We arrived at Patrick´s brother Luic´s home in La Baule around 2 pm on Christmas Eve. Luic picked us up in a Hummer H2. It´s about the hugest car I´ve ever ridden in. Max got to drive it home and I got to sit in the front. He tried to make it peel out for me, but a car that size just can´t. Luckily, the round abouts in France are mostly made of cement, otherwise the car would have driven over various plants and animals as we went around (over) them.
Luic´s home is gorgeous! Everything in it was art. Every room had a theme, every color complimented each stained piece of oak floor. You walk in through the kitchen, which was relatively plain. It had white tiles, basic granite countertops. One wall was painted with old European looking apartments. The hall you enter from here runs down the length of the house. It was painted a goldish-yellow and had 4 foot jewel encrusted lizards placed along either side, made to look like they were crawling at you. On the other side of the hallway is the dining room. It had lush green carpet and a long dining table that must have seated 30. One wall had a buffet on it the other was all windows, looking out onto the yard that was obviously being worked on. To the right of the dining room is sort of a nicer living area, all these spaces are quite open and one whole side of the house is basically windows. In the living area, there´s a set of pastel apolstered chairs with a coffee table. Behind it sits a round table with a large, round, domed skylight directly above. There´s a sort of glass partition that separates this table area from the hall. After the table area, there are a few more comfy chairs and then you hit the game room. All dark and manly looking, a foosball table sits on a dark wood floor, sort of a left turn from the hallway and there´s a sitting area and pool table in front of that. To the left of the game area was the door to the INDOOR pool, complete with it´s own bathroom, sauna, etc. To the right of the game room and at the end of the hallway is a sunken living room for movies and family time with a big wrap around couch and an open fire pit, inside, yes. There´s also a bar tucked back in the corner. So, that´s the downstairs...
You get upstairs through two different taircases in the main hallway. The first is just before the bar in the hallway, a large dark wood staircase, walls painted in bright colors, lots of shapes all over. Sort of a collage wall. The second staircase is almost at the beginning of the hall, which is where I walked up mostly, so I´ll start the description from there. At teh top of the stairs, if you turned left there would be 3 doors. The floor was a dark hardwood also, with bright yellow, green and red mosaic tiles inlaid as a sort of border. My room was on teh left side at the end of the hall. It had a sun theme. There was a little sitting area a huge bed, my own wading pool sixed bathtub... it was awesome and perfect for the day I spent in it alone waiting for my ride home : ) On the right side of the hall was Gail´s (Luic´s son´s) room and a bathroom. I never went into Gail´s room, but it seemed to go quite far back into the house. To the right side of the hall were 2 more bedrooms: Luic and Marie Claire´s and one that seemed to be sort of red themed, where Max stayed. If you continued up the stairs there was one more bedroom that belonged to a daughter who´s moved out. It was all sort of Indian themed with tan walls and dark purple, orange and green stensiling.
On the other side of the hallway upstairs was the main bathroom to the right and a wall of windows opposite. Just before the staircase on the right side (the big staircase) was a room sort of tucked off to the side. It hade a door with a rounded frame at the top and looked quite mythical, similar to something from the movie Nanny McPhee. There was one larger bed and bunch little ones, no doubt a spot for a family to bunk. On teh otehr side of the staircase there was another room on the end of the house with more crazy bright colors and lots of beds. Further along that was was the library, which was just a plain room with books. In the far left corner of the hallway upstairs was a sliding glass door that lead into an upperdeck of the pool where a bunch of workout equipment was situated.
So, that was where I stayed.
On Christmas day we had lunch with Papi (Patrick´s father) at his girlfriends home. It was gogeous too, in a different way. Right on a cliff overlooking the beach. It reminded me of a much more homey version of Anne Bancrofts home in Great Expectations. The backyard was large and green with a stone patio in the corner to sit and watch the waves. A spiral staircase ran up throught the house to 2 more levels. The hallways were tiny and just let you right into each room. So Triplets of Belleville, I guess too. There were large paintings on every wall and little statues on every table. Just enchanting.
Those were the homes we visited. Sorry if it´s a bit boring, but I want to remember them. I didn´t take any pics because that´s a bit of a privacy invasion I think. But, my next blog should be more exciting when I talk about food and handling your alcohol. Kisses!
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