Bordeaux and Life Lately

Hello Family and Friends!

I know it has been quite a long time since I last posted. But that was because November wasn't much of an exciting month for us. Tyler stayed so busy with practice, games, French classes, media/community events and traveling. We were left with very time to do much of anything together. 

Tyler had three long road trips in November. If you look on a map, you will be able to see how truly far we are in the SW region of France. The closest team in the league to us is about 4 or 5 hours away. Yes, that is the closest! So the majority of the teams are much, much further away. Tyler's team will usually fly into Paris for their away games, bus to whatever city they play in (anywhere from 1-4 hours) and then have to bus all the way back to Pau after games. In November, he had two 9 hour bus rides and a 14 hour bus ride! Isn't that crazy?! I feel so bad he has to sit on a bus for that long after playing!

On one of the weekends that Tyler had a home game, his friend Jordan came to visit us. Jordan is from Rochester and plays for a team in France as well. It was really nice to have a visitor! He was able to go to one of Tyler's games and just hang out with us for the weekend. I think it was nice for Tyler to have a friend here for a few days! Jordan is about 4 hours away from us so we are hoping to meet up with him soon in a halfway meeting point in a bigger city to do some shopping and site seeing. It makes things a little easier having people you know around you!

Thanksgiving was just the two of us this year. Tyler had two practices so we ate later in the evening when he was home for the night. Last year was nice because we were able to visit a US Army Base in Italy the week of Thanksgiving and got everything we needed. But I knew that would not be an option in France so I brought things with me like canned pumpkin and stove top stuffing that we can not get over here. We tried to find a small turkey but didn't have any luck so we just got a small turkey roast. That was MUCH easier than cooking a whole turkey and just a right amount for the two of us. 

We were FINALLY able to get out of Pau for a little bit this past weekend and go to Bordeaux. It is an easy two hour drive for us and I am so thankful we got to go. Tyler deserved a little break and I was getting a little stir crazy in our apartment!

Even though it is really hard to be away from home at Christmas time, what I love about Christmas in Europe is that they really make you feel the "Christmas spirit" and you feel like a kid again! In Bordeaux, they had a HUGE Christmas market set up in the middle of the city and there were thousands of people out at the market and shopping in the stores in the center. It was a little congested but it was so much fun. We enjoyed vin chaud (hot/mulled wine) and ate some amazing food from the vendors. We found these sandwiches that were so incredible that we went back and got them for lunch before we left. They were filled with marinated meats, peppers and onions. And I usually hate sauces on my sandwiches, but this sandwich had the best sauce I have ever tasted in my life on it. We might have to get back to Bordeaux just to eat these sandwiches again ;)

We walked around for several hours seeing the sites and getting some Christmas shopping done. After we had walked off our sandwich (or at least we will tell ourselves that) we tried to find a spot to eat for dinner. Every restaurant we walked by was just packed. A lot of restaurants are small in Europe and there were just so many people out that they were all full. We were walking by a little Italian restaurant and I saw a couple getting up to leave so we decided we better go in and take the table. We both miss Italian food so much and although this did not compare, it sufficed. 

We ended the night stopping at a nice bar grabbing a glass of Bordeaux ... because of course we had to while we were there! It didn't disappoint :)

We got up Sunday morning and did a little more walking around and shopping before we left. It was a perfect little getaway and we enjoyed our time together!

Place de la Bourse

Place de la Bourse

Huge Christmas Tree in front of St. Andre Cathedral 

Enjoying some Bordeaux!

St. Andre Cathedral

St. Andre Cathedral

St. Andre Cathedral 

Place de la Bourse

Deliciousness. 

December will be another busy month for Tyler. He has 6 games in a 3 week span. But he will get a break at the end of the month for New Year's. You might have already guessed if you saw my facebook status, but we will be going to Paris for the New Year! We are so excited! We were really hoping Tyler would have enough time for us to go home, but he gets six days and two of them would be spent traveling. Although it would be awesome to get 4 days at home, it would just be a lot of traveling for such a short amount of time. 

I hope you are all enjoying the holiday season! Until next time...!