Vacances au Perche, 2011!

We had a wonderful holiday in France (home exchange!), in the lovely region 'Le Perche', which I had never heard of but which is well worth the visit, with many (many!!!) chateaux, regional markets, prize-winning ciders, and picturesque countryside. But most importantly: du soleil ☼ et la piscine (i.e. pool)! 

Some impressions: 

La maison... pretty, n'est-ce pas?

That's right... I am doing: nothing. Aaahhhh...

Kind of reminds me of a Sesotho mountain shepherd, non?!

Céline appears to have an inbred instinct as to what one is supposed to do on a sunny day on holiday...

French manicure pour tous!

our neighbors!

We even went out for a meal! And it was fun!

Marching up 150 steps to reach the Chateau St. Jean in Nogent le Rotrou

We did it!

The Lord and Lady of the manor

Pas mal, eh? Built +/- 1000AD. 

Les Parisiens Tom and Tatiana come for a visit! Tom teaches Emile the basics of le badminton...

And then Emile shows Tom all sides of the badminton court! Jump for that shuttle, boy! ;)

Dinner très agréable al fresco.

And oh boy did they like Tatiana! Pretty, sweet, and bakes a mean cupcake!

Emile - right where he wants to be!

And Céline seems pretty happy too =)

Put-put in Bellême

Picnic in Bellême. This turned out to be part of Normandy. Hence the rain!

Brou - market

Brou - ville

Brou - parc des loisirs. A very good day out!

Siesta at the park =)

Refreshed and well, the Dutch build some dams and reclaim some land. Because that's what they like to do.

Visiting Bonneval - the 'Venice' of the region, and flower town. Very pretty, and best visited by boat!

Le petit capitain

Ah yes, mama's birthday! Super delicious birthday cake, hand-made by papa. ♥ It took 3 of us to blow out all those candles...!

Visite de Chartres - Céline was very impressed by the whole thing as you can see. ;)

So there you have it! Le Perche in one simple blogpost. Can definitely recommend - we saw a total of 2 Dutch tourists other than ourselves, and it was only 6 hrs away! And now we're back again.Which some of us are happy about, it appears... =)