Rouffiac, France

 I'm at my new home for the next month, in Rouffiac. Pete and Sue were kind enough to drive me 2 hours to get here. Thanks Pete and Sue! The family is very friendly! I'm staying with Barbara and Jerome and their two daughters, Emma and Celestine. Barbara speaks English well and helps me, but for the most part, everyone only speaks French. I can't wait to pick it up so I don't have to struggle so much with communicating! I feel bad for answering most things with "Je ne comprend pas."

 My room

 Emma (left) and Celestine being pushed by yours truly, the greatest swing master of all time.

 My students

Barbara, Emma, and Celestine on our scenic bike ride.




All in all, a great first day! The food has been great! Barbara made lunch and dinner from scratch for 8-9 people. Very impressive :) The only thing was during dinner I had a glass of wine (I was in France, and Daniel said it was the best in France while we had lunch earlier) I wanted to try it. Anyone new here...I don't drink, ever! Anywho, I'm sure it was the greatest wine in history, however, it tasted too alcohol-y for me. A lot. So I had one sip and almost gagged. I couldn't think of a single way to poor it back or offer it to someone without sounding like a complete pansy/rude American. So I sat, trying to figure a way for a while! Finally, during clean up. I did a slight of hand and dumped it into my non clear water cup before poring it in the sink, under the guise of cleaning the water cup. It wasn't much wine! If you're ever reading this, Barbara, I'm sorry! It's my first day and I don't know you all well enough to make that big of a fool of myself :((((((

At least there's a funny story out of it ;)


Good night!

Châteauponsac

Last day here in Auzillac! We made it count! First with the chores:

Soil galore!

Laundry

Finished product :)

Starting our treck around Châteauponsac

All the following photos are from our fun hike around the river:

The beautiful roman road remains

Roman road

See all that water? It was on me one second later...

We weren't allowed to explore this church... Something about the possibility of being crushed to death by the roof. Or something along those lines. I don't see the issue!

The awesome folks hosting me, my cousin (blanket term, he's somehow related to me) Pete, and Sue.

I don't mean to brag, but I made that adorable bunnytail!!!!

Thanks for the amazing times! See you both in July :)

Mellow day

I woke up with a bit of a cold today but I think I'll fight it off by tomorrow with all the tea and vitamin c that I had ;) I still had fun fetching firewood and soil for planting parties! I finished painting the new flower pots and then napped and we had a wonderful lunch with some friends of Pete and Sues. Everything was delicious, of course. And I finally had ratatouille! We had it for dinner. I've always wanted to try it since the Disney movie came out... ;)

The cool firewood storage shed.

The old rustic key to the shed. Woo!

Tomorrow is my last day with Pete and Sue until I return in July for a big birthday party!

Limoges, France

We went to Limoges today and walked about the streets. It was really interesting because all tr buildings were built at different times and we could figure what decade it was built by looking at them. I'm saying the royal "we" meaning Pete and Sue, of course. Here are some pictures I snapped today!

Street in Limoges 

Another street in Limoges

The ancient church among all the shops.

This ancient church was amazing! I'm not a religious person, but it was so peaceful in there, I could see spending time to reflect. 

This building was painted in the 80s to symbolize the square in earlier times. Photo op!

I took this picture of Sue and I (selfie style) at a cafe for lunch in the square. Pete was allll the way on the other side of the table, alas. But there will be a photo of all of us before we leave, believe you me!

My favorite part of the day was visiting the Cathédrale Saint-Étienne. It was so huge! They started building it in 1273 and finished in 1888! Can you imagine?! Patience...anyway, I love the architecture, so here is a bundle of pictures I took while exploring :)

All throughout the cathedral, the heads and faces were missing or destroyed on the angels or statues from during the revolution. Such a shame to destroy this detailed work!

This weird fuzzy/pokey tulip in the garden by the cathedral...

What a fun day!

Auzillac, France

This is where I'm staying now. It's so neat! They have wifi, so I'm able to update more regularly than I might have otherwise :) here are pictures I took over the last couple of days.

View from my window

Taking Charlie, the dog, for a walk

The trail

The dog :)

Châteauponsac

I helped stain the wood on these planters

Our delicious lunch (french baguette is not pictured ;)

Lake Piscine

Lake Piscine

There's so many photogenic things here! 

Making it to Auzillac

I've been at my cousin's place for two days now and it's great! I made it from Paris yesterday. I took the shuttle to the Paris train station. Then I took the B train, changed to C train, and arrived at Gare d'Austerlitz (a bigger train station). I already had my deat reserved on that train and took it to La Souterainne (3 hr ride) to be picked up by Pete, my cousin. It only cost 15€! Total, I spent 22 hours travelling. I was beat!! But it helped me get used to the 6 hour time difference very quickly :)

This kid was playing the piano in the gare and he was amazing! That piano is there for anyone to play, which I thought was amazing. 

He was swarmed by these impressed kids :)

Reykjavik Airport, Iceland

Made it through the boston airport unscathed and flew Iceland Air to a layover in Reykjavik. This was a fun little message in the airplane restroom :) I sat next to a cute old Icelandic couple on the plane. They didn't speak much English, but we all figured out where we were going/coming from and bonded a little. I don't speak any Icelandic...it sounds like they don't use vowels when they talk. It's impressive!

I watched the sun rise on the plane as we passed Greenland! We deplaned outside so I got to experience the lovely Iceland weather.

THAT WIND IS COLD

And last, I viewed the plentiful wardrobe options in their gift shop. I decided against purchasing one.