Sharing

Showing Ollie's mom pictures of our trip.-
Sarah

As expected

Ollie's mom (Marie Christine) had goodies waiting.

Sarah

Water play

Max with Ollie's big squirt gun!
Posted by Sarah as was the previous photo

Off to Belgium

Today we took the train to Kortrijk.
We are having dinner at Ollie's parents!

Montmartre

Another fine dinner in France. Max had mussels and fries (a bowl of
steamed mussels and a side of French fries, a very common menu item
here).

Before the meal we met back up with Ollie and An, and we toured
Montmartre, an area of narrow, winding streets and a beautiful church
on a hill (Which has been holding continual prayers, 24x7, for the
past 125 years). Somehow we managed once again to stay out incredibly
late (home at 11:30pm). The boys were ideal travel companions all
day. -Gerrit

A little zoo in Paris

Turns out the paleontology museum was closed today, but there was a
little zoo nearby, so we explored it. Here are Nana, Henry and max
checking out the map, eating ice cream, and planning our zoo trip. -
Gerrit

Lighting candles

The boys like to light the candles in the churches. This is a side
chapel in a church in Aups.

Max on the bike

The isle of ( pork eh rolls) French pronunciation is tough.

No cars here so you have to bike.

Henry biking on the isle

Max's photo

Here is max's pic of us in provance. Hopefully Gerrit will be able to
edit my mistakes from the blog,
Sarah

Nana crosses the bridge

Here is Nana walking up. You can se Gerrit in the foreground.

Again in Provance

I am sorry these are out of order but I think the are cool.
The walk up to the monestary was not to bad.

Here is the monestary we went to

Built for the Virgin Mary on the side of the hill. We all made it to
the top.

Max the photographer

Max took a pic of us. This is in Provance on our way back from the monestary.

Hotel de Ville

Here are Ollie and An in front of Hotel de Ville.
Ollie says this is where the mayor of Paris lives

Oops

Here is Gerrit.
Sorry, technical difficulties,
Sarah

Notre Dame

Here is Gerrit at Notre Dame. It took us a bit but we finnaly found the Open bus tour stop.

Bus tour

Here is Henry. He really likes the bus! No complaining at all. Max is
taking a bit of a nap.

Bus tour

Yesterday ( mon) we went on a bus tour of Paris. A nice way to get a
feel for the city,
Ollie and An had a good time and ended up doing 3 of the 4 routes.
Nana, G, M, H and I came back to the hotel. The hot weather makes the
boys a bit listless but it is a good reason to buy ice cream!

Museum day

Just left the museum d'Orsay, having seen lots of Monet, Manet, Van
Gogh, etc. Just the boys, Nana and I. Ollie and An are off to the
north part of the city (they aren't into museums) and Sarah is taking
a break and resting today. Next, probably the Rodin museum,
definately a paleontology museum, and hopefully a train store. -Gerrit

In Paris

Just ate confit (deep fried) duck. Excellent. Off for more
siteseeing in Paris.

At the top

Enjoying the view fron the top. A good day, but but a long day. The
Eiffel tower took a little over two hours to do (wait to buy tickets,
wait to go up to 2nd floor, wait to go up to top, wait to go down to
2nd floor...).

We had a good dinner, but it was late, we were worn out. Finally made
it to the train stop for our hotel, and it was 10:30 at night. Our
hotel is near Paris Disneyland, and the train dropped us off in the
middle of Disney town. No sign of our hotel, no information booths at
the train station or Disneyland open. My iPhone couldn't find the
hotel with the address (I swear I checked it at home), and when i
called the hotel, the desk staff didn't speak enough English to help,
except to tell sarah there was an 11:35 shuttle. Ollie was at the
hotel already (he drove), and tried to meet us at the train station,
but went to the wrong one (a closer one we should have used). There
was a taxi stop, but we watched the last two taxis pull away. So, we
took the 11:30pm shuttle and now I'm in the hotel and I need to get
some sleep. We were about a mile from our hotel, just couldn't figure
out the right direction to walk. Everyone was a trooper, tolerating
the confusion and my frustration very well.

Tomorrow, more touring Paris. Less walking, more wine is my plan. -
Gerrit

Hot day in Paris

Here we are, ready for a trip up the Eiffel tower. -Gerrit

Travelling to Paris today

We are waiting at the station in Les Arcs to head to Paris. We
arrived quite early as Ollie and An will be driving up and meeting us
there. more than 8 hours by car, less than 4 by train.

Hoping to go up in the Eiffel tower when we reach Paris. Weather
should be quite hot (86).

Yesterday was quiet. Just milling around the house in Provence,
swimming, and tennis. I had to return my rental car in the evening,
then a little birthday party for An at night. I made Gnocchi for
dinner, and some green beans too. -Gerrit

Waiting at the station

We are at the train station a few hours early due to having to return
the car Early. We are headed back to Paris. It is going to be around
80 F.

The monastery

After climbing up, a view of where we were.

To the monastery

A photo of the town below a monastery we hiked up to. -gerrit

Ferry to Mediterranian island

Looking back to southern France from our ferry to Ile de
Porquerolles. We biked some cool trails on mountain bikes we rented
(except Sarah and nana, who sat in cafes). Having lunch now. -Gerrit

Saint Dennis?

In the city of Tourtour. -Gerrit

Church in aups

Interesting church in aups. -Gerrit

17th century castle

Climbing some old ruins on a hill on our way home yesterday. -Gerrit

Swimming

Went swimming yesterday. Unheated pool was a barely warm enough. We
played a bit of tennis, as well. -Gerrit

Aups public market

At the public market in the cute town of Aups. -Gerrit

Serious hill in the heat

A long walk up the hill, but the fountains on the way down were
amazing. -Gerrit

Little cave

Lots of cool fountains and little caves. -Gerrit

A city of fountains

Woke up late and are now in Barjols, a city of fountains. Here is a
cool mushroom fountain where it comes out of the top and drips through
the moss. -Gerrit

Snacks

Snacks before dinner at the great place we are staying for the week. -
Gerrit

Arrival in Provence

We arrived in Provence this afternoon. Ollie and An met us at the
train station. We picked up a rental car (too many people for Ollie's
car), and headed up to visit Ollie's grandparents who are staying with
friends in the area. Their friends own a beautiful house and guest
house. They have a little swimming pool that the boys played in. The
owner gave us a tour of his garden (syrah and Grenache grapes,
lavender and a veggie garden). The house is on a creek, too. You can
really see the effects of the flooding from last weeks storm on his
property. Nothing of his was damaged, but the hight the creek rose to
and the debris from a camper caught in the flood are pretty
surprising. -Gerrit

Train to Draguignan

Should have set the alarm this morning. Nana saved our bacon by
waking us with just enough time to catch the train. Boys slept 12
hours. We'll meet Ollie in 3 hours. Yeah. -Gerrit

River walk

Max climbing, nana helping, Sarah watching, random boys running. -
Gerrit

Crossing the seine

Henry and Nana on an evening walk to Notre Dame. -Gerrit

Henry the zombie

Our flight and customs and all went smoothly. Max and Achim slept
some on the first flight (the right time to sleep). Henry stayed
awake all 7+ hours, and only slept some on the 2nd flight, awaking
during landing with exteme ear pain. He then slipped into a 1/2 awake
zombie state for a good hour plus. But he revived with some fresh
air. -Gerrit

At the airport

We board in about 30 minutes. Security was a breeze. We met up with
Achim and Nana fine, and are ready for a great flight. Pictured is
Grandma Janet who drove us to the airport.

Schools out

Henry's last day of school today. So we went out to Harmons to
celebrate. Tonight we're off to the beach house. Friends will be out
tomorrow for the day. Should be fun. -gerrit

Donuts

We went up to Seattle yesterday for my parents 45th wedding
anniversary dinner at the space needle. But before that, we tromped
around Seattle a bit. Here we are at pike place market getting some
mini doughnuts. -Gerrit

Cub scout trip

Tonight was an ice cream social and open house at the elementary, then
a tour of the fire station in proctor (99 years old, with stables in
the back where they used to keep their horses). Pretty fun. -Gerrit

Sushi night

Sarah was off at a meeting for the second night in a row, so it was
the boys and I roughing it. We made sushi rolls (well, vegetarian
with carrots and avacado). Pretty good. I totally screwed up the
rice trying to make sushi at the beach house over memorial day, so it
was nice to have some solid success.

Ate the first strawberry out of my garden today. Good, but the could
use some sun...
-Gerrit

Ajax for a visit

Ajax is staying with us for a week. He is showing his age, but is
generally a pretty happy dog despite his failing body. He gets lots
of vitamins and medicines, which the boys love to dose out to him.
Here is Henry preparing Ajax's morning meal/drug cocktail. -Gerrit