We are in Lesseux in the far east of France. The proximity to Germany and Switzerland is evident in the architecture. We are a long way from Normandie with its resemblance to southern England. We are even further from Longyearbyen, where we were just over two weeks ago.

Longyearbyen was 78N latitude, here it is 48N. The sun will not set today in Longyearbyen, but today it will set here at 2134 and come up again 0538 tomorrow morning. It is 74F in the evening here, it is 55F in Longyearbyen.

Eastern France is a world away from the far north. It reminds us of the Pacific North West, green forests and hills. It has architecture from another century. Longyearbyen’s structures are utilitarian.

My granny, my dad’s mom, was a woman ahead of her time. A single mom in the 30s and 40s, a master tailor, a executive assistant – when they were still called a secretary. On Sundays she and I teamed up against dad in a game of chess, and she was a vicious croquet player. She would have loved to travel, but she did very little.

Granny had a subscription to National Geographic. We would sit on the couch and dream of far away lands. I remember spending many hours looking at a thick book she had with black and white photographs of places around the word. In her imagination Granny was a world traveler – maybe that is where I got it from.

Thankfully, Tricia and I share a bit of wanderlust, and we travel well together. We have a rhythm that works well and we like similar things. Granny never met Tricia, but I know she would have liked her as much as I did.

I suppose the day will come when we don’t travel as often, and that will be just fine – quiet days have their own attraction. But for now we have a few more plans on the horizon, and we will enjoy each one. We have been blessed with a lifetime of travel – our life is the trip of a lifetime.

When that day comes, and we slow down a bit, it will be just right. For there is another thing we have learned, the days of a quiet routine are just fine. Cooking together, working on our photos and art, seeing friends and family, these will all be quite satisfying. In the end, each day is what you make of it, that is our plan. Thank you granny for planting the desire to travel, and for living each day well.