L'ile de Ré

Five days after we arrived in France, we drove on Wednesday with Sophie and Rafael to Eric's family cottage on an island off the coast in the Atlantic - l'ile de Ré.  It's a very spot with beautiful beaches, large salt marshes, not too much development, and bike paths throughout the island.  

Here we are at the cute little family cottage - La tibo de Re 

This is looking from the yard at the side of the house at the patio.  

Looking from the patio into the yard.  Eric's father built the concrete picnic table, with footings that go 6 feet into the ground....

The inside of the house is very eccentric, with large hand made bugs and wooden birds, all made by Erics's father.  The coffee table is made from an old anchor.  

This is the view from the second floor kid's room.  All buildings on the island have the red tile roofs and white walls.  

We ate all our meals outside, and had great weather!   

The beaches were large and unspoiled.  We swam every morning, and often went for a second swim in the afternoon.  The waves were fun.  

On our first bike ride, Gary had to stop and try the grapes in the vineyard.  They were tasty! 

We biked all over the island.  Here is Genia biking in one of the small alleys.  Hollyhocks were growing all over.

Here is a group photo from going to get a cake at a local boulangerie.  On the way, we went through salt marshes, and saw where the salt was collected.  

Here we are at the gates of St. Martin, one of the villages on the island.  The entire village was fortified in the Middle Ages.  

Here are a couple ornaments on buildings in St. Martin.

Gary and Rafael visited Mille Sabords, the only store in the world that is entirely dedicated to Tintin paraphernalia.  Genia found a little keychain with "Milou" (Snowy), Tintin's dog that looks an awful lot like our dog Rex.  Many people stop us on the street saying "Oh!  You have Milou!"

Gary was very excited to find a "Nemo" car, named after his friend in Ann Arbor.  

In St. Martin, we visited a friend of Sophie and Eric's that owns an antique store.  Last summer in Lake Charlevoix we met Julie and David, who had bought one of his tables, and shipped it back to their cottage!  

One of the sunsets on the beach.  

 

One of the areas had a giant boardwalk that was enjoyable for strolling at night. 

Having a good time in the St. Martin harbor!  

Wine Tasting

A couple weekends ago we went to our first wine tasting.  It was a beautiful sunny warm Saturday afternoon at an organic winery not too far from here. The winemaker had invited other organic winemakers from the area to join, so we were able to sample quite a few wines -- reds, whites, and sparkling wines.   

The happy couple.

Tom's cousin Sophie, her husband Eric and Genia mingling.

 
The setting at the local vineyard.

Sampling the wine.  The fellow in the middle was a very nice young man from Japan.  His parents owned a wine shop in Japan, and he was here in France to learn about wines.

Eric and the owner of the local winery.

A drummer entertained.

 Eric making a point.

A smiling merchant.

Genia and Sophie.

Another wine merchant.

 Genia sampling some of the food that was provided.  The goat cheese was excellent.

 Genia met a German woman with a cute baby.  

 Here we are after a few drinks.

 Sophie took a break to knit. That's our case of wine at her knees.

 Other folks took a break to drink some Perrier after a hard day of work.  

Inside our Home

This Saturday will be our fourth week in France.  We've had a busy week.  We went to Ikea an hour away;  bought a used sofa, and a used TV for Gary's video games.  Gary tried out badminton with a new friend who is bi-lingual.  We are really feeling more settled into our house.  We wanted to give you a look inside.  

Genia is bidding you to come inside from the street gate.

Here Genia welcoming you to the front door of the house into our living room.  Gary loves to sit here on the sofa and play on the iPad.

Here are Genia and Rex at the back entrance, leading to the kitchen.  

Our kitchen is an addition to the back of the house.  It has two large sliding glass doors looking out into the back yard.  It is our favorite room in the house. 

This is our expresso machine on loan from Eric, Sophie's husband.  

George Clooney promotes this machine in their ads!

Here is our vintage toaster.  Simply an on-off switch, so it is easy to burn the toast!

Our first floor guest room.

The map of France that we have place in our first floor guest room.  Genia is pointing to our location. 

Gary doing what he likes best on the new used TV.

Tom is talking on our landline that calls free to the US. 

Genia is sitting on our new used sofa.

This is the formal dinning room at the front of the house where we mainly write the blog.

The china cabinet in the formal blog room.

Now let Genia show you upstairs.

Gary's bedroom with big windows that look out to the village street. There is also an extra single bed in his room for his friends that might be visiting.  

Tom & Genia's bedroom, with orange sheets!!!

The upstairs bathroom.

The hallway leading to the 2 bedrooms and the bathroom.

Actually it has 3 bedrooms upstairs but one is locked because it has Mdm. Ferron mother's momentos.

Gary watering one of the four potted plants on top of the fence.