Three Months in France March 31 – June 28, 2007

April 3, 2007

Old churches and cheap wine

Filed under: by Marissa — marissa @ 4:23 pm

Photos from today

church2.jpgToday we got up around 10ish and some of us around noon. Since Francois was able to get comfortable with driving our manual transmission vehicle, we decided to take a drive to the nearby town of Lavaur. What a great place! It had lots of interesting architecture and really cute shops. We managed to find a cycle shop for Francois’ broken seat and a playground for the kids to spend some energy. Liam was even courageous enough to ask another child if he could borrow his toy (in french of course). Bravo Liam!

We stumbled across an amazing roman catholic church with massive doors that dates back to the 13th Century (pretty young for Europe I guess). The insides were going through some renovations but much of what was there looked like the original material. It had impressive stain glass windows and a towering pipe organ in the back. It had a dinstinct smell of someone’s musty cement basement.

Outside it was warm and Spring-like with many tulips and other flowers already in bloom and I can tell when the trees sprout leaves in Lavaur, it will be stunning just like a postcard. After some time in the town and our first fillup of Diesel or “gazole” as they call it here we went to the grocery store nearby. Wine and liquor in a grocery store – fantastic! They had so many different bottles of wine which cost less than a bottle of water here. Francois couldn’t resist and bought a .75 EURO bottle to see what it tasted like. We are not wine experts but that was pretty good! I’d buy it again for .75 EURO.

Tomorrow we’ll be going back to pick up Francois’ bike seat from the shop and hopefully take some more photos along the way. We saw some other neighbouring towns that looked like they had some old churches too, I hope we’ll be able to explore them as well. I also hope to have my first manual driving lesson tomorrow if the weather co-operates.

More tomorrow…

April 2, 2007

Taking it easy

Filed under: by Francois — admin @ 4:33 pm

We’re all somewhat jet lagged so we took things nice and slow today. We enjoyed a nice visit from my aunt Carole and my cousing Sean. My mom, Carole, Liam and Sean went out to do a little grocery shopping while Marissa and I stayed home to let Emma play outside on the playground.

I discovered today, while assembling my bicycle, that my bike seat got bent out of shape sometime during our travels and so tomorrow I will try to acquire a new one. Other than the seat my bike appears to be intact.

Marissa and I drove to the nearby village of Giroussens just after dinner and we enjoyed a nice walk there. Giroussens, located on a hill side above the rivierre L’Agout, has a population of approx. 1000 people and it has been that size for as long as the locals seem to remember. The church in Giroussens dates back to the 14th century and although that isn’t old by European standards, it currently stands as the oldest building that I have ever seen. There aren’t many services in Giroussens but among the ones we found were a boulangerie (bakery), a pharmacy, a post office and a couple of restaurants.

So far so good…tomorrow we’ll venture out further.

Good night from France

April 1, 2007

Arriving in Toulouse…

Filed under: by Marissa — marissa @ 3:05 pm

Can’t believe we’re actually here in France! So far, I love it! Francois’ aunt Monique picked us up with her really nice gang of friends and we headed off to our place in Giroussens. The drive was a little longer than I expected from Toulouse, but I was tired so it probably seemed longer than it was. Our little Peugot is so cute, and zippy and the kids and I were falling asleep while Monique drove us to our new home.

Our stunning country home greeted us with some twinkling christmas lights on the outside and the warm smell of roasted duck, potatoes and fresh bread on the inside. What a great treat to have on our first night in France. The kids were still excited about their luggage and all the goodies inside that they were too busy to sit down and eat. So we actually had a peaceful dinner with a most welcome glass of red French wine. mmmmmmm. Did I mention that I love France??

At about 11:00pm or 2300 hours in France we said goodbye to our relatives and their friends and we hit the sack with a vengeance. I can’t wait to eat again.

A long day

Filed under: by Francois — admin @ 2:54 pm

It was a very long day of travelling but we are now in our home in Giroussens located about 30 minutes east of Toulouse.

Where to start…ok, overall the day was actually way better than I ever imagined it could be. We begain the day by driving from Canmore to Calgary Airport, a distance of just over 100 KM. After dropping the family off at the airport I drove our vehicle to the nearby storage place where it shall remain until our return at the end of June.

The flight from Calgary to Frankfurt was 9 hours, 30 minutes, and, as mentioned in my earlier post, it was as smooth as such a long flight can be. The kids played for the first four hours and then slept for most of the balance.

Our layover in Frankfurt turned out to be equally painless. Upon arrival we lunched at a McDonalds that we found close to our arrival gate. This McDonalds happened to have a play area so the kids played there for the next 3 hours with a group of other kids from Ireland. I was beginning to feel rather sleepy but at least the kids were happy and occupied so I couldn’t really complain. After play time we went through security and it was boarding time shortly after arriving at our gate. As an aside, Frankfurt airport is absolutely massive and processes over 150,000 people per day throught its terminals. Smokers are allowed to light up in most places and as a result the airport stinks like cigarette smoke worse than even McCarran airport in Las Vegas. Very very nasty.

From Frankfurt airport we boarded a small Lufthansa plane that carried us to our ultimate destination in Toulouse, France. Our luggage (all of it!!!) appeared very quickly and going through customs lasted almost 15 seconds. It was the most painless arrival I’ve ever experienced.

It took two cars and a big truck to carry all of our luggage back to our home-in-France and I’ll let Marissa fill you in on those details. I’ll upload photos of today’s voyage and of our surroundings sometime tomorrow.

Good night from Giroussens, France.

We’re in Frankfurt

Filed under: by Francois — admin @ 3:58 am

My laptop battery has very little charge left so I’ll make this quick. We’re in Frankfurt airport having just completed the 9.5 hour flight from Calgary. The flight went suprisingly well. The kids were great and they managed to sleep about 4 hours.

We have a 5 hour lay over here in Frankfurt until we catch our flight to Toulouse.

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