Tours

The Thierry & Nadine Rolfe family. L to R...Alice, Thierry (Meme's youngest brother), Jeanne, Nadine, Megan, Chase. They were kind enough to let us stay at their house and then to show us around Tours. THANK YOU! We really do appreciate it and had so much fun getting to know family. I loved hearing Chase really use his French, even if I couldn't understand what was being said.

The Rolfes took us to a fortress on the Loire River, right next to a major (and ancient) bridge. This man, an art friend of Thierry's, decided that he would award certificates to artistic crossers of the bridge. He had a whole ceremony for it...

He would write the date, time, climatic conditions, and artistic purpose for the crossing and then have you sign his GIANT book.

Here's Chase giving his artistic statement. You can see the certificates hanging up to dry in the backgound. He presses them himself and has all kinds of stamps to make your crossing official. It was very fun and entertaining.

An old church in Tours=very pretty. Here is the pipe organ and the rose window behind it.

One of the oldest (or the oldest) buildings in Tours.

Chenonceau. This is the one chateau we visited. It was beautiful inside and outside, even in the winter.

Cool ceiling architecture.

Cinderella bells down in the basement kitchen...Cinderelly, Cinderelly....

The kitchen, which was used during WWI & WWII. Very nice and functional...I would like it for myself.

Pretty kitchen with real fruits

A corridor in the castle. Interesting note: This castle straddles a river and during WWII, one side of the castle was in Germany-occupied France and the other was in liberated France. So French citizens would use this corridor to flee from one side to the other. Interesting.

The front of Chenonceau (try to ignore the reconstruction tent). Isn't it pretty?

The walkway to the castle....that's it in the distance.

Chase and I in front of the Amboise castle. Very pretty. This is where Meme lived for a time. Her home/restaurant was right down the street.

A cool bridge we crossed while driving from Provence to Tours. It was really high.

Me, Chase, Thomas Caruso. Caruso was one of Chase's mission companions in Montreal. He lives in Aix-en-Provence, which was on our way from Provence to Tours, so we stopped to have lunch with him.

Provence

Well, here it is...the beautiful Provence! Chase and I absolutely LOVED Provence. I could so easily move there....and probably never come back. I can only imagine what it must be like when it's warm. Just the beautiful, warm sun and the rolling hills and small villages. I loved it. We stayed with Chase's great-aunt and uncle and they were incredibly hospitable. It was so fun to get to know them and they took us to see so many beautiful places.

At the Mediterranean Sea

Having drinks at a sea port

Gotta love the sea

This was just so typically French to me, and I loved it. We were walking around this castle (seen in the background) and the sun was shining, but only in certain spots. These 3 old men were just sunbathing in front of the castle...and I just thought it was so cute.

Old French wall

Old French alley and buildings

There's an artist in this little village that paints the sides of buildings really beautifully. This is a retirement home and he painted all those balconies and shutters and everything. It looked so real, it was amazing!

In front of Christain & Jacqueline's village--Monfort-sur-Argens. It was such a quaint village in the rolling hills, covered in vineyards.

In front of an ancient water fountain, where the villagers used to come to gather water and water their animals. It's pretty old.

A lakeside village--Lac Sainte-Croix

In the background you can see Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, a village tucked up in the mountainside. It was full of windy streets and little shops. We bought a traditional vase there to add to our collection.

Chase and I at the base of--Le Grand Canyon de Verdon--"The Grand Canyon of France"

Chase with Jacqueline and Christian

Cool "houses" built in the cliffside.

An outdoor market where you can buy anything from cheese to fruit to tablecloths to jewelry. I loved it and would LOVE to go shopping there all the time, which is strange because I don't love to shop. But there's just something about buying things fresh and from the source and outside in the sunshine.

I LOVE FRANCE!

Nice & Monaco

As I was creating this post I told Chase, "Nice really was beautiful. I don't think we gave it enough credit." We have said that we liked it, but we weren't blown away by it. I think this is because of a couple reasons:

1-We stayed in a WHORE-IBLE hotel our first night

2-It rained 2 of the 3 days we were there

But it really was a cool city. Very narrow, windy streets and orange rooftops and gorgeous Mediterranean water. We had a good time. We also spent an afternoon in Monaco, which was only about 45 minutes from Nice (pronounced "niece") by bus. It's the most densely populated country in the world and has the highest average salary in the world. Yeah, tons of rich people live there.

That's Monte Carlo in the background...a super ritzy hotel and casino.

The harbor in Monaco at sunset.

Monaco is famous for holding the Grand Prix...Chase wanted to participate

This is the seagull who tried to kill me so he could have my cheese and crackers

The Jacques Cousteau marine museum in Monaco.

The harbor in Monaco

Chase and I were able to find the ward in Nice and we had a great time at church.

The bus to church got us there SUPER early, so we meandered around for a while and ran into these beautiful ruins.

The Matisse Museum, which we didn't go into because it was closed, but I thought it was cool looking.

Chase and I took a long walk along the Mediterranean Sea on one of our sunny days. Along the way we met a bird lady and Chase bonded with her. So sweet.

The beaches didn't have sand, just lots of beautiful, very smooth rocks.

Typical Chase behavior

I think Chase skipped rocks for an hour. We have such simple minds. Hey, at least it was free!

Looking tired at the Mediterranean Sea

A view of Nice from the Castle Hill Cemetary

Love the narrow streets and beautifully colored buildings

We went to an outdoor market where there were a lot of fresh fruits, vegetables, cheeses, breads, and flowers. I love France!

The residence of Henri Matisse for 17 years. At the end of the outdoor market.

Again, love the narrow streets....just so typically European!

We'd love to go back to the Mediterranean again, it was absolutely beautiful! Anyone up for a Mediterranean cruise??