Vive la France.

Ben invited Me and Meagan D. to come to France with him for a few days and stay with his family. He lives in the town of St. Martin de Boscherville, which is right next to Rouen. We were supposed to go at the end of April for about 5 days. He had a wedding to go to, and we were going to spend the day in Paris, where Brendan was flying to meet us, while he was at the ceremony and reception. We got up at the crack of dawn, went through security at 5 in the morning, and walked across the entire airport to our terminal. 20 minutes later our flight was listed as "cancelled" due to "adverse weather conditions." Rain? No. Snow? No. It looked fine outside, and Ben found out that the weather in France was also fine. I suggested that maybe it was a tornado, and we all laughed at what a ridiculous suggestion that was. Then we heard words like "volcano" and "Scandinavia" being thrown around. Apparently a volcano erupted in Iceland and the ash cloud was so enormous that it was covering Iceland, most of Scandinavia, England, Scotland, Ireland, and France. And all flights out of the Dublin airport were cancelled. We thought it was some kind of a joke at first, but then about an hour into the 5 hour wait line to talk to a representative from RyanAir to change our flight,
reality sunk in.

We spent most of the morning and a bit of the afternoon waiting to switch our flight for a few days later, which was then also cancelled the day before it should have set out. Ben missed the wedding, which I know made him sad, and we missed meeting all his friends and most of his extended family. It was incredibly disappointing. However, not many people can say they were directly affected by the ash cloud like we were. We were among the few hundreds of people who had their flight literally cancelled at the airport in the beginning of the disaster, which is kind of cool in a glass-half-full kind of way.

We had a lot of trouble re-booking any flights to France, which was driving Ben crazy, so I just tried to be as nice to him as possible while he yelled at his computer in French. Eventually we got through and Ben, Meagan, Brendan and I booked our flight to France, and hoped that it would go through. According to the weather predictions there was a better chance we would be unable to fly back from France to Ireland, rather than flying to France in the first place.

Finally we got to France and, after a short drive, made it to his house at around noon. His mother made us lunch, and we relaxed for a few hours.

Before picking up his youngest sister Lucie from school, we played around on his trampoline for a little while.

Meagan.

Me.

Brendan doing a jump.

This is the back of Ben's house. Unfortunately this is the only picture I got of his adorably French country house. I'll be there once more before I come home, though, and I'll take a few house shots while I'm there.

Brendan became very close with Ben's cat while we were there.

Ben and his other sister Caroline took us to the firehouse where they both work and showed us their uniforms, vehicles, and all the different tools they use. Then they helped us all try on their uniforms.

This is Ben's locker.

Getting suited up!

Me in the full French fireman uniform.

France, I salute you.

Meagan in her uniform.

The three of us, (Me, Meagan, Brendan).

Outside the station.

Looking mighty official, I'd say.

We also drove down this little country road to go see Ben's stepfather's horse (cheval, en francais).

I don't know how to spell his name, but it was pronounced "pink-way."

I was standing in front of the horse petting his nose, and he looked happy at the time, when suddenly he sneezed all over my sweater. Meagan got a picture right after the incident, and as you can see Brendan found it pretty amusing:

If you walked up to the fence the cows would all stare at you, as you can see with Ben above. Meagan and Brendan soon discovered that they would also follow if you walked along the fence line! My guess is it was close to feeding time. Or they were just curious cows. (vache)

Ben's town is the perfect little quaint French town. Everything was cute, the people all knew each other, and we loved seeing where he grew up. Meagan took this picture on the way to the church in St. Martin de Boscherville.

Here's the church:

The inside was enormous and stunning.

We spent one of our afternoons exploring Rouen, which is where Ben went to school.

Rouen street shot.

On the lower left hand corner of this building you can see that there are some large holes that were left from WWII.

Underneath the clock above were the sculptures that you can see below:

I was particularly excited to get to see Rouen Cathedral. After studying about the architecture and the series of Rouen Cathedral paintings by Monet in my art history classes, it was incredible to see it all in person:

There was an exhibit in the church while we were there. It was a series of enormous, animated, colorful paintings done by a priest who was inspired by Monet. This is one of the two colorful canvases. The third was a similar style, but all in black, whites, and gray tones.

We saw many outdoor cafe areas like the one above, and settled in one that was popular for young people, according to Ben. We got comfortable and enjoyed our French treats:

It was a soft bread filled with chocolate. Delicious.

Another Rouen street.

For one of our evenings we went to Maxime's house. I met Maxime the first night I met Ben because he was visiting Ireland. They grew up next door neighbors and have been best friends all of their lives. Here is Maxime's house:

This is a barn by Maxime's.

A garage behind his house.

In the beginning of the evening we played outside:

I found a swing to entertain myself while Meagan took photographs. Brendan and Maxime played ping-pong:

And as the night grew later we went inside and goofed around for the rest of the night.

Ben and Brendan.

Brendan was convinced he could leg-lift 400 pounds, or something like that. I wasn't really paying attention until he tried to lift Meagan. He succeeded, but she is absolutely not 400 pounds so I still have my doubts about his claim...

Ben and I after a long night of fun. haha

Brendan took the train to Paris a day earlier than we did, and Ben, Meagan and I spent the day with his family. They took us to Le Havre to have lunch with his mother's parents at a nice restaurant, and we came back and played Rummy together. Even though none of his family speaks any English except for Ben, it was easier to interact than we had expected.

Me, Ben's stepfather, and Meagan at his grandparent's house.

After lunch we walked to the beach to a festival. There was some kind of skateboarding, rollerblading competition going on.

And then we walked down to the beach:

On our last full day in France Ben drove us into Paris to meet Brendan and explore the city.
At lunch Brendan and I made a scavenger hunt contest for our day in France where we had to find things like 'a person in a beret' and 'foreign couple arguing' and 'poodle.' I won by three points. :)

These balconies were on almost every building.

Here I am shortly after I learned that the Musee D'Orsay is closed on Mondays...what the heck. But I'll be back with Kelsey, and Meagan would be back with her mother, so it wasn't as awful as it could have been. We will have another chance. Thank goodness, because this was the one place I really wanted to see again. It is full of impressionist work from some of my favorite painters, and I would be broken-hearted if I got that close to them and could never see them.

Here is Meagan D. and I in front of one of the animal statues outside the museum.

We went to the Eiffel Tower, naturally.

And stopped at the Notre Dame Cathedral as well.

I think this picture Meagan took is the best way to end this entry. At one of the parks we stopped at there were these three old men on the bench talking to each other, and Meagan and I just loved them!

France was an incredible adventure, and it was very nice of Ben to invite us to his home. His family was patient and accommodating, and I know I can speak for all three of us in saying it was a trip we will never forget.