Joyeuse Fêtes!

As I may have already told you, I was lucky enough to be invited to spend Christmas with the family I'm renting my apartment from at their house in Tours, France. It was really fun to finally meet their son, Benoît, with whom I've spoken pretty extensively online (Julien is his best friend).

I took the TGV there on Christmas Eve morning. I think that in France, Christmas Eve is the bigger deal as a general rule. Once the kids are older, even the present opening happens around midnight after the meal is finished. Because theirs is a big family (there are six kids - Vincent, Olivier, Benoît, Virginie, Julie and Pierre), present opening is way more intense than my family!

In a stroke of *brilliance,* I somehow managed not to take any pictures of Benoît ... possibly because he took my camera and took all of the pictures for me. Hopefully I'll be able to get all of the pictures from his sister's camera later on, and then my collection will be more complete!

Benoît decided I should pose with the dining room table ... Really, you should thank him, because I would have felt way to silly to take all of these pictures :) Usually Meg and Gennie are the holiday paparazzi!

Boyfriend?Fiance?Husband? of Virginie, Guillaume, Pierre on right

Julie

Me, Mrs. Bergerault, and Virginie

Mr. Bergerault

Grandma!

The Christmas tree and presents (if you look closely, there's a little manger scene in the lower left... my favorite part was the disco ball hanging on the front hahaha).

Artsy champagne shot ...

I snapped a picture of the train station on my way out of town on Sunday. Benoît gave me a brief history of Tours when I first got there, and explained how briefly during WWII Tours became the seat of government, which is why the city was tremendously hard hit during the war. Consequently, much of it has been redone and doesn't have the same old-school feel. The train station you see here is one of the few old buildings that remains intact. The architect is Laloux, and he also designed the original Gare D'Orsay, which has since been adapted into the museum.

I was so lucky to spend Christmas with everyone in Tours, and it was a lot of fun to be caught up in the bustle of a family for the first time in quite a while :) Naturally I missed all of you though, and I hope everyone had a WONDERFUL Christmas!