Love seeing young people traveling and being adventerous. Seems like a lot of European countries have their own Venice. When we traveled around Europe, we laughed about "the Venice of Switzerland" and the "Venice of France".

Oysters are the main speciality of Sete.

I spent 3 weeks in Sete way back in the 80’s. DH and I and our small family, from England motored through the French Canals on our boat from Calais to Sete where we entered the Meditteranean.

It was a sailing boat with the mast laid along to top of the cabin and we had to wait to get it put upright by the little crane in the inner port. There were a few of us yachties waiting to do this and every night we would go out to partake of oysters... so fresh and delicious

. Great memories of a particularly dear little French port. I hope it hasn’t changed too much, and I hope your DD enjoys being there.

Alas for great xmas markets, you have to go to eastern France. A long way for her! It looks like they're having a lovely time. THE speciality is a Tielle Sétoise. A pie.

Looks like she's having a great time!

Nice to see DD's travels. Also that covid is hopefully a distant past.

NYC is lit above and beyond this year. In my youth i worked on many Christmas windows. Favorite was the Barney's windows with Simon Dugan.

She should be enjoying oysters?

In the first picture, the street below has a Celio* store. Celio* makes my new favorite pants. I found a pair for €4 in a thrift shop in Marseille, and since then have been hunting down more pairs, not terribly easy in the US.

DD has some kind of icky cold, which is not good as she’s to fly home for Christmas on Friday. Fingers crossed we won’t have to bung her straight into quarantine.

I wonder why Marseille doesn’t have the Christmas spirit? Something about its Greek roots?

DD and L____ went shopping for a shower gift for our friend S____ who is expecting. They got the baby-to-be a ”Sophie”. Sophie is a plastic teething giraffe that, says L____, every French baby gets. You put Sophie in the freezer, the baby gnaws on her, and the parents save the toothed-up Sophie forever. L_____’s mom still has her baby years Sophie.

My mother always enjoyed 'decking the halls' with christmas decor. I did it for years but without much festive guests the past few years we do minimal.

Dumster diving around the city i have collected lots of giant snowflakes, disco balls, and misc gems i hang in a few trees every year. A few strings of modern led solar lights are festive.

Sweet. She is flying home!

Things to do in Marseilles at the moment. https://quefaireenfamille.com/decouvrir-en-famille-noel-a-marseille/ Looks like there's a fair number of things to do!!!

Looks like they improvised a bit of raclette? Cheese under the broiler, charcuterie --- just missing the little cornichons.

Sete is a lovely seaside town, and is next to some really wonderful beaches. I suspect the winter rates reflect that.

Odd about Marseille not having that many Christmas decorations. There are good Christmas markets and decorations east towards the Cote d'Azur (although the famous ones are to the NE, as Islay said). This past Saturday there was the annual Christmas parade in Nice and there is a village and market, with decorations throughout. I think Aix has quite a bit as well.

Great to see she is coming home from Xmas -- I hope she is feeling better by her departure.

John, thank you for the story of your daughter. Brings back wonderful memories.

Just pointing out an unfair fact, Today's international traveling is much more enjoyable. GPS allows driving anywhere, and cell phone allows video and photos taken any time.

Instant digital real-time spoken language translators? WOW!

dcarch

DD took the early TGV from Marseille to Paris, where she has one day and one night before her flight home.

She picked up a cold in Sète, and although it has supposedly mostly run its course I told her that coming home even a little hacky and coughy will result in being confined to her bedroom, closed door guarded by a phalanx of HEPA air cleaners, fed via a straw through the keyhole. Last year’s holiday was hobbled by colds and I don’t want a repeat this year.

So she abandoned her penny-pinching idea to roam around Paris’ wintry streets all day with her luggage and sleep in Charles de Gaulle airport. Instead she put her bags in a locker, had some civilized stays in cafes and the Louvre, and is headed for an airport hotel to spend the night.

"...confined to her bedroom, closed door guarded by a phalanx of HEPA air cleaners, fed via a straw through the keyhole."

😂😂😂😂

Stay focused and true to your families health. lol. Darn youth plays hard, roomates, mass transit...in NYC anyway. College grad production assistants are always sick. We have medics on staff and the youth are sent home if they have a fever.

We have been masking for 25 years. When the flu and horid colds show up---especially when the hot August colds show up. We have had masks at work everywhere for years.

I'll never forget the summer nasty respiratory cold that came around 2019 late summer. I avoided it for 6 weeks, then boom. Fine all weekend but woke up monday morning sick and trashed. (icubation period). Masks work. I wore one the entire week before, but a youth envaded my office and i was un-prepared.

That said, the best of the holidays to you and your family.

My BIL retired. Moved from Portland with his wife a couple hours north. Just a few months ago. Sweet spot on the water with life time free oysters. Kumomotos, Olympians, and a few others. oysters seems to be recovering from some warm waters a few years ago.

John, wonderful daughter and her adventures. And sweet that you will soon be seeing her. I love the photo of the decorated tree, the duster and you, looking patient and bored.

Sleeve, love the oyster wreath.

That is the coolest wreath! DD will be envious.

So, she is in Portland but her luggage is still in Amsterdam. Shipol Airport is a terrible place to connect. I always arrange for a multi hour layover there, which is safer given all the flight delays. DD did not, and had a stressful barely-made connection, while her luggage did not make it. So we’ll return to the airport tomorrow to, hopefully, fetch it.

She asked for tuna casserole and H-Mart sashimi for her welcome home meal, which was duly provided, with HEPA air cleaners whirring away, because she is coughing, ick. DD claims that “everyone” in France is sick. I respond that only dummies who haven’t replaced the broken heater in their apartment are sick. A few weeks ago, we texted and picked out a heater on Amazon.fr, but she didn’t order it. Arrrgh. I’m thinking about getting a very long extension cord and making her carry a HEPA cleaner around the house, like a newborn baby.

Oh, we’re watching the cutest TV show ever. It is a Japanese show called “Old Enough”, and each episode follows a little kid - like 2 to 5 years old - who are sent by their parents to walk around their little town or big city doing errands alone - bringing fish to the fishmonger and returning with sashini, bringing daddy his lunch at the harbor - and beyond the adorableness, it is a really interesting window on different parts of Japan. Not the tourist parts, but the everyday parts where a three year old with a shopping bag and concealed microphone, trailed by a camera crew with video cameras hidden in purses and shopping bags, might walk around doing their very first errands and returning to mommy waiting excitedly at home. More about the show: https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/how-is-old-enough-made

I remember sending DD and DS to the local grocery store for their first errand, with a little map and shopping list and $10. DD held her little brother’s hand tightly as they started the six block walk. Those were great days. They were older than the kids on the TV show, but then again this is America, not Japan.

I think I want to do a family trip to Japan. Maybe next year, for a month. Anyone been?

It so great your daughter made it home! I hope she feels better soon. That is an interesting set of cravings upon arrival --- tuna casserole and sashimi? Just the same protein done two way different ways.

I've been to Japan probably six or seven times, but just once purely for vacation (I've had free weekends there). It can be pretty cold, btw, in January (from Tokyo on north). But for a Oregonian it should be OK. But it is also impossibly muggy hot in July/August, much more so than the PNW. Spring and Fall are the best.

I can confirm that everyione here is ill. There's a really bad cold that turns into a cough that just doesn't want to go away. I feel for her. I'm at the end of is after 3 weeks!!!

I'm sorry, Islay!

In Portland, we currently have a big surge of respiratory illness (flu + Covid + RSV) and local hospitals have activated "crisis standards" which means they are so overloaded that they have to do things like reduce nurse/patient ratios, cancel elective procedures, convert surgical rooms to ICUs, and triage patients. I don't personally know anyone who is sick, but we travel in a pretty cautious crowd. We decided to not attend some Christmas parties recently, because there were going to be a lot of people attending who "just have a little cold". I'm not especially worried about getting very ill, but just don't want the unfun experience of being sick over the holidays.

Sleeve, I wanted to PM you but lost your email - can you email me at johnliu at earthlink dot net?

Gooster, between a spring trip to Japan and a fall trip, which would you choose?