Welcome to the Dourdannerie!

The Dourdannerie is the name of the group of houses (I think there are ten) where I am staying in Bretoncelles. Since there aren't street names, the houses have names, so technically the house is called Chemin de Louise in the Dourdannerie, in the city of Bretoncelles. So far it's been raining on and off, with bouts of sun and then cloudyness, but very very windy. So Dourdannerie is in Bretoncelles, which is in the region called La Perche, which is part of the department Normandy. La Perche is known for Percheron horses, which I am excited about. I got a tourist guide where you can visit the different places that raise percherons, and if you want go for a ride in the woods. There are many many different chateaux, manners, cottages, farms, and even monastaries to visit in the area.
Our next door neighbors have a bunch of ponies that are lose behind their house, I went to give them carrots this morning and check out the trails behind our house. I took a few photos since it wasn't raining to put up on the blog.


Photos of the house from the outside. The first from the road, where you can just see the house above, through the trees. And then the other has Jeremie and his grandfather waving at me as I took the picture. If you look close you can see their old Renault that lives stays here and serves as the "country car". And the third is the view from the living room.




Picture of the living room, with a huge fireplace and all of our chairs with our coats around.


Me with "the neighbors"... :)

And me waving from the fields behind the house, their property goes all the way back and includes the forest behind.


I also took a photo of one of the works of art done by Jeremie's late grandfather. His mother's father. The house belongs to his father's father. His other grandfather is fairly well known, his name is Etienne Ret. I really like this painting of his, which happens to be in the bedroom where I am sleeping. :)

Valentines Day! (and Jeremie's birthday)

Valentines day for me in France was definitely a very good day. Because of my prior week at home recovering from a pulmonary lung infection, I was relieved to feel better and wanted to get out of the house! (I am much recovered now, still really exhausted, these things don't heal overnight). Jeremie and I started off the day by taking a walk along the Garonne, the river that runs through Bordeaux, where there are stores open even on Sundays! We had a great lunch at home and after we had to celebrate with our favorite little friends, obviously Jeremie couldn't blow out his own candles! After our afternoon dessert and tea with friends, we rested, well I rested.
Later that night we went out again to have dinner at our sushi place, which is really close to our apartment. It was too cold, literally, for me to walk any further than our local sushi place. I took the pictures below after walking home from dinner. I had a great day and hope that everyone in the states had a wonderful day as well!

On a completely different note, I find it hilarious to watch the Olympics from the French point of view. They definitely are the biggest fans of the biathlon. I don't think I have even ever watched one from start to finish, and so far I have seen every single one. Pretty different. I guess we don't watch them in the states because the Americans finish 40th....but you know.
I send much love to everyone and assure you that I am on the recovery path. I start two weeks of break tomorrow. We are leaving for Normandie next week sometime (staying in Jeremie's grandfather's country house), my plan is to spend time walking around in the forests, and sleeping.