A new season begins: From Thousand Oaks to Miami to Barcelona and then to France

Spring!  It’s migration time.  Birds migrate.  Butterflies migrate.  And the Millers migrated to France. 

Regent Seven Seas Explorer

We did things differently this year.  Instead of flying to France, we flew to Miami and boarded the Regent Seven Seas Explorer for a transatlantic crossing.  Fourteen days that we thought would be spent relaxing, reading, sleeping, eating, and enjoying the ships entertainment.  I’m not sure what happened.  Were we really on the ship for two weeks?  Time flew by.  We met such wonderful people on board that we skipped most of the entertainment.  We found our new friends to be much more fun and the evenings flew by.  We did sleep.  We went to the gym.  And we certainly ate well!  Miami to Barcelona was so wonderful we will be doing a crossing again. 

We took four cooking classes while making the crossing.

We know how much I enjoy cooking

Tom is becoming quite the chief

Our new friends Debbie and Dave.  We shared many drinks and meals together.

Sightseeing with our new friends Lyn and Ron

Celebrating Debbie's birthday in Barcelona

We left our cocoon on the Explorer and spent four nights in Barcelona.  We flew to Lyon where captain Philippe was waiting to escort us to Rabelo.  We were only slightly impacted by the French strikes.  We were home!  To make things even better, Philippe had scrubbed the boat from top to bottom and end to end.  Rabelo looked and smelled clean and beautiful.  He had flowers in the dining room and an orchid in the living room.  There was food and champagne in the refrigerator, and a basket of fruit in the kitchen.  We couldn’t have asked for a nicer homecoming.  Thank you Philippe!

The new airport in Lyon, France is beautiful

The sculpture adds to the drama of the new building 

This is season seven and you would think packing would be easier.  I keep a detailed list of things that I want to bring from the US to France.  Tom keeps asking why we need all this stuff?  Doesn’t France have everything we need?  It’s just that we become accustomed to a certain quality (Costco has the French beat when it comes to microfiber towels, plastic wrap and aluminum foil).  Plus I haven’t figured out where to buy everything we need.  My special hair and nail products, those wonderful Costco surgical gloves that I use for everything, special oil paints, dental floss, kitchen and cooking items, and the list goes on.  Four suitcases at 50 pounds each plus two carry-ons.  Let's not forget the clothes!  Going on a two week cruise meant dressing up more than we normally do on Rabelo.  Plus we were in Hawaii for our son’s wedding  in January so my summer clothes had came home with me. Luggage wise we were maxed out.

Robbie and Katrina after exchanging vows at their wedding in Hawaii

We decided to do things differently this time and spend 19 months in France.  Three seasons of clothing came back to France with me.  Sure I leave a few things on Rabelo, but certainly not my favorite clothes.  I need to have those with me.  I don’t understand how people can travel for a month (or more) with just a carry-on.  My carry-on has my medication and electronics.  That pretty much fills up the suitcase.

Proof that we are back on Rabelo.  A beautiful spring day so we had champagne and a few appetizers to celebrate.  Life is good.

Before leaving Saint Jean des Losne we had to put our car on deck.

The crane lifts our car by the tires and swings it up and onto our deck.

Once over the boat the car is gently lowered onto the deck.

Going under our first bridge.

Our first trip to the market raised a few eyebrows.  French normally buy food for only a few days.  They like things fresh.  I spent E280 that first day.  After leaving the market we needed a baguette.  It was Monday and all the boulangerie were closed!  Horrors.  It was back to the market to get a baguette and desert.  The same teller recognized me and we all had a good laugh.  Day two was more of the same.  Another market searching for items market one didn’t have.  After that we pulled up the lines, cruised to the end of the marina, put our car on deck and off we went.  Two days to get to Dijon.  The cruise was reasonably uneventful.  The wind was strong enough to blow us off course a few times and Tom wasn’t able to put Rabelo into some of the locks as smoothly as he would normally do. 

Our Moto that we barely use.  But it's cute.

Typical scene of a french fisherman by the canal

Dijon is such a civilized town.  I love being here.  We are watching many hotel barges doing their last minute preparations before their cruising season begins.  We are greeting owners and crew members we’ve met from previous seasons.  Now that they understand that while we may look like a hotel barge, we are a private home and no competition to any of them.  That means they are very helpful.

Here are some of the hotel barges in Dijon are preparing for the season.

Being in Dijon means more marketing.  The Asian market was an important stop because they carry items we can’t find anywhere else.  Now it’s time for serious provisioning for the season.  But first, on Friday was a trip to the beautiful Dijon covered market.  Wouldn’t you know it, we bumped into Alex Miles our chief and friend.  The one person we know in this city and there he is at our favorite cheese stand.

Tom and our chief friend Alex at the beautiful covered market in Dijon

This is what we saw in a Dijon town square

We took my latest painting to our framer in Dijon.  She remembered us, as she is our go-to framer here.  When she saw my painting she asked if she could display it in her window once it’s framed and post it on Instagram.  I’m flattered.