The Youngs are a very welcoming (Jean Welcome! Haha) family and hosted a young (the Young family! Haha) French girl for a couple weeks during the summer of 2002. They had a great time in San Diego!! Years later, Amanda and Alice found each other on facebook. Through the wonderful communication of the internet, Amanda let her know that we would be traveling through Europe and would love to visit her. And now, 7 years after Alice enjoyed her visit in Amanda's hometown of San Diego, she is letting us visit her beautiful hometown of Aix en Provence, in the South of France, for a couple weeks!
We had the best time. It was a holiday during our holiday. When we first arrived, Alice and her fiance Paul met us at the train station. They took us home when her family was gathering for her fathers 50th birthday!! Everyone was very friendly and excited to meet us American girls. We ate a delicious homecooked meal for the first time in a while. After settling in, Alice busted out her scrapbook from her visit to California. It was so fun to look at old pictures and reminice on that trip. Then Alice took us into town where we had drinks with Paul and his brothers, Axel & Ivan. That day was a perfect taste of our next 2 weeks :)
Their backyard and a pic with the family!
We spent many of our days just lounging around their beautiful country home. Throughout the day we would hear the rooster 'cock-a-doodle-doo' but since it was a french rooster, it said 'cocorico!!' They live on a farm where they grow lots delicious veggies and fruits! They have horses and chickens roaming around outside. We would use fresh veggies and eggs while cooking :)
The view from our bedroom and a pic with all the kids :)
Paul is an electririan, so he had work everyday. Alice and her sister, Elise, were in university so they were sometimes busy during the day. When they were not home, we would recooperate from traveling! We liked to relax by watching movies and baking cookies and banana bread! Axel and Ivan also had jobs, but when they were free they would come over and join us all! On one of the first days, we all played tennis...that was entertaining for them! Amanda and I aren't the best at this sport, but its always fun to play :) Some of our favorite nights were spent in Alice and Pauls basement apartment with everyone playing Wii, cards, baking cookies, listening to music and just hanging out. When the boys were gone and working, we spent lots of time sitting around the dining room table with Alice, Elise and Francoise (the mom) chatting about anything and everything and enjoying hot tea and verbena. We also managed to learn some French :)
We did many things over those two weeks, including cooking, day trips, relaxing, visiting relatives, tea times, going to the market and so much more. Stay tuned for details about the trip in other posts :)
A&A
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