June 25: France, day 7. Visiting a French food market and a medieval villiage.

We had breakfast with Anne and Philippe 

 before going to the market. The girls slept in. 

 

 

Then we set out for the market, something I

Had been looking forward to since before we arrived

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had selected an assortment of cheeses, 

charcuterie, fruits, and vegetables. Now we 

were ready for a coffee break!

 

 

 

 

These are the traditional sweets for the region: Caneles de Bordeaux. 

 

 

Now back to the house with our bounty to 

have lunch with a little champagne(from Champagne, of course!) and meet Eric and

Yahsou, Missa's parents (the other french girl 

who will be coming with us to CA for an exchange). 

 

 

 

Bethany gives me that look that says: "Really Mom?? Another picture??!!)

After lunch we drove about an hour to the 

medeival villiage of San Emilliano which is in the middle of a beautiful area surrounded by 

vineyards and grand chateaus. 

We walked through the cobblestone streets of this little hillside town, admiring the stone buildings. 

 
 

We went inside this 13th century church tp admire a beautiful piece of history

 

We were ready for a little break so we stopped for some refreshments in a little market square and enjoyed the best crepe we have had in France so far😋
 

Then we wandered through the underground cellars of Philippe and Anne's favorite winery and purchased a bottle of Bordeaux to bring with us to Venice

On the way to the car we had to make just one 

more stop inside a little macaron shop. 

Bethany had been wanting one since we 

arrived 

 

Now back in the car to go back to Merignac for dinner. Philippe is a very good cook and he served us his homemade ratatouille, with some more bordeaux of course.🍷 

 

After dinner we shared stories and family 

photos and discussed summer plans. 

Burt played a little with a french yo-yo of sorts. 

 

June 21: France, Day 4: Le Louvre

Today we did better at getting an early start out of the house and we made it to the Louvre before 11:00am. 

Before going into the museum we got a snack at the food court. Sometimes it is comforting  to have something familiar, even if it is McDonalds😝

 

We headed over to buy tickets, prepared to wait a while since had heard stories of long lines to get in, but we came through the underground Metro entrance and had no line at all. 

The first thing we saw was the Darth Vader exhibit which was pretty cool. 

There was a short documentary about the making of episode three and what it was like to tell the story of how Anakin became Darth Vader. 

 

Next we wandered about for a bit looking at a variety of sculptures and paintings, many of which were vaguely familiar from the art history class I took 20 years ago. 

 

We saw the Mona Lisa, and we wandered through Napoleon's apartments. 

 

 

 

Then we headed for the antiquities section to look at the ancient greek and egyptian art. The Egyptian section was by far Bethany's favorite; she must have taken a picture of practically every artifact there!

 

After about 3 hours we were hungry and tired and everyone was ready for a break from all the walking, so we went back down to the Metro and caught a ride to our next stop- the Arc d' Triomphe. 

 

We had to settle for looking at it from the bottom because neither Burt nor Bethany were up for the 220+ steps to the observation point at the top after having justed walked all over the Louvre. Even though it has been 6 months they are both still recovering from their ankle & knee surgeries. 

We got a late lunch at a pizza place right nearby. The pizza was actually very good. I had been skeptical about ordering Pizza in Paris but it was better than the salmon & rice dish that I ordered. 

 

As we walked through the inderground tunnels  to catch the next metro we heard lovely violin music playing and when we rounded the bend we just had to stop for a few minutes to enjoy the music of a Metro Musician. 

 

The last thing on our itinerary for the day was the river cruise on the Seine. We enjoyed freshly made crepes while cruising up the river and listening to the commentary about the sights and landmarks along the way. It was neat to see the other Statue of Liberty. 

  

 

Our Paris sight seeing complete, we headed back to the apartment, making a stop along the way to pick up some groceries so that I could cook dinner for our host before leaving. I made Bruscetta and Risotto and we enjoyed one last visit with Florent, our couch-surfing host. He and Burt have bern enjoying watching the Euro Cup soccer games on TV together. And we hope that some day we will have the opportunity to reciprocate and host him in California.