The French Connection....

I recently had the opportunity to travel to France to take part in a training course for technicians offered by APQS (American Professional Quilting Systems). I had to weigh up the pros and cons of whether to miss the local Common Riding and all of it's festivities against a week very nearly on The French Riviera, as you can imagine it was a difficult decision.  I flew from Manchester through Schipol, Amsterdam, into Montpellier, my bum hardly touched the sun lounger on the island infront of the airport when our host Suzan came around the corner in her sports car to pick me up and give me a small tour of the area, before dropping me off at my hotel, Les Coquilles in Palavas Les Flot. My hotel was right there on the beach, it was a hard week!
I spent a couple of days as a tourist, visiting the harbour, local markets and having a day trip into Montpellier with Janne and Trond before our training proper started.

Once our training days were underway we were welcomed into Suzan and Renee's home where the longarm machines were waiting. Mark and Amy from APQS had travelled from Des Moines, Iowa, USA to give us their expert help and instruction to get through the certified training course.

At lunch time we were treated to wonderfully fresh foods, all locally grown with the intense flavours associated with fruits and salads grown in the sun.

 We were from Norway, Geneva Switzerland,  Russia, France, England and Scotland

This was a real hands on course adjusting repairing and replacing parts as needed and we all have 100 questions to answer to make sure we have read and understood our training manuals....

I flew back from Montpellier through Paris Charles De Gaule airport into Manchester before heading south into North Wales for a family visit with Ann and Allan, with a visit to Chester and surrounding area. Ann and Allan have lived here for near on 40 years, shame on me for not visiting sooner.

I'll be back soon with some quilting photos.....