Guest Columnist!

A hearty welcome to Anne Mason, of Lancashire, England, who is reporting on a recent vacation.  I have long known that most, if not all, British people loathe what they call "abroad" meaning anywhere outside of Great Britain.  I think you'll find that in this instance, they're right.

"We (husband Frank) went on holiday to the Loire Valley in France for one week in August staying in a lovely little "Gite" (holiday cottage) in a lovely, quiet village called Jarze, not far from Le Mans, the motor racing circuit, and Saumer, famous for Horses and Wine.

The main reason for our visit was to see our daughter Liz performing in the orchestra at the "Opera de Bauge" in a performance of Verdi's "Rigoletto."  She has been playing with this Orchestra for the last 12 years, but this was our first visit and meant to be a memorable trip, which is was - but for all of the wrong reasons!

The scenery was beautiful.  Castles, "Old World" cobbled streets, bridges, and fields and fields of sunflowers.  Maybe van Gogh took his inspiration from this area... We sat out in the sun at lunchtime; the French eat their main meal at midday.  We normally eat around 6:30 p.m. but "when in Rome." (Sorry, France.)  Delicious food, but very expensive.  We thought $5 for a litre of water - what!! Outrageous!  Costs less than that for a 12-pack in U.K. but what the heck, we're on holiday - forget it!

Sadly this little Gite in the lovely quiet village was targeted by thieves, one evening, and as a result I lost my handbag with all my possessions; cash, credit cards, cell phone.  Most of the week following was taken up by visits to Police, British Embassy in Paris (a 350 kilo round trip) which took 11 hours and phone calls to cancel everything official.  So … "Memorable" as I said.

The opera, on the other hand was "memorable" for all of the right reasons.  The singers, young professional opera singers from all over the world, were wonderful and over all, it was a good trip.

A word of warning:  the weather was very hot, especially for those of us who think 70 is plenty hot enough; this was continually in the 90s and over 100 one day and so we had the windows open.  BIG MISTAKE.  Ground floor apartment on a quiet little street, forgot to lock the shutters and the rest is history.

So, if you should go to a quiet little French village and stay in a lovely little ground floor apartment in the heat of summer, make sure the windows and shutters are locked even if it's too hot to sleep!"