Historiale de la Grande Guerre

We ventured further afield with Pam this week, all the way to Péronne, in the Somme department, to visit a World War I museum we hadn't been to yet. It's called the Historiale de la Grande Guerre. I found it a bit different and smaller than the museum in Meaux, which we've been to a few times, but we all found it interesting, and I think it's great that we have access to all of this nearby.

I believe these are items found in the area, often by local farmers. The battlefields of the Somme are in this area. You can read more about just how much ordnance is left here.

My three history buffs!

We also took a quick walk around town, through the church and a chocolate shop.

Château de Compiègne

We continued our summer string of visitors with the arrival my high school friend, Pam. She and I visited the Château de Compiegne. I had been to the gardens before, but not inside the castle, so this was a new one for me.

Compiegne is located in a large forest, and was an ideal location for French nobles to go on hunting trips. Louis XV built the castle, and Napoleon restored it after the revolution.

This pink-saturated room was Napoleon's bedroom.

We visited the gardens, too, though it was too hot to wander for too long.

The Wedding

I can't post pictures of the actual wedding here, since it's a public blog, but here are some non-people photos of it. In France, when you get married, you have to get married at city hall first. Then you can do the religious ceremony afterwards. So we all went to the city hall, which happened to be right next door to the church, and then we all walked over to the church.

There was a drinks reception and a dinner reception afterwards. We were some of the first to leave, around 1 am... we're getting too old for this stuff!  

Normandy

Frédéric and I went on a kid-free trip to Normandy this weekend for his sister's wedding.
We had a beautiful drive to get there!

The wedding was beautiful and we had a good time. Gala didn't have quite as good of a time, since my sister-in-law's dog's terrorized her, but she survived and was happy to go home afterwards.

Paris, or, I Won't Do This for Just Anyone

Just ask the friend who visited last week. When I heard she had a friend from Germany who would come see Paris with her, I jumped for joy and let her go on her own! But I agreed to go to Paris with the family members visiting this week.

We had an adventure getting on the train - I wasn't sure I'd find a spot at the train station to leave the car all day, so we had Frédéric take us in two groups. I went with the first group, and we bought everyone's tickets, and waited for the second group. And waited. And waited. I cut the timing a little too close - they pulled into the station just as the train did, and we still had to run underground to the other platform. But we made it!

We started out by taking a peek at Notre Dame, and then the Luxembourg Gardens. After that, we hopped on an RER to go look at (but not go up in) the Eiffel Tower.

My friend who came last week went to the Arc de Triomphe so she could get a view of Paris including the Eiffel Tower. We thought that sounded like a good idea, so we did that, too.

There are not as many stairs as the Eiffel Tower, but they were spiral, so you get dizzy, too. 

It was hot, hot, hot, hot! After the Arc de Triomphe and a stroll down the Champs-Elysées, we decided we had seen enough of Paris. We caught our train back home, and made a bee-line for the kids' pool once we got there.