Our Final Day in Sete

The wedding reception lasted until 3 in the morning! But in spite of that, Madame Affouard still had an incredibly lovely brunch for all the wedding guests the next morning (or the same morning, actually!) She and some others had been cooking for days, in between all the wedding preparations, and laid out quite a feast. It was delicious and beautiful to look at. This is Coco, a good friend of Axelle, They taught school together in Paris. She is

a lovely woman and we really enjoyed spending time with her, too.

And this wasn't all. There were still a couple more tables loaded with breads and pastries and a few other delectables. It would have been impossible to sample it all.

This is Axelle and Nicolas with Nicolas' family--Dad, Mom, Nicolas' twin sister Emilie, and brother-in-law Jerome.

Here we are with our new Belgian friends, the Mortiers--Jean Marc, Sylvie, and their son, Julian.

Here we are with the Affouard family. Madame Affouard is wearing traditional Provencal clothing.

The bride and groom. It was another incredibly beautiful day on the Mediterranean. We never got tired of the blue sky and soft breezes.

Nicolas and Axelle and the five Odell children

The girl in the green shirt is Axelle's very funny sister, Armelle. She is a pilot for Air France.

At the end of the day, Monsieur Affouard began the champagne ritual. He opened the bottles with a small silver sabre. It was so much fun to watch him slide the sabre quickly away from him along the neck of the bottle. The sabre then hits the bulge in the bottle near the top and takes the entire top off--bottle and cork. The bottle breaks cleanly and he pours out the foaming liquid into the waiting glasses. Nicolas tried too, but he has some practicing to do. Sometimes the cork goes flyiing quite a distance. The little children got non-alcoholic sparkling cider.

We had ANOTHER meal that evening at dusk (delicious leftovers from the brunch) and reminisced. We were going home the next day.

This is Sete at night. The Affouards live on the hill sort of to the right of the blue lights. We were on our way to our hotel after our delightful day.

This is our van on the Affouard's street. A bit of a tight fit all the way down. Somehow they got a moving truck down there when they moved in! There's not much on-street parking.

Mrs. Affouard always served Cameron's favorite breakfast!

Just a view of Sete early on the morning we left for Paris and home. It is sometimes called the Venice of France.

Sete is home to a rather substantial fishing industry. There are all kinds of cafes along these canals all serving seafood--mussels, oysters, fish, and the like.

(Posted by Mom)