France June/July 2011

After shuffling around our schedules, we were finally able to go to France for my Mum's wedding celebration on July 2nd. We left right after attending James' Baptism/Birthday on Saturday on a non stop flight to Paris. We were lucky enough to hire a car this time so after we arrived 12 hours later, we had to navigate the streets of Paris to find a hotel for the night. We found one in the nearby town of Chartres and had a bit of fun that night playing in the fields nearby. Yes that is Dusty trying out the dog run!

The next day we toured around the cathedral - one of the largest in country.

We then drove about 5 hours to the coast. Dusty had found a charming hotel on the Quiberon peninsular on his Internet search at home and I'm so glad he did. It was one of the most relaxing towns/hotels. The only problem was that you never knew when the shops/restaurants would close so you could go hungry for a while.

We totally relaxed here for a couple of days, sitting on the beach and taking long walks

Even playing with the sea shells.

And finding sea life in the rock pools

How could you not relax here

Dusty's favorite thing to do is finding old ruins and they were here by the boat load. This was part of a fortress in the war

Chilling at the local harbor on one of our walks

At the point of the peninsular was a picturesque chateau - you couldn't go anywhere without seeing something amazing

We had fun driving around in our sweet little lightning bolt car.

More ruins by the sea

I just loved the landscape and the colors - they seemed so vivid, we were definitely contemplating moving here

We did a little off roading here to get to the turret

But it was worth the view

Our staple diet the whole time was baguettes, stinky cheese and beer - it was delicious!

We also could not stay awake - we would just crash at random times

The last day we were there a little market set up in the square beneath our balcony full of cheese, meets and local produce

One our way to my Mum's, another 5 hour journey, we stumbled across this amazing town that was built around a fabulous house and grounds

These were the grounds through the opening in the photo above. It had canals running through it with a very large stately home at the end

Once we arrived at my Mum's house, we took a couple of day trips out and about. This was Chateaularoux where we had lunch and a look around

We also went on a bike ride to our local town - the nearest one from my Mum is about 5km so a bike is the best way to see it.

This is photo from our bedroom in the gite - we were waiting for the champagne to be opened to start the celebrations

We had a meal on Friday night for close friends and family at the local restaurant - probably the longest meal I've ever had - 3 + hours!

My lovely cousin Fran.....I miss her so much!

We had festivities the whole day on Saturday and it started off with a toast to the newlyweds

This was the lunch for the close friends and family - yummy food from the same local restaurant - I would love some of that now!

Mum, Fran and I relaxing after the excesses of the lunch

In the evening, the local crowd was invited and we ate and danced long into the night.

I thought this was a lovely photo of the happy couple to end with.