France, premier episode

We have just come back from our three week trip to France, Camille's first world tour. We packed so much into those twenty-seven days, I've decided to blog about it in a series. This way maybe I'll have a chance of doing our trip justice on the blog, instead of being overwhelmed and not blogging about it at all. So here's part one, the first week or so.

We flew into Paris on December 15th after an overnight, uneventful plane ride. Camille slept on the plane when the lights were off and was sweet as a doe when they were on. We had to catch a train a couple hours later for Aix en Provence, where Rémi had a two-day conference.




Rémi's parents were waiting for us at Charles de Gaulle, they had taken the train from Lille to spend some time with us before our train left. It was such a pleasure to introduce Camille to her French grandparents!




Our time in Aix was brief but memorable. What a cool town! Camille and I got to explore a little while Rémi was in meetings, Camille got up to her same old antics in the hotel room (going through her diaper bag).




With Rémi we went out in the evening, and we all caught up on sleep. Then we headed back to Lille.




Our train ride was made longer by the snowstorm that hit France that week, but also lovelier. We passed the most picturesque villages covered in heaps of snow, it was beautiful.




Our welcome at Rémi's parents' house was warm, of course. We felt really embraced by his family, who put a lot of thought and preparation into our visit. We took a walk along the canal in the snow.

We celebrated Christmas in typical French fashion, a seven-hour dinner on Christmas eve followed by gift-giving at midnight.





Of course Camille was asleep for most of this, she opened her gifts before everyone else. She was spoiled!

On Christmas morning she played with her new toys.




Then we went to Rémi's grandparents' house for a Christmas day lunch, more spectacular food.