Chatel-Guyon: Oct 14-17

Sean had a conference in the middle of France, a 4-hour drive from Bordeaux, in a town called Chatel-Guyon, close to Clermont-Ferrand. Not to miss out on the fun, Owen and I tagged along (besides, not knowing how to drive a stick shift, Owen and I would have been stuck at the observatory for 4 days if we hadn’t gone). Sadly, going to Chatel-Guyon meant that we could not go to Zurich to see the Block family but we promise to visit them stateside in 2009!!

Chatel-Guyon is one of the many towns (or so we’ve been told) in central France that center their tourism around the local thermal baths. Unfortunately, we did not partake in the baths. Sean was in meetings from 9am-1pm and then 3pm-7pm, so Owen and I had a lot of fun walking around town.

We walked to the top of the town (not sure of elevation) and had a great view of the whole village:


Owen stopped to walk the last stretch:


In Colorado, we don’t get to see leaves in their fall splendor. I enjoyed looking at that while Owen slept:


It wasn’t all work for Sean and his colleagues. Owen gave Morby a lesson in crawling:


And Sean took Owen for a walk in one of the town’s many parks:


On the last night, we went to St. Nectaire, a town famous for its cheese about 1 hour away from Chatel-Guyon on twisting roads. At the ferme (farm) Owen was introduced to a 2-day old calf:


And we watched them make the cheese:


Then, we had a fabulous dinner at the farm’s restaurant, that included some delicious steak with cepes (porcinis), which have become Sean's favorite food. Owen was more interested in playing than eating…


Owen was a champ, playfully staying up late. Though, we had a hard time getting up in the morning for our long drive back to Floirac:



over & out