For two weeks in August we did a whirlwind tour of France. When my sister wrote me that they were coming, I asked what she wanted to see, and she wrote back, "Um, Paris, Champagne, Mont-St-Michel, the Loire Valley would be nice, and Bordeaux of course, and Carcassone."
In two weeks?!
Well we did manage to get some of that in, although it took a lot of driving. We spent a few days
playing with the sunset shadows at the Louvre and eating sandwiches in the gardens of Versailles, through a very odd tour of the Pommery winery in Champagne that featured live birds living underground, a scattered chance of sun in Normandy and a whirlwind glimpse of a historical pirate cove, fields of dead sunflowers in the Loire and the cobblestone maze of Angers, a walk in the rain to find food in Limoges, France's "most picturesque village of under 1000 people," most of which was obscured by a carnival, the dramatic surprise of Rocamadour and the quest for cheese, ice cream, and a poster, the failed excursion to Ikea but a delectable lunch in St. Emilion, a walking tour of Bordeaux but home-cooked Japanese meals at home (I love my Mommy) and the race to 
be the first to crack the top of a creme brulee.My sister tries to crack the creme brulee first, but my mom was too fast!
What we didn't get to was Carcassone, unfortunately. I had seen it before, but neither of them had. But, we had seen a lot of castles and a lot of churches and cathedrals, so I don't think they missed it too badly. Maybe next time. What was great for me, though, was to see my mom. I hadn't seen her in 2 and a half years! For once, France didn't feel quite so foreign to me! All three of us had a lot of laughs, some irritation, the Olympics, and a lot of blabbing. We were 2 sisters on a trip through France with their mother, what do you expect?
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