France,Part 3

We had a nice morning sleeping in. After such a long drive yesterday, we decided to take it easy today with the kids. We dropped Kaitlyn and Griffen off at the kid's club, let Noelle have some time to herself and Jason went to buy some groceries at a larger store in one of the neighboring towns. An adult had to stay on site-so Jillian and I went for a walk.

After lunch we took the kids to the pool for a bit. We didn't want to spend our whole time here laying about-so we went off to one of the towns, Apremont, to explore. Of course the kids put up a fight, but Noelle was keen and tried to tell the kids how lucky they are to have parents take them to such cool places.

Apremont is home to a Chateau the main part dates back to probably the 13th century, while the towers are from the 16th century. The towers were built by Phillippe Chabot de Brion, admiral of France and friend of King Francois I. It is also said that King Louis XIII stayed here on 17 April 1622. The network of wooden beams supporting the tower we had access too, were quite impressive. The other intersting bit was the glaciere, a refrigerator Renaissance-style. Winter ice would have been stored to preserve food in hotter months in this half buried space carved into rock.

We have also noticed a trend in these small French villages...it is August and the French go on holiday during August. So pretty much every shop, restaurant, store, you name it has a sign on the door stating that they are closed. Most have dates on them as well-August 7-August 26 or later. The windows of most houses are shuttered as well. Can you imagine whole towns on vacation for 3 weeks? Only the larger grocers are open.