Day 9: Beynac et Ceznac, France or "The velociraptors of France"

June 24: Paris to Beynac et Ceznac

The day started poorly for Toby who used the maps application to locate our rental car. It literally showed that he was standing at the car place but in reality he was in the middle of a lovely park with not a single store front to be seen. Of course, we should have guessed after our metro and underground mall experience that Paris apparently has as many stores underground as they do above! Of course Toby prevailed and eventually pulled up to collect us in a snappy Peugeot mini van! The kids were NOT impressed with our ride but it was nice! Bailey suggested that a limousine would have been a better choice for us. Really? That champagne seems to have impaired you permanently! (I am having a difficult time getting past that... can you tell? :)

After a stressful escape from Paris, we made our way down to the Dordogne, which is about half way between Paris and Barcelona (our next stop). OH. MY. GOODNESS. This is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. There are castles and fancy chateaus in every direction and the village of Beynac is incredibly charming and REALLY old! We stayed about a mile out at a lovely farm house that was quintessential french country.

As we pulled up, we saw a large flock of geese wandering the yard. So cute! Yet NOT cute! They were vicious! Poor Jensen wanted to "pet" the geese and if you can see the video here, it was NOT successful! The boys said they are like the velociraptors of France and we now avoid them like the plague.

That did NOT end well...

The house also had a beautiful pool that looked out at the Beynac Castle. The brothers of Team Testosterone decided to play "The Trust Game" which entails one brother holding another brother's hands as he leans backwards over the pool... TRUSTING that they would not let go and the (not so smart trusting) brother would tumble backwards into the pool. Did I mention that they were ALL wearing clothes at this point. God forbid the put on swimsuits first! I will give you one guess who was the brother that should NEVER have trusted his big brothers.... yep, Jensen. How hard is it for two teenagers to keep hold of a tiny fourth grader!? Needless to say, they were laughing so hard I am surprised they did not pee their pants. Jensen, of course, was NOT laughing but just stayed in the pool in his clothes for the duration of the time (until Riley took his shirt and started wearing it as a head wrap).

Catchin' French Fish

Riley loved that there was a pool and a hot tub and said it really was beautiful outside in the yard but he kept commenting that the house was sort of creepy and he thought "Betty Crockett" was going to murder us in our sleep. I finally had to say, "What in the world are you talking about? Betty Crockett?"

The TINIEST wine glasses in the world!

"Yes! Isn't she the one that killed her parents with an axe?"
"Ummm... NO! That was Lizzy Borden! Betty CROCKER wrote cookbooks and DAVY Crockett was a frontiersman! None of them were murderers to the best of my knowledge!"

After changing out of the wet clothes (and bathing suits for the UNtrustworthy big boys) we headed over to the little town of Beynac where our friends, the Reinkings were staying. The boys bought fishing nets and did some hand fishin' in the Dordogne river while the adults did some wine drinking! Afterwards we had a great dinner at La Petit Tonnelle with both the Reinkings and the Faurots.

The Reinking's abode.
Very modern on the inside!

The last activity of the evening was for the adults to take a walk up the (VERY) steep cobblestone streets to the top while the kids played Spoons in the Reinking's adorable cottage. I would have liked to stay one more day here but we only have tomorrow and then we head off to Barcelona.