The Summer House

In the 60's my grand parents (Mimone & Bon Pa Georges) bought a piece of land near Royan and built 2 houses on it. The first one is called "La ribambelle" which translates as "throng" or "flock" in the wordreference.com website (???). The second one is "La Benaiserie" which means the place where one feels good. Later in the late 90's a 3rd house was built right next to the other 2.



Every single year, our entire family gets together during the summer. This is a great time to catch up, eat fabulous food bought fresh from the market every day, drink fantastic wines and just enjoy a simple life. Every little event is seen as an opportunity to laugh & celebrate. The atmosphere is quite unique (please refer to Cathy's blog on http://expatting.blogspot.com/ for she is much better than me at describing all of this stuff).

I have just spent a few days there and my stay has been enjoyable as ever. As I am writing about this paradise, I realise how lucky we all are.

Still another holiday is coming up!! I am going to the States for two and a half weeks. The first week will be spent in San Diego at Helen's (my dear friend Cathy's grand mother) and the second week in the Grand Canyon rafting and camping in the wild. While staying with us in La Benaiserie, Cathy had the good idea to tell my parents that beside wild waters, the Canyon is full of rattle snakes (some of them pink!) attracted to the warmth of campers sleeping bags at night, that the only way to get out of the Canyon was by Helicopter and later on a tiny (micro) plane (I call them flying moped).

Poor parents, the worries they have to put up with...but what can I do?
I like to live a dangerous life ;-)
Watch out for the post about the snake in my sleeping bag. Until then, bon weekend et bonne reprise à ceux qui ont déjà trop buller.