France

Now for the grand finale of the "20 Day Trip"! :-)







We wrapped up our vacation by meeting some friends in Paris. These are French friends we met in Madrid, who moved to Dubai in March. They have a 5 year old girl just a little bit older than Katie and a 3 year old boy. Katie was sooo excited to get to see her friends again and to have someone to play with. We got to stay at our friends' parents' amazing 400 year old house in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the oldest suburb of Paris. It was a wonderful town and we enjoyed having coffee on the square and being spoiled a bit by her parents. It was so refreshing to be in a home with a family after 2 weeks of traveling! We enjoyed a fabulous meal with fabulous desserts - quite appropriate to kick off our time in France. In France, as in Italy, it is really all about the food :-) In Spain, the pastries look pretty but usually taste blah. In France.... oo la la!! The fruit one looks a bit prettier, but the chocolate one won by a mile! :-)

After this lovely morning in Saint Germain, we headed off to the Loire Valley, where there are many castles. On our way to the condo we stayed in, we stopped at the Chateau of Chambord. It was a very beautiful castle. It has a corkscrew staircase in the middle of it - 2 spiral staircases intertwined so that 2 people can ascend at the same time and not pass each other. You could just catch glimpses of the other person through breaks in the walls. It was really cool. After quickly touring the castle (we got there just before closing time!), we had a lovely picnic on the grounds behind the castle. Somehow roasted chicken, fruit, cheese & French bread taste sooo much better that way! The kids were able to play together as they ate = big fun!!

The next day we headed out to see the Chateau of Chenonceau. This one is much more grand and dramatic, especially because it spans a river. It was beautiful to see the reflection of the castle in the water! This was actually the dividing line of occupied France and non-occupied France during WWII. They smuggled people out of occupied France through this castle!

We also enjoyed the beautiful gardens of Chenonceau and enjoyed an amazing lunch at a restaurant in town. It was a wonderful day! Here's our toothless girl near the castle (and someone's lovely orange shirt :-) )

I'm finding myself short on words to describe what we did in France - we had a wonderful time, but what we saw was truly secondary to just spending time with our friends! It was priceless to have so much time to be together and catch up on each others' lives. We are so thankful that God has given us such friends in such a short time here in Madrid! We didn't really even begin to see the castles that there are to see - there are a BUNCH of them! We really just enjoyed the time together - and now we have a reason to go back!

We stayed in the town of Loches in a wonderful condominium. It was perfect to have room to cook, eat and talk without sitting on our beds :-) The town ended up being really neat in its own right - so our last day together, we spent exploring Loches. This is the view out the window of our apartment! It was really pretty! There was a castle in town as well (cool to visit, though not so photogenic as this building - we never did figure out what exactly this building is :-) ). So we explored the town and finished the day and our stay in France with a lovely meal at a creperie. A perfect ending for a perfect time!!