Martignac, France

Last week Peter's mom, Terumi, came to Paris for a visit. We had a great time walking, eating and shopping. While Peter was at French class (mine is over for the summer), Terumi and I spent an afternoon in the Marais, exploring the stores, sampling some of the local Jewish pastries and enjoying the beautiful weather. On Friday, we all hopped aboard the SNCF train to Cahors, France, and after a 40 minute drive, we pulled up to the Gale's house in Martignac. Martignac is a tiny "town" of maybe 10 houses and one beautiful, old church. The view from the porch stretches over the Lot valley for miles. There's nothing more relaxing than enjoying a glass of rose wine, reading a book with a background fit for a painting (actually, there is a painting of this incredible area in the living room of the house, painted by a family friend, hung over the hundreds of years old, 4-foot tall fireplace. The fireplace, I might add, still has a hanging iron hook and chain, for hanging your dead rabbit or pot of gruel over the fire). It was a wonderful, relaxing weekend and after visiting two local vineyards, and the "cave" at the house, we came back to Paris 6-bottles of wine richer, relaxed and happy.