Hi everybody,

Well, I made my first trip to Europe over the last two weeks. I went to Italy where I met up with my son and his girlfriend, along the coast of Southern France, up to Paris for 5 days and then over to England. It was mind blowing.

I found again that I have a terrible sense of navigation and direction so I had to rely on my intuition and guidance, as well as my well navigated friend Elena, every step of the way. We had certain parts of our trip well mapped out in advance, with places to stay and things to do. That went well and we saw so many amazing things. We had other parts of our journey that we left open to pure guidance and how we felt in the moment.  Honestly those were some of my favorite and most amazing parts.

Before I left home, I kept getting an image of a beautiful yellow sunflower covered tablecloth in my minds eye.  I figured spirit was showing me that I might find that in Italy.  When I got to Italy, I saw no such thing and mentioned it to a fellow traveler.  She said, “Oh those are in Provence”.  She said she had just seen them in that region.  We decided that the tablecloth image was more than a desire for something for my kitchen but also a marker of a destination for us.  So we decided to visit that region of France.

It turned out to be my favorite part of the trip.  We got off the train in a place called Cagnes Sur Mer.  Little did I know, we were on the Riviera.  It’s a no brainer now! We found a small and very cute hotel for a reasonable price and when we booked  the room, it was the cutest ever.  Even the bedspreads made me feel at home and happy.  I asked the hotel owner where she had purchased them.  She told me they came from a place near the Provenchal Market in Antibes. I wrote down Antibes – Market in my notepad.

The next day, we visited a castle and while enjoying a cappuccino and the view, an American woman started conversing with us.  She was living in the stable of the castle and knew and loved the area.  She told us not to miss “Antibes”.  There was that word again.  So the next day, we packed our bags, jumped back on the train and headed to Antibes.  We walked and walked and finally found the outdoor Provencal Market.

As soon as I figure out how to upload pictures from my ipad, I’ll share with you the market in Antibes.  Intuition guided us to a place that I fell completely in love with. I didn’t know that much of the art and style I’ve loved most of my life seems to come from Provence. I can still attest to the smell of fresh lavender and spices wafting through the air, colorful baskets hanging in the outdoor breeze, and the pickled garlic that I ate in abound.  Oh and yes, I found my tablecloth! In fact, I bought two sunflower laden choices.  Fabulouso!