A Visit from the Pinto-Levine's

June-July 2006.  Our first year in this house, Beverly called from Israel and said she wanted to stop by for a few days on her way to Paris. Our first visitor. And so she arrived with her new black leather backpack in hand. I remember vividly it was the fashion of the year!  We knew then that she was the perfect guest. As we scrapped and cleaned and worked to rennovate the house, Bev hung out, relaxed, read, took naps and just enjoyed doing nothing. She named the one bedroom that was clean after herself and told us she would come again.  Twelve years later, she arrived with her husband, Elliott and her son Sammy (4 plus).

In talking to her before the trip, her biggest worry was how to travel with a husband and son throughout France when she had only traveled as a single woman for many years. Having the experience with Zoe we gave her recommendations and suggestions which she followed to the T and off she went.

Our first suggestion was for them to take the TGV from Paris to Nimes and pick up a car there. Sammy who was a train fanatic was ecstatic and could not stop talking about the train, the scenery and the dog lying in the car. When Zoe and Sammy had their first breakfast, all Sammy did was tell her about the different trains from the TGV to the RER to Thomas the train. Finally, she said to him, "Can't we talk about something else?" 

Zoe was still in school and so we took advantage of her long two hour lunch break and long evenings when the sun doesn't set until 10pm and went on picnics and to the river for dinner and a swim. In between they played tourist in Avignon and Uzes and attended Zoe's dance performance, end of school fete and went to La Bouscarrasse (a water park together on Sunday).

Below are some pictures of our time together.

Zoe and Sammy having a drum concert at the river

Zoe and Sammy at the river

Pantoufle swam out to meet the raft as she didn't want to stay onshore alone

La Bouscarrasse, the water park for young kids

An adult dinner at Table l'horloge in St. Quentin. Pantoufle came with us as Sammy was a big scared of her

Again, what was so wonderful was spending time together, getting to know each other better and talking about everything. It seems that these experiences with friends are hard to come by when we are all working so hard and busy with children and life. We are grateful to have this time!!!