New friends

Before we left home in May, we were so fortunate to meet the Labrie family, who are from La Colle sur  Loup.  Mitch (the father) is the brother of the old neighbor of good friends of ours from Spruce Grove.  He moved to Nice about 15 years ago, when he met his wife Delphine.  They have 2 boys Emilien (6) and Felix (1).  They were in Canada from May to August this year visiting family, which is how we met them.  We now live about 5 minutes from them in La Colle sur Loup, and they have been absolutely fabulous to us :0). It was so nice to see them when when we arrived, as it was like seeing old friends.  Not to mention, they brought us a case of wine, which you can imagine was quite exciting for us when the only food or drink that we were bringing home was that carried up the hill with our own muscle :0). On Saturday night they had us over to their place for a traditional French dinner.   They have a beautiful home which overlooks the valley of La Colle sur Loup, has a very large and comfortable outdoor living space, and a yard filled with the most amazing fruit trees that actually produce!  Claire came home width a great big bag of purple grapes that she and Mitch picked, which she was most proud of.  While sitting outside during dinner, Mitch pointed out a beautifully lit up village called Gourdon at the top of a neighboring hill/mountain.  He told us of a hike to 'la boule' from Gourdon which gave the most amazing view of the south of France.  Stay tuned....for the story of our first official Blouin family hike :0)