Advertisement
Published: October 10th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Jonalyn, Manon, and Shelley
This cute baby made a great excuse for a trip to Le Burgaud OK - don't get worried, there won't be a LOT of updates, but we've recently visited relatives in France, had a great time, and want to share a little of the love we got there.
(If you are not interested in any further details on our travels, simply “Unsubscribe” - we won’t have our feelings hurt.)
With Shelley both teaching and working in administration along with Jonalyn going to school every day, we don’t have a lot of time to do “tourist” things very much. However, while we were in Norway we found out that Shelley’s Mother’s Cousin’s granddaughter (that means she is related to us if you get the genealogy correct) was being baptized the first weekend in October, so we invited ourselves to the celebration.
As usual, we got to stay with Magna, (Shelley’s Mother’s cousin) and her family in the small village of Le Burgaud in the south of France near Toulouse.
Jonalyn continued to do homework on the train, on the airplane, and even a little between the parties. Shelley also kept up with her class work and even I took care of a few things remotely. (It seems that, once you get
Dinner at 11:30pm in France
We even have candles in the chandelier. The Italian-style food was complemented with the French cheeses and yogurt afterward connected to the Internet, almost everything is available no matter where you are.)
Shelley had been visiting The Hague as part of a business trip with the university, so she flew to Toulouse by herself while Jonalyn and I came directly from London. In fact, Jonalyn came directly from school to the train station. All 3 of us met up at the Toulouse airport.
Given the fantastic way the French people live, everyone was waiting for us when we arrived. By this I mean they were delaying dinner for us and it was 11:00 PM! I have no idea what it’s like at Magna’s house normally, but I haven’t ever been to a dinner there with fewer than 15 people.
All of us had a chance to practice our French and a few of them got to brush up on their English with us.
On Saturday afternoon we had another sumptuous feast at the
Salle de Fete in the village. This time it was with about 25 people and featured Swedish-style food. Magna’s daughter Nathalie (whose daughter Manon is the one getting baptized) helped put together a fantastic party. This also included having a chance to
Magna and Robert
Magna and her beau Robert made all the hectic things happening seem to go so smoothly get acquainted with some more relatives and friends coming to the baptism as well as a chance to play
Pétanque (boules) outside for a while. I haven’t played this game since the last time we were in Le Burgaud but was doing amazingly well. (OK, not well enough to win, but I did get a few comments that I must have been practicing.)
One of the other reasons for getting everyone together was to watch the rugby World Cup game. Even if you don’t understand very much about the game, it sure is exciting to see a bunch of people who are thoroughly involved in the event. Amazingly, France won their game and are now in the semifinal against England. This causes a little dilemma for those of us living in England and having so many relatives in France; we’re not exactly sure who to root for.
On Sunday, Manon was baptized in a small chapel located in the French countryside. There were so many people we almost all didn’t all fit in the church. It turns out this was the priest’s very first baptism and he was certainly challenged with the number of other little kids running
Great party makers
Magna, Nathalie and her 2 sons Thomas and Lucas along with Elise help dish out the fabulous food around and people taking pictures and videos.
After that, this large group of people went back to the Salle de Fete for another party with fabulous French food. The drinks included “punch” (some kind of liquor mixed together with fresh fruits and fermented for a while), Ricard (a licorice-flavored liquor from the south of France), and plenty of wine along with champagne. I was coaxed into reprising “New York, New York” for the many people who had been at the wedding of Nathalie and Pascal a few years ago.
Much too soon we had to leave back to London.
We would love to find out what’s happening with you also. Please don’t hesitate to send us an e-mail with an update about your travels (or other adventures) or even give us a call. If you don’t have our special USA telephone number which forwards to us here in London, send Gary an e-mail and he will give you the details.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.077s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0418s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Jean-Pierre Vanhoegaerden
non-member comment
Great trip log book.
Hello Gary and family. Very nice travel log. I enjoyed reading it and looking at the pictures. You should get out more often and document your trips. I am waiting for the next chapter but don't make me wait too long. Talk to you soon. JP