A week in Biscarrosse

Sorry I haven't posted sooner - we just got back late last night, because Pascal decided we would stay for a week rather than five days.

. . .

Our trip to Biscarrosse took a total of 8 hours. It really didn't need to take that long, but Pascal forgot some things so we had to turn back, we had to go to the grocery store, and we had to stop several times for the children. [Note: we pretended that we were a little family: Jon was the father, but MIA on this trip; Pascal was the mother, or "muh.zer" as he says; Juan was the uncle and I the aunt; and the boys were the children. However, Pascal is, in fact, also a child.] Starting about an hour outside of Saumur, this is what most of the countryside looked like:

Finally, we arrived at the home of Nelly, one of Pascal's sisters. It was pretty typical of the houses down there, except the siding:

Kitchen/dining room, although we ate outside most of the time.

Patio.

Bedroom 4.0 was upstairs, which meant it was hot, but it was better than sleeping outside in a tent like the boys.

This was the view walking up to the beach the first day we went. The building is a 19th century hotel (says Pascal). The water really was that color, even in the waves. It was incredible.
We went to the beach and/or the lake almost every day. Wednesday evening we all cooked something and went over to the home of another one of Pascal's sisters, Severine. I made two tomato pies (a delicious recipe from Edgar's mom) which were very popular. All the French people told me how wonderful it was and several of them asked for the recipe.


After dinner, all the French people were talking to each other, and not to me. I don't want to give the wrong impression - for most of the week, they were eager to talk to me and patiently included me in their discussions. They were very impressed with my French, and I received a number of compliments...."You speak French better than some French people!" "You hardly have an accent!" ...which I'm sure were at least slight exaggerations, but flattering and encouraging nonetheless. Anyway, after dinner on Wednesday night, they were all engaged in personal converstations to which I could not contribute. Juan, the boys, and I went inside and had a ____-face contest. For those of you unfamiliar with this concept, everyone in the picture makes a ___ face: an ugly face, an awkward smile, etc. Here is a classic:
Awkward smile contest, except that Simon (who is Severine's youngest) had no idea what we were doing and is adorable all the time anyway.

On Thursday, we went to the Dune de Pyla, which is the biggest sand dune in Europe, or something. I knew as soon as they started talking about it that it wasn't really going to be my thing. Climb up and over a big pile of sand to go to a cold, windy beach? And then climb back?
No thanks, I'm okay. Why did I go? Well....exercise.
??! Literally.
Nevertheless, I made it to the other side feeling perky enough.

....until I realized I had to climb approximately infinity meters to get back up:
See those little dots at the top? Those are people. Full sized people. I only succeeded in climbing back up this because I pretended I was Frodo climbing Mount Doom to destroy the Ring.

No, I'm not kidding.

At any rate, I survived, and I wasn't even all that tired afterwards, which I was kind of disappointed about. I was hoping to be fully exercised. I did, however, have about a pound of sand that had been driven into my pores, scalp, and ears by the wind. Ew.

. . .

Friday we went to Bordeaux, but I'm getting hungry and it'll be another long post. Hopefully I'll be able to come back after I find a snack, but Bernard and I are going on a bike ride at some point and I don't know when it'll be.... If not in a bit, I'll post soon!