St. Pierre de Granoupiac

The last leg of my trip to France was one week spent in the glorious southern countryside, just 30mins west of Montpellier. My maternal grandfather owns a family property in St. Andre de Sangonis, where we have been spending our vacations ever since I was little. It's a fabulous place to retreat to: there's enough room to house all my aunts and uncles and cousins (the grand total coming to about 40 people!), there's a huge pool to cool off in, and we're close enough to the city to recharge when we get sick of being out in the country. I've always cherished these family moments, but it was even more special this year because it had been such a long time since I last went. We took advantage of the fact that most of my mom's family was there to celebrate my grandma's 80th birthday, which meant a fabulous meal and lots of dancing in the living room.

Here are some snapshots of the family reunion.

The main house, as seen from the yard:


Potted trees lining the house:


You can't swim in the pool till all of the algae has been cleaned out!




The most efficient method proved to be ducking into the water from inside the boat, while being held by the ankles, and tugging on the plants; and then being pulled in to "shore":








As family tradition will have it, you can't have dinner without first having pre-dinner drinks!






Eating dinner outside by candlelight (I didn't eat a single meal inside the whole time I was there, that's how great the weather was!):


More playing in the pool:














My baby cousin Paul being a "sousmarin" (deep-sea diver):




We drove to Montpellier one day to see the latest Harry Potter movie, which was kind of a disappointment:


Mom and Caroline with Paul:


The girls with Paul:


The guys love getting together over vacation because they can play soccer EVERY day!








Benoit is a great story-teller. Here he is telling jokes to a captivated audience:




And then the party started...We got all dressed up, had a nice fancy dinner, then danced until the wee hours of the night to celebrate Grandma's 80th birthday!
The kids' dinner table...there's a lot of them!










The girls eating dinner:


Caroline and Joe:


Gregoire, all smiles:


And then there was dancing...






















































The next day, my Mom organized some outdoor games for the kids to play. There were sac races, ring tosses, egg transfers, bobbing for apples, blind-folded obstacle courses...They got kind of competitive!
















And then the boys thought it would be funny to race on piggy-back...but it turned sour when Damien fell under Louis' weight and scraped his knee really bad...