Love the Land of 4 Hour Lunches

What's not to love about a place where when you are invited for a Sunday lunch, you know that it will last at least 3-4 hours.... We had a fantastic day today! We are so happy to say that we are back into the swing of our French socializing! Some of my French comprehension is even coming back so that I was able to follow some of the conversations today. Today, we took a passenger ferry from Baden (about a 15 minute drive up the coast from us) to Île-aux-Moines. This island is about 6 km long and 3 km wide and only about a 5 minute boat ride from our gulf coast. Some friends of ours just recently completed building their weekend/holiday house on this island and invited us to spend the day with them and some of our mutual other friends.

After arriving by boat, we had to walk the 20 minutes along winding narrow coastal paths to their beautiful 5 bedroom home. A handful of cars are allowed on the island but there are very few roads to actually drive on so it's not practical in many, many ways.
Nowelyn and her husband, Even, do not have a car here but they do have a pool so the minute we arrived at their house, the 16 children (4 for each of the 4 families), jumped into the pool! Now, bear in mind that despite the fact that it was 85 degrees yesterday, today was overcast and never got above 68! The kids were not to be deterred however and swam in the heated pool for hours on end.

The parents enjoyed beaucoup conversation, fantastic seafood caught fresh today, and a fair amount of wine.... We also enjoyed a wonderful and "new to us" aperitif called Pineau de Charentes . Highly recommended for your next social gathering and sure to gain some interest as it's not well known outside of the region of Cognac, France. After our luxurious lunch, the adults headed out for a long walk along the many, many paths and enjoyed seeing some of the old grottos, "laundry" basins, and old, old houses. The island is named the "Island of the Monks" but no monks ever actually lived there. It was just originally owned by a religious group and the island is in the shape of a cross.... hence, the name.

Beautiful!!

It was so great to be among our French speakers again... to hear our kids fall right back into their excellent French and to watch our friends be able to switch back and forth between French and English so effortlessly!! That is my goal!! There is always one person at the table who is not too comfortable with English (today is was Even) and of course, there is always me who is not too comfortable with French.... I'll get there! That is my goal this year! After 7 hours on the island, we took the ferry home.... Great day.....

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