I was searching for a house to rent in the Languedoc area of France one year ago. Just by chance I found this 4 bedroom 4 bath house in Servian. The owners substantially reduced the usual rent; I don’t know why. Maybe it’s just because we’re lucky or maybe because we have Lucky. So we booked the trip without hesitation. Just when we think we know everything about our life, we have a pleasant surprise: Our 19yo niece from Arizona is joining our family at the first of the year and she will be going to the local community college. We are pretty apprehensive about leaving her alone–she is used to our doggies greeting her after a long day at classes; she is used to Howard’s great meals; and she is used to having us there every night. But she has grown so much maturity-wise in the three months before we leave, we know that she will be able to adapt and carry on with “courage.” (That’s what they say in France. You must pronounce “courage” like you were speaking French with the accent on the second syllable.)
We arrange to get the dogs’ health certificates from our vet. Then we must have them stamped by the USDA. We decide rather than sending the certificates to Sacramento FedEx we will go to the LA office for certification. We arrive there to see more people than there are chairs and we have to wait nearly 4 hours before the USDA vet reviews our information and stamps the certification! Well at least we are assured that we have the proper certification for our flight.
So off we go on a French adventure!!