Poitiers to Oizé

Posted May 25, 2015

Couldn't be so close to Poitiers without at least a quick stop. Here's the Mairie (City Hall). I think the Mairie is usually one of the most beautiful buildings in a city or village in France.

The other building not to miss in the bigger cities is the cathedral. 

Loved the unique columns.

Loved the beautiful, quaint streets and buildings.

This building is reputed to be the earliest known Christian baptistry in the world, built around 360 A.D. Sadly it was closed for lunch, so we only saw it from the outside. 

Poitiers also has a Palace of Justice, which is famous as the place of Joan of Arc's formal inquest. Also closed for lunch.

 

The drive from Poitiers to Oizé is only a couple of hours. It's a beautiful little village with a population of about 1000 in the Loire Valley, and our home base for the next three weeks, thanks to the Mezzasalma family. I need to write another post about them...I lived with them the summer of my sophomore year in college (at that time they lived in Argenteuil, just outside Paris), and they are some of the best people in the entire world. I was beyond excited to introduce my family to them.

This is Pierre and Solange's charming home. The basement is a separate apartment and they very generously invited us to stay there. The yard was practically like a park, the kids were thrilled.

They invited us to join them for dinner, so Rob and the kids had the chance to practice their French a little more in depth than just ordering in a bakery or paying at the grocery store. The best language faux pas of the trip was at this dinner. Ainsley wanted to ask for more bread, and searched her memory for the common phrase to "May I please have" but came up with "Je m'appelle baguette" which means "My name is bread (the long French loaf)." We called her "baguette" for weeks. Pierre and Solange both have a great sense of humor and loved it. We played cards after dinner and my family fell in love with my French parents too. I think my cheeks hurt from smiling so much by the time we finally went to bed. Happy reunion after 24 years!