Coucou (Hello)

View from Mountain
Waterfall
View from Mountain
Brandi, Karine and Audrey
View from the Corcella's porch
Yvette, Jean-Claude, Audrey, Karine, Brandi, Cedric, Cedric and Mindy
Jennifer, Brandi and Mindy at dinner
From Mountain
Someone parachuting from mountain
Toilette

What a great time we are having with Brandi and her friends. Brandi's french friend Audrey and her family are wonderful. Last night we went to a French restaurant called Le Comptoir with them. They speak pretty good English, but it was still alittle stressful for us at first. It was only frustrating because we couldn't speak French and some of their English is with a different accent. They were very patient and helpful so it ended up being less stressful than we first thought. Their tradition is to have a before dinner drink (We had Kir w/ Raspberry , which is a white wine with a raspberry syrup), Entree (starter-salad), Plats ( Main course which we had white fish along with zucchini and tomatoe cooked in an oil), and dessert ( Chocolate cake with ice cream - Fondany aux deux chocolats). Brett.. I was thinking about you when I was eating this... you would have loved! We were exhausted last night since we had been up for 36 hours with about 4-5 hours of sleep so we crashed after dinner and slept so well. We awoke at 10 am this morning and Brandi had gone to the pastry shop and got us a french pastry with choc--very yummy. Brandi's friends came to pick us up around noon and took us to a mountain where we took (trolly) up the mountain to Saint Hilaire du Touvet. It was really really steep and it took us to the top to an outlook point. There were people parachuting off the mountain-which was really cool to watch. Before we went back down the mountain, we had to use the toilette (which is a European word for restroom) and when we got there we discovered there was no seat, only a hole!! We have attached a picture - Very interesting! Then they took us to another mountain called Chartreuse and we drove all the way up the mountain to a Fort. The drive was a little scarey, the road was very narrow, winding and people drove very fast. However, we had a cautious driver and made it to the top. We have a lovely view of Grenoble. After that we went to Audrey's parents home for dinner-which is the picture attached with the pool. We had a great meal but were really tired from the day. We leave for Paris tomorrow morning at 5:30 so getting ready for bed and will not post again until Tuesday night when we return.

Bonjour a tous

View from Brandi's apartment
Mindy and Jennifer
Jennifer and Mindy
Mindy and Zumandi
View from plane
View from Brandi's apartment balcony

We made it to France! The flight wasn't bad from Detroit to Amsterdam. The plan was huge and a double decker. We sat next to a 19 year old girl from South Africa named Zumandi - she was a trip! She had been in Florida for the past two years for internship and was on her way home to stay. She flew with us from Detroit which which was a 7 hour flight, then she was flying from Amsterdam to South Africa which is a 16 hour flight - seriously! Zumandi was VERY chatty and well traveled, so we enjoyed chatting with her. She recommended that we sample "hash brownies" while in Amsterdam....haha! Don't think we'll be trying that. We have never been fed so many times on a plane. Our dinner was pretty good, we had chicken with rice and peas (tasted a lot better than it sounds), salad with ranch, a roll, cheese/crackers, and Oreos. After our dinner and FREE wine we were pretty tired, so we slept on and off for the next 3-4 hours. We were awoken by breakfast being served which was a fruit cup and an egg and cheese sandwich. Breakfast was at 11pm Illinois time and midnight in Indiana so we weren't real hungry. We saw the sun rising over the ocean while seeing land all at the same time. We tried taking a picture of it from the plane but it didn't turn out great. Amsterdam is a really nice airport - we were surprised by the fact that everything in the airport was in English and that they have Playboy magazines out on the magazine rack next to the Time magazine! We were delayed an hour in Amsterdam due to fueling problems. We finally boarded the plane and sat for another hour and a half. This was a small plane probably only holding 50 people. Two seats on each side and of course the lady an aisle over wasn't wearing deodorant in true French fashion and there was no air circulating for 1.5 hours!! Wow! Of course, once we boarded the plane, they no longer spoke English so we had no clue what they were saying the problem with the delay was. We only understood 5 more minutes, which went on for an hour and a half. We slept the entire flight which was probably two hours. We landed in Lyon and experienced the rude French people - everyone for themselves is their motto we think! Brandi's apt is so nice and BIG...she is in a great location too. There are shops everywhere and Sephora is right next door. We have attached a couple of pictures of the view from Brandi's balcony. We are going to shower and get settled and then we have dinner at 8pm with Brandi's French friends. More to come! A bientot!