Jim, Deb, Kate and Morgan return from Paris
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| More Fun with Friends Jim, Deb, Kate and Morgan return from Paris |
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| Jim, Deb, Kate and Morgan had a wonderful time in Paris and the Champagne Region (when they do a webpage, I'll include the link here!), and returned to our house in time for the social event of the year - Ellen's birthday party! It was a simple, at-home party, organized by Ellen. | |
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| After the party we had time to take in a site - so we went to the Abbey ruins at Villers. The kids had a lot of fun running around and playing, while Jim and Deb took photos and relaxed. On the left, Ellen and Morgan head up the ruin stairs to the Abbey vineyards and chapel. On the right, Jim and Deb absorb Villers. This continues to be one of my favorite places and summertime puts a whole new glow on the place. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| On Saturday, we headed for Gent. Upon arriving, we strolled the city and found a place for our picnic. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Of course, we visited the castle in Gent. It has a very interesting exhibit of medieval weapons and a torture chamber. Do our guests look tired yet? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| After our visit to the castle, Deb and I bribed everybody with ice cream into a visit to St. Baafskathedraal, which houses the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb Altarpiece by Jan Van Eyck. It is quite a stunning piece of art, but you do have to pay to see it, and some children seem to have difficulty timing their visits to "Madame Pee Pee" (you usually have to pay a lady to use the toilet - so we have taking to calling her this), so some of us had to leave quickly. Anyhow, upon returning to the Cathedral, we found that it houses a painting by Rubens, "The Vocation of St. Bavo." It is such a joy to come across these paintings in the places for which Rubens painted them. And it is nice to be able to sit in a pew and really learn about the art. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| After our visit to the church, we sampled Belgian chocolate and sat outside on the plaza for dinner. We tried the Waterzooi (a Flemish stew) and Rabbit with prunes (another traditional Flemish dish), while the kids devoured the great Belgian Frites. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Click to see: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| - more of our friends' visit | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| - our homepage | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||