Our last journey was to the southwest of France. We stayed in the small village of Montcuq. It was an ideal setting, up on a hill away from any neighbors-we felt like we had the countryside to ourselves.
The pool was the focus of our stay. I don't think there were too many hours of the day that it sat empty. There was a perfect view of the pool from the kitchen window so we could see the activity even during food preparation.
We hit the marche in Montcuq, the same excitment that is at all the other marches was present at this one as well. I love watching the locals come to fill their baskets full of fresh goods for the week and to see the tourists find the fun french treasures.
We found a T-shirt that said "Je ne suis pas gros, je suis que la préparation de mon voyage en Amérique". (I am not fat, I am just preparing for my trip to America.) Mark picked it up and asked the lady if everyone in American was fat. She looked at the two of us and sheepishly said, "you are American?" "Yes" "apparently not", a priceless moment.
The pace of life here is energizing to me. It seems strange that people who are taking it easy would be energizing but the fact that they can sit back, relax and enjoy one another on a beautiful day is invigorating. Granted, I realize these men are all retired so that makes it fairly easy to "take it easy", but I still love it!
Sophie giving us her best "fabulous" pose.
June 23, 2008
Grotte de Roland
We found a cave just 5 minutes away from the villa, when the sun was full strength we took a break and got the grand tour.
This cave was discovered in 1949 and was a refuge for cave bears and lions. There were many claw markings in the walls and several animal bones found in the cave. The stalagmites were very interesting and hard not to touch.
June 25, 2008
Another Marche-this one in Cahors. The fruit is so fresh and delicious it almost looks fake. We picked out some peaches and could not avoid getting all sticky from the juice.
Across the river Lot in Cahors is the town's signature piece, the Pont Valentré. This magnificent fortified bridge was built between 1308 and 1500 and features a trio of towers, battlements and seven pointed arches. Sometimes you really feel as if you have been zapped back in time when you visit some of these monuments.
Logan is a bug magnet, it seems everywhere we go he is finding interesting creatures. Today he rescued an injured dragonfly-he said it was for you Nikki.
They can be in their swimsuits and in the water in 9 seconds flat! It was hard to get them out of the water to go anywhere.
There were many secret passages that were naturally inviting to the boys.
Move over Cinderella, Princess Sophie has arrived!
She can't get enough of the princess dresses and what better place to wear one than to a castle. She had many passerbys bow to her and say "Ah La Princess- bonjour mademoiselle".
Her prince was even there awaitng her arrival.
Now that is some front door!
Montcuq is a large farming community-those big hay bails were calling our name.
At the villa it was bug heaven for Logan and Dallas-Here we see one of the thousands of butterflies that made a home on Logans finger.
There are those few times as a mother that you feel inspired, when I saw those butterfly nets I knew I better buy them-am I ever glad I did. They provided hours of exhilarting and exhausting fun. The kids were the proud owners of several lizards, green crickets, grasshoppers and butterflies. Owners only for moments-the joy of the capture, a quick photo and then the release.
We found the local pizzeria. We had a great view of the lake as we ate our delicious hand-made pizza. This is Mark and Jesses duck pizza -hot from the oven onto their plate.
Bon Appétit!
2 comments:
Oh man, I am just in awe and so jealous as I sit here and read everything. What a wonderful trip to southern France and what cool memories.
The t-shirt had me laughing. Have you gotten to the point where you see American tourists and you think they are so loud and you wish that they would just talk more quietly?
It looks like a vacation for me. Castles, swimming pools, photo opps. Hope you are having as great of a time as it looks.
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