Mini Rehash o' Family Vacation

From March 25th until April 3rd, the Smith family went on the road, From Paris to Bordeaux, there and back again. En route were chateaus,fine dining, oedipal woes and sibling whining. But all in all, twas a ten-day to remember, and much love to Larry Sharon and Elisabeth, mums, pops and fig... For detailed info, seek out my sister, she chronicled it all.

Colin et me 

 

Ferry away from Cap Ferret 

Dune de Pyla in the distance, odd place for one if you ask me 

The Woman on the Blue Bicycle and Cap Ferret

During World War II, the boundary between free and occupied France was just a few kilometers away from Lily's house in Barie. The owner of their "house," then a stable and part of a larger estate, was a woman known for riding a blue bicycle, who according to the story helped aid and smuggle Jews and French resistance fighters across the state line. A book and a movie have apparently been made about this amazing lady, who personally sold the Royer's (Lily's family) their house a couple years ago!!! Incroyable!

The next bit o' pics are from the following weekend, when the weather was warmer than it had been before or since, and Colin and I went to Cap Ferret, a peninsula about an hour from Bordeaux...

Twilight Barie, Aquitaine countryside 

Barie at dusk 

Tsipy wearing one of the papier maché masques that Koba (la mère de Lily) is making, Pépin in the background 

River that flows all the way to Toulouse, and then onwards to the Mediterranean, I believe 

Lily, Adeline, Tsipy, et Pépin (le père de Lily) 

Me in my winning position during "cache cache" which means hidden hidden, and is la version Française of hide-and-go-seek... 

Chez Lily, a converted stable in Barie near La Réole, one hour from Bordeaux 

Catch Up

So I've let things get a little dusty round these parts...
Gonna dig through the past to get to the present,and its days of April hailing and open door purse snatchers. But first, the weekend of Lily's birthday around March 12thish at her family's home, then a day trip to Cap Ferret with Colin, followed by myfirst real family vacation, (including shout outs to mums, pops, and fig)

Joël

Azerty, Paname, et la Famille

Currently, I'm in the computer lab in my friend Quin's dortoire (dorm) à Paris...
And I'm a strugglin' with these AZERTY keyboards, you don't think it makes a difference, but it does, and if you don't know about AZERTY then look down right now, and read what you see...
QWERTY

I have some interesting anecdotes/observations that will have to wait till another time. Among others, I have put The Hong Kong Chat versus the Xaintrailles Chien, and The Love Story of Pepin et Koba on the backburner. Sometime...

Last night, dinner with Quin at hyper-trendy Toi, and then botched delayed and short rendez-vous with Ethan. All nights can't be legendary...

Meanwhile, I sit here in Paname, which is slang for Paris that I had never heard before yesterday, and wait the arrival of my family, arriving practically within the hour!!!!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend, and enjoying Spring.

Joel

Greg et Moi 

Moi 

Dave et moi outside Rijksmuseum, we did, in fact, enter 

Brewery Tour 

Sherlock Profile in the heart of the Heinken Experience