With the help of a young woman sitting a few rows back, we got off at the correct station (I couldn't make out anything the conductor said about the stop names) and found Yohan waiting for us on the platform. We piled our stuff into his little car and made our way through countless villages and beautiful rolling, wooded countryside to his beautiful country home.
Keys to this story are: Peace and Quiet, Food (so much amazing food), and Rest.
The silence around his house was beautiful. When we first started making our way to his village we commented on the small size of the roads: he said that was nothing compared to what was near his house. We wound back and forth, the woods close on either side of us and beautiful woodsy sents coming in through the opened windows. The village has a cluster of maybe 12 other houses, all built in the same style and most converted from their 19th century modest to have modern amenities. Oh, and all of the houses had beautiful baskets of brightly colored flowers lining the windowsills and walkways outside.
The first evening a few of Yohan's French friends came by for a glorious dinner. It started with an apertif, then bread and cheese, small ham and cheese sandwiches (the best I've ever had) and a sweet lettuce and fruit salad. Next Yohan brought out a huge cute of beef that he grilled and served with potatoes, lettuce and corget. To finish we enjoyed a beautiful cherry pie, with freshly picked cherries from a neighbors tree and a beautiful raspberry meringue. We consumed all of this with a few magnificent regional wines before we moved to the living room to enjoy our food-coma bliss before heading to bed.
The next day we spent the morning around the house, still full from the previous evening's meal before we walked the mile of country road to Yohan's grandmother's house for lunch. A large plate of green beans, eggs and tomatoes (all from the garden) awaited us and I went to town eating it, only to find out we had two more courses coming! I don't think I've eaten this much during a meal except for during holidays! Next we had a veal stew-like dish with potatoes and veggies before the finale of a pear pie. Again, I could barely move from the amount I consumed! But everything tasted like heaven!
During the afternoon we did some yoga together on the front lawn and later in the day got some rain so we relaxed inside. When it cleared again, Jackie and I went on a bike ride around the countryside to explore some more. It is beautiful here. Everything is the most lush shades of green, the cows are beautifully white or cream colored, and small brown deer bound from wooded area to wooded area as we approached, disturbing them from their grazing. We rode along smooth single-lane roads, only twice having to move aside for a vehicle (one of which was a tractor).
Another lovely evening meal and we relaxed around the living room with music and conversation to entertain as our stomaches figured out again how to handle the richness and large amount of food.
On our final afternoon Yohan again cooked us up something scrumptious before we hopped in the car for yet another rushed attempt to catch a train. Thankfully it was running late so we are now relaxing on our way to Avignon for a few days of riverside camping!
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