France-y Shmancy

I went, I saw, I had a crepe. The weekend in France was very nice. The family´s home there is called Patxoula (Puh-choo-luh) and it´s in a small town called Villefranque. It reminded me of a beach town in Oregon, though it´s not close to the beach. There is a central town area with a grocery store, bakery, dentist, restaurant, etc. You drive out into the country side and that´s where all the homes are... large ones. All the buildings seem to be white stucco with red trim in Villefranque and there are lots of rolling green hills. Here is a picture of Patxoula:
I tried to brighten it up a bit, sorry it´s so dark. You enter through a large wooden gate and come down a long driveway to get to it. Like a fairy tale. There´s one large central room when you walk it with windowns from floor to ceiling looking out over the park-like backyard. To the left is the kitchen and, right, is a TV room. The colors inside are very bright reds and yellows. Upstairs are all teh bedrooms. Here´is a picture of the backyard and pool:
The water was very warm and it was nice out Sunday, so we got to go swimming. I was feeling a bit under the weather, so I slept til 11 both days, yikes! France is for rest, not work, so I had the weekend off though I was with the family.

Louise and I went into Bayonne, the larger town the home is near. My friend Paul infromed me yesterday that it´s the birthplace of the bayonette. Don´t you love items that can do you double damage in a violent way? I know I do... right. Anyhow, the town is charming. Lots of long, skinny cobblestone streets with high apartment buildings on each side and shops on the ground floors. It´s just what you´d imagine old time Europe would look like. Here are some pictures from downtown Bayonne:














The one on the left is Louise in front of the fountain in sort of the center of downtown across from teh cathedral. In the picture to the right you can see the narrow streets and the cathedral´s peak sticking up in the background. This one below on teh left is of homes and apartments that sit right on the river, across from downtown Bayonne. While taking this picture, two French guys came up to me and babbled a bunch in French and then walked away. Louise informed me that one came up and said, "hey, baby, I lost your number, can you give it to me again?" When I didn´t answer, he said, "fine, we´re through then," and walked away. So I guess I had a French boyfriend for a minute and we broke up. Not everyone can say that. Is it cheating if it´s only for a minute? Please forgive me Daveo.

In the ehart of downtown Bayonne lies a huge cathedral. You´ll just be walking along and suddenly a street will open onto a square, the picture with Louise in it. The cathedral is situated there and here are a few pics:

On the right you´ll see the spires of the building from inside. There´s sort of an open walkway all around a grass courtyard when you walk in. The actual church part was locked, so we just looked around the courtyard. Below is one of the corners of the courtyard. I was standing behind one of those open walls you see across the way from me when I took the picture. Hopefully that gives you an idea of what it looked like.





To the right here, you´ll see a statue from the cathedral. It´s headless. Louise, the ever informative tour guide, told me that during the French Revolution, they cut the heads off all the statues of kings and queens in the cathedral. Very interesting. So, none of the statues have heads.

After our tour of the town, Louise and I met the family a few blocks up, at Jose´s apartment. I got to meet his family and have some champagne and enjoy the old architecture of their apartment. It is three levels up, right next to the city walls and gates, in the middle of downtown. As Jose informed me, if you have a house in France, it´s out in the country. Most people actually live right downtown rather than out in neighborhoods. It really preserves an old time feel I think.

That was about the extent of Bayonne, but on Sunday, we got to visit the chateau the family is renovating. It´s so beautiful and Louise told me it once belonged to Napoleon... yes, THE Napoleon Bonaparte. Wow. When they bought it, it had been burnt out and had squaters living in it for years. They had to start from the ground up to rebuild it. It reminds me of something out of a Jane Austen movie. Here´s a picture of the home from the outside and the view from the top room:





Gorgeous to see! The inside is still being worked on, but it reminds me of that Charlie Brown cartoon where they´re in France in a chateau... yeah. The grounds also have a chapel and stables, but the pics I took are too dark to post. Anyhow, cool stuff.

Those are pretty much the highlights of my first trip to France. It was cool, when we crossed the border Catherine and I did a little celebration for my first time there. No champagne in the car of course. We had a bunch of special food while there as well. Fresh bread from teh bakery every day, a berry tart with berry mouse inside, the best souffle of my life (only the 2nd, but incomparable to the one from Morton´s at home), fresh mushrooms sauteed with cilantro, and fau grau (sp?). Yes, I ate duck liver. And, it´s not bad. Very dense and slicable, it could easily be a spread. If I hadn´t known it was duck liver, I may have enjoyed it more.

Now, a quick update on my vacation time... I have the 1st week in December off, not January, so if anyone wants to come travel with me during that time, lemme know and we can plan. I´m thinking Ireland, London or Paris. The family has decided not to go on the African safari, but rather go to an African island off the coast of Portugal and they´re inviting me to go! So, I´ll be in Africa for Christmas, isn´t that cool/nuts? I´m not sure if I´ll get a chance to come home until July, which is a little sad, but I knew this might be the case. I´ll blog more tomorrow or so on some of the regular day to day, but I hope you enjoy this one! Love to all.