Allons-y a France

Now that I have finally digested all of the cheese, bread and wine consumed over a week ago, I want to tell you all about my Spring break in France!

First a littel background: About a year ago my family received a letter from a man in France saying that he was our long lost cousin whom we never knew existed until then.  After pouring through the dozens of photos and documents he sent us, it turns out that my French granmere, whom I never met, had a child before she moved to London, where she met my grandfather and then moved to the U.S. 

So when my sister and I were going over family trees (a project which she is very well-suited for), she proposed the idea that we go to France to meet them all.  So that is what we did. 

I never met my grandmother, who died before I was born, but I was brought up believing her to be a very chic, stern French woman, with a fondness for hats and who  made a mean fruit cake.  She worked in a hat shop in Lyon, which is where she most likely met the father of her child Paul.  So it was to Lyon that we went to meet the family.

Upon arriving in Lyon, we were met by our cousin Laurent and his daughter Marie, as well as our cousin Quentin and his girlfriend.  Marie, Quentin and his girlfriend were our official tour guides during our stay in Lyon.

Quentin, his girlfriend and Marie

Ah yes, my travel companions!  Jean, my (half) sister and I were happy to be accompanied on our travels by Connie, a dear friend from Vermont.  

Connie and Jean

First site-seeing was to the basilica, which is situated at the very top of Lyon.

people looking out over Lyon from beside the Basilica

oops! French couple making out, like they do...

the basilica

people looking out over Lyon from the basilica



view of Lyon from the basilica

Unfortunately the basilica was closed for the evening, so we were only able to see the outside on our first night in Lyon, but we went back (fast forward to see photos).  Afterwards we walked through "the old" part of town, where there are very French little brasseries on every corner.  We stopped in one and had a lovely dinner - as someone who doesn't eat meat, I ate the two Lyon specialties; the first an unpasteurized cheese with chives mixed in, and the second a creamed/puffed cheese loaf (this is the only way I can think to describe it) that was cooked and soaking in a delicious cream sauce.  Mmmmm cream...

front of the basilica

The next day, after an amazing breakfast spread that Quentin had picked up at the bakery down the street (criossants, une baguette and more croissants), Jean, Connie and I hit the town for some serious tourism.  We started in the tourism center, where we were met by a woman writing down names and contact information of visitors to be sent a survey regarding our trip.  As someone studying issues of tourism as they relate to development surrounding places that possess art and architecture, I must say that Lyon is an excellent tourism machine.

Jean and Connie signing up for the survey



Jean and Connie looking at brochures in the tourism center

The tourism center had about 200 brochures of all the activities of Lyon - ranging from musical to agricultural to museum exhibitions to wine tasting.  We decided to start our touristic adventure with a ride on the ferris wheel.

view of Lyon from ferris wheel

after our jaunt on the ferris wheel, we made our way over to the Textile Museum, which I knew to be one of (if not the) finest collection of Seljuk textiles in the world.

The museum also had a plethora of Persian, Ottoman, Chinese and Malay carpets and clothing.  Unfortunately pictures weren't allowed, but suffice to say we spent 3 hours walking through the museum.  It was amazing, and also neat to think that my grandmere took part in the textile culture with her work at the hat shop.

entrance to the textile museum

scarf (?) in the entrance to the textile museum

After our trip to the museum, we walked around a bit.  Even after only one day in France, Connie, Jean and I were feeling the effects of consuming a different palate than we were used to.  When we saw these three ladies, we knew what we would look like by the end of our journey....

Connie and Jean being touristy

kids hanging out on the lawn in the center of Lyon

So we kept walking through Lyon until we came to a bridge, where we saw many people who were leisurely passing their Sunday afternoons sitting by the Rhone river with family and friends. 

With the weather in Istanbul still rather chilly and rainy, it was lovely to get to sit by the river, in the sun, and see all the French families spend their Sunday afternoon together.

After our touristy day, Laurent picked us up and we drove to meet all of the family, at his house outside of Lyon.  Upon arriving, I knew that we were all related; we saw a big bunch of kids, half of whom were playing soccer and the other half were jumping on a tramboline.  With fond memories of playing every sport known to man with my big group of cousins in Vermont, this was a sign.  Of course I jumped in on the tramboline action with my little cousins.  A good way to break a linguistic or introductory barrier!

After the sports and appetizers/champagne, we sat down to an amazing meal prepared by Laurent's ever-at-ease wife, Delphine.  Dinner was followed by a full spread of cheese, which was followed by a delicious pink almond pie.  So colorful!

Laurent, Connie, Jean, Oscar, Delphine, Marie, Victor, Quentin and his girlfriend

By the end of dinner we had plans for all the big and little cousins to come to Vermont next August for a big - very big family reunion.  Something to look forward to!
The next day we did a little more site-seeing, going through the weekly Monday bazaar which had nothing on the Istanbul markets...but nonetheless, was cool to see.  Also interesting that almost all of the vendors were of near/middle Eastern descent.

view of the Rhone

We went to the Saint Jean Cathedral, for which Lyon is also quite famous.  It was marvelous, particularly the stained glass windows, some of which I am convinced have Ottoman carpet patterning designs.

view within Saint Jean Cathedral

Saint Jean Cathedral

view of the Rhone going through the middle of Lyon

Of course, there is a Roman ruin site on the way to the highest point of Lyon.  It makes perfect sense that the Romans would have constructed a city here, along two rivers, and they would have probably placed their acropolis where the basilica is today. We stopped by the two very well-preserved Roman ampitheaters and their gardens.

Connie and Jean checking out the Roman ampitheater

in between the two ampitheaters

view from top of ampitheater

me chillin in the ampitheater

gardens

Then we made our way (back) up to the highest point of Lyon to see the basilica, which had been closed on our first evening in Lyon.

inside the basilica

inside the basilica

After our visit to the basilica we said our goodbyes to the family, after an incredible visit, including another night out to a an extravagent dinner (mmmm rum cake). More importantly, we spent a good few hours plunkered down with our relatives, going over old family photos we had never seen.  Very cool stuff.

After that, it was time to head on to our next destination, a little town outside of Poitiers called Sanxay, where another long-lost cousin lives.  We had a leisurely full day to make the trip, so we decided to drive through the country, going a little out of our way, in order to enjoy the scenery and stop in to a few towns.

moo

Of course, our leisurely driving included...picnics!

our picnic: fresh strawberries, apples, blue and camambert cheese, and of course, the Cabot cutting board

Connie at our picnic

Jean and I enjoying the picnic

The first town we stopped in was Limoges, known for its excellent knife shops.

town of Limoges

town of Limoges

So we stopped into a few knife shops and saw the goods, including special pizza knives, butter and cheese knives, all kinds of pocket knives, and honey spoons!  Jean kindly bought me an advance birthday gift of a honey spoon and a butter and cheese knife, tools every girl should have.

sharp knives

Jean and Connie getting a knife lesson

After departing from Limoges, we drove on, unable to find a hotel in the town we had planned on staying in, due to some sort of dance convention?  So we continued onto a small auberge that turned out to be just what we were looking for.  Countryside!

view of the backyard of our auberge

After putting all our bags down, all three of us decided we needed a good long walk.  So off we went...

It turned out to be a phenomenal walk, and though Jean and Connie were probably dismayed (after traveling thousands of miles to France) at my insistence that the scenery looked strikingly like Vermont, they were very happy to have some Vermont-like scenery with some warm sunny weather, a big departure from t he 14 inches of snow they got the day they left.

on our walk...

more walking

After our lovely stay at the auberge, we headed out early the next morning in order to see the town of Oradours before making our way to our final destination of Sanxay. 

Oradours is a very tragic town.  One of the French resistance towns during the Second World War, the Germans made an example of the people of Oradours by murdering every single one, less one baby who managed to go unnoticed.  627 died on the 10th of June, 1944, and Oradours has been preserved in exactly the same condition that it was found in after the massacre.

obelisk says "not just the men and the women, but the most awful injury was that we could not save the children"

poster inside the museum

photo of schoolchildren in 1944, the year that every person in Oradours was murdered

We walked around the remains of the old town, seeing the shops, schools, post office, barber shop, etc.

girl's school

After the very moving trip in Oradours, we pressed on to Sanxay, driving through fields and fields of "rape," for making rapeseed oil.  The color was beautiful, and we sometimes resisted the urge to yell "rape" while driving through a field.

this was my view for most of the trip, nothing wrong with the backseat!

We made it to Sanxay that afternoon, just in time for a tea and a dog walk.  We were warmly welcomed by Jean's cousin (and mine by the transitive property) Jonathan and his wife Annie, her mother Sheila and her son Jamie.  All of the family are British, born and raised, but Jonathan and Annie moved to Sanxay with Jamie a few years ago, and since then Annie has done a spectacular job renovating and redecorating their house which they rent out part of as a holiday "Gite" or self-sufficient getaway home.

morning dew

We went in to Sanxay to check out their weekly market.  We had a week-long mission, which was to get a rather particular hat for my Godfather (Jean's husband) Richard, so off to the market we went!

I loved this type of tree we saw everywhere in France

hats!  but not the right kind...

jams!

As I mentioned, Jonathan is a long-lost cousin on my sister's side of the family who "popped up" about two years ago, quite unexpectedly.  When news came about his existence, Jean was quick to fly over to England and meet him.  He and his wife also came over to Vermont two summers ago for a big family reunion I missed while I was in Chile, so this was my first time meeting Jonathan.  He is wonderful!  It is quite neat to meet someone and instantly fall into the comfortable "family" zone, and that's exactly what happened with Annie and Jonathan. 

After the market Jonathan and Annie took us to "L'Orangerie", where we looked at the old building and watched the ducks go by...oh! and we played poo sticks.  Annie won.

better photo of the Gite with the beautiful tree in front

We went into Poitiers, the major city about 20 minutes away, for a grand Sunday lunch and tour around town..

Cathedral of Poitiers

inside Poitiers Cathedral

the beautiful tree in Jonathan and Annie's front lawn

menu at the restaurant we went to, which was, of course, delicious

view of Sanxay, the town

On our last day, we went into the Poitiers market, with the very real mission of getting the hat for Richard...



you can't really see it, but this is Jean using Jonathan as a hat model

Walking through Poitiers...English sheep dogs!  Makes me think of the Little Mermaid...

 To the food section of the market. 

beautiful tomatoes

fruits and veggies in the Poitiers market

the fish section - it has nothing on Istanbul, but you've gotta give the French credit for trying...

blood sausage

a moppy sleeping dog on the street

 after picking up our final picnic materials at the Poitiers market, we said our final goodbyes to Jonathan, Annie, Sheila and Jamie and hit the road for Paris.  As planned, we drove right around the city and straight to our hotel.  After our lovely 10-day jaunt in the countryside, we did not want to taint it with the hustle and bustle of the city.  I'll just have to find an excuse to make it back a Paris.

The next morning we flew out, one by one.  Jean to Frankfurt, Dulles, Philly and then Burlington.  Connie to Philly and then Burlington and myself, back East to Istanbul, via Turin, Italy.

The week was marvelous in more ways than one.  Most of all it was wonderful to have connected with two sides of my family, not only learning about the lives of family members before me, but getting to know young and lively members of my French family, who now all have plans to come to visit us in Vermont next year.  Trips like this just force you to realize how cool life is.  Now, back to the real world, sans croissants!

somewhere over the Adriatic sea, on my way back home to Istanbul