This is a grab-bag of thoughts, but mostly images, as I get ready to head home after 7 weeks in France. These involve my time in the provinces – before Paris.

Vocabulary: my definition of a good waiter is one who can bring a wine glass full to the brim to a table that sits on a slanted terrasse, and set it on the table without spilling a drop. And my definition of a retirement trip to France is that, not only do I have wine with lunch, but on a pretty day, at an outdoor café, I’m up for wine at 10 a.m. Here’s a picture of the glass in question, on the table in question (in Brouages) after two sips . . . and at the time in question.

And a few other pictures from province that did not make it into previous posts: a Touraine vineyard; an Iris growing by a Touraine wall; the courtyard of a venerable Cognac producer, Marcel Ragnaud, where I first tasted cognac over 30 years ago, and returned this year for a nostalgic – morning – tasting; and some curious sheep I met in Corme Écluse near the Domincan convent.