This time I decided to start off the trip with a visit to Pau. A small town in the south of France. In high school, I did a 2 week exchange and stayed with a family in Tours. In December of last year, I was able to meet up with Jérémy in San Antonio for the first time in 16 years when he was there for a medical conference. After we visited, he said I was welcome anytime to visit his family in France…so here I am!
My flight to Paris was uneventful. Had a nice ride over with the on demand system available on the Air France flight. The service was super too…so…bonus! Security took forever, it worked out well that I had 4 hours to kill before my connection to Pau. We boarded a little late and I was drifting off into dreamland when we took off. My final few moments to rest before my latest European whirlwind tour. It was rainy outside, which added to my sleepiness. I could feel the plane start to accelerate, closed my eyes, we were in full throttle take off mode, then the pilot slammed on the brakes. My stomach lunged into my throat. WHAT!!?! After about 10 minutes of us all looking at each other like, "WTF just happened?", the pilot came on and said we were headed back to the gate to take a look at the plane. A warning light had come on in the cabin, so they needed to check it out. After another hour or so, we finally made it into the air! Whew, this time takeoff was flawless.
As we turned for the final decent, there was a gorgeous view of the Pyrenees and the town looked just picture-perfect from the sky. I was so excited to be there to see Jérémy and meet the rest of the Monge family!
Jérémy picked me up from the airport and we headed into town. There is a gorgeous view from the Boulevard des Pyrénées that looks across to the mountains and you can see the symbol of the region, the Pic du Midi d'Ossau...it's the peak in the center.
It was a beautiful day with a blue sky and perfect weather. We strolled and enjoyed the day then stopped at an outdoor café to have the special flavored water at the Royal Saint-André. They do about 30 different waters with secret recipes that have names like “water of the angels” and “water of the leprechauns”. It was so refreshing and different! Jérémy’s was cranberry-ish and mine tasted like vanilla and something sweet and sugary.
From there, we walked to the castle and circled back through town. I was surprised they even had their own H&M (Houston doesn’t have one yet!), along with a ton of cute little individually owned shops.
We then headed back to the house and I was able to put my things down. Their house is beautiful! It is just outside of town and has a ton of space for the girls and a huge garden (or what we call a yard). As I was putting away my bags, cute little Elorine peeked her head through the door. She said hello and giggled off to her mommy, Annabelle. We all did our French cheek kisses to say hello...even Elorine! :) Baby Serine was beautiful too with her big eyes and big happy smile.
We relaxed at the house for little bit, then, when the babysitter arrived (who spoke “proper” English that she learned from her mum :) ) we headed out for dinner. We went to Le Goxoko, a pretty place in town, and sat outside on the rainy, but pretty evening. We all had the salmon tartar then duck dishes for dinner. They had the confit du canard (I didn’t know how delicious this would be yet) and I tried another duck dish that was like a really fancy drumstick. My first time to try it…since it’s the “it” meal of Southern France. We also had awesome wine from the Loire Valley (where I stayed with the Monge’s in high school). The only goofy thing was they served it cold…red wine cold? Even Jérémy and Annabelle agreed that this was a sin in France...but it was still great! For dessert, we had a custard with 3 spoons and left so full and happy!
After dinner we went to a little bar called “The Living Room”. I had a couple of my trademark ritas…shocking, I know! We hung out with 4 of the Monge’s friends and enjoyed the music, friends, drinks and even little kiddos running around in the place!
When we got home, I crashed like a rock…knowing we were getting up relatively early to head to beaches in Spain and France! A bientôt!!
1 comment:
That's the fanciest water that I've ever seen! But I'd pay to taste "water of the angels" any day! Looks like a great day with Jeremy and his family and friends!
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