and
2. I am so incredibly blessed.
Number One was learnt from the past few days spent with Marie and her family. Number Two stems from reflection over the holidays at how lucky I am to have such AWESOME family and friends who support and love me. Instead of a written post about what the past few days entailed, I thought a photo essay may do the trick a bit easier. *Disclaimer, there are a LOT of photos about what I ate for Xmas dinner. Guess I'm really turning into une vrai francaise
So here goes:
The beginning of my trip. Before you take a trip anywhere in France, you need to stamp your train ticket. Notice that at the top the ticket is stamped at 7:54. Now glance at the right hand side along the bottom, after it says Départ. That's right. My train left at 7:55. I arrived at 7:54 after running for 8 blocks in high boots. Not kidding, I hopped on the train and they close the doors behind me. Early Christmas present I suppose. The trip back to Nice was a bit smoother.
Marie, her friend Sylvain, and I decided to picnic at a beach town called Arcachon along the Bordeaux coastline. The climate doesn't do the picture justice, but the town was super quaint and our picnic was lovely.
Sylvain pointing out where we are on a map. The part that's light blue is the inlet of water. The dark brown that's surrounding the water is France. The star is Arcachon. Fun facts all around!
About to climb la Dune de Pilat, or sand dune of Pilat. This thing was enormous.
The wind was FIERCE!
Almost to the top!! It was really high!
ON TOP OF THE WOOOOORLD!
And now... Christmas dinner!
First course of appetizers consisted of these little bread sandwiches, with salmon, cheese, fish eggs, ham (pictured), foie gras on toast (not pictured), salmon with tomatoes (not pictured) and peanuts (not pictured).
Second course: Scallops. Mmmmm :)
Third (main) course: Mushrooms with garlic, venison, and turkey
Fourth course: Cheese. I politely declined. I had to save room for....
The fifth course: dessert! These two types of cakes are une bouche de Noel, or Yule Log, which is a very typical Christmas tradition, consisting of chocolate mousse cake (ok not exactly but that's what it reminds me of). The second was a chocolate ice cream cake. Salivating? I am.
Marie and I had made American-style cookies the day before, complete with M&Ms inside. Guess everyone loved them, cause here are the leftovers.
And finally, Marie me and her sister after a VERY fulfilling Christmas dinner. I'm officially in love with her grandmother, who made the entire meal.
Marie and I showing off our Christmas presents that she bought for the two of us. Mine i the brown one at the top, hers is the purple one on bottom. Isn't she the cutest??
More pics to come of Bordeaux. The don't call it Little Paris for no reason!
All in all, it was such a blessing to spend Christmas with Marie and her family. They were so warm, so welcoming, and I felt so special being with them. Many thanks are to be had on this Christmas... especially a big one to my friends and family back home who are so wonderful in understanding that I couldn't be with them for the holidays. I miss you all, and love you more.
Thinking of everyone during these special days! Many wishes and blessings to everyone :)
Molls
1 comment:
Molly - I love your latest blog. It sounds like you really had a special Christmas with a wonderful friend and her family. I am so glad that you had that opportunity and you weren't sitting in your apartment all alone. We truly missed you being here with the Cincy crowd. We look forward to next year! Have a safe and Happy New Year! I love you, Aunt Mo.
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