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The impetus for our European adventure was an invitation to a birthday celebration in Bordeaux France.  I have written many times about Kelly’s host family, the Ohlsons, from Kelly’s1979 student exchange to Sweden.  Kelly has remained close to her exchange sisters and the Ohlson family had many exchange students through the late 70s and early 80s.  As a result, Kelly has an extended family of exchange siblings spanning the globe like a spy network. 

One of her extended sisters is Nathalie, a French wine merchant in Bordeaux who was an exchange student with the Ohlsons in 1982.  This year Nathalie turns 60, as does her husband Nicholas and somehow, we were invited.  Its possible we just crashed the party but they didn’t seem to mind.  We joined Kelly’s exchange sisters Karin and Hanna along with their husbands and children to celebrate in Bordeaux with Nathalie and 20-30 of her friends and family from across France and as far away as Sri Lanka.

After a short flight from Amsterdam, we arrived in Bordeaux and picked up our leased Dacia Sandera through Renault’s lease program.  We find short-term leasing much cheaper than long-term renting.  A month’s lease with full insurance cost us about $1100.

It is good to be friends with a wine merchant when visiting Bordeaux, Nathalie arranged our tour and wine tasting at Chateaux Pressac, a wonderful Bordeaux house with reasonably priced wines.

We were joined on our tour by 4 young American women, three were former college roommates who were on a girl’s trip to France with tickets to attend an all-night costume ball held each year at Versailles Palace.  Having never heard of it we had fun chatting and learning how they got tickets, designed their own elaborate ball gowns and packed it all to France.  The gown pictures were amazing.

After our tour and a great lunch, arranged by Nathalie of course, we then joined Nathalie and her friend Patricia at the Bordeaux wine festival along the banks of the Garonne river.  A fun evening of wine tasting and good training for the coming birthday celebration as we did not meet up until almost 8 which is the normal dinner time in France and close to our bedtime when we are at home.   The Swedish sisters all arrived the next day and we gathered in nearby Cap Ferret a coastal resort town for the birthday festivities. 

We all stayed at a VVF camp with individual cabins around a forested property with a central pool and lodge, it felt a bit like a family resort from the 50s.  Cap Ferret is a peninsula separating the calm waters of Arcachon Bay from the Bay of Biscay and the Atlantic. 

It makes for a unique seaside experience with surfing waves on the western shore and oyster beds on the eastern shore.  The first night was a casual picnic at a park overlooking the Arcachon bay.  Unfortunately, the tide was far out in the bay so swimming was not an option.  But there was plenty of food and Bordeaux wine so all was good.   The “picnic” started around 7 PM.

Saturday was the big day of celebration scheduled in detail by Nathalie.  First a 20km bike ride around the peninsula with a stop for a swim on the ocean side, followed by an amazing lunch at a bayside fish café.  Trays of Oysters, shrimp and sea snails served with bottles of white and rose’.   Nathalie likes to end a meal with a sweet so after filling ourselves with seafood we walked over to a coffee shop for coffee and a sweet.  Next we boarded traditional motor boats for a 2 hour relaxing cruise around the Bay of Arcachon.  There may have been some napping as we cruised slowly on a sunny afternoon.  I could get used to this French way of life, especially one curated by Nathalie.

After biking back to our camp we prepared for dinner.  Which included a second nap.   We were told we could keep our bikes and ride to dinner but Kelly and I opted out after riding back along the same 5 mile route we would take to the restaurant. 

Dinner started around 8 with course after course of small bites paired with progressively larger and larger bottles of wine.  Dessert arrived somewhere between midnight and one, with Champagne of course.

 Shortly after the dancing started Kelly and I decided to call it a night around 1:30.  The party continued until 3:00 AM after which the entire Swedish contingent rode their bikes the 5 miles back to the camp.   Kelly and I are obviously party amateurs. 

After a weekend of celebration, we joined the Swedes for three days with Nathalie and Nicholas at their 300 year old French Farmhouse in the Dordogne countryside. 

The house sits above pastures and woodlands with beautiful views.  We spent our time touring nearby villages, a Chateaux, cooking meals, sipping wine and talking late into the night,   A wonderful way to finish out our stay.