Asheville Day 1 - Jack and Cookie

Okay, y'all.  I've found a place where I could live for the rest of my life:  Asheville, North Carolina.  What a gorgeous town!  My friend, Nancy, and I are in North Carolina for business meetings.  Fortunately, we had the foresight to circle Charlotte on the map, and see where we could visit...Asheville immediately came up as a place we both wanted to check out, so here we are, and enjoying every second of it.

We flew into Charlotte yesterday, and stayed at a hotel near the airport.  This morning, we rented a car, and headed northwest.  It's a little less than two hours to Asheville, mostly beautiful, scenic countryside.

We rented a two bedroom, two bath loft in the historic downtown area, and it is, by far, one of the nicest places ever!  Many, many thanks to artist Eli Corbin for advertising it on vrbo.com.  I will definitely be back. It is within walking distance of many shops, restaurants, and galleries. Here are a few shots of this incredible loft.

After settling in, we wandered around the neighborhood to get our bearings.  We stopped and had crepes and wine for lunch.

Here are some photographs from our neighborhood.

All of this looking around made us hungry.  We'd heard about French Broad Chocolates, and it was conveniently located just down the street.  It's a chocolate/coffee/wine lounge.  We decided on pots de creme, coffee, and tea.  It all hit the spot!

The highlight of our afternoon was stopping by the Battery Park Book Exchange Champagne Bar, which was beyond delightful!  Books everywhere...good books even!  The place was hopping with book lovers and champagne drinkers.  We met the nicest couple who had their dogs, Jack and Cookie, with them. It was good to learn more about Asheville, as they had moved here last year.  The dogs were so well behaved; they were the hit of the bar area!

By the time we left the book store, it was too late to go back to the loft, so of course we went out to dinner.  Bouchon was a highly recommended French restaurant.  It more than lived up to its reputation.  Unfortunately, it was too dark for photographs, but rest assured everything was perfect.  We ate it all.

More tomorrow.  Night night!