At first, Jerry and I, even Edith’s husband Jack, were a little grudging about giving up a weekend to a town whose only claim to fame was its Pierre Loti Museum. When you’ve been on the road scrutinizing the French landscape for every Gothic cathedral, baroque H’tel de Yule and Roman aqueduct, it’s sometimes hard not to cry "Enough!"

Studying the map as we drove 300 miles southwest from Paris, I couldn’t help thinking how nice it would be if Bernard lived in the seaside resort of Fouras, or in medieval Saintes, both close by Rochefort. As it turned out, Rochefort’s H’tel Le Paris was the only one between Paris and Bordeaux with two rooms available this lovely May weekend take it or leave it.

We took it, with demi-pension; a welcome relief from weeks of sparring over where and what to eat. The menu at the H’tel LeParis was uncomplicated, the dishes surprisingly well-prepared for a no-star restaurant. A bottle of wine, not the most expensive Bordeaux, was just right with the guinea hen. After dinner, we strolled the orderly streets lined with neat townhouses, their red-tiled mansard roofs, blue shutters and wrought-iron balconies evoking the style and elegance of the 17th century. Colbert, commissioned by Louis XIV to create a Maritime Arsenal on the banks of the Charente River, had planned a model town as well. The naval base is long gone; the local theater that once did Moli’re now shows "Star Trek, Part 3." In the evening the streets are quiet.