Laval Countryside

We traveled by train from Palaiseau to Laval, France for our next part of our journey. We were feeling pretty "City'd out" and were excited for some relaxation and peaceful explorations. We were greeted at the train station by our friends,the Charpentier's. It is Gilles and Judith and their teenage sons Louison and Armand, and their 9 year old daughter Gabrielle. Eric's mom did an exchange with them last year and so we got to spend a few weeks hanging out with them around Sacramento and Lake Tahoe last summer. They had invited us to come visit which got this whole trip planning started.

After exchanging kisses cheek to cheek with everyone we took our luggage back to their beautiful home in Montflours which is about 15 minutes away and is a town of 200 people. The town of Laval is about 50,000 people and the largest town in this area. It is so green and gorgeous here and subsequently lots of rain predicted for the next couple days. After the on and off again rain in Paris and London, we were used it now anyway.

After a quick tour around their home, we drove back into Laval to one of their friend's houses that we also met last summer, Fabian and Nadege and their two daughters Marie and Anna. After exchanging more kisses cheek to cheek we enjoyed a fabulous meal. Nadege was so kind to make the majority of every course gluten free. The thing with French dinners is that I never know how much of each course to eat because you aren't sure exactly what is coming next. First course was some bread with a kind of fish egg spread or pork pate and also some ham/egg quiche. The next course was a rice noodle pasta which was delicious. Then was the main meal with pork and a garnish. Then there is the cheese course where we sampled many local cheeses. Some were nice and creamy and some smelled like stinky feet! Then we get to dessert. She made a gluten free pineapple cake and  a  Tiramisu type pudding. Not to be rude I had some of both. While I normally do not care for coffee flavors in anything, the Tiramisu was quite delicious as well as the cake. At this point I am afraid I am going to pop. Luckily there are conversations between courses so we have time to digest between each course. Finally was the coffee or tea course but I politely declined. This was only lunch and took about 3 hours. The conversation was about 60% French with someone translating with someone help translating for us when they would get into a conversation. Everyone at the table speaks some English so we could understand quite a bit.

Ally was at the children's table with 3 girls who only know how to greet each other in English. I think it is the quietest she has ever been in her whole life :) After the pasta, the girls were already full and they wanted to go play. As soon as the kids had the toys to relate to, language didn't seem to be a problem at all. The girls talk so fast in their little voices that I can only pick out a word or two in each sentence, but with a Barbie in hand, they knew just what to do.

Now we needed to work off some of this food or we wouldn't need to eat until the end of the week. So we put on our rain jackets and went for a walk through old town Laval. This isn't like Old Sac which dates back to 1850, these castles and buildings go back to the 1200s.

Even though it was cold and raining we still enjoyed our walk and every time we turned a corner it was so picturesque. We went through some gardens and to a local park.

 Eric, Gilles, Armand, Louison, Judith, and Nadege

Ally and Gaby

Ally, Gaby, Anna, and Marie

After walking through the village we went to Laval's pride and joy, their cheese factory. The cheese factory started here with 1 employee in 1933 and has 17,000 employees in many countries around the world. Many brands are made by the company and labeled by many brands we have at home. This was a museum of the original equipment along with old fashioned butter and cheese making items from all over the world.

After the factory we said goodbye to Nadege and Fabians family with more kisses cheek to cheek and headed home. It was 8 pm and we sat down to watch some TV including Les Simpson in french. It was quite funny. Then we watched a new British Dr. Who show (which ended up giving Ally bad dreams). We heard Judith in the kitchen and we asked Armand and indeed dinner was being prepared. We are really going to have to start pacing ourselves with this food stuff =) Luckily it was just some delicious soup and baguettes and then fruit, chocolate, and our favorite macarons for dessert! C'est tres bien!

Bon Nuit!