France, June, 2003
On our way to
Goa we stopped in France to visit Trudy Ann's Great Uncle Frank & family.
We were last there in 1998 when Trevor was just two. Uncle Frank and Auntie
Marie always take very good care of us. They live 30 minutes by train from
Paris. We spent some time seeing sites in Paris but most of our time was
with family, the main event being Frank's 80th Birthday. Frank & Marie
have three sons, Jean Marie, Eric and Pierre. Jean Marie has two children,
Chloé and Nicolas; Pierre has a son, Melchoir.
We spent a few days at Frank &
Marie's house in Fosses, having lunches & barbecues in the garden, and,
as is required with Trudy Ann's family, lots of time spent singing songs,
this time with accompaniment by Frank on his violin.
Then it was off
to the foothills of the French Alps, to Méaudre, near Grenoble, for
the birthday parties: Frank's 80th and Jean Marie's 40th. We strongly considered
scrapping our plans for Goa in exchange for a year in Méaudre - Gorgeous!
Family members from Australia and England joined in.
Frank's party took
place in a cabin (not too rustic) overlooking mountains & valley, a truely
lovely spot. Everyone, except Frank, had secretly been busy putting together
a scrapbook for Frank. On Trudy Ann's inspiration and Pierre's execution,
family & friends of Frank the world over sent in pages of pictures and
memories of Frank's life thus far. He knew something secret was up, but Frank
was completely surprized and delighted with the book.
This region of
France is very beautiful. Places like this seem to have a calming effect on
people.
After Méaudre
we went to Jean Marie's house in near Orléans. Again, it was mostly
time spent with family, which in France, of course, means lots of time sitting
around a table with lots of delicious food. Some sights were seen: the city
and castle at Amboise, which sits on the Loire river. Amboise is famous for
being the final residence of Leonardo di Vinci. His home and studio is now
a museum with many full and small scale models of Leonardo's inventions.
We returned to
Fosses, had another day of yummy food and then hopped on a plane for India.
