A Year of Change

Up early and an uneventful drive to Bordeaux and flight to Paris. I ended up sitting next to a 74-year-old woman from Arvada who now lives in Broomfield. She remembers taking her dad to the bank often and he banked at North Valley! Small World.

Our driver, Moustapha, picked us up in a I7 BMW Executive car which has a ton of leg room and is basically a limo. On the way into Paris, we had some serious road rage right in front of us. One guy cut off a truck and then the truck tried to merge in front of him to get to an exit and then the little car, cut him off again, stopped his car, both got out and the fight was on! Our driver was like Jason Stratham in the movies and threw the BMW into reverse and finally went around. I’m trying to post the video as Lori caught the whole thing, but don’t think I can. I’ll text it to everyone to see, welcome to Paris!

After checking into our hotel, we walked around and went to the Musee Picasso or Picasso Museum. It was stunning. The best thing about Paris is seeing all the artwork. Paris has to have the greatest collection of the World’s art that there is. Here are a few of my favorites.

And next a view from our hotel window. Lori is getting ready and just sucked some of her hair into the blow dryer! I went to the Boulangerie (bakery) down the block for fresh croissants and coffee.

Last night after dinner down at the Seine, (the river that runs through Paris) we walked around, and I had to call Jag and tell him something funny. We’re in the Marais district which is the Bohemian and artsy district and one of the gay areas in Paris. As we walked down the street, the bars were packed, and they have ropes like when you’re in line somewhere outside the bar that everyone stands within so they can drink and technically still be “in the bar”. I looked at one bar with probably 100 or more people in the ropes drinking and having a great time, and told Lori, “look, there’s not a single woman there”. She looked at me and said something like, “well, duh, it’s a gay bar”! To be fair, it didn’t even cross my mind as like I said, Paris is artsy, especially the Marais District, and everyone looks kind of gay. Too funny I didn’t pick up on it.

This morning we’re off to our private tour of Notre Dame. Then we’ll hang out in the city and enjoy the day before we fly home tomorrow. Our hotel is great, and the rooms are too. Time to eat some more croissants, and yes Robi, we’re eating everything. I think I’m up 6 pounds or so!

Have a great day, until tomorrow, God Bless.

First full day in the Gascogne region of southwest France. I’ll skip the business and wine part and just jump to the good stuff. My Partners, which manage a group of around 800 growers spread throughout the region, are wonderful people. They managed to get 800 French wine growers to come together as a group 40 years ago and not only make great wines but also get along. No small task.

For lunch we went to a local favorite. We seemed to be the only out of towners there. Duck is a staple in these parts so that means duck breast, duck confit and foie gras. Needless to say, lunch was great. After that, we went to see some more vineyards before heading back to change to go to Marcias for the jazz festival that lasts over 2 weeks and is in its 47th year. Plaimont, my Partners, sponsor it. There are dozens of stages and acts going on at the same time with lots of food, wine and beer and booths selling stuff.

When visiting some fields of vineyards, there were a few broken down chateau’s that the Company ended up with when they bought the vineyards. Fabien, our guy, told us we should buy one! We toured one, for $200K! It needs work but our Partner’s would oversee it and for $400K or so, all finished, we’d have a six bedroom chateau with a new swimming pool. I have 3 guys that want in already, so hold on!

Here’s some pics,

The chateau we’d like! 4 bedrooms but more costly.

Lori in sunflowers

The $200K chateau that needs remodeling

Inside our suite at the monastery. Great room and great place

The front of our hotel built in the 11th century, by monks. WOW!

Hope all’s well, take care and God Bless.

Good morning, we had an early start today as we had to drive from Provence to Marseille and fly from Marseille to Paris and Paris to Bordeaux.

Yesterday, was lovely, we started with cafe au lait, took a walk, went to the gym, took another walk, I had a massage and we both had facials.

Doug will elaborate more tomorrow!

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.