Normandy, Vaux le Vicomte and Elder Oaks

For the last stop on our quick tour of France with Lyndee and Jim we headed to Normandy to see the D-Day Museum and American Cemetery.  It was very humbling and is such a beautiful place.  Jeremy and I have been there before but were able to appreciate some new things this time.  We also were able to walk around Bayeux a little while and enjoyed the quaint town.  Below is a picture of a WWII Radio, it reminded me of my grandfather Hub so I wanted to take a picture to show my grandmother.

It was really cold outside by the water but the clouds were beautiful that day!

This marble statue represents America (see the eagle?)

We walked down to the beach this time...quite a hike back up!..but you could see where the Germans were able to hide in the dunes.

After the cemetery, we had a 2 hour drive back to Paris...but we had to get a pastry everyday for Lyndee so it wasn't all that bad of a drive!

After we got back to Paris, Jeremy and I planned a final fancy dinner for Jim and Lyndee.  We had wanted to go for a year and were glad to go with them.  It was a candlelit dinner outside of Vaux le Vicomte (The Man in the Iron Mask castle) with lobster and steak and the whole gardens were only lit by candles.  Unfortunately, it was pouring!!!!!  We made the best of it and they moved the dinner to a nice enclosed tent.  We also were able to go inside the chateau so the final night was not a total bomb, but we did get quite wet! (Don't you wish you were walking in that nice path below?

Our dinner tent!

Some pics of the chateau with at least some candles:

This was the best room in the chateau, a huge dance hall!

We were sad to say goodbye to Lyndee and Jim.  We had fun having family here to show them around.  They dropped us off at regional conference on Sunday and we were fortunate enough to meet Elder Oaks.  He even shook our hands and said "Bonjour!"

Some fall menu ideas

I quit posting all of my weekly dinners because I wasn't sure anyone was really looking at them...which was totally fine, but not worth my effort.  But then last week my sister Kerri told me that she liked them and that my cousin Becky did too...so if no one else cares, at least it will help them!  Here is what I have made in the past three weeks...enjoy!  If you want any of the recipes, I will be happy to send them to you if they aren't linked on here!

#1 - Honey pecan pork chops served with garlic butter egg noodles and salad (from things I bought at the farmers market)
(Recipe from my recipes)

#2 - Indian Butter Chicken with  basmati rice and fresh fruit
Recipe here

#3 - Olive Garden Gnocchi Soup with homemade orange rolls
This is way better than at the Olive Garden, fyi!
(Orange rolls are my mother's recipe) Soup here

#4 - Spaghetti with meat sauce, baguette and fruit salad
(My own recipe)

#5 - Thai Green Curry Meatballs with Rice
Meatball recipe

#6 - Coca Cola Pork Sandwiches with Sweet potato mash and green beans
Pork sandwich recipe (original recipe with beef)
Sweet potato mash -my recipe

#7 - New Orleans BBQ Shrimp with french bread
Shrimp recipe

#8 - Bean soup with ham and pasta and pumpkin bread
(Mom's recipes)  

#9 - Chicken Paprikash with Spaetzle, broccoli and fruit
Kerri's recipe   Aimee's recipe

#10 - Red Coconut Chicken Curry Noodles with green salad
MKC Noodle Recipe

#11 - Maple Roasted Salmon, Mascarpone Mac & Cheese and Grilled Asparagus
(Mom's salmon recipe and Mac and Cheese recipe)

#12 - Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Grilled Chicken
(My recipes)

#13 - Grilled pizza
MKC pizza recipe

#14 - Pasta Va Zoo with salad and baguette
(Mom's recipe)

Villandry Chateau - Oh if I had a garden...

The third and final chateau we stopped at with Jim and Lyndee was Villandry.  It was my new favorite, only because of the gardens.  As you can see, the Chateau itself isn't all that special, in fact, we didn't even go in.  But the gardens are to DIE for!  I think we also lucked out because we were there during harvest, so all of the fruits and vegetables were in full bloom.  Check out some pics:

I loved that there were many levels to the garden with different themes.  This is overlooking the vegetable and flower gardens.

Cabbage was oddly enough the prettiest!

Cute little garden "shed"...they have classes in there now.

There was even a garden for children with a playground, it was very cute!

The herb garden

There were arbors all over the place...Jeremy was practicing a little martial arts?!?

After visiting the gardens we ate at this cute Italian restaurant.  I thought the decorations were cute, they had fabric leaves on branches.

Walking to the car, we saw this adorable farmers market vending machine.  I thought my sister Kerri would especially love this!