This lovely scene courtesy of Jeanine who is riding through the French countryside with my cousin, her husband, and his brother and wife. I can picture them all having coffee and croissants under that umbrella. Jeanine is part French and speaks the language fluently (she will claim she is rusty). I have no doubt she is chatting up all the locals at every turn and will return with her proficiency restored.

Meanwhile, I have decided to take a long holiday weekend and will leave for Utah and Arizona tomorrow. I plan to revisit some of my favorite places and also to explore some new ones (see my recent Geo Detective post for one example). This weekend being the only one of the spring without a scheduled soccer match and weather forecasts showing three dry days at my destination, I decided not to squander the opportunity.