Monday, August 10, 2009

A Weekend in Provence

Saturday morning we drove to Salon-de-Provence, a town in between Aix and Avignon. Here we rendez-vous'd at Thomas' aunt & uncle's house with his parents so as to "hand off" Estelle for 2 weeks. We stayed the night and came back to Nice with just Lena Sunday.
A few shots:
Estelle on Papy's shoulders with Uncle Dédé
Picking cherry tomatoes with TaTa Yvette
Léna trying on one of her many gifts she received in a new "shipment" from Angers/Calvinet...
Enjoying "cornet de creme", all completely made from scratch by Yvette. One word: Unbelievable.
Those cones look small, but they were big in delightfulness. I had more than my share.

Lena enjoyed sleeping in this iron bed which was used by her grandmother (Andrée), Yvette, and the 3 brothers in that family. It has been lovingly restored. It is charming. So is Léna in her Ben & Jerry's onesie.
Don't worry we blocked the sides with stuff so she wouldn't get stuck in between.
Manou enjoys feeding Léna her nighttime bottle (which I had pumped while stuck in traffic on the autoroute earlier!)
Dinner out on the veranda....
Tradition in France is to toast a new baby with champagne. I am as excited as I look. It was some top notch champagne! Dédé's wine cellar is something to revere.
It should be noted that our visit to Salon also encompassed me meeting up with some family! My grandmother's second cousin, who is only 61 years old, is presently touring around France with her husband on bicycles.
Lin and Seph live in Oregon. I had never met them. They were long lost until 4 years ago when a man whose hobby it is to research photographs he finds in Antique shops connected them and us. It's all quite remarkable and complicated so suffice to say there were many Salmons and Stones up in heaven grinning away Saturday at noontime as I picniked with Lin, to whom I am a 2nd cousin twice removed.
Here they are, riding away to Avignon, their next stop. What a treat to get to meet!

And now here we are back in Nice, Estelle-less. It is bizarre. Last night after Léna went down at 7:00 we sort of wandered around the apartment giggling and not knowing what to do with ourselves as normally it's time to feed, bathe, chase and entertain Her Highness. I know she is having a blast and getting LOTS of attention.
Here's Lena with her friend Louise:

6 comments:

Karen said...

Jules - so great to see so many photos of you in a post! You're looking fabulous! I'm sure you will miss Estelle terribly, but you're right, she is having the time of her life being spoiled :)! Enjoy the time with Lena and get some rest!!

Léna OUILLADE said...

REST? What's that?

W,C,H said...

Estelle-less for two weeks - I'm jealous! I was Heather-less for 3 days and it was wonderful. Of course, knowing that they are in safe hands is what makes it bearable.

Lena is getting so big.

sam said...

I miss you all, the pictures just make me remember how fun those girls are!! Thanks for all the great photos! And, Julie, only you could figure out how the explain in genealogical terminology how we are related to our "Pacific Salmons".
SAM

Sandy Alexander said...

Haha, I couldn't be "Elijah-less" for 2 nights! At the very last minute, I ended up packing him up and bringing him to RI, when the original plan was to leave him home with Ed so I could spend some time with my sister and new neice. What is WRONG with me?!?
I've got a lot to learn...

The Two Sams said...

Loved seeing all the photos of Yvette and Dede home. Everyone looked like they were enjoying themselves, esp. Julie when she was toasting with champagne.