We proudly announce to the world at large that on January 31st 2008, Ms. Megan Grace Lindor, 8bs 10 oz , of daughter Amy and favorite son in law Vance fame, made her grand entrance on the stage of life. We welcome the little pudding into our ever growing family and look forward to meeting her upon our return in May.
Meanwhile, almost simultaneously, our grandson Christopher was undergoing emergency surgery in his skull. The little guy had been passing out off and on for short periods due to pressure from an inoperable cyst on his spinal cord at the base of his skull. The surgery removed bone the size of a domino from the back of his skull to relieve some of the pressure. The prognosis is excellent if you don't count this latest assault on the the poor kid's short life.
Speaking of family, Cassie moved up to Oregon this month with her roommate Matt and his young daughter. Then Kami, being temporarily out of work due to the 3 1/2 month writers’ strike in Hollywood, wisely accepted a 3-4 month position in Oregon also.
We have a lot to tell this month so you might want to put your big girl panties on and get a cup of coffee while we take you along for the ride.
On The road again.....
Within minutes of posting The Epistle last month, we packed our laptop, got in the car and drove off toward Morocco on the northern tip of Africa. All work and no play make’s Michael a dull and sad boy, so we took a little vacation from our eh….retirement. Yes, it’s a ways from the house but it could be driven in two long days as it’s about the same distance as the two furthest points in California. If you are wondering, no we didn’t, we took about 10.
We made several stops on our first day only hours from home. You see, years ago my older brother gave me a copy of our family tree and history that he had gotten from an uncle on my dad’s side who had spent considerable time and effort researching it. He came up with a lineage that showed that we Laprades were related to some guy in France in the 1600’s. It was interesting but I have never been real big on family trees and who’s-who-in-the-zoo stuff so after glancing at it, I buried the document in a drawer. Besides, France is a big country and the guy could be from anywhere.
Recently though, my daughter Mandy was asking me about it and started to lay a guilt trip on me for not having translated it for my kids and making it available to them. Fair enough I thought, so I read it.
HOLLY SMOKES!!! The document clearly chronicles 13 generations of Laprades, not only naming names but in some cases marriages, occupations and lifestyles. The kicker was that the Laprade ancestors not only were from France but my 12th generation back grandfather’s parents were from ‘St-Julien de Cocelles’, a town in Brittany. My G_G_G_G_G_G_G_G_G_G_G_G_ grandmother lived close by in ‘St. Marguerite de La Rochelle’ (home to Jacques Cousteau's "Calypso"), slightly outside of Brittany proper. Furiously, I Googled the locations on a map and found that they not only existed but were just a few hours’ drive from us.
And so, on our first leg of the journey we stopped by to walk the towns where my ancestors had lived. A friend kidded me about perhaps reclaiming an old chateau but I was more concerned about someone wanting me to repay 350 year old debts. Of course with all the wars, revolutions, fires and various catastrophes’ that have occurred, it is impossible to find much specific considering that in France they even ‘recycle’ cemetery plots after 25 years or so if the family does not pay to renew the space. I wondered if my 12-13th gen grandparents ever gave a thought as to whether their progeny would come back to look them up 350 years later. Will mine?
Many old headstones here are simply flipped over and re-used as walkway flagstones, filler in the walls of the stone homes or as foundations in the barn walls. Where in the area could my families be?
This walk down memory lane had its roots last year when we visited Bari in the south of Italy where my dad had served in WWII. (Note to family; I have received my father’s complete military war records. If you would like a copy, just ask.)
Now I am finding out that just outside of Montreal Canada, a mere 30 miles from where I was raised, is a creek and minor roadway named after the first Laprade to have landed in North America. I looked it up and bigger than life, it’s on the Google map. In a very minor way, WE’RE FAMOUS!!! We will drive up to see it when we are at the Island this summer.
Continuing on further to the south of France, we drove to the city of Bordeaux. Last May it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site (WHS), coming in at # 79 on my growing list of previously visited WHS. It is a lot like Paris but on a smaller scale. This seeking out "World Heritage" sites has become a real passion for us as we can rarely find more impressive places to see or things to do when we travel. It is truly the "who's who" of superb places to visit.
Moving on we arrived at Biarritz on the coast near the Spanish border. We spent a week in the Basque country on the Northern border of Spain in a home exchange that we had arranged. See it at: www.homeforexchange.com/property_detailed_view.php?propId=19144 The owner spent a week in Brittany with friends at our home there. All in all, it was quite a reasonable little house. Plus, it did give us a chance to spend a week exploring the area in the French and Spanish Pyrenees mountains. We had a picnic at the foot of Mt. Perdue (WHS # 80) http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/773 . We spent a day at Lourdes, Chateau Mauvezin and the prehistoric caves of Gargas.
We have visited many other caves all over the place but these are special in that they contain a few hundred etched wall carvings and painted cave art including numerous human hand prints, reputedly over 27,000 years old. France has very serious problems with the few such caves that it has, with substantial damage done to them as a result of rising temperatures and humidity from the visitor’s presence. The largest such cave in the country is closed to all visitors including scientists for at least another decade. This one is the first to use fiber optic lighting to reduce temperatures. They also required reservations and limited the number of visitors to 20 for the only 3 tours per day. The kicker was that as a fluke we were the only ones there so Janice and I got a private tour with the guide.
We drove to San Sebastian for the city’s annual celebration of their patron saint where hundreds of drummers played on the town square prior the crowd running ahead of a bull (they strap him to keep control). Of course you do remember that your history teacher told you that Christopher Columbus sailed from this town’s port in 1492, don’t you?
Another day saw us in the royal city of “Pau”, birthplace of King Henri IV but better known as home to the real Three Musketeers. We have such incredible times because we travel off season. Yes, we miss some of the gardens in bloom and generally better weather but what we often do get are (as above) private tours of the sites we visit. One tour guide and the two of us- that’s it. In “Pau”, we had a private tour of the Kings castle with the curator who was the resident expert of the 16th century tapestries’. Because of our intense interest, he took us beyond the roped off areas allowing us up close to the exhibits and in areas that are usually restricted. Spending his lunch hour with us, he took 2 hours for what was to be a one hour tour. The experience was wonderful! See it at…http://www.justtourfrance.com/chateau/chatdetails.asp?chat=Chateau%20de%20Pau&area=Pyrenees-Atlantique&county=Aquitaine
Leaving France, we drove through Spain to Madrid where we visited the Royal Palace and the Prado Museum. (This time like minions, no private tour). Continuing on we drove through La Mancha (home to Don Quixote) and the hundreds of kilometers of olive orchards to Malaga just outside of Gibraltar on the Mediterranean coast on the southern tip of Spain. We set up camp here for a week at another home exchange. See it at… http://www.homeforexchange.com/property_detailed_view.php?propId=12545#bimg
Many old headstones here are simply flipped over and re-used as walkway flagstones, filler in the walls of the stone homes or as foundations in the barn walls. Where in the area could my families be?
This walk down memory lane had its roots last year when we visited Bari in the south of Italy where my dad had served in WWII. (Note to family; I have received my father’s complete military war records. If you would like a copy, just ask.)
Now I am finding out that just outside of Montreal Canada, a mere 30 miles from where I was raised, is a creek and minor roadway named after the first Laprade to have landed in North America. I looked it up and bigger than life, it’s on the Google map. In a very minor way, WE’RE FAMOUS!!! We will drive up to see it when we are at the Island this summer.
Continuing on further to the south of France, we drove to the city of Bordeaux. Last May it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site (WHS), coming in at # 79 on my growing list of previously visited WHS. It is a lot like Paris but on a smaller scale. This seeking out "World Heritage" sites has become a real passion for us as we can rarely find more impressive places to see or things to do when we travel. It is truly the "who's who" of superb places to visit.
Moving on we arrived at Biarritz on the coast near the Spanish border. We spent a week in the Basque country on the Northern border of Spain in a home exchange that we had arranged. See it at: www.homeforexchange.com/property_detailed_view.php?propId=19144 The owner spent a week in Brittany with friends at our home there. All in all, it was quite a reasonable little house. Plus, it did give us a chance to spend a week exploring the area in the French and Spanish Pyrenees mountains. We had a picnic at the foot of Mt. Perdue (WHS # 80) http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/773 . We spent a day at Lourdes, Chateau Mauvezin and the prehistoric caves of Gargas.
We have visited many other caves all over the place but these are special in that they contain a few hundred etched wall carvings and painted cave art including numerous human hand prints, reputedly over 27,000 years old. France has very serious problems with the few such caves that it has, with substantial damage done to them as a result of rising temperatures and humidity from the visitor’s presence. The largest such cave in the country is closed to all visitors including scientists for at least another decade. This one is the first to use fiber optic lighting to reduce temperatures. They also required reservations and limited the number of visitors to 20 for the only 3 tours per day. The kicker was that as a fluke we were the only ones there so Janice and I got a private tour with the guide.
We drove to San Sebastian for the city’s annual celebration of their patron saint where hundreds of drummers played on the town square prior the crowd running ahead of a bull (they strap him to keep control). Of course you do remember that your history teacher told you that Christopher Columbus sailed from this town’s port in 1492, don’t you?
Another day saw us in the royal city of “Pau”, birthplace of King Henri IV but better known as home to the real Three Musketeers. We have such incredible times because we travel off season. Yes, we miss some of the gardens in bloom and generally better weather but what we often do get are (as above) private tours of the sites we visit. One tour guide and the two of us- that’s it. In “Pau”, we had a private tour of the Kings castle with the curator who was the resident expert of the 16th century tapestries’. Because of our intense interest, he took us beyond the roped off areas allowing us up close to the exhibits and in areas that are usually restricted. Spending his lunch hour with us, he took 2 hours for what was to be a one hour tour. The experience was wonderful! See it at…http://www.justtourfrance.com/chateau/chatdetails.asp?chat=Chateau%20de%20Pau&area=Pyrenees-Atlantique&county=Aquitaine
Leaving France, we drove through Spain to Madrid where we visited the Royal Palace and the Prado Museum. (This time like minions, no private tour). Continuing on we drove through La Mancha (home to Don Quixote) and the hundreds of kilometers of olive orchards to Malaga just outside of Gibraltar on the Mediterranean coast on the southern tip of Spain. We set up camp here for a week at another home exchange. See it at… http://www.homeforexchange.com/property_detailed_view.php?propId=12545#bimg
Hopping the ferry we sailed off to Morocco to dip our toe on the African continent. We visited the medina (old city) and the Casbah (walled citadel) in Tanger with its warren of narrow alleys and shops that remind me of images of Jerusalem. We attended the obligatory Moroccan dinner complete with performances and belly dancers (like attending a luau in Hawaii).
We saw many men and women in their traditional djelaba and hijabs dress and we also drove 120 Km (80 miles) in to the countryside up in the Atlas mountains to the holy city of Chechaouen, a city much more interesting and cleaner than Tanger. The countryside looks a little bit like a cross between Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran. There we saw the neighborhood bakers working out of a shop the size of our bathroom, taking kneaded bread, cookies and other goods from most of their neighbors without cooking facilities and bake them in their wood fired ovens for a token payment. We saw a large group of women down by the creek beating clothes on the rocks to scrub them, then rinse them in the passing water. Morocco was even the first country to recognize America’s claim to independence. Sound like an exciting trip that you would be interested in? Don’t bet on it. Here is the rest of the story….
Our accommodations were rated as a 4 star hotel and it was, if hotels are based on a 50 star system, hot water in your room is not important and you don’t need half the light bulbs. The prisoners at my old facility in California enjoy better accommodations than we had. Tanger has trash everywhere and running water in only parts of the city. We saw people filling their plastic jugs at the communal wells within line sight of the Ramada Inn. There are relentless, persistent beggars, thieves and shysters at every turn and the Islamic call to prayers can be heard all over the city on loudspeakers 5 times a day as early as 5AM and as late as 10PM. The buses and trucks run on paved roads but every street off of them into the neighborhoods are dirt roads and rutted paths. Hundreds of partially built derelict apartment buildings that have been abandoned dot the landscape. It reminds me of what we see on the news when Gaza is having a bad day and have made the Israeli’s really mad.
There are sheep herders and goats on the side of the roads. You see the plastic and tarp covered nomad tents in empty lots. Donkeys are used to pull a single wood hand plow to till the fields. I haven’t seen that since I was in Peru. I have seen poverty before but this was poverty without dignity as no visible effort is being made to improve their lot. It's like a case of societal arrested development, life one notch above cave man. All this a mere 14 Km (9 miles) from the modern, civilized Spanish coast.
It was a vivid reminder how we are blessed winners in the world genetic lottery. I know that some of you have been to other parts of Africa and loved it. I know that to say that we have seen Africa because we saw a small part of Morocco is as silly as saying you have seen the USA because you flew into NYC. I know there are beautiful things and places in Africa that we have not seen. But let me just say that if you decide to go visit any part of the continent, be sure to let us know how it turned out because we are done.
Back in Spain we visited Mijas (Julius Cesar used to hang out here) and Gibraltar. Heading back home we drove to Portugal and visited 3 Unesco World Heritage Sites (WHS) in Lisbon one morning before lunch. The Tower of Belem (WHS # 81)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bel%C3%A9m_Tower
the Monastery of Jeronimos (WHS # 82) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jer%C3%B3nimos_Monastery%2C_Lisbon the Palacio National and Palacio Da Pena in Sintra (WHS # 83) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pena_Palace
It has been 2X15 + 10 years ( I just can't bring myself to say the combined number) since I was there last and the country has obviously changed
It was a kick to see cork trees harvested (I got to cut a sample off). Heading North East, we drove to the Spanish border stopping in Salamanca to see the old quarter (WHS # 84) http://www.salamancapatrimonio.com/ and Burgos (WHS #85 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgos_Cathedral
Crossing the French border our trip ended much as it started; by my scouting out the last location where it all began, Mesonnay (now called Maisonnais-sur-Tardoire) outside of Limoges, birthplace to the first Laprade that traveled to America and was responsible for all of us that have been there ever since. (Note to family, if you would like a copy of the pictures taken of the villages, just ask) Jean Regasse Laprade, was born roughly in 1643. Having run out of money long before we ran out of fun, we went home.
Whew, we are pooped. I am history, culture, chateaux, art, architecture'd out!!!
We need a vacation :)
