France,
slowly.

Camille had us at a courtyard hotel in the Marais that does not appear on any of the lists. Day three was a private morning at the Louvre before the doors opened. We walked the Italian galleries with one curator and no one else. The Loire was two days from there, by car, with a stop for lunch in a converted mill that the studio has been sending people to for a decade. We came home wanting to write back about every meal.

We booked late and the studio still found us a sea-view room at a hotel in Cap d'Antibes that we had assumed was impossible in July. Nice for three nights, Aix-en-Provence for four, and a three-night detour into the Luberon where the lavender was at its peak the second week we were there. Their Nice partner drove us to a hill-village restaurant at sunset that has no English menu and no website. Best meal of the trip.

Six nights of Paris followed by six in the Bernese Oberland. The handover at Gare de Lyon was the part we were nervous about and the part Tibro nailed. A Paris driver to the platform, a reserved TGV carriage, and a Lucerne pickup waiting on the other end. Camille had also called ahead to the Paris hotel about a small allergy issue without us asking. Detail like that you do not forget.