A Year of Change

Ok, I’ve been to some pretty spectacular places in my life, but Coquillade is up there. Our hotel is a 5 Star resort in the middle of Provence where we were 22 years ago when Jagger was 1, and Lori was pregnant with Ty. In fact, we have a picture of Jag at a fountain in the town square of Cucuron and we were in the exact same place yesterday, 22 years later!

We left our first hotel around 8:30 and drove a couple hours to our new place. First we went to the cellar as this fantastic property wants me to import their wines, which are great, but expensive. After that it was into Cucuron to Le Petite Maison Cucuron for a 7 course lunch at this Michelin Star restaurant. They only had 7 tables, all outside and the food just kept coming. It was 120 Euro per person without wine. We liked most of the courses but a couple were so so, to us.

Then we went back to check into our room. Sam, our butler, gave us the tour and they had a nice welcome gift, of more food, (ugh) and wine and a nice note in our suite. He reminds us of the butler in the movie Pretty Woman. I was thinking how far we’ve come in life as this is exactly the kind of place mom and dad would have stayed at.

We headed down to the pool, (one of three) and hung out until 7. Then we went to sit outside at one of the bars and I smoked Cuban cigar while Lori had some bitters and soda. By 10, we were in bed.

We woke this morning at 8, (I know, super late for us), and headed to the gym. It was great to get a workout in. Then we walked the vineyards before having breakfast. Now, we’re off to the pool before Lori’s deep tissue massage and facial at 2.

Here’s some pics. Tomorrow morning we drive to the airport in Marseille, catch a plane to Paris, then get on another to Bordeaux, before arriving at our next stop for two nights, enjoy and God Bless.

Our hotel from the vineyards!

View from the balcony of our suite which is fantastic! Our suite, the building, which is outside from the main hotel picture, was built in 1189!

The town square pool in Cucuron where Jagger was as a baby.

Cigar lounge in our hotel! Sweet

My French is coming back surprisingly well. Phrases just come out of my mouth without really thinking. I guess those seven years of French classes when I was younger did some good afterall.

We started the day with great French coffee before heading to the estate. Our Rose producers’ family has owned the estate in one form or another for hundreds of years. In 1589 their Rose was declared as the official Rose of the Court of King Henry the 4th, so lots of history. I keep thinking of Holly as we know she loves all things French. Tom, show her the blog so she can see the pics.

After our meeting and tour of the cellar, we all went to lunch at this great local place. Then it was back to our hotel for a swim and a rest. At 6:30, we headed down to the sea to a restaurant where Caroline knows the owner well. He’s 92 and still selects the fresh fish every day and drinks wine and comes to work. This whole area is known as one of the Blue Zones, where people live a long time. The food is so clean and they don’t use much butter. That’s more in Paris and northern France. They gave us a private tour of the kitchen. Check out the wood grill where they cook most all of the fish. Then there’s the bouillabaisse with little crabs swimming around in it as it cooks down, amazing.

How would you like to have that grill in your house! Then here’s Lori, Caroline and me at lunch and then a picture of the Mediterranean Sea. She and her family are so nice and treat us like royalty. They’re very thankful and impressed that I hopped right on a plane and came over withing two weeks of our call.

It’s beautiful here, you could easily see yourself living here, at least for part of the year. This morning we’re headed to this 5 Star resort owned by a Swiss family that owns a number of high-end hotels and the BMC bicycle brand. They also have a team each year in the Tour de France. We have some giant suite and they want me to try their wines. Then at 1, we have lunch at a Michelin Star restaurant before heading back to the resort until Sunday morning yo just hang out and relax, when we fly back to Paris and then catch another plane down to Bordeaux. More to come but time to go for now.

Have a great day and God Bless.

We made it out of Denver 30 minutes late and then rushed to our gate in DC, only to be delayed there too. The Polaris Business Class on United is nice. We managed to sleep for 3 or 4 hours and landed in Paris at 8am.

After going through a bunch of security and checkpoints, (they don’t mess around in Europe), we found the Air France lounge. Things are so much cleaner here and the people just are not as angry. We grabbed some food at the lounge and then both decided to take a shower as we had two hours before our flight to Marseille. They have little rooms with a toilette, a shower and a sink that are free and really nice. With us being tired, it was a good wake up for us.

We landed in Marseille and Murielle picked us up and drove us to our hotel where we just arrived. The service and food on Air France is much better than United, not even close. We have a nice room, (all paid for), the overlooks the pool, so we’re headed there now. It’s 3:30 in the afternoon now and dinner isn’t until 7 and we need to try to stay up, so we don’t wake up in the middle of the night. Wish us luck. Pics to come, maybe later today but right now, we’re off to the pool!

God Bless.

3:30am now and our app must be working as it seems like 8am and we feel all fresh and ready to go. We’ll take our time this morning and clean up the house a bit before heading for the airport in Denver.

I have everything taken care of best that I can, at work and at home. Ty was here until around 9 last night and then went to Madi’s as she was driving in from visiting her sister in Kansas. Jag is doing well and has an interview at 1 this afternoon.

Weather looks good in Denver, DC and Paris so we should be fine. Trump announced a tariff deal with Europe which is great news as now there’s clarity around the situation. We still might end up with zero tariffs on alcohol which would be even better news. We’ll see what happens next but no matter which side you’re on, the guy is doing great. Most Dems, especially the hard left progressives, will never admit it, but they’ll gladly take the lower taxes, less crime and the better economy that comes with his actions. You do have a few Dems though, and you have to respect them, like Bill Mahr, that yesterday admitted he was wrong, good for him.

That’s about it. One of the benefits of being in Europe is that we get to block out all the noise of politics and division going on here in the U.S. It’s always a nice break. So, take care, be well and see you tomorrow, God Bless.

Up early, intentionally. Tomorrow we’re up at 3am. We use an app called Timeshifter to avoid jet lag. It tells you when to turn on and off lights, meaning get light exposure, when to sleep, when and when not to drink caffeine and when to get up. You start about 2 days before your flights. You also can’t wear sunglasses during the day as you want to take in as much light as possible when you’re supposed to be up taking in light. The key to no jet lag is making sure your circadian rhythms- the disruption of the light dark cycles, are reset to your new time zone. We’ll let you know how we feel when we land in France day after tomorrow.

We’re pretty much ready to go, but we do have to pack. I need to get dog food today, pick up my pants from Marcy, and do a few last minutes things around the house. I have calls at 9 and 10 and then a couple more mixed in throughout the day. Lori is in Vail today. The farmer’s market is on Sundays, so the town was packed. We couldn’t believe all the people. I bought a couple smoked turkey legs to bring home.

We did run back up to Edwards around 3 to get Lori a carry-on backpack as we thought we had one bag here that’s at Jagger’s from his Bali trip.

By the time we made it home, Ty was here. He hung out with us all day and works at 7 this morning. He’s all set to watch over the house and take care of Harley. Lori’s made him a bunch of food, and we bought him stuff like microwave pizzas and other stuff. Lori made teriyaki pork belly and cooked up a bunch of pasta and alfredo sauce he can just warm up out of the fridge. He should be eating well while we’re gone. We’ll leave him a list of things to do while we’re gone too, like water the hanging baskets out front and put the trash out on Friday.

My neck is a little whacked out from the gym yesterday or the day before. In any case, about 24 hours from now, we’ll be on the road to Denver. Think I’ll probably go to the gym around 7.

Have a good Monday, see you tomorrow, early! GB.

Won’t be long now, less than 48 hours and we’ll be on our way to the airport. Yesterday I dropped off two pair of pants to be hemmed as the place I took them a week ago did a crappy job. Luckily, I found this nice 82-year-old lady, who still lives alone, to sew them the right way. She’s actually also a patient in Lori’s office. I’ll get the pants back today or tomorrow.

We’ll probably do a dry run and start packing today. Tomorrow Lori works, and I have a lot to do too. We need to clean the house also. Ty went to Denver to go to a concert and stopped and visited with Jagger and Ava. He’ll be headed back up this morning.

At 4 I headed back over to Gareth’s to hang out with the guys. They cooked up an amazing dinner, but I didn’t eat and left around 8pm. A young kid in valet came up to me and said, “are you Ty’s dad”? I said, “yes, I’m going to visit my buddy who owns Unit 251”, then Luke, the kid from valet, said “ah, My Heyman”. I said “yup”, and he then said, “of course you are”, too funny. We had a blast and a couple other guys showed up and we all knew each other from one connection or another. One guy is Dr. B’s neighbor and lives in the same complex. Gareth wants Lori and I to go on this driving trip with him next year that starts in Munich and ends up in Italy. You drive expensive cars like Porsches or Lamborghini’s to Italy and then you can stay for the Formula 1 race in Monza Italy, which is about 20 miles north of Milan. I’m thinking we might skip the drive and just meet the group at the F1 race. It’s a pretty nice VIP package that gets you all access. Plus, I could mix in some business and write the whole thing off. Gareth is also pushing me hard to start up this other business I’ve been incubating for over a year. He’s all in and will fund the entire project. I need to get through the next few weeks, maybe month, before I can devote much time to it.

6:15am, need to get going as I have to keep up on brushing up on my French. I think I have everything all set. Looks like rain next week while we’re gone. We need it and will take it.

Have a great day, take care and God Bless.

Last night after a long day finalizing the deal I had done, that then fell apart, is now finally signed and sealed. The combination of my former Partner and my two Partners kept messing things up. As I said the other day, you need to keep personalities out of business negotiations.

At 4pm I went over to the Westin. As I said, Shultz came up to stay at Gareth’s for the weekend with another buddy. Gareth’s place is gorgeous, had to set him back $5 million at least. We all hung out catching up, smoking cigars, eating and me watching those guys suck back scotch, until I left around 9. I don’t know how people my age still drink like they’re in their 20’s. Anyhow, great time. Lori and I might go back and hang at the Westin pool with them today.

Ty’s headed to some concert in Denver. He’s going to Jagger’s and then Jag will run him a few minutes down the hill and drop him off, so he doesn’t have to worry about parking. Not sure who he’s going with.

Cooler up here this morning which is great. Next week, mid-week, rain is supposed to come in. That’s good. That’s about it for today. Time to get moving. Have a great day, God Bless.

We’ve had internet issues and phone issues, county wide, all day long. I did the post this morning, but it somehow disappeared. Thanks to Annette for texting, “where is the blog”?

Good day yesterday. We went and dropped some stuff for Jagger and saw his new apartment. It’s super nice and in a great location. He was getting his new couch delivered yesterday. Ava’s grandma bought it for them, nice. The day before they had new carpet installed. They’re super happy with it.

Lori and I drove up from Denver after getting her hair done and mine cut. I thought I was losing my hair (might be getting thin), but my hairdresser of 25 years told me no, and to relax. Hope she’s right, ha. She said the barber up here who cut it, just cut it way too short on top.

Ty’s working away and we’re getting ready for our trip. Shultz is coming up this afternoon to hang with a long-time buddy of ours who sold his event planning company in Denver for millions. Gareth, our buddy, just bought a penthouse at the Westin Beaver Creek, among other things, like a vineyard. Good for him.

That’s about it, working away and closing deals left and right. Things are super busy with 12 hours days, but really good. Time to get moving and clean the kitchen, GB

We’re off early for Denver so Lori can get her hair done. I think we’re stopping by Jagger’s new place to drop some things off. Hope to be out of town before the afternoon rain rolls in. Haven’t had much up here.

Good day yesterday as I finalized negotiations on a couple huge deals. First was the investment in the Company and the other was my former partner’s severance/exit package. Not only did I have to get the people I was working with to agree with what I want, but I also had to get my Partners to agree! In the end, I single handily made the Company a couple million yesterday. My other Partners can sometimes let their emotions enter into their thinking and actions. I’ve never been that way. I just look at things pragmatically, meaning in a sensible or reasonable way. That’s always been a gift of mine as to me, business is just business. I always have the end goal in sight and do everything I can to get what I want. Some people are wired differently and will die on a hill over their feelings.

At 5:15pm I was on a conference call when I heard Harley bark outside. I had to tell everyone hang on for a minute to see what was up. A coyote ran up and stole Harley’s bone I had given her a couple hours earlier. Harley was not happy. I had her come in and finished up my call.

Ty’s driving down to the farm today. He’ll probably beat us back. He’s picking up some veggies for the restaurant.

Nice and cool up here this morning. I have the garage doors open to cool it down. 6am now so time to go. If I’m lucky we’ll be on the road by 7. Have a great day, GB.

Today I have calls at 8, 9, 11 and 12. Then I’ll have a couple more in the afternoon that will come up. All good though as these are the last overseas calls of the week. Tomorrow Lori and I are in Denver as she’s getting her hair done and I’ll run a few errands and get a trim also.

Lori got a call yesterday from the water department saying we might have a leak as we used 75,000 gallons of water last month! I called our landscaper who came over a few hours later. Apparently, he changed the timer so everything would be really green. No leak thankfully. The nice woman at the city told me not to worry and that she’d send me a form to fill out and they’d credit me to what I normally use, which I guess is 30,000 gallons a month. We changed our timer back to water only three days a week instead of seven. That’s fine as everything is super green and lush now and we really only have six more weeks of summer anyhow. So, all good.

The neighborhood just keeps going up. In the mail yesterday, two houses up the street, they’re building a 5400 square foot house for $5.4 million! It’s already on the market with people interested. This means, at worst case, we’re now $4 million! Nice.

Ty is driving down to the farm in Grand Junction today for work. He likes the drive, and they pay him by the hour and for his gas. Lori is in the shower and with it being 6:20, I’ll be right behind her. Marty and Mel are having fun in Montana. Big news of the day was Ozzy Osborne passed away, RIP. Glad he had the big reunion concert on July 5th. Glad James went to as Ozzy was one of his early inspirations. He texted yesterday with some thoughts, but I’ll keep those private.

Time to go, have a great Wednesday. Think we’re buying our Italy trip tickets today as Wednesday is the best day (cheapest) to buy tickets, especially international tickets. Be well, stay safe and God Bless.