France Part I

Rémi and I braved a flight (a looooong flight) with a six month old to travel to France for what turned out to be a fantastic family get-away!  Thank you so much again to Ann and Alain for planning the trip and renting the house in the very lovely Ardèche region.  We ate, we drank, we walked and we were just TOGETHER, which was so very special :)

I'll be posting a few blogs of the trip.  The first is the time Ann, Alain, Rémi, Joséphine and I spent tout seul.

First cuddles with Granny.  Seeing this photo shows me just how much Josie has changed in the last few months!  She's walking now so those chubby cheeks are thinning out.  She's becoming a little girl (this makes me a bit sad!  But hopefully it translates to better sleep...)

 We stayed pretty local for the first few days.  Josie did not sleep well in France at all (she started to settle just as we were leaving!) so we were tired!  Plus, there was lots to see in our little town (Saint-Alban-Auriolles).  We hiked up to the dolmen a few times.

 This is the little church located up near the dolmen.

 We also spent a lot of time at the house.  It was so relaxing having a homebase that was all our own.  It's how I would recommend travelling with a small baby.

 Josie had been on solids for about a month before we left for France so when we got there, it was a free-for-all.  She LOVED IT!  And she had her first cookie - which was almost as tasty as her feet ;)

 

 A view of our town from a lovely farm walk Remi and I did.  Josie would nap when walking so we went into full-on survival mode with stroller naps and carrier naps.  Thank you to Remi's parents for helping on this front in a big way.

 Our house had a pool!  It was a little chillier than the kiddie pool at the rec center, but that didn't stop JoJo!

 More walking around town.

 We kept most of our travels pretty local, not driving more than 30 min from home (Josie occasionally had car seat meltdowns - oh, the airline lost our car seat for almost a week and the one we rented doubles as a medieval torture device...). But there was lots to see closeby!

 Love these two fools.

 And these ones!

 Daddy teaching Josie about wood stuff.

We had a few little visitors to our house.  These were cute.  The scorpions, not so much...

 Another nap-walk!

 That's Saint-Alban-Auriolles in the distance again.

Nothing like a bath in the kitchen sink!  Much to the delight of the whole family ;)

Wanting to share all the food... and wine too! 

 A nice misty morning on our drive out to one of the local villages.

 I think this might be a view of Ruoms.  What a tourist trap!  But it was close by so we went a few times.  Oh, and we were tourists (even though by the end it almost felt like we were living there!).

 Back in St Alban.

 

That's all for post #1!  Hopefully myself (or maybe Rémi!!) will have a chance to get the next installment up soon!

S