All kids have their drivers license. This also means "Taxi Home" is no more, because they can take the car and go to their activities, meetings, music, parties etc. themselves.
And when doing long drives, they can drive now too!

"Are we there yet!"  

 It is going to be difficult to describe the incredible road trip we made at the end of October in Sicily. We spent two complete weeks there, without the kids, to explore this extraordinary island.

We had multiple goals : spend time together, enjoy the food and wine, dive in new seas and see most of the places listed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. And it is exactly what we did.

After a smooth landing at Palermo's airport we took our rented car and headed immediately towards Cefalù, an adorable coastal town with narrow streets, a gourmet restaurant above the sea and a beautiful arabo-norman cathedral which is a must-see of course. We quickly moved on towards Taormina, a famous diving and partying place but we decided to make a pause and a quick search on the Internet gave us the location of Tyndaris. It was a very very nice surprise as we ended up spending three hours walking in the ruins and the streets of this ancient Greek city. It is always pleasant to be alone in those places and to be able to imagine it teeming with life.

But Taormina was a case of love at first site. The city is built on a mountain overlooking a coast cut out with little bays where the diving resorts are. It is a little place where most streets are just stairs, where you ride a funicular to reach the city center where we had found a charming little hotel. We spent three full days there, discovering sunk roman columns and doing a little cave diving, enjoying delicious cocktails, Granitas and warm brioche, roaming around the hidden or crowded streets and gardens beautifully illuminated at night and marveling at the majesty of the Roman amphitheater overshadowing the city. We also booked a visit of the volcano Etna which ended up being a private tour and that was very cool.

When it was time to continue south we headed up to Noto, one of the most famous Sicilian baroque city of the Val di Noto which encompasses 8 cities which shared a common fate. They were all completely destroyed by the enormous 1693 Sicily earthquake but afterwards it was decided that new settlements would be built at the same place and the nobleman nominated for the task decided to design the new towns in a baroque and renaissance style which is now named Sicilian Baroque style. The most notable one is Noto and we decided that it was worth its reputation. The city is built in a special stone which gives it a honey tone when the sun shines. It has a geometrical pattern and large squares where bars and restaurants welcome the visitors. There we bought a special ticket and visited various places such as a theater, the city hall, churches, palaces. And then we moved on to Syracuse.

We have a split opinion about Syracuse. Well at the same time the city is composed of two parts and we slept exactly in the middle. The part inland was of no interest except the ruins of Neapolis, a huge archeological parc which dates back to the Greek and then Roman presence in the area. It is spectacular, a mixture of well-kept, unkept ruins, quarries and chaotic landscape right in the middle of the city. Unfortunately we couldn't see the so-called tomb of Archimedes but the visit was worthwhile. The other part is in fact an island, Ortygia, linked to Sicilia by two bridges. This is where Syracuse is up to its reputation. Ortygia is beautiful, colorful, noisy, interesting. We found great places to walk around, to eat, to listen to music. And one of the most impressive places was the cathedral which still retains the pillars of the ancient temple dedicated to Athena. This mixture of old and new, of paganism and monotheism was quite surprising. We also had a few dives as we had heard that it was a famous diving place. To be honest we were a little disappointed. Except a bronze statue of a mermaid that was recently placed underwater, we didn't see anything extraordinary. But it is always nice to go underwater so we don't complain.

The day we left Syracuse was a very busy one. We headed inland and made a stop at Caltagirone, another famous Sicilian baroque city. This one which is a maze of very little streets perched on a rocky outcrop is characterized by the extensive use of multi-color mosaics and one of the most visible example is a staircase of 142 steps, each one decorated with polychrome ceramic tiles. We couldn't stay long because our goal was the Roman Villa del Casale which is almost at the center of the island. It dates back to the end of the IIIrd century, has around 30 rooms including private roman baths and apartments, a central garden and fountain (a pool I would say). More important, the excavations have revealed preserved mosaic floors of incredible beauty and diversity. This visit was one of the most awing, moving and informative visits of the road trip. If there is a place to go when in Sicily, this is one of them. But the following one was also extraordinary.

The valley of the Temples in Agrigente is unimaginable if you haven't experienced it. We were lucky to have booked a room in a B&B situated in the middle of the archeological area with a direct view of the temples by day, illuminated by the sun, and night, beautifully lighted by warm electrical lights. Our stay was perfect, welcomed by a family living in a mixture of traditional house, farm, surrounded by dogs, birds, peacocks (at least 10). And there are no words to describe the feelings experienced when you walk from temple to temple, some almost completely in ruins, others almost complete. We listened to ours hosts recommendation so, after having visited the archeological museum we headed to the valley and walked our way up during daylight to slowly walk our way down during dusk. It was magical.

And we ended our road trip in Palermo where we spent almost three days there. Before taking our quarters in the city center, we made a stopover in Monreale where we discovered what a religious mosaic decoration ...  Read more  

 Seats have been booked for almost a year and emotions where intense.
AJR in the 1st half is a very nice band and so full of energy. A very nice experience and for me, a discovery. The kids already knew them of course!

I rank Imagine Dragons at the level of Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones or Genesis. The musicians are real artists, amazing and the singer is a phenomenon with an extraordinary voice and in total communion with the audience. The girls (not only mine) mutated to authentic groupies to my "ears" disadvantage.

There were over 30000 people vibrating to the songs, all famous to everybody.
The castle nearby provided a magical setting that enhanced the entire experience!

All in all, a unique and awesome experience! 

 This summer, we decided to make a home-run regarding diving.
The little port in the south of France were we tend to spend our summers has an amazing diving base C.A.P. Port-Vendres. That is also the place we made our last diving levels, so the staff knows us, we know them, and they also have an amazing restaurant inside the base.
What better location to dive? Right.
At the same time, our Nephew who saw us diving regularly asked to try it out. So he did a first time, and decided he wanted to go further. He soon achieved "Silver Diver" level (FFESSM). He'll be able to make N1 when 12 years old.
On the other hand, some friends wanted to try out diving, so we took them with us to try it out .
Of course, as usual, I took loads of pictures and made a small movie posted to Youtube on my channel. 

 It is the time of the year again, where the family has to get out of the mist, and see some sun.
Having had bad experiences with the Covid-19 the past years we didn't want to go too far, so we chose to go to Malta. We had heard that the visibility under water is awesome, and that there are lots of Wrecks and Caves to explore.
Once arrived, we were actually shocked by the "architecture" in the tourist places. As there are no rules as what to build and how to build, the result can only be described as ugly chaos. Fortunately, when going to the old places (M'dina, Valletta), we were amazed by the beauty and history we could see.

Because experience taught us, that diving every day twice is quite tiring, we did pause the 4th day to visit M'dina. The last 2 days in Malte we spend in Valletta, and visited the usual tourist places. Note that the Military Museum is really a must.
Regarding the dives. we saw some awesome Wrecks, and also some awesome caves. The visibility was excellent (compared to what we have in southern France) so we were really positively surprised by what we saw.
Our Dive-Guide having seen pretty fast that we had a good level, took us exploring the inside of the wrecks (sometimes, I could barely pass as the passage ways were made for small people).

The caves he took us to were of different sizes. Sometimes you could just wiggle your way through, and sometimes you could literally drive a bus through it. But see for yourselves. All pictures and movies are available in our Gallery
A small video with the best parts can be seen on Youtube 

 This summer holiday season, we had decided to go diving again down south at our regular diving school (C.A.P Port-Vendres). Also, we have decided to actually pass some levels, and my wife and our youngest made the N2 (Autonomous Diver to 20m depth, and 40m with supervision) level. My oldest and myself achieved the Nitrox and Advanced Nitrox level.
After we had all classes and levels done, we of course went in for many more dives to explore the local "reserves" around the diving base.

Some pictures and videos of our dives can be seen in our Gallery. 

 After not being able to go to any music festival for 2 years due to Covid & restrictions, we could finally go this year again to retro c'trop in Tilloloy.
This year we only went Saturday and Sunday to see some of the good bands playing.
On Saturday we had Alice Cooper, Rival Sons, Status Quo - and honestly one of them should have performed "Singing in the rain" to reflect the weather...
While on Sunday we had Simple Minds,Madness,OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark) playing. This time though, the weather was really nice. Not too warm or cold - just as required for such an event.
There were some other bands playing and you can still get the full program from their web-page
To be honest, Alice Cooper made as always, an amazing show on stage. OMD had an awesome performance, and Simple Minds were as they always were. I noticed however that the musicians in simple-minds changed over the years. But the singers still had their voices and the quality of the event was top notch.

What was also very positive is that Women start to have different roles. Alice cooper had an amazing female guitar player, while Simple Mind had an awesome Drummer. 

 just before the covid lockdowns around the world started, I had decided to do some different activities and decided to take saxophone classes.
In my 3rd year now, my teacher asked me if I wanted to join the M&M's - her Jazz Band from the music school. I really didn't know if my skill-level would fit what they played, but agreed to try it out. In the end, my skills appeared to be usable already

Last week-end the Les Zicophonies festival took place, and our band participated with me taking part in the gig.
All in all, it went pretty well. And this is, again, worthy of an:

Achievement unlocked: Playing Saxophone with my band! 

 Having had a discussion for some time now to adopt some cats, we finally made it reality.
Please welcome 2 new family members - recovered by the SPA (The Society for the Protection of Animals (SPA) and its shelters ... ).
- Left: Socrates - but definitely not a philosopher. Rather say he's a sleeper for the large part of the day, and and explosion of energy for the rest of the day.
- Right: Then we have Saba - deity - and in the beginning she really behaved like that. Fortunately, now that she has taken possession of the house - she grants us permission to stay home and feed her.
Both are from the same litter. Hence they a really adorable when playing together, even though some edges cannot be avoided anymore as the speed limit has long be surpassed. The crash noises are heard in the entire house.
Did put some pics on our public cloud gallery.

1 month: Note that the house interior has been Cat-Sanitized : means, nothing hangs around that these cute devils could use to play or scratch  

 the Gang went skiing again, this time to the Pyrenees.
Well, not the usual gang, our oldest is not in the same "holiday" region so she gets her holidays when we come back.
At the same time, as she had some exams to pass - the timing was not that bad.
To complete our numbers to 4, we took a friend from our youngest with us. Condition was she knew how to ski! and she does know how to ski.
We found a small location where to stay, and the host even had a beer brewery (which made the beer consumption go up). Breakfast and dinner being included, it was really "resting" to be there.
No more hunting for the next dinner location etc. We just came back from Skiing, rested until dinner was served and had a nice time with the hosts and eventually some other guests.
The slopes were really nice, and there was enough snow to open them all. The day before we left had seen some decent snow-fall, so the last day was really an awesome skiing day.
Some more pictures can be seen in our public cloud.