Well, we haven’t packed yet (PANIC ATTACK!!!), but tomorrow morning we are driving to Valle d’Aosta’s Mont Avic Regional Park. It’s located at 1300 meters, so it should be COOL up there (yippee!). On Tuesday we are heading to the Morvan National Park in Burgundy where we will spend ten days hiking and visiting the area (Dijon and so forth). We will then slowly find our way back to Italy via Lyon, then Avignon, the Camargue Regional Park and the Aix-en-Provence region of gorgeous lavender fields and lovely medieval hilltop villages (ah, yes, it’s a tough life! 
).
We will be back in Florence between the 28th and the 30th.
I see that I am going to have a lot of practice speaking French. Yesterday and today I called several B&Bs whose owners did not speak any English or Italian. Another PANIC ATTACK! But I managed to make reservations in my rusty French (more like French-sounding Italian, probably!), so I am pleased. Very pleased. Being able to communicate is what really matters, I always tell my students. Who needs perfection?
Anyway, this is just a quick post to give all of you my best wishes for good health and a wonderful next couple of weeks. Oh, and I really apologize if I haven’t been too
consistent at answering your comments and e-mails, sorry about that. I’ve been as busy as this furry little bee on my raspberry bush (I have seen many more bees in my back yard this summer, which really makes me happy).
If we come across an Internet café in France, I will try to post something, a few words at least!, on my blog during this period…I will try!
Sherlock, fa’ buon viaggio e torna prestooo!
I will leave you with a petit joke:
Two factory workers are talking.
The woman says, “I can make the boss give me the day off.”
The man replies, “And how would you do that?”
The woman says, “Just wait and see.”
She then hangs upside-down from the ceiling.
The boss comes in and says, “What are you doing?”
The woman replies, “I’m a light bulb.”
The boss then says, “You’ve been working so much that you’ve gone crazy. I think you need to take the day off.”
The man starts to follow her, and the boss says, “Now where do you think you’re going?”
The man says, “I’m going home, too. I can’t work in the dark.”
Have a great (rest of the) summer, everyone! 
Margaret