[Show as slideshow]

I had my first Swedish lessons in a little town in the French Riviera, and Vin och Ostbricka means Wine & Cheese, which is appropriate vocabulary for my time with Swedish relatives in Le Thoronet. With help from my dad I was able to arrange a meeting with Lars and Kerstin in a train station not far from Marseille. From there we drove back to their little house out in the country, and proceeded fairly quickly to join a Swedish dinner party a few Kilometers away.

Perhaps I should start by explaining the connection between Lars & I. He is the grandson of my great grandmother’s sister. I’m pretty sure that makes him my second cousin once removed, but I never really got too comfortable with the terminology for distant cousins, so my confidence may be unfounded.

From where I left off: we were headed to the Swedish dinner party, and it turned out that about half of our trip was on roads that had only days earlier been a part of Tour de France. The drive was very scenic, and in several spots reminded me a lot of California. Eventually we arrived in a tiny little town complete with a little clock tower and narrow streets.

There we met up with 6 more Swedish people who proceeded to impress me with their command of French, English, and Swedish. They were thoughtful enough to keep almost all of the conversation in English, but I must admit I enjoyed several portions of the dinner where the conversation reverted back to Swedish. It’s challenging but fun to try to keep up with the conversation when you don’t speak the language. Most of the time a few gestures is enough to get you back on track, but sometimes I found myself with a fairly high level of confidence in my understanding of what was going on, only to have that completely shattered by the next statement that was made in English.

Our hosts Lars and Karen made us several delicious appetizers, some great entrees, and delicious desserts. It was a great little dinner party and I am glad I was invited to join everyone. I was also treated to my first helping of Calvados, a traditional French aperitif, as well as some interesting cheeses.

The next morning, which also happened to be Bastille Day, we headed out to a local street market. We navigated the crowded streets of another small French town before meeting up with another small group of Scandinavians outside a little cafe. We had to leave fairly quickly to head up to a nearby Winery where Lars and Kerstin had already made lunch reservations for us. We definitely found some good eats at the winery where we all ordered “le plat du jour” which for us was fish.

We got home and managed to catch a fair share of the Tour de France on TV, as well as some of the Bastille Day celebrations which were fully televised. I then spent the next day and half just relaxing, swimming occasionally, doing some laundry, and getting ready to set off again.

I had a great few relaxing days, and got to reconnect with some family in the South of France. Lars and Kerstin were amazing hosts, and I may even be able to meet up with them later in Sweden at some point, which would be amazing!

Up Next: Nice, France & Milano, Italia