With Claire

Hi, Bonjour,

I drove up to Claire's yesterday and today we went to pick up her wedding dress. :-)
It was an uneventful drive. It's good to just be here, relaxing, trying to figure out the seating, etc.

Last weekend, Paul, Anne, and I drove down to Tours (Larçay, to be exact) with Louis to spend the weekend with Gwen's parents and pick up Gwen for the drive back to Paris. It was a beautiful weekend. We arrived a bit later than scheduled, so we had lunch almost immediately on arrival; the kids took a dip in the pool and then we all went off to walk around the old part of Tours. Tours has refurbished much of its old city center and there were people everywhere -- the streets, the sidewalk terraces, on the banks of the Loire -- all over. Very lively.

There's a monument in Tours, put up by the Americans in honor of the American supply forces that were stationed in Tours during W.W.I. It's a very nice fountain along the Loire. After a few hours of walking, we went to Gwen's grandfather's for a little aperitif drink (Vouvray, of course) and then back to the Thomases for dinner. Very good -- and very filling.

On Sunday morning, we all went to Amboise and visited the Clos Lucé, where Leonardo da Vinci died. It's a beautiful Renaissance house with a view of the chateau (François I lived there) and there's even an underground passage to the chateau. It was a very interesting visit and enjoyable morning. Then, back to the house for another copious lunch before we headed back to Paris.

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Le weekend dernier, nous sommes allés chez les parents de Gwen, les Thomas. Ils habitent à Larçay, quelques kilomètres au sud de Tours. C'était un weekend très agréable -- nous avons bien mangé, peut-être même un peu trop. Nous avons bien fait une promenade digestive à Tours samedi et une autre promenade pré-déjeuner à Amboise dimanche matin pour compenser, mais il faut faire diète cette semaine avant de se rendre à la réunion Reynaud le weekend prochain et le mariage le weekend après !

Nous sommes allés au Clos Lucé, la maison de Léonardo da Vinci, à Amboise. L'exposition des dessins et les petits modèles dans la maison préparent bien à la visite du jardin avec les grands modèles. Très bonne sortie.

Hier matin, j'ai repris la route pour venir chez Claire à Duston. Relax -- on fait le plan de table !