Bonne Année! (You mad bro?)

Happy New Year!

I hope that everyone is recovering from the holiday season. Things have gotten a bit serious around here with the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris. It's a sad time for all. Peace on Earth?

We are also missing our recent guests Joe and Kathy, Bob's folks whom visited from Ohio/Florida.  So far Bob's family is way ahead in the visiting competition. I have faith in my people, some of which have reservations in the spring. Wise choice, J&K froze their tushes off. It's darn cold, and misty, with a hint of snow here and there. You'll be in Florida soon Joe and Kathy!

Christmas happened as it does. Père Noël came bearing gifts. En France, Father Christmas brings all the gifts. Every gift. So if you're the unknowing Americans and put the gifts that your lovely family sent to France for you under the tree before the day, you might ruin it for the neighbor kids. Who knew?

After Christmas we took a short visit to Provence. On the advice of Aimé and Catherine we stayed in a small village called Saint Rémy de Provence. This is where Vincent Van Gogh spent some time and created quite a few of his famous paintings. It was absolutely beautiful and really quite cold. We visited the institution where Vince stayed, we visited some awesome Roman ruins, we visited an amazing ancient village called Les Baux de Provence and a cave with an illuminated art show featuring Gustav Klimpt. Mindblowing.

Our visitors, Joe and Kathy, arrived the 30th of December and proceeded to party down with us for New Year's Eve at our always awesome neighbors' house. Merci encore Cécile and Lionel. Joe and Kathy left just before dinner at 10ish. Bob left with the kids at 1, I left after the cheese and dessert courses, I believe it was half past 2. I include these time notes because they continue to astound me, in a good way. Good stuff.

We then took our hapless folks to the south thinking that we would be warmer there, it was not. We stayed outside of Toulouse for 3 nights in a picturesque AirBnB farmhouse and toured the sites there. We tried the infamous Cassoulet, très délicieux. We visited a medieval castle in Carcassone. We were cold.

On January 6th we "celebrated" Epiphany with the galette de rois. We didn't really know what we were doing, I guess we are supposed to celebrate it on Sunday. We did have Micah hide under the table and tell us who to give each piece to. Somehow he and Jasper managed to get the pieces with the fèves in them, which are little trinkets symbolising the three kings. There were only two trinkets. But anywho, they got to wear the crowns.

So here are some pix. I have a lot, I will try to summarize if I can.

We began the Noël festivities with huitres (oysters)
avec Catherine and Aimé
Huitres are the food of the season, we have eaten many

Réveillon-Christmas eve

We took a stroll with our hostesses through Lyon to the Marché Noël before dinner, the market ended up being closed, but the walk was a great way to start the evening

We should replace the Logan temple with something like this

Minecraft Pére Noël

Les minions

So begins perhaps my favorite meal yet in France
hosted by Marie-Caroline and Eric

Foie Gras

Chicken with morels, mashed potatoes and truffles, green beans and bacon!
Not shown is the incredible cheese plate and the Bouche(log)
traditional chocolate cake
YUMMMMM

NOËL

Le petit sapin

Bob's liver still processing le repas de réveillon

Brought back Thanksgiving from the freezer one more time for Noël

Saint Rèmy de Provence

Glanum: Galo-Roman ruins of a city

The well

It was raining

Dance-with-the-robot-you-got-for-Noël interlude

                

Les Baux de Provence

Castle in the rocks

Graffiti 1901 style

1944? Yikes

Battering ram

Sir Micah

Around the walled village

Gourmet

Hay Creche

Hay creche eater

Back at the rented pad

Kitty fix

Micah-angelo

Jasper Jawns

Moan-uh Lisa

You mad bro?

St. Paul de Mausole

Vincent Van Gogh

Reconstruction of Van Gogh's room

Creepy treatment baths

Creepy syringes

Van Goghish grass

Carrièrs de Lumières-Klimpt et Vienne exhibit

Here is what the caves look like before the shows

Then the art work is projected onto them and changed with music.
It was breath taking.

Then there's this guy...Jean Cocteau(san)
Famous French writer, director from the 30s-?
This is from The Testament of Orpheus
which was filmed in this cave
Kinda creepy

Provence clouds

Cold Bob, Les Baux in the backdrop

Random roadside aquaduct

Arles

Shell stuck in the wall of the Roman coliseum in Arles

JUMP

Grandpa Joe and Grandma Kathy!!

aka The Cold Snap

Anse

Fun at the ATM
aka How many Americans does it take to spend all of Grandpa Joe's money?

New Years Eve

Freezing our tails off in Oingt

Another lovely evening hosted by Cécile and Lionel

 Bob trying to speak French

Lisa trying to understand French

2015 Dance Party

aka Before The Cheese

Party Wards

Brief appearance by the giraffe

Carcassone and Toulouse

Pont du Gard-Roman aqueduct on the route to Toulouse
Incredible engineering, there was something like a 2.5cm difference in
height from one side to the other, 1000+ years later.
Kinda spendy

1000 year old tree

Toulouse

Latrec

People wore berets in Toulouse

Jaw dropping cathedral

Kinda creepy me

Musée des Augustins

Back at the AirBnB

This is not what French people look like, except for the scarf,
and the baguette, and kind of the wine,
and occasionally the striped shirt
and in the Toulouse region the beret

Carcassone

aka Getting Medieval

This walled Medieval city is where
Kevin Cosnter's Robin Hood was filmed

Random bear?

Are we having fun yet?

Might have made us warmer

Medieval ducks

Glad I didn't wear my tallons

Marché in Revel

Shout out to my peeps

Cassoulet
aka The real reason for coming to this area

Cheese porn

The Pyrenees
(these people obviously don't have a dryer either)

Our favorite time of the day.

FINALLY WE GET TO EAT THE CASSOULET!!
(It tastes better than it looks, so so so good)

You mad bro?

Oui!

LYON

aka Our city of choice

Fancy food place

January 6th

Tourists

Everything's warmer with wine

Place Bellecour

Giant bubble fun

Still cold

My phone died right before we got on the giant Ferris wheel.
It was spectacular

Bonne année et bonne santé!!