Visitor #2

Lucky me, I am racking up the visitors here in Dijon. I need to open up a bed & breakfast! This time Alex Medina came to visit me. He is the son of some family friends of ours, Chris & Maggie. They go to our church and partners in crime with my parents both in and out of church. Chris & Maggie own there own hair salon, Hair On Stage and Chris is my hair stylist. I can't wait to go back to the US and get my hair done again, the right way. Chris is going to kill the dang "hair devil" here in France who fried my hair a few months back. We're still in the works of planning a secret mission to do so! Any who, Alex was out here in Europe doing some "studying" in Vienna for a month then stayed around to see some more of Europe after the program was over. He said he was studying urban design, but I think that was all a cover. Just an excuse to party a lot and take drunken photos of the city. But I won't say a word. He stayed with us for a couple of days and being the good influence that I am I threw him a welcome BBQ, took him to firework shows, took him wine tasting....all while making sure he had plenty to "drink".

We went wine tasting here at Chateau Marsannay

Just some of their vineyards

The path of paradise

Their reception room

Mmmmm Wine...

Wine tasting in a huge wine cellar by candle light!

Me in my element

Alex loved it!!

We walked over to the next little village to see a little church that a lady on the bus recommended to us because of the amazing dual sided cross they had in their garden with Jesus on one side and Mary on the other!

What a view!

And then I saw the gate I am installing on one of my future houses!!

I can't wait until my next visitor makes it over to this side of the ocean, Ms. Melissa Unsell!!! We worked together in a company called The Traveling Vineyard doing in home wine tastings. She has since switched over to Wine Shop At Home, which is a similar concept. She will be visiting me for 2 weeks beginning Sept 12th!!! Stay tuned for the the next post!!

This is Veronique, the American formerly known as Ceci . . . signing out!

The Apostles Come To Visit

Well not really, but they have apostle names! Marc & James. I knew these two back at Occidental College. I was a senior and they were sophmores, they really needed someone too show them the ropes at Oxy....so insert me! Perhaps it was more them showing me how to party it up, but in any case we were all bad influences on each other. So they finished undergrad. James is now teaching high school football, really he sells cotton candy at their games, but we just nod our heads and smile. Marc just landed some job where he gets paid a lot of money to basically do nothing. I think it was something to do with natural gas?....I guess you could say he will just fart around on the job. But who cares! They came to visit me in Dijon!!! So here is the photo evidence we racked up on their visit!

Marc & James are real intellectual kinda guys, they begged me to take them to a typical french cafe so they could intellectually debate about petty things like the french do.

They are always laughing, these two.

Pals forever!

Rear shot!

Marc, you could have zoomed in a little.

James always knows how to get a close-up!

They are really into taking odd photos with fake or live animals in Europe. Some kinda fetish thing.

Marc is a little more aggressive

Now no trip to France is complete without a little visit to the wine country! I took them to Chateau Marsannay in .....Marsannay, how original huh?

I just get so excited when I am amidst the vines!

My attempt at art...

Contagious!

He is forming the E in case you were wondering!

They claimed they knew nothing of wine, but they were just as excited as I was. Or they were making fun of me?

Marc tried to open the barrel, lucky for him it was empty!

Mmmmm lots of bottles of wine!

Just practicing for my future career! I have a frequent taster card here!

Next I took them to church, like the good little Catholic I am!

I made James confess, he was long over due!

Then we rubbed the famous owl of Dijon for good luck, James needed it cause the priest told him he had a limit of hearing 50 sins per day per person....and James was leaving the next day.

Marc decided he better do it too!

Off to see more Dijon

Dijon sightseeing, check!

Back home to have dinner!

But first we had to get caught in the rain!

Marc not soo happy...

We started the night out by drinking some quality burgundy wine and eating some regional cheeses.

Marc needed a second to meditate about how great this was! I think it was an excuse to nap....pansy!

Then we took them to eat at our favorite local chinese resto.

For 10 euros you get an incredible amount of food and the owner loves us and always hooks us up with house cocktails and extra food.

Marc loving the hot sauce

This was a great Oxy reunion! I hadn't seen these kids in about 3 years! They had a blast backbacking though Europe but told me that I was amazing for having a washing machine, a bathtub with running hot water and making them a homecooked meal! Also for getting them really tipsy on wine, like the old days!

It was great to have the apostles in town for a couple days! Stay tuned for the next entry about my next visitor to Dijon!

Until then, stay tuned!

This is Veronique, the American formerly known as Ceci...signing out!