven’t seen them since April; not when you just never know what’s in store for the future. It’s family, you love them regardless, and when you see them after a long separation it’s all worth it.

So, now the question is, when do we fit an 8 hour return journey to Languedoc Roussillon (which we’ve visited many times) into our little idyllic holiday so close to Beaujolais and Burgundy (where we’ve never spent any time)?

I know the bottom line is that it will all fit into place somehow. Between the trick or treating on Friday night, the property visits on Saturday and the dinner party Saturday night – we’ll manage to squeeze in a couple of hours somewhere! We will after all be in France, where the sun is shining, the wine flowing and the food scrumptious. How can one complain?