I'm back (and playing catch-up:  man oh man, do I get too much e-mail.  Did Delta really need to e-mail me six times in two weeks -- for things unrelated to my trip?) 

B. and I had two great weeks in Southern France (and a brief sojourn to Italy) with my parents.  We spent the first week in the NE corner of Provence, with Jausiers as our homebase, driving tons of high mountain passes and taking trips to Barcelonnette, Briançon, Embrun, Allos, the scenic narrow-gauge train from Digne-les-Bains to Nice, and more.

After we checked out of our timeshare in Jausiers, we headed down to the Cote d'Azur by way of a small festival in the smaller town of Guillames -- we ate artisanal cheese, admired the flocks of sheep for sale, listened to the local festival band, and successfully resisted the urge to take home a cowbell as a souvenir.

Our second week was spent with Vence as our homebase; we visited the Cours Saleya market in Nice, drove the eye-popping corniche roads between Nice and Monaco, went to some interesting museums, explored photogenic villages, and generally had a good time.  On the way back, B. and I had a couple hours in Paris (it would've been longer, but a French rail-workers' strike -- which seems omnipresent just about every time I go -- limited what we could do), where we visited Sainte-Chapelle and had some Berthillon ice cream before heading back to JFK.

Lots of pics TK up on the Flickr page, by the way, but I'm warning you the backlog is hyoooge.

Oh, and incidentally, Errol Morris has published the third part of his absolutely fascinating exploration of the veracity of a couple of photographs taken in Crimea (Part 1, Part 2).  Check it out; it's incredible.  Or, rather, it strikes me as very credible indeed.  (as reported on earlier here.)