Nov 3 - School Starts

I've made my way to Ludoexpression School, a very small school located in the village of Villegailhenc, 10km north of Carcassonne.

http://www.ludoexpression.com/

http://maps.google.fr/maps?f=q&hl=fr&q=&jsv=139e&sll=47.15984,
2.988281&sspn=8.666759,18.457031&ie=UTF8&geocode=FT06lAIdNu0jAA

The school is run by a couple, Dominique (the teacher), and her husband, Luc (administration and publicity). Part of my objective was to live with a French family, thereby increasing my exposure to the French language and the French culture. No problem, says Luc, come stay with us! I have to say, this is the first time I have lived with the professor.

Villegailhenc (near Carcassonne)

It was a very positive experience. I was able to learn from Luc and Dominique as well as their two chilldren, Fabien and Cyril.

The village of Carcassonne was nearby and is a must see if you are in the area. I also became friends with John, a retired RAF pilot who lives in this area, and Jenny & Will, an American couple who spend most of their time in France now. Everyone I met here was very kind.

Oct 30, Arrival in France

I've travelled to France to take two months of French classes. The first month is in the small village of Villegailhenc and in December I'm in Toulouse.

I eased into speaking French by visiting with a couple of friends in the Toulouse area, both of whom I work with at Xilinx. Nick Sawyer has been at Xilinx for over twenty years and is married to Brigitte, a native French woman. Mark Quartermain, like Nick,is originally from England but fell in love with a French woman, Marie, and now makes the Toulouse area his home.

France Info

Oct 8 - 12, High Sierras

Jamie and her brother John had a trip planned to the Sierra Nevada Mountains as a reward for Jamie completing her MBA thesis. I was fortunate to accompany them and joined in a couple of Mountain ascents (Mt Conness and Mt Dana). The weather turned bad while we were on Mt Dana and Jamie and I descended when only 200 feet shy of the summit. Time proved we made the correct decision. We got back to camp and started packing amidst light snow flurries. By the time we were headed down to lower elevations, it started snowing in earnest.

Mt Conness & Mt Dana

The first real snowstorm of the year caught most folks by surprise and ended up closing all the major mountain passes south of hiway #50. 

Sept 25 - 28 Mountain Light Photography Workshop

Mountain Light, a company founded by Galen and Barbara Rowell, offers photography workshops in the spring and fall. This three day event focused on fall colors. Fifteen of us attended and all of us had a great time, learned a lot and took some great photos.

Sept 19 - 21 Rubicon Winery Harvest Party

Jamie and I attended the Rubicon Winery's Annual Harvest Party. This soiree has great food, free-flowing wine and a great band playing music which is very danceable. It was an outstanding weekend.

Rubicon Winery

Sept 13 - Exploring Thunderbolt Pass Area

Six of us intended to summit Mt. Sill, in the Palisade area of the Sierra Nevada. It took longer than we anticipated to reach this from South Lake and we were unable to see Mt. Sill. We had a great overnight trip, hiking from South Lake, over Bishop Pass, behind Mt. Agassiz, boulder hopping above the Dusy Basin, crossing Thunderbolt Pass and camping on the flanks of Mt. Thunderbolt. We were exhausted by 6PM on Saturday and it was all we could do to set up camp.

Thunderbolt Pass

We originally talked about getting up early and doing a recon of the Mt Sill area but no-one, including me, made any attempt on Sunday morning to do this. Our camp did not receive direct sun until after 8AM, it was cold, and the area was not photogenic. We all stayed in bed late.

We crossed Thunderbolt Pass on the way back, and descended into Dusy Basin, both to avoid the boulder hopping if we stayed on the flanks of Mt Winchell and Mt Agassiz and to obtain more water. The hike out was much easier than our boulder hopping adventure on Saturday. We made it to the cars by 3:30PM and made good time on the way back to the bay area.

Aug 13 - 17 Travel Photography Workshop

Every year, Book Passage, an independent bookstore located in Corte Madera, north of San Francisco, hosts a workshop for travel writers and travel photographers. This is by far the best workshop in the world for travel writers/photographers. It was an outstanding few days with world class authors and photographers instructing.