Us in Auxerre in September 2001

I could have sworn that I had posted this photo before, but I can't find it on the blog anywhere. I had a hard time finding the photo at all. It was taken in September 2001, and it was on an old CD that I found by accident on my desk a couple of days ago. It was posting recently about Auxerre that made me remember it. That's where it was taken, by our friend Sue from California. We were on our way from CDG airport down to Provence to spend a coupld of weeks in a gîte there.

September 2001 in Auxerre, on the way to Provence

When Sue took the picture, only she knew that both of us were it it. Walt was upstairs in our room at the hotel. I was downstairs already. I didn't know he was upstairs looking out the window. He didn't know I was downstairs standing on the porch. The photo was taken with a film camera. Later I scanned it so that I would have a digital copy.

The gîte in Provence where we were staying on 9/11/2001

We had just arrived in Provence when the September 11th terrorist attacks happened in the U.S. It was surreal. That Tuesday, we had spent the day driving around in the Luberon valley, taking in the sights and planning what we'd do for the next two weeks. We hadn't heard any news all day. We got back to the gîte at about 7:30 p.m. to have dinner. I said we ought to turn on the television because it was time for the weather report. We'd see what the week's weather was going to be like. What we saw on the screen was the World Trade Center buildings on fire. We thought we might be watching some kind of action or science fiction movie. Then we slowly realized that it wasn't fiction but fact. We had no way of contacting anybody in the U.S. because all telephone communication was cut off. We didn't have wifi or internet back then. We didn't know when we'd be able to get home again, or if our friends and families were okay.