Our trip to France, in August, was filled with emotions and fun. Laura was MIA on our trek back to the old world since she was starting PA school. Although her absence was hard on all of us, especially on Sidney, my mom filled the emotional void quite well with her motherly instincts.
After an uneventful flight taking us from Boise to Paris CDG via Seattle, we jumped in the car to pursue our journey to the Auvergne region. We finally arrived to La Prulhiere, a tiny countryside village, 28.5 hours after leaving home. It was a very long trip for me. The boys, however, did just fine thanks to many naps on the plane and in the car.
Over the following week, we explored a farmer’s market in Cunhlat, visited a honey bee keeper, and toured the town of Thiers which is world renowned for it cutlery. We also hiked to the Martinanche castle and down to the Mindiolet stream, visited Madame Flot and of course watched a lot of the Olympics.
After a week, we drove back to Willems. On our way, we stopped at the village of Pierrefonds and visited its fortified castle. It was first built in 1393 by Louis of Orleans to keep an eye on trade between Flanders and Burgundy, which were the fiefdoms of the Dukes of Burgundy who were rivals of the Orleans. In 1616, Louis XIII laid a fatal siege to the Pierrefonds Castle. Over the following two centuries, the structure deteriorated to the point of becoming a ruin. Spurred by an interest in medieval castles, Napoleon I bought it in 1810. It took a few decades before the castle was fully restored to its genuine state.
After a few days in Willems, we headed to Braydunes, the northern most town in France, on the English Channel (La Manche). Our life there is pretty simple. We spend our entire days on the beach or in the dunes. On the days the weather did not cooperate, we went to Veurnes in Belgium for the farmer’s market and Bergues for lunch. Of course, we also visited Tonton and shared a meal with him at the restaurant “Le beau Site.”
Before heading back to Willems, we stopped in Westvleteren at the St. Sixtus Abbey. Lost among the farm fields and little villages of the Westhoek, its austere buildings exude simplicity and tranquility. Don’t let it fool you, though. The Trappist beer brewed by the Cistercian monks living behind these walls is considered to be nothing short of the
best beer in the world. The abbey of St. Sixtus first received its brewer’s license in 1838. The monks inhabiting the abbey completely devote their life to god. This is clear, among other things, from the botherly unity, solitude, tranquility, prayer and…work! Indeed, manual labor is held in special esteem within this tradition: the income from the sale is used for their sustenance and for helping others. It is a symbol of solidarity with all those who work for a living. They therefore brew to live and not live to brew. It is therefore extremely hard to purchase St. Sixtus beer. Only a limited quantity is available for sale at the abbey, once every few weeks, and only following prior reservation by telephone. Trappist Westvleteren is only available for sale for private end consumers whereby all buyers agree not to sell it on. However, the abbey has solely contracted with a café called “In de Vrede” (In the Shadow) to make the beer available for consumption only on location. Three brews are produced: a blonde 5.8%, a dark 8.8% and the world renowned dark 10.2%. At the café, you can savor this nectar of gods with a pâté and cheese sandwich and then you can let yourself be tempted by beer flavored ice cream… A true taste bud orgasm!!!
We also managed to take a trip to Lille where the boys rode shot gun in the first automated subway built. They also got to see the TGV (fastest train in the world: 357mph) up close and personal in the Lille train station. A week earlier, driving on the freeway, we had witnessed the TGV’s tremendous speed as it was traveling the same direction as us. Considering that we were driving at 85 mph, it was simply amazing to be passed by a train travelling more than twice as fast as us (200mph as commercial speed).
On our last weekend in France,
Dimitri and Caroline Dupont drove with their family from Brussels to spend the day with us. We tried to wear out the kids by playing a little bit of soccer, but I think the opposite was achieved: I was cooked.
It was a three week trip that seemed to go by as three days would. After saying our emotion filled good byes, we hopped on the plane and flew back to Idaho on a Wednesday. We were back to school and work on Thursday. Tough reality check!
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