Guests in Paris!

In November, we had a slew of great visitors!

First up, Devina, also known as The Dirty D! She was an amazing house guest and helped out a TON! She did dishes, did laundry, and helped with Michael even though he spilled her juice and caused a pen to run all over her. I am surprised she could even call it a vacation! Here is a picture of her with Brian and Michael at the market close to our house, Auguste Blanqui:
We had fun times hanging out with Michael and even had one day where Devina and I could hang out. We checked out the Carnavalet museum on the Tuesday before the Kropkas came. Then, we had coffee underneath an overhang that was dripping on us...which then ended up in a torrential rainfall of gutter water on our table. NICE. Should have noticed the wet spot UNDER our table to begin with...

After which, we went shopping! Devina bought a super cute/chic Paris coat and I found a great scarf. Between the two of us, the boulangere couldn't even get our order straight...although I doubt it was because of our stunning fashion accessories. I am thinking it was because I couldn't say almond correctly in French.

Then! The KROPKAS came to town! They were awesome houseguests too! They played with Michael, did dishes, and were great entertainment for all of us. I guess doing dishes is part of the package when visiting our place! ;o)

We went with them on a whirlwind trip to Provence. We took a train to Arles and stayed there while exploring the region.

On the first day, Sunday, we wandered around dead Arles. It was pretty quiet as all the shops were closed and it was Armistice holiday weekend. Nonetheless, we found a nice fountain that Michael spent a lot of time playing in:


Then, we hiked up to the top of the Roman arena that is a ruin there. It is used for bullfights now! You can see the bleachers here in our picture:

On Monday, we did our best to get out early to catch the train to Avignon! As we were walking by the train station, Brian heard a train going by and jokingly said, there goes our train! Little did we know he was correct. We missed it by 5 minutes! So we ended up renting a car for the day, which actually was MUCH better for our trip!

The first estimate for the rental was 200 euro for 1 day, 1 night. After we balked at the price, the clerk asked if we had any discounts like Carte Enfant plus or brian's work discount. Voila, badda bing, badda boom, 200 euro went down to 80 euro! SWEET!

So we drove to Avignon and split up for part of the day. Jamie and Kim did some awesome shopping and our family explored the palace of the popes. It was big and empty. So no extremely exciting pictures. We met up with them at the end of the day and saw the pope's gardens. Here's a picture of the Kropkas with the fall foliage. They are too cute: Gotta love another photographer on the trip with you! Kim is amazing at exposing correctly:


Then, Jamie and Kim watched MIchael for us while Brian and I went out on Pont Saint Benezet's bridge. Thank goodness too because there wasn't much of a rail on it! We walked out to the end and thought...ok, guess we'll head back now. Not too exciting.


On the final day of our trip, Tuesday (Nov. 11th), we visited the Pont du Gard again, the huge roman aqueduct! It is still impressive even the 2nd time around. And I finally got my family picture:

Gotta love riding on Dad's shoulders!
Then, we drove to Chateauneuf du pape to do some wine tasting at the Cave des Vergers! We were rewarded with a great view of the golden vineyards and of course, got a family picture!

We had an amazing wine tasting where we learned lots of things, like how to aerate the wine in your mouth and check the color of it over a piece of white paper. Michael was more interested in the ants he found. Whenever we look at pictures of the wine tasting, he tells me, "BUGS!" YUP! Bugs.

Here's all the wine we tasted:

We walked away with a case of wine. A great muscat, 2 bold reds, and a white wine that's good for something!

What a great way to end our trip! We caught our train from Arles back to Paris and then spent some more time relaxing. Kim, Jamie, and I went to a very famous kitchen shop called Dehlerrin. I still can't spell it. But it was AWESOME. It caters to both restaurant chefs and normal people like us. I found a ladle that could ladle up 1 liter of liquid at a time. I am going back with my camera one day! Kim bought some great copper pots and got a good deal on them and I bought a madeleine pan! SUCCESS!

We were very sad to see our guests go and quite frankly, I went into a bit of a funk after they left. For the first couple of days, I was glad to catch my breath. But then I started to feel really sad and missed their company.

So let that be a lesson to all of you! We are never put out to have guests! We love them and they make our days more interesting and brighter!

Love,

P