Party Time at Yevres-le-Petit
Trip Start
Mar 27, 2010
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31
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Trip End
Aug 11, 2010
Yèvres-le-Petit, Champagne-Ardenne, France
Friday, June 11, 2010
Riva and Francis have transformed an old wheat grower's home into a gorgeous (and huge) holiday house. They have done a huge amount of the work themselves in both the garden and house and the result is amazing. They have built a huge upstairs space in the area where the wheat was originally stored (some of the beams have dates back to the late 1800’s written on them!). We were given a lovely huge room and the girls slept with Retine in the loft – a nice change from the camper. Francis kindly brought the girls bikes down so they enjoyed riding around the lanes in the tiny village.
As the evening progressed the various friends arrived, firstly Herve and Corrine from Paris and then Armelle and Bernard from Brittany (they had driven 6 hours for the weekend to join us all!). The neighbour (local crop farmer and wine distributor) Patrick and his wife and 2 boys arrived. I think it was about 15 altogether. My French got better as the people arrived and the wine flowed! Mark managed to communicate pretty well especially after a few drinks. The focus (as always here) is the meal and plenty of courses sitting at a large table followed the aperitifs outside on the lawn. It was really wonderful to catch up with them all.
We spent most of the second day around the house enjoying a wonderful midday meal prepared by everyone (picking strawberries from the garden, preparing beans etc). The other focus for the morning was preparing a large placard for the arrival of Nana Sue! Mum was arriving by plane from Syria (her latest travels) and was then taking a train from Paris to Troyes where we were to meet her in the evening.
The meal was delicious and deserves description. Aperitifs and delicious snacks followed by a first course of seafood terrine and homemade mayonnaise prepared by Armelle (absolutely devine). We moved onto roasted pork, fresh beans, marinated peppers (prepared by Herve) and potatoes. This was followed by salad with delicious French dressing and a cheese platter with a least 10 choices of cheese! After this there was Armelle’s gateau and strawberries and cream (luckily the gateau had gluten in it – there was no way I could have eaten that as well!)
In the late afternoon we headed to a local lake area for a walk and onto the station to meet Nana Sue. Great excitement all round as we arrived with our placard! We took the opportunity to wander around Troyes (beautiful city with stunning terraced houses painted in gorgeous pastel colours) and have a meal together (yes more food!). Mum was very excited to see us all and the girls enjoyed sharing their travel tales with her (Kate desperately trying to find a place that we had visited and Nana Sue hadn’t!!)
After a late start on Sunday we all headed to Reims (champagne capital of the world) about 1.5 hours away. We wandered through the Foret Faux (extremely rare and unusual trees see photos) and drove through the lovely Champagne villages in the hills near Reims. In true French style we had a picnic lunch (more like a banquet lunch) roast chicken, salads, champagne, wine, strawberries, rockmelon, gateau etc – these guys know how to eat and drink! We played boules, slept and listened to music. Before heading home we visited the Reims cathedral (absolutely amazing – largest cathedral in France). Francis also took us cross country through the vines of Veuve Cliquot, Moet & Chandon and others!
Armelle and Bernard and Herve and Corrine headed back home from here (they had to work on Monday!) and we headed for a sleepy trip back to Yevres!
