After visiting Britain and the region of Pays de la Loire with Carol’s mother, we are now back to Niort the hometown of Alexis.

We went to visit the center of Niort, first we visited the castle, it’s a castle of defense built in the 15th century at the time to defend the city against the English invasion, partly destroyed during the war of religions, from 18th century it was used as a prison. Today is the monument that represents the town of Niort.

Despite the bad weather, we went walking through the streets of downtown.

One day we spent the day in La Rochelle, at 70km from Niort, La Rochelle is a town facing the sea and it’s a very charming tourist place full of restaurants and shops with its port and two famous towers defense at its entrance.

Thursday morning is market day in Niort, so we went for a walk to say hello to the cheeses, the french baguettes, the sausages ect…

All this has made ​​us hungry, and it’s was perfect, cause just after that we went to Coulon in the middle of the Marais Poitevin with the mother of Alexis and Robert in a restaurant specialise in local cuisine. The restaurant was beautiful, Carol and Gloria are tasted homemade duck foie gras , eel with garlic, snails, frogs’ legs, pike of the river and for desert, creme brulee and profiteroles.

After lunch, we went for a little walk on the edge of the river, where we can see some very nice traditional houses of the marais. Alexis knows the area pretty well, because his grandparents used to live here in one of these houses.

After one month and a half spent in France, time to say good bye and leave has come, so we had a family reunion one last time over a good dinner.

Then on Friday, we spent ​​the evening in the bar of a friend to say goodbye to friends, chao everyone and see you next time, we do not know when we will see each other again, but it was great to be abled this time to enjoy spending more time with everyone.

Saturday night , the night before our departure, it was the birthday party of Sven, the boyfriend of Mahilde, Alexis’s niece , who celebrated it at Barbara ‘s, Alexis’s sister. It was also the birthday of another friend Manon. It was a costume Russian party! We ate soup borscht, stroganoff and drank vodka. We danced all night long, a very nice last night before leaving to take our train to Paris…

Bye family, bye buddies! We are waiting for you guys in Brazil.
Kisses and hugs!