Yesterday we drove from Bavaria to Paris with Monique, Christophe’s aunt. She’s 86 years old, lives in Paris, and had taken the train to Bavaria last Monday so she too could spend some time with Noah and Malea.

It had started to snow yesterday and it hadn’t stopped all night, so in the morning, there was about 15 cm of snow covering everything.

Christophe cleaned all the snow from the car, and after another lovely breakfast with the family, we loaded all our bags and stuff into the car, said goodbye to everybody, and got on our way to Paris. We were on the motorway, which was well cleaned, within minutes, so the snow didn’t really create any issues. During the 8,5 hour trip, we went from snow to hardly any snow, and back to snow at our destination. It hasn’t snowed like this in Paris in several decades!

We arrived at Dominique’s address at half past six in the evening. Dominique takes care of Monique’s apartment and quite often of Monique herself as well. She’s an amazing woman of mixed ancestors. Her father was french, her mother martinican. Without ever having met either Christophe or me, she had offered her spare bedroom to us if we were ever to visit Monique together. Christophe visits his aunt every month to help her with all sorts of (administrative) stuff, and stays with her in her apartment then. But it’s a bit tight for 3 people, so Dominique’s generous offer was very welcome.

She served us drinks and snacks when we arrived, and not long after that a meal of a delicious soup and salad, bread and cheeses, and desserts. Yes that is right: desserts (plural) 🙂

This morning, she got up extra early to make us coffee and tea with toasted bread and butter and jam, and then she drove us to the nearest train station, from where we took a train to Charles de Gaulle airport. Thank you so much Dominique for your generous hospitality!