Saturday, November 15, 2008

the french connection pt. 3

the last stop on our tour de france? Vannes (pronounced VAN), on the western coast of France in Britagne (Brittany).

first, a note about some of the best, most generous and fun people i have ever met in my entire life; the Hourdier-Gallien family, Thierry (teery), Sylvie, Elyse, Zoe (zo-a) and Lucie. oh, and Buster the Mexican dog! haha they live in Vannes, which is a few hours away from Paris. On our first day in France, Thierry and his lovely family met us at the airport, gave us a car to use for the duration of our trip (my beloved Twingo), a portable crib, a stroller, a cooler (for milk for avey-rizz), a map, and a baby backpack. i met the Hourdiers when they came to America to visit last summer right after we brought avery home from the hospital, so i already knew that they were great, but... wow. we were so taken care of. they helped set us up in our hotel room and went home to Vannes, where we met them a week later. they took us to some amazing places and even went took us back to Paris at the end of our trip for our return flight. they made our trip flawless and easy. they are wonderful.









our first day in Vannes we went to Auray, on the ocean. Ben Franklin landed there when he went to ask the French for help in the American Revolution. cool, eh? P.S. love this family!!! check them out.








K and A enjoying a stroll.











we went to Carnac, a Stonehenge-esque stone formation that some ancient Celtic dudes made. really interesting and super beautiful. here we are atop a tomb.








downtown vannes has an awesome marche that we hit one freezing afternoon. then we walked around the town to check out the ramparts that still surround this part of town.








ahh, la mer!








bundled av.








we walked all along these rocky shores. so beautiful.








Thierry's baby. Klayton is so jealous.








the city of Guerrand, where they make salt.











halloween!! of course, klayton went as Napoleon...











we brought lots of American goodies to celebrate with, including wax vampire lips!









pumpkin number 2 for klayton and his zombie helpers.








hahahaha. priceless.








okay, it was, like, midnight when this pic was taken... yikes. haha







pumpkin carvin








we made this one a Vaudevillian-puts-damsels-in-distress-on-train-tracks bad guy...
















avery slept through Halloween because we celebrated pretty late, so the next morning we showed of her spidery goodness.






















how cute is she!?!?!






















Lucie, Av and Zoe








this was the last town we hit before heading back to Paris to catch our flight. Mont Saint Michel is an island by night, surrounded by miles of beach sand by day, when the tide is out. the town was built up in circles, with a Cathedral on top.












here's us near the top. what a hike!!









well, that's all from our france trip. thanks for hanging in there. the bottom line is that we had the best time. avery was perfect and it was better than i could have ever imagined. Vive la France!

2 comments:

Andrea :) said...

So fun! Your little girl is adorable! Enjoy!

Melissa Braegger said...

I think that you all had one of the best vacations ever. Thanks for taking the time to write it down for us to share in. I loved Avery's Halloween Costume-she is getting so big!