HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS.....

On Monday, November 16th, we head home for the Holidays. That is, Ann heads home. I have a week-long meeting in New York and will be home on the 22nd. She and I then head to San Francisco Monday to meet with the French Consolate and see if they will issue us a Long-Stay Visa, so we can legally live in France. After Thanksgiving, I head back to Frankfurt, then Berlin, Nice for a couple of days, then down to Naples and head back home for Christmas on the 12th.
We're both looking forward to seeing everyone and spending time enjoying home and the Holidays.
MOUGINS - CENTRE VILLE

Ann and Allison in England - October 2009

Ann was able to spend a wonderful week in England with her parents, Jean and Jenny. They stayed at Oast House, just south of Oxford (West of London).
OAST HOUSE


They were able to visit many beautiful and interesting places with that as their base.
Downham - The Davis Family's favorite place in England

Tintern Abby

Allison met them on Thursday and she and Ann spent the weekend in London. The weather was terrific and England, fantastic.
"Stratford-on-Avon" Shakespeares' birthplace

Brighton

Alpes-Maritime day trip- November 7, 2009

This past week I had a meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland. Ann took the time to catch up on things and get ready to go home for the Holidays on November 16th.
Yesterday, not to miss out on a weekend, we took a 4+ hour loop through the Alpes-Maritime area north of Nice, circling around back into Grasse and Mougin.

We love this time of year here. There is much more fall coloring than we thought there would be. We saw some very small, quaint villages and beautiful scenery.


This week, I head to Vienna, then on to Brussels, before heading back with Ann on the 16th. She, however, gets to go back to SLC, while I spend a week in NYC for a Vascular Surgery meeting. I'll be there, however, for Thanksgiving. I head back to Europe on the 3rd of December for three meetings: Frankfurt, Berlin, and Naples - then back to SLC for Christmas. I can't wait.

Colmar, FR;Basel / Lake Como, Switz; Brescia, IT

On the 25th of October Ann and Allison arrived from England (visiting with Ann's parents, Jean and Jenny). Monday we headed north in the car up to Colmar, France, which is at the top of the list of great preserved cities to visit. We weren't disappointed.

We then headed up to Strassburg, Freiburg then down to Basel, where I had a dinner meeting. Our place was right on the Rhein River - a beautiful city.

After an early-morning visit in Winterthur we headed over the San Bernardino Pass into Lugano, then over to Brescia, Italy, where we spent the night. Al had never seen this area before. October colors were all out and it was a great time to visit the Alps. Since I was driving, Allison took some great pictures of this trip...most taken at autobahn speeds!



We took a ferry across Lake Como (in the dark)- it was a spectacular, but short ride.

Brescia has a very well-maintained castle, which we visited our last night there..great lighting.
Here's Al at the drawbridge.

The last day in Italy, I attended a meeting in Milan while Ann and Al explored the downtown area - and did some shopping. Our trip home, through all 137 tunnels along the coast, was actually quite enjoyable, since there is less traffic this time of year. Saturday, Al's last day, was spent doing some shopping and dinner in Cannes, along the waterfront. We really enjoyed her visiting us and look forward to everyone else visiting us next year!
Here's a picture of Ann and Al's view from their boat trip on Lake Como.

Slovenia Slide Show

Ljubljana, Slovenia - Oct 22-24 09

On the 22nd of October, while Ann was in England, I attended a meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenian and found it extremely beautiful, with very friendly people and excellent food

Slovenia is very much like Austria and has high mountains and ski areas just outside the city, similar to Salt Lake. Worth a visit!!!

We visited Brdo Castle, had a private tour and ate in the Palace Cottage. This is where Tito spent Springs and Summers.

Sept - October Slide Show

September-October 09

Cook's biggest European trade show, CIRSE, was held in Lisbon, Portugal and Ann joined me for the week...she saw Lisbon, while I attended the show and related meetings. We did get away for a couple of short sight-seeing excursions. I'll have to add her pictures later (I don't have her camera here..)
Ann then met her parents and Jean in Paris (spent a couple of days there seeing the high points - Lourve, Notre Dame, Diana's fateful tunnel...)then they all rode the High-Speed (180 mph) TVG train from Paris to Cannes. They had a great time seeing all the sites in Provence and our immediate area.

She sent them up to England where they are spending 3 weeks. Ann just left yesterday, Oct 17th, to spend a week with them up there...pictures to follow..same camera I don't have right now.
This month was also Ann's "Girls Trip"; Julie Larsen, Carol Beal, Susan Romney and Kathyrn Knudtson spent a week here - seeing everything they could and enjoying each others' company. This was their 17th straight year going somewhere together!

Just after they left, Kerry Larsen came and he and Julie spent a few extra days with us. It was great spending time with them.


I, meanwhile, worked in SW Germany (Saarbrucken,Worms and Mainz, plus Lille and Amien, France. I also had a quick overnight meeting in Paris before spending the week here in PTX meetings with most of the team from Europe (25 people).
This weekend, since I was alone, I did some high-altitude, narrow, curvy driving, since Ann doesn't care for the tight turns, steep drop offs nor narrow misses of on-coming crazy drivers. I explored the area north of Monaco - St Agnes being the high point, besides some beautiful scenery.

Next week - Ann's report from England and mine from Slovenia.
This week I head off to Frankfurt for two days then over to Lubjlana, Slovenia for three days. I hope to have some great pictures of Slovenia.

Summer 09 Activities - Slideshow

WOW - WHERE DID THE SUMMER GO????

Its hard to believe it's been over two months since I've updated our blog. I'll try and cover everything we did in July, August and September.

July: Right after Lee, Jenny and Rachel left, I had business trips to Germany - Dortmund and Berlin. Because I had some physician visits in Bologna and Brescia, Italy,

DINNER IN BOLOGNA

MARBLE MINES NEAR BRESCIA

we took off over the weekend and visited Ravenna, where some of the best Byzantine mosaics are
IS THAT A HAND REACHING FROM HEAVEN???


THIS "ROMAN BATH" LOOKS LIKE A BAPTISMAL FONT W/WITNESS STAND TO ME....

then on to Verona, where we saw Aida in an ancient Roman arena. It was a fantastic experience.
BRIDGE IN VERONA, ITALY

ROMAN ARENA IN VERONA - AIDA OPERA


Mid week, our good friends, Diane and Stan Brewer visited for a few days - Ann showed them around while I had some team meetings here in Mougins.

The last weekend in July,just before we headed back to Salt Lake for most of the month of August, Ann and I visited a few of the remote hilltowns immediately north of Nice - so close, yet we had never been there. They were quite high and tucked into the French Alps. Each town has its own character/charm.

August was spent with the family. Eric and Katie's new daughter, Suzanne, was just a week or so old when we got there. She is beautiful - lots of dark hair, which is unique for our family! The month also included my 40th high school reunion and a work trip to Indiana. The boys and I hiked into the Uintas (my feet are still recovering from the death march....).

Mike and I then drove up to West Yellowstone to fish the Madison with some of my colleages, then he and I finished up with a medical meeting in Jackson Hole, getting two days on the Snake.

September:

ABOARD SHIP IN COPENHAGEN

Ann and I returned to Mougin on the 5th of September, then left on the 7th for Copenhagen. On the 9th we took the overnight ferry to Oslo (where Mike also had a meeting) and had dinner with Mike and the Johansens, who had just arrived in July as the new mission president. Neither of us had been to Norway and we apparently brought one of the nicest days of the summer with us - low 80's and clear.
OSLO, NORWAY


We had time to visit the Viking museum before leaving on the 10th.
Since the company recieved CE Mark (like FDA approval) on the PTX Zilver Stent ( the reason we are here), we had week-long meetings to prepare for the big launch set for September 20th in Lisbon.
Ann and I went to Lisbon for our big medical show and she was able to spend a full week savoring the city and surrounding sites. Our last afternoon, we went together to Sintra, which was very worthwhile.
Yesterday we visited the High Provence area, very similar to the Napa area and known for it's beauty and wines. It was a short, but fun day trip.
This morning Ann flew to Paris to meet her parents and Jean for a couple of days before they head down here on the train for the rest of the week. We're looking forward to showing them around.
That's about it - October, here we come!!!

July 4th Week

This week Lee, Jenny and Rachael visited us. They went with Ann to Antibes and Cannes, visiting the markets and enjoying the ocean and sights.

We spent Saturday in Aix-en-Provence at a huge city market enjoying the fresh fruits and veggies - the women did some shopping in Zara's....We also went up to Avignon, where a huge theater festival was in full swing - lots of acting troupes parading around town to get people interested in their evening plays.

They went to church with us and enjoyed seeing that the church is the same everywhere(except the language).

We covered some new territory close to home and were surprized to find new treasures within 30 minutes of home. Some beautiful hill towns, gorges and spectacular para-sailing that was real tempting to Lee, Rachael and myself. Dinner was in Valbonne, one of our favorite small towns close to where we live.

While I was working, they spent some time at the beach and experienced the extraordinary floating characteristics of the Mediterranean.

I went up to Berlin this week and it has really changed since Ann and I were there 15 years ago. Everythings beautiful, new and/or renovated.
I have some physician visits in northern Italy so we're heading over to Bologna, Ravenna, Verona, Brescia and Bergamo. One night we have opera tickets for Aida in the Roman Arena in Verona. It holds 25,000 people and should be unique experience.

TOUR DE FRANCE - O9

This morning we went with Pat and Jerry French and Meghan McDonald, members of the US team, and took the train to Grasse (just 10 minutes - we wanted to avoid parking problems....) to watch the first segment of the Tour de France race go through our area. Since we were way early we had a perfect location to see them enter town. It was fun to be part of this experience - a chance of a lifetime probably.
As you can see from the photos, the sponsors came through first - throwing promotional candy, hats, and other marking items.


Then came lead bikers with the main pack right on their heels. The actual bikers were past us in less than 30 seconds!!


Then came the team-support vehicles with all the bikes and helpers.

We all had a good time and got way too much sun.....

Have a great week,

JW

TOUR DE FRANCE - JULY 5, 2009 - SLIDE SHOW

Switzerland

June 09

June was gone before we realized it. We both enjoyed getting back to SLC and going to Oceanside with the Davis family. Lots of fun and great times with the kids and grandkids. We also celebrated my parents 60th anniversary at Chuck-a-Rama and had a fun time catching up with the Williams clan.
On returning to France, Jan and Kevin Cameron visited us. They and Ann did a couple of Provence trips while I attended a meeting, then we all headed into northern Italy and up into Switzerland. We took the pass out of Lugano to Chur,

then into Lichtenstein

and to Appenzell, a very magical and typically Swiss mountain valley.

We enjoyed a great evening and dinner there, then spent the night in the Zurich area.
I visited some accounts while Ann took Jan and Kevin to Lausanne so they could catch a train back to Paris; she met me that evening in Bern where we had a great dinner in the Kornhaus Restaurant. A fabulous, large cellar where grains and wines were stored hundreds of years ago.
The next day I worked in Basel then we headed over to Innsbruck

and over Brenner Pass, back into Italy.
The pass and Dolomite area had some spectacular scenery.


We were rained out of seeing Verona, but spent the night in Padova and thanks to Allisons on-line reservation help, got tickets to see the Giotto frescos - something we had wanted to do for several years. They were worth the wait.

We made it back Saturday and enjoyed nice Sunday - church was enjoyable and we're getting to be a common ficture for everyone.
I worked this past week in Barcelona, then flew over to Madrid (>100 F) and took the bullet train (180mph) to Zaragosa and on to Barcelona-flying from there to Nice last night.
This weekend we hope to see part of the Toure de France, since it goes through our area. We'll update next week.

We love you all and miss you. Happy 4th of July!!! We'll miss doing fireworks with the grandkids...and big kids.