A Day With a French Family

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We were hoping to go to St. Petersburg, Russia with Chizzy and Bryan who left today, but the visa proved to difficult to get. Also, we didn't have two blank pages in our passports to fit the visa! So instead of going to "Mother Russia", we will have to be happy driving a loop through the French Riviera :-)

Our initial stop on the trip was planned to be around Lausanne, Switzerland. CM contacted a co-worker she had never met in Lyon, France to get some tips on nice places to visit. She insisted that we stay with her and her family, so we drove all the four and a half hours to Lyon. We were a bit late, but ended up having a great dinner of French Provencal food, topped off with a chocolate souffle - each.

We stayed up late talking about the US, France and movies. Our hosts have a huge DVD collection and it was great to learn about some new movies and music too! J noticed that they liked the Pixies, so played some Arcade Fire and Modest Mouse for them and it was a hit. The father is also a big collector of original cartoon panels, and has a wide selection of original TinTin, Asterisk and other European cartoons.

The next morning we woke up and had a traditional croissant breakfast in the sunny dining room. The kids played with the Legos and Jenga sets we brought them, and we ended up staying through lunch. We were treated to ratatouille, rice and fried eggs for lunch - it was wonderful.

With help from our hosts, we planned our night's destination and got back on the road.

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