Central IL Visitors!

At the beginning of June (yes, I do realize it's the middle of July and I'm just now blogging this), we had some visitors from IL! Lisa was our French tutor for a few brief days in IL before we came to France in Sept 2008. She did her best to teach us and our kids a tiny bit of French while we were packing up our house. Needless to say, I'm not sure I learned very much from her, but it was a good chance to hear a little French before being tossed into French full time, and the kids did have a chance to learn a few of the basics. Lisa was so kind and understanding, and we kept in touch over the past year and 1/2. So when she decided to take a trip to France with her daughter, Jenica, we were so glad to be a part of their agenda!

The weather was not very great, but we had a chance to tour around Grenoble one afternoon while the boys were in school. Here are Lisa and Jenica in front of the Grenoble Bubbles, the cable cars that go up to the Bastille or fort.


We took the Bubbles up to the Bastille and walked around a little. The view wasn't so great with all the clouds. Behind the fort are these caves that the French army built to hide from invadors. I don't think they were ever used, but they're fun to walk through.

I think we were not wearing the appropriate shoe attire for a cave and rain for about 20 days straight, but we made it and no one fell!

Another picture along the river with the Bubbles and the Vercor mountains behind.

After the boys were home from school, we drove up the mountains behind our house to watch some paraponters jump.

This guy was apparently either a) really hot from lugging his huge parachute around and needed to cool off, b) just trying to catch some rays or c) just changing and we happened to walk by whilst he was (only) in his skivvies. Either way, it is such a typical French sighting and I had to take a picture of it and share. You're welcome.

The boys and Jennica with the valley and the Belledonne Mountains in the background.

We are so glad we were part of their French tour! Thanks for taking the time to come and stay with us, Lisa and Jennica, we loved having you! And special thanks for watching the boys and letting Kevin and I have an evening out sans kids :)