Ready for takeoff

All the planning is complete, tickets purchased, apartments booked and we're leaving on a jet plane Friday night for Paris. That's the first leg of this working vacation that will include meeting with apartment owners in Paris and Barcelona at the beginning and end, separated by a five-day journey through Burgundy, Geneva and Provence.

Here's a photo of our first apartment in Paris:

This comfortable one-bedroom is in the 10th arrondissement, between Place de la Republique and Canal Saint-Martin. The agenda includes a boat trip down the canal and on the Seine. Since we're adjacent to the Marais and Oberkampf districts there are plenty of dining options nearby.

Then we move here:

Friends will join us in this spacious new 3 bedroom, two-bath on the sixth floor in the 7th. We stayed nearby last year so have some sense of good spots for food and fun. This one is quite near the Rodin Museum, where we'll try to have lunch in the outdoor cafe one day.

Then it's off to see our friends at Domaine des Anges in Puligny-Montrachet, and just in time for the grape harvest. Lady Celine and John are the perfect hosts and we've enjoyed sharing in the growth of their business since we visited last year. Here's a photo of this wonderful chambre d'hote:

Following two nights here, an overnight in Geneva and two nights at a small chambre d'hote in Vaugines, Provence, we swing into Barcelona, where we'll stay in apartments of two different owners. First we'll have separate places here, in the Eixample Dreta area:

Our friends depart after three days and we will move here:

This nice studio with a mezzanine is in the "edgy" El Raval neighborhood. We'll find out if we're getting too old for that sort of thing, I guess. But we'll be close to the contemporary art museum, Font Majica and other sights.


This may sound like a lot, but compared to holding down a job, running a business and planning a trip it will feel like ... a vacation!

One of my goals for this year was to post more often. I haven't always kept up, but will try my best to jot down regular reports over the next two weeks, with fresh photos and broader content, such as restaurant reviews.