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Saturday, September 24, 2011

Not touring Tours

The whole reason why we left Paris for the Loire Valley was not for the chateaus or its wine, but because the Sasquatch has relatives there. Yes, he's a French-Canadian Sasquatch which is why this trip is so absolutely delightful for me. I have my own walking-talking-French/English dictionary and translator with me 24/7!

The Sasquatch's relatives live in Tours, France. They also live in a house that is made from a cave:

it's like a hobbit house for big people!
It is really quite magical and surprisingly homey and cozy. There is kind of a neat blurring between the indoor and outdoor. The Sasquatch's young second cousin spent the afternoon riding his tricycle around the dinner table inside, then out the door around the courtyard and then back again.

So cute!!!
what must it be like to grow up in a home like this? 
Since the house is built in solid rock, it has an elevator to go to the lower level. Even though it was built for practical reasons (it's easier to have an elevator built than to build stairs when you live in a mountain) there is a certain luxury when you say you have an elevator in you home:

the Sasquatch coming out of the elevator!

That was not the only luxury. Here in Tours, with the Sasquatch's family, I got to experience how a real French family lives. Can I just say dinner went on for 3 hours?  They filled the table with delicious plates of salad, meats, bread, and cheese and I completely gorged, thinking that was dinner. No, that was just the appetizer. There were 2 more hours still to go.

And that is the shorter meal of the day. Lunch was 4 hours!

So with all that eating, we didn't really do much else. It was a wonderful time, even though afterwards I rather felt just like this:

the pig is carrying a ham!