2. Travel

2010 turned out to be a great travel year with some big trips. The first one was in March. David and I headed to Courmayeur, Italy. David's sister-in-law, Fede,  has a winter chalet there which was great as Rob, Fede and baby Giovanni were there too for a ski week. This was my first time skiing in the Alps and it was also my first time skiing in 9 years. The crazy bit about travelling from Canada to Italy was that it was COLDER in Courmayeur, but aside from that it was wonderful and the weather cooperated for great skiing. I was lucky and my ski muscles came back to me quickly and thankfully the majority of the hills were my level. The food was amazing and I am still thinking of some of the meals we ate. Not the mention the hot chocolate at the cafe in the village. Yum!

Village of Turenne, France

Store in Collonges-la-Rouge, France

September brought us back to Europe again, this time to France. We were there to celebrate a big birthday for Uncle Tim. He can tell you the number :) We stayed at a beautiful manor house in a small village of Sarrazac. During the week we (13 adults and 3 kids) toured around the Dordogne region. We came across so many beautiful towns and villages. Included in our touring there was a cave tour in Les Eyzies and hot air balloon ride ( I did not do that). But I was more than happy to hike up the BIG hill every morning, with mum and Susan, to get the freshly baked croissants at L'hopital St Jean. This was a great start to the day! As you can see we did not go hungry and we were spoiled by some amazing dinners, too many to describe. It really was a trip of a lifetime. Thanks Tim for being the birthday boy! David and I finished off the trip with two days in Paris. What a beautiful city. I hadn't been there in over dozen years and had forgotten how architecturally stunning the City of Light is. We walked everywhere and David was kind enough to follow me as I tried to track down paper stores. The hunt found us in some more local neighbourhoods which is always a treat.  The good news is that even though my hard drive ate my photos, I had not erased the France photos from the camera so here are a few to entice you to visit rural France. One more thing. The word of the trip "Fermé". I had not realized that there seems to be a siesta time from noon to 2pm. We found out that many places closed down during this time to rest. Even in Paris there were stores that shut. Not to worry, we quickly adapted and we too were "ferme´" and rested.