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.
