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We have traveled many times to Italy and seen many beautiful cities, but Castiglione del Lago really stands out as a magical, almost fairy tale like in its vibe, with a real castle to boot! The first thing you notice is the majestic castle that is in the center of this little town overlooking a beautiful lake and situated outside of Perugia, Italy. Just getting the pronunciation correct in saying Castiglione del Lago gives you the sense you are really in the heart of Italy. This city is in the region of Umbria, known for some of the best Italian wines.

Castiglione del Lago immediately felt like home to us when we met third generation native, Mario Barbini who welcomed us with open arms into his beautifully restored 500 year old Palazzo Barbini apartments. Our two bedroom apartment was spacious, charming and had a beautiful view of the city and a private terrace. It also had the cutest kitchen that I was dying to cook in, but we were kept so busy with amazing dinners and lunches that I simply didn’t have time!  Ronn went to Castiglione del Lago to prepare the songs he would be doing for his first ever Italian music tour set for summer 2019. The music director lives in Castiglione del Lago and so we needed to be near his studio to go over all the music for the tour production, which required daily recordings and computer insertions for the video editor to coordinate and for the band to prepare to rehearse later next month with Ronn.

However, it didn’t feel like work at all for Ronn because we were having such a great time in between his creative process. The two weeks spent in Castiglione del Lago flew by and will forever be ingrained in our minds as one of the most special and unique places we have visited.  We also took some time to visit another charming city nearby called, Assisi before checking out the seaside of Abruzzo. Ronn made some rare personal appearances in these areas to meet with as many fans as possible and to check out possible venues for the tour.  It’s hard to believe we have now been in Europe for two months as this time has flown by so fast, and we are now relaxing in our beautiful Rome Loft situated in the center of Rome. We can’t recommend this place enough for anyone traveling to see the sights of Rome, as its a perfect location to walk just about everywhere.  We will now head to Belgium for a few appearances and preparation with Ronn’s “Bad and Beautiful” band for the next couple weeks before heading back to Italy for band rehearsals and more surprises to share later!

It’s been difficult to find the time to blog these past few weeks. Ronn and I have been on the go, meaning living out of our suitcases from the vineyards of Bordeaux to Rotterdam and some stops like Paris and Gent in between. It’s been an awesome experience of fun changes in culture, food and people. We have met some people we can see will indeed become lifelong new friends. Our past few months in Europe has been one of the best experiences of our lives! It’s been a priceless, educational look at what we want for our future and we are thinking seriously of splitting our time between Europe and LA. This has always been a dream of mine and I feel more European anyway. Maybe it’s growing up in Louisiana, but I can see and feel the influence of the European culture on me, especially when it comes to food and wine. And Belgium is just so centrally located to traveling anywhere within Europe that we have decided to make it our hub. We have especially fallen in love with beautiful Gent and I was thrilled to make the first remote overseas happen for  “The Bay”in Gent! We filmed two days of season 4 at the gorgeous 1989 The Post hotel that is located on the canal in the center of Gent. However, I became really ill during the first day of “The Bay” shoot and was throwing up so badly that I thought I had food poisoning from eating too many raw oysters in Rotterdam. This stomach bug lasted nearly a week for me making it difficult for me to enjoy the food and wine we were having in Bordeaux on our first day there, but now  I’m finally feeling better and looking forward to getting back home to America and to our friends and family in time for Thanksgiving.

Since we have been here the past few months, we have also witnessed the most horrific crisis’ America has ever faced. Two unbelievable devastating hurricanes that made the state of Florida and Texas declared two of the worst natural disasters ever in our lifetime! Then came the death of our beloved Hugh Hefner and the iconic, Tom Petty which really shocked us all and the horrific shootings in Las Vegas. Hearing of these tragic events made us very sad, but it also made us even more grateful for all of the wonderful, positive new experiences, friendships and new creative ventures that have been forming. Our ever expanding universe is just filled with surprises along your given path in life. It’s important for you to pay attention and be inspired more than be in comparison to others. It often leads you on the right path with pots of gold at the end. Priceless, beautiful gifts that come around once in a lifetime,  that are one of a kind or too magnificent to put into mere words have been some of the things we have experienced over these past few months. 

We have had the unique opportunity to be completely present in the beauty of Belgium and have had the time to get to know this country from living in Antwerp, De Haan and Brugge. It’s been so nice to stay put in one place and experience all that it has to offer in the way of food, culture and their way of life. I just love how Europe in general really takes pride and put good nutritious food as a priority in their lives. Restaurants are always filled with lots of lively people enjoying great memories they are sharing with others over food and wine on a daily basis. Ronn and I got to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary in one of my favorite places, Bordeaux. We even re-connected with the owner of a chateau we stayed at the last time we were in Bordeaux, which was 8 years ago just before we got married. So our short time spent again with these people was a beautiful experience. Our friend is the most passionate person I’ve ever met about wines, especially Bordeaux wines! He knows practically all of the wineries and their owners and publishes the local newsletter on the “Bordeaux Experience.” We were invited to Bordeaux by new friends who came to Ronn’s show in Blankenberge over the summer. It turns out that our new Bordeaux friends are actually from Belgium and also have a gorgeous winery in Bordeaux, so I guess you could say it was meant to be that we celebrate our anniversary there.

Paris is one of my favorite cities and a city you could never see enough of or experience all that it has to offer. We only had a day to see something Ronn and I hadn’t seen yet and it was recommended that we see the top of “Montimartre” to see the view of the city. It happened to be a beautiful sunny day and we got a good amount of exercise climbing those stairs to reach the top of Montimartre. When we reached the top there were a trio of men singing that became infectious enough to make Ronn join in with them. This was not something I’ve not seen him do before. There was an outdoor food and wine tasting going on and we hung out walking around and tasting a variety of scrumptious foods and wines before catching our train back to Antwerp.  This was a week excursion to France that also made us appreciate being back in Belgium because most people speak English, although being in France made us want to learn French because it’s such a beautiful language to listen to in any capacity.

We are now counting down the days before we will return home to the states and Ronn is doing a few more shows of “Brasschaatste Huisvrouwen” with the final shows in Brugge next week. They have been getting standing ovations for their performances like the one last week in Gent. It’s beautiful to see how much Belgium loves Ronn and appreciates his musical and acting talents. I’ve also witnessed the same love during our short visit to France. Seems like everyone wants a photo with him for their mothers, grandmothers and themselves.  Ronn is looking forward to coming back for some really cool new projects in the way of music, merchandising, hosting and acting in the near future. He is also excited about the upcoming concerts in December that will be in Spain, Estonia, and Latvia. We will also visit beautiful Vienna in December and may be adding in a few more surprises for DevRonn fans along the way like the upcoming DevRonn party this coming weekend. I will be cooking my gumbo for a select group at the Van de Valk Hotel in Gent on Oct 22nd. We also have some interest in our Devin’s Kickass Cajun Seasoning and Ronn’s BBQ Sauce recipes being developed in Belgium for distribution in Europe. So I guess I’ll be cooking a bit more in Europe in the future which makes me happy!

Witnessing the devastating losses from the recent natural disasters, mass shootings and wildfires over just the past four months has also shown us how precious, fragile and brief life itself really is. It’s important to surround ourselves with those who lift us up, enlighten and understand that standing together is way more empowering that standing alone. There is power in numbers for those of us that want a common positive goal. So we always try to find a way to give back, have fun and enjoy the life we have been so blessed to have.

On August 23, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and devastated that region with 175 mph winds that left over 1836 people dead and cost over $100 billion dollars in damages. Many people lost their homes and relocated. This was one of the deadliest and costliest natural disasters in US history. Since then many people have been able to return to their home town thanks to the efforts of the “Make It Right” foundation and Brad Pitt’s passion for New Orleans. The first star studded fund raiser for “Make It Right” was hosted in New Orleans by Brad Pitt, Randy Jackson and Ellen DeGeneres. They showed us the progress that is being made with Green energy efficient homes that has enabled many native Louisianians to return home. This amazing technology has helped many other displaced people all over the world with these kinds of homes and I’m happy to be a part of this with “Devin’s Kickass Cajun Seasoning.” It seems the region is coming back and will be stronger and better as time goes on. We are very proud to have participated in the first gala for “Make It Right.” All the performances by Sheryl Crow, Rhianna, Snoop Dog, Seal and Kanye West were amazing and the show will be broadcast later. The gala was totally first class and one of the most fun charity events we have ever attended. Ronn chatted with Portia DeRossi as I re connected with Sean Penn and Randy Jackson, who is from my home town of Baton Rouge. We had the best Cajun food prepared by Emeril and surprise appearances by Football hero Drew Brees and Dr. Drai. There was an open bar and the party went on all night long, so needless to say we didn’t want to miss any of it. By the end of the evening, Ronn was hanging with Jamie Foxx and Rhianna, while I partied with my home girls. One of my first college roommates came to visit me from Baton Rouge. We had not seen each other in 24 years! But that’s okay, because those are my life long friends that I cherish and we know it doesn’t matter if we don’t see each other, we are always there in each other’s heart. That’s how we are in Louisiana. If you are a friend, you are family and the passage of time just doesn’t matter.  It made me so proud to see how much New Orleans loves Ronn as walked around the French Quarter listening to Jazz, stopping for Beignets and eating lots of gumbo.  The culture is still there and the pride of Louisiana is still there, hell it’s a miracle that the French Quarter is still there! When Katrina hit New Orleans I cried and I wanted to do something to help rebuild it, thus “Devin’s Kickass Cajun Seasoning” was born. I’m happy to see there are others that feel as passionate about New Orleans as me and it’s amazing to the see the progress when we all do a little bit to help. We now have several people helping us get our spice into restaurants and supermarkets. It made us so happy to be able to  donated 1000 spices to the gala’s gift bags and we helped to raise over $14,000!  That was small compared to other sponsors like Google, but we will most certainly be back next year bigger and better. Thank you to everyone who helped and participated.  We are the spice that’s “Making It Right” in New Orleans so please spread the word and help us to continue.[wpvideo J1rs8eC0]

Ronn has a month off of B&B to rest and relax this summer and that starts now. We decided to drive near Yosemite to hang out with my pal Alana Curry and fellow Playmates LuAnn Lee and Jacqueline Sheen and their boyfriends to have fun swimming, jet skiing, boating and water skiing on a beautiful lake. It is just what Ronn loves to do to unwind himself into vacation mode. It’s also great for me because the cabin has Internet and enables me to keep up with everyone and it has a big beautiful kitchen for me to cook in so I feel right at home! I’ve enjoyed introducing everyone to “Devin’s Kickass Seasoning” with dishes like, Salmon and caper Buccatini, Lental soup and Steak Devin with Roasted potatoes. Ronn and I have been sleeping in every morning and enjoying every second of this amazing place. We plan to stop off and check out Yosemite before heading to our own cabin and picking up the kids next week. We will then head to Hawaii with them for a family vacation before Ronn heads back to work in mid August. It always seems like the summer just flies by with the kids, their friends, our friends and traveling. So we are just trying to enjoy every minute of it. I plan to finally finish my next book, “True Age, Timeless Beauty” as well as, make up some new recipes of course. We are also planning to renovate our cabin by next year so that we can have friends come and hang out with us there. Ronn just loves editing all the video he shoots and enjoys the peace and quite there. So we hope to spend more time at our cabin once it’s remodeled. Hope you are all enjoying the summer as much as we are!

Ronn and I have been having a blast and have found Vegas to be an adult playground. The last time we were here was about six years ago, so being back for my birthday and the Daytime Emmys made it quite special this trip. Our stay at the beautiful Venetian hotel was amazing and we were in awe of both Cirque Du Soleil shows, LOVE and ELVIS!! Highly recommend seeing both. Today we head over to the Hilton to celebrate the first live broadcast of the Daytime Emmys on CBS tonight, will blog later about that. Here are a few pics of our trip so far.

It has been a most relaxing enjoyable vacation for all of us and a very memorable one for us as a family. We have been made to feel at home with the Biagiotti and the Di Vaira families and it was a very emotional goodbye to all for now. The girls have experienced Italy in a very unique way, both the traditional Roman way and the traditional Tuscan way of life. We want to thank everyone who help us feel so at home in both Bolgheri and Roma. The beautiful dinners, private tours and loving hospitality will endure in our memory for a lifetime. We have made so many wonderful friends along the way, learned so much about wine, food and art and taken away gorgeous memories of the countryside and their culture. So we say arrivederci for now, but we know we will be back to our second home very soon. I will continue to study Italian so that I am speaking more fluently next time. Ronn is loved more than ever in Italy and loves Italy more than ever, so this love affair will continue I’m sure for years to come. It will feel good now to be back home with the animals and our friends who we have missed so much from all our traveling during the past few months.

Since Easter, we have had the most amazing food and wine ever in Italy. We have visited a couple of the premier vineyards, including Sara Di Vaira’s vineyard. Here is Ronn in a photo with Sara’s father. We picked our own vegetables to cook and experienced the Tuscan way of life. The girls have loved it so much that we have opted to stay and extra day and not go to Venice. We will go back in a couple of days by train to spend our last day in the beautiful castle of Laura Biagiotti before returning home. The Tuscan part of our vacation has felt very homey. I cooked fresh picked artichokes the other day and the girls found the biggest head of cabbage we have ever seen! Last night we had a beautiful seafood dinner on the beach.  Ronn has enjoyed tasting the wines and it seems that there are a lot of tourist visiting right now for the food and wine obviously, we can understand why. Today, I will go to a spa and relax with a massage and soak in the hot springs. The weather is amazing today, so the girls are excited to pick more vegetables, including wild asparagus and will make homemade pizza. Looking forward to good weather for our last days here in Italy.


Love DevRonn

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Our vacation so far has been very relaxing and the weather has been fabulous! Just what the doctor ordered for Ronn, weather that is in primavera and not too hot or cold. A trip to the Spanish Steps, The Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain was the start of our first day. Walking around Rome was grand and it was funny for the girls to see how many teenagers wanted photos and autographs with their daddy. . Our dear friends Laura and Lavinia Biagiotti hosted us in their apartment near the spanish steps, which was in the center of everything. Our wonderful guide Isabella toured us around the city as we walked all day long. We had the most fabulous homemade pasta, steamed artichokes and of course vino rosso. Our second day has been another private tour of the Vatican and Sistine Chapel, compliments of our friend Loreto. Our neighbors Steve and Sue and their kids were in Rome for a short while during a cruise and joined us on the tour and then we had a fabulous lunch. The girls then opted to walk around some more with Ronn, while I came back to blog and rest up for dinner. We decided to take the girls today to the Villa Borghese and had a private tour of Caravaggio’s amazing work and the President’s Palace before having dinner with Actress Nancy Brilli and her husband Roy. Plans changed and we decided to rest in the castle of Laura Biagiotti tomorrow before heading by train to Florence to see the “David.” There are so many people that we have decided to go to Venice after Easter. We will complete our Roman Holiday with one last day in Roma before heading home next week.

Our first family vacation to Italy is off to a pleasant start now that we are relaxing in the British Airways lounge. Although we weren’t sure if it was going to happen at all due to the British Airways strike that is taking place this weekend. I had calls from the airline that our flight was canceled from London to Rome and spent an hour on the phone booking an alternative flight. Then we didn’t receive Calee’s passport even though we renewed it well over a month ago. After spending more time on the phone with the passport agency and having more calls from British Airways saying that our new flight may now be interrupted, our nerves were on edge. I spent the past couple months planning the most special trip for us and everyone who knows me, knows I hate last minute changes. Calee’s passport finally arrived by federal express a half hour before we left for the airport and the traffic to the airport was massive, but as soon as we arrived at the British Airways check in, things began to take a turn for the better. We checked in almost effortlessly and went through security without much of a line, which is a first for me! Then we made our way to the lounge and ate something, so now the girls and Ronn are happy to be on their computers relaxing before our flight.  We are now looking forward to spending some quality time together is Rome, Venice, Florence and the Tuscan countryside over the next couple of weeks. It’s a perfect ending to Ronn’s Italian experience over the past few months and Italy really has become our second home. Spending Easter there with friends will truly be special and we plan to take lots of pics and video along the way. I will update you guys periodically on how it’s going and we hope to finally bring back Ronn’s huge trophy!

Love Dev

Ronn is feeling better, but still has a runny nose. It didn’t stop him from dancing his butt off on Saturday and I must say he is looking pretty damn good. Although, it’s hard work, two hours of dancing in a heated room due to all the lights and the filming of it, he is handling it all pretty well. Today he had the day off, so we went to see the Colloseum and Pantheon and did a lot of walking around the city. As always, everyone recognizes Ronn even with a hat on and glasses and want non stop photos. We went to the supermarket here for a few things we needed and the guy at the check out counter call his wife to have Ronn say hello. We went to get gelati and the girl behind the counter wanted a photo. We go to restaurants and the owners, cooks and waiters all want photos and autographs. He stops traffic and men, women and children call out Ronn Moss as he walk the streets. Crowds build if he stops for one picture and it can become crazy. It becomes tiring to walk the city with him as a result, so he ended up covering his face with a scarf and that seems to work, especially walking through the crowded streets of the shopping district. I’ve never seen so many people! Seems all the stores have sales of 30%-50% off after New Year’s eve so everyone goes shopping. This week will be non stop dance lessons and rehearsals for the live taping of “Ballando con le stelle” on Saturday night. So I will take a day to myself tomorrow and study more Italian, write and do some shopping alone. It’s been a great new year for us so far and we have really enjoyed touring Roma, making new friends, eating great Italian food and drinking some good vino. I will for sure need to hit the gym hard when I get home! Here is a video clip Ronn did of our trip so far.
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Love DevRonn

Ronn and I had the most awesome day at the Vatican with a private tour given to us by our friend Loreto, compliments of our dear friend Valerio Ventura. Loreto is a camera man for the pope so he knows very well the Vatican and we got to visit the Sistine chapel and met father Bruno of the chapel Santanna, check out www.santanna.va which is a lovely private chapel for the citizens of Vatican city. Truly a world within a world Vatican city has so much history of course and it was quite a treat to see some of it privately. We also got to see the swiss guards who have been guarding the pope for 500 years and had a private tour of their quarters, which was quite interesting. It was becoming quite difficult to walk the streets of Rome with crowds of people recognizing Ronn and constantly asking for photos. Loreto then took us to a private restaurant for the most amazing lunch and Ronn and I headed back to the hotel because he is coming down with a slight cold. Because of this, we decided to decline our invitation to Italian actress Nancy Brilli’s home tonight and stayed in with a bottle of champagne to toast the new year. I wanted Ronn to rest because he has a full week of dance lessons before his first competition next week. I will post some photos and video soon as Ronn feels better and gives me something. Hope you all are having a wonderful new year!

Buon Anno!

DevRonn

Ronn has a full day of dance lessons and promos for Ballando con le stelle and then we will have a home cooked dinner with some friends. So far, Rome has been raining alot, but very romantic. We have officially started our ongoing honeymoon celebrating now three months of marriage on Christmas. Sara, Ronn’s dance partner is very nice and he is learning the quick step and the waltz right now. He has 10 dances to learn, so this is all very challenging for him. We are both learning Italian and he plans to say something on the show in Italian every week. I’m excited to see him in his first dance which will air Jan 9th. We visited the Vatican, but it was raining so much and there was too many people asking for a photo with Ronn that we will do a private tour of it later this week. Here is a little video of our visit to the Vatican.
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Love DevRonn

[wpvideo 18lj8xZF]Ronn and I had a nice relaxing day in Rome walking around the shops and having lunch at Babington’s a unique tea house near the spanish steps. We then visited the boutique of Laura Biagiotti and had an early dinner. It’s so nice to spend our first Christmas as husband and wife in such a romantic and beautiful city like Rome. We plan to now relax in our hotel room and watch a Christmas movie and tomorrow we will spend the day at the home of Laura Biagiotti. But, for now would like to wish you all a wonderful Christmas and hope Santa brings you all that you desire. Here is my little Christmas present to you of me singing “Santa Baby” with Johnny English playing piano.

Love DevRonn

Our flight from LA to Frankfurt was pleasant and smooth, but it started snowing as soon as we landed, which caused several delays and cancellations of flights. So we were stuck at the airport lounge waiting for nearly 9 hours. Ronn of course had fans from Egypt, Sweden and Germany on hand asking for autographs and photos. But, the lounge was completely full and the desk had a long line of people waiting the whole night for flight changes. It looked as though we were for sure going to have to spend the night in Frankfurt. I guess luck was on our side because we had the last flight out and arrived in Rome at about 1am. Needless to say, Ronn and I both couldn’t wait to sleep and sleep we did. We woke up today at 5pm, so we slept for about 14 hours! We don’t plan on leaving the room until tomorrow morning and am now catching up on emails. Thank God for sleep, it felt so good to wake up rested. Will keep you guys posted on our adventure here in Roma, so check back often.

Choa

DevRonn

Okay after a stressful hectic and very exhausting week, Ronn and I made it to the airport only to be told our flight is 3 hours delayed. So we are resting comfortably in the lounge and catching up with emails, drinking bloody marys and trying to learn some Italian. Personally, I never have liked traveling around this time of the year because of all the bad weather, would like nothing better than to stay home in front of the fireplace and wrap presents. Needless to say I got no Christmas shopping done this year, barely got Christmas cards out, but I plan to catch up on that in Rome, as well as, learn some Italian and study for my real estate license, finish my next book and blog of course. The most important thing is that Ronn and I can finally relax at least for the next few hours and maybe catch up on movies while flying. Hope you all are traveling safe and get to your destinations in time for Santa’s arrival.

Love DevRonn

Ronn is appearing on Italy’s version of “Dancing with the Stars” and over the next three months will be making trips back and forth to Rome nearly every weekend. It will be a big challenge for him because he will also be doing B&B and practicing dance routines with his partner here at home. He was on the show in 2007 and did the “Tango.” Although, I thought he did a wonderful job, he had only a few hours to learn the dance, so it was alot of pressure on him and it isn’t something he most comfortable with like acting or singing. So I’m going with him for love and support this trip and it will be nice to celebrate our first Christmas and New Year there together as a married couple. Check out his Tango on the show from 2007

Saturday night was a emotional night for Peter and Ronn to join their original bandmate JC Crowley to play onstage with them. It was the first time in over 25 years. Due to the fact that JC had throat cancer and had a 20% chance of survival back in 1994, he’s a walking miracle. His wife had never seen him sing, “Baby Come Back” with the band, so this was indeed a very emotional evening for all of them to reunite. This was a tribute to legendary producer, Dennis Lambert, so many artists that Dennis worked with over the past 40 years came out to sing one or two of their hits. Some of those artists that shared the stage with PLAYER included, “The Commodores, Natalie Cole and Connie Stevens. We all celebrated after the show for a private party which included fans who flew in from Italy just to see Ronn! Our very own webmistress, Patti Myers was there to make sure the event was covered for the website. We both think this is just the start of something bigger for PLAYER and hope that JC and Peter will start writing together again soon.
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We just returned home from vacationing in the mountains with the kids. It was a lot of fun this year. Creason, Ronn and Calee went water skiing. It was a little too cold for me but I will try it next year. It hailed quarter size balls one day, which was rather cool. I spent alot of time writing and editing video footage, reading and relaxing. IMG_0106 We go every year to the high sierra mountains with the kids. The tiny cabin that has been in Ronn’s family for 100 years is very special to him and the girls, so we are finally getting the ball rolling to fix the place up.IMG_0108 Apparently, the forest service has a lot of required permits for renovating something that old because it is nestled in the heart of the forest, so the process will be long and tedious one. Nevertheless, we are expanding it and turning it into our dream cabin for future vacations with friends and family. I’m sorry I seem to be having tech problems with my site. I have alerted my webmaster and it is fixed now. I so apologize to those of you who were trying to order autographed copies of my book and thanks to those of you who alerted me to the problem. But, I had no Internet at the cabin except for limited cell usage. Technology is great when it works, but it’s not always perfect huh? Anyway, it’s good to be home in my own bed, yes I am sooo spoiled, hahaha. I felt like I was roughing it for two weeks in the woods! Here is the link to order my book on Barnes and Noble or you can go to my website to order a limited autographed copy there.

Love DevRonn

AmsterdamThe past couple of days were pretty rough, both Ronn and I were only averaging about 6 hours of sleep with the aid of a sleeping pill to get back into our time zone. I spent most of the day catching up on emails, phone calls, bills and mail urrrghhh! So I became a little cranky by the end of the day. I happy to say I feel more like myself today and will do some more catching up, but I wanted to post some of the photos from our trip here and on our sitesEze. So check them outLoire Valley. Ronn shot so many amazing shots, especially in Sanremo.Sanremo My birthday is on Thursday and I just want a quiet dinner this year, no big party as I don’t have the energy for it. Tomorrow Ronn and the kids are cooking me dinner and that’s the best birthday present spending it with them.

Love DevRonn

DevRonnFinally we are back online in the London airport heading home today. It was hard to distinguish the Internet in France since both Ronn and I don’t read French or speak it. We have decided we want to learn and have already started with a few basics. Our time last night in Paris was magical. We walked for hours taking in the Louve, corner cafes, shopping and a romantic dinner before saying goodbye to our now favorite city together. Everywhere we went, people recognized Ronn and asked for pics and autographs. Even the female taxi driver in little town of Onzain, which was near Lorie Valley asked for his autograph. The women at the counter where we exchanged dollars for Euros did also. Seems I can’t go anywhere with him without this happening. The security guys in the Louve asked for a photo with him. The chef at Loire Valley who prepared the best french meal we have ever experienced asked for an autograph for his mother! Will post pics from this dinner later, it was a work of art! The show is very well the most watched in the world, that’s for sure. At one point we had people from Italy, France, Morocco and Zanzabare asking for autographs and pics! We both have very much enjoyed this vacation and consider it one of our best. But, we are missing home now and can’t wait to see Nayo, Romeo and the girls. I’m glad you guys got to share some of our trip from our blogs here. Will post more pics and we are working on our video from the whole trip on our plane ride back.

Love DevRonn

Dev & RonnAfter having some amazing tastings in the chateaus of LaGrange, Margaux and Lynch Bages in the Medoc region of Bordeaux and then experiencing some chateaus of the St. Emilion region, home of Petrus. Ronn was fascinated with the wine education he had and found we both loved the older wines from the Medoc, but still appreciated the Merlot blends of St. Emilion just as much. We bought a few bottles to keep for the future, as well as a few to drink now. 2005 was a great year for all of Bordeaux and we fell in love with LaGrange and savored a bottle in our room while catching up on emails in our lovely room we had in this 18th century chateau. So I can safely say, Ronn is very relaxed now and loving France. We both want to learn French and can’t wait to go to Loire Valley, which is so beautiful today. We will stay in another 18th century chateau and visit one more vineyard today there before returning on Friday for our final day in Paris. Then it’s back home on Saturday. So far this has been an amazing trip. We have shot lots of video and we are organizing the clips together for an edited DVD to share soon. Will try to take more pics to post later.

Love DevRonn

IMG_7726Dev laughs at Ronn's jokeAfter a grueling week of press and gala functions, Ronn was ready for a much needed vacation. The last press interview was in Amsterdam. We had a wonderful time in Amsterdam and visited with a long time friend of Ronn’s, Amanda. Amanda and some of her friends took us to dinner and we got to experience herring, which is very popular. A stop in the red light district was funny when Ronn would walk by windows of girls recognizing him. I checked out the coffee shops and we both admired the beauty of this amazing city. Ronn and I both would love to see Player kick off a European tour in Amsterdam. Paris has always been one of my favorite cities. It had a been a while since I’d been there, over 10 years to be exact, so I figured what better place to visit with Ronn, especially since he informed me that he had only been there twice and didn’t really remember much about it.They say, you should only go to Paris with someone you love, so it was great to share walking the stairs of the Eiffel tower and shopping on the Champs’ Elysee’. We both love red wines and since I’d been to Bordeaux before and found the train ride from Paris to Bordeaux to be quite pleasant; I suggested this as a good alternative the tremendous amount of driving Ronn does daily. He was so relaxed, he slept the entire three hour train ride! We are staying in a private 1780 Chateau that is ironically owned by a Dutch family. It is so relaxing, beautiful and peaceful and we were greeted with a wonderful bottle of wine and cheese to kick start our day tomorrow of wine tastings in some of the best regions.

Love DevRonn

B&B award winGolden Nymph awardsCongratulations to “The Bold and The Beautiful” for their 4th win of the Golden Nymph award last night. It was a lovely evening spent in Monte Carlo with Prince Albert of Monaco. We had dinner afterwards with Katherine Kelly Lang, Dan McVicar, Ashley Jones and Brad and Colleen Bell. Designer of the award show Bain Du Nuit offered me this gorgeous yellow dress to wear for the red carpet that I could not resist! Prince Albert is so down to earth and gracious, we gave him a can of “Devin’s Kickass Cajun Seasoning” and he loved the name, kept saying, “I can’t wait to try some kickass!” It was very cute.Prince Albert Needless to say, we got absolutely no sleep last night because of a 4am drive to the Nice airport for our flight to Amsterdam. I’ve never been so tired in my life! I swear I don’t know how Ronn does it as he has press all day today and it started at the Amsterdam airport upon arrival. God I do not want to see those pics of me! I just woke up from sleeping all morning, while poor Ronn is yet again working. Yesterday, before the awards we went to Sanremo for a quick photo shoot with Ronn. It was so touching to see how much the Italians love Ronn. From babies to elderly people, the love they give him is priceless. We took photos of Ronn taking photos of them and had a delicious Italian lunch before driving back to Monaco for the awards. Truly amazing memories of Monaco, Prince Albert, Sanremo and all the love from the fans. I even had a few asking for my autograph, which was a total surprise to me! Will post more pics that we’ve taken as soon as Ronn and I have time to look at them in our camera.

Ujena Sanremo 3Monaco viewDevRonn2Ronn and I made it to Monaco and the weather is absolutely gorgeous. Our flight was smooth and pleasant, but we missed our connecting flight to Nice and had to take a later one, which made our arrival at about 1am Sunday morning. By the time we went to bed it was 3am. We had been up a total of about 32 hours by then and was sooo tired. This was my second visit to Monte Carlo/Monaco and Ronn’s third. My last visit was about 10 years ago and his was about 4. Monday late morning Ronn joined Ashley Jones, Doug Davidson and Michelle Stafford for a private luncheon with contest winners from all over Europe. It was at the beautiful Monte Carlo Bay hotel. After lunch, Ronn and I were so tired, we took a nap and didn’t wake up until later in the evening. We went to dinner and back to sleep. Then Ronn discovered he had blown out the charger to our video camera by using the wrong converter, so not like him. Made me feel better for forgetting my phone, but nevertheless, we need a new charger to continue taking video of our trip. Today Ronn is busy all day with Press, so I went to the mall to get a new one, but they didn’t have one for this camera, so I’m not sure what we will do now? Tonight we are having cocktails at the Prime Minister’s house and tomorrow night we meet Prince Albert at the palace. Thursday we go to Sanremo for a photo shoot with Ronn and then we have the award show in the evening. I will post again later and hopefully have some better news about our camera situation.

Love DevRonn