A castle, caves and...wild pigs?!

I think its every little girls' dream to spend the night in a castle.  So, I was delighted to receive word from my new friend (and castle owner) Brigitte that the Prieure de Bonvaux B&B had availability for the weekend! 

Prieure de Bonvaux (Dijon, France)

Every year, the tiny French town of Beaune (in the Bourgundy region) has an enormous wine festival after harvest to kick off the holiday season.  Alex and I had been planning on making the trip for months with the Queens and we were excited that two other couple friends of ours joined us as well.  A fantastic quadrouple date it was!

When we arrived at our castle in Dijon (30 minutes from Beaune and yes, the city of mustard) on Friday, we were greeted by the adorable Brigitte.  The first thing Brigitte said to me (after her welcome) was, "See the grass?"  "Do you know what that is?"  She was pointing to the torn up grass around the castle.  "Wild pigs!" She said enthusiastically.  "Wild pigs?!" I said, sure that she had gotten some of her Engish words mixed up.  But no.  Brigitte continued to explain to us that wild pigs come out at night around the castle (did I mention we were in the middle of the country?) and they had destroyed her yard.  Cute Brigitte then told me not to worry, she'd invited a hunter-friend of hers out to take care of them and he shot 9 wild pigs in one night!  My castle dreams were beginning to diminish for fear of being eaten by a wild boar. 

After the story of the wild pigs, Brigitte casually showed us into our bedroom and I temporarily forgot about the pigs.  Here's the royal chamber where Alex and I got to stay.  I know...I'm officially spoiled.

Here's a picture of our crew eating breakfast in the castle. Brigitte woke up before us to go into town to pick up fresh bread.  So sweet!

Sarah and Chris, Alex, Jacques and Kristy and Bertrand and Nollaig

Our plans for the day in Beaune consisted of one particular wine tasting in a cave called Patriarche.  The tour took us four hours because they offered 10 tastings of wine dating from 2009 back to 1959.  Of course, the 1959 wine was my favorite and it was only 369 Euros a bottle :) Needless to say, Alex and I left Patriarche without a making a purchase.  The tasting was a blast, though; the highlight of the trip. 

Bottles of wine dating back to...a long, long time ago :)

Dear friends Nollaig and Sarah

The cute boys - Bertrand, Jacques, Alex and Chris

After the tasting, we had a nice dinner down the street in Beaune where Beef Bourguignon and Coq au vin rouge (Chicken in red wine sauce) were the local dishes. The little town was hopping with people, Christmas lights, food booths and mulled wine (though the last thing we wanted after a 4 hour tasting :)

It was a fantastic weekend and the eight of us decided that the trip to the festival should be an annual event.  Here's one final picture of the crew in front of our castle.  With a little more practice, I think I can get used to this sleeping in a castle business :) 

Love from Luxembourg...Melanie



Full of Thanks

This is my second Thanksgiving abroad (the first being in China 10 years ago) and, again, it is a strange feeling to wake up and know that today is just a regular Thursday to everyone else in Luxembourg.  Clearly, they don't celebrate the holiday so everyone is working and turkeys are impossible to find at the grocery store.  Thanks to the American Women's Club, however, I was able to order my very own 11lb Butterball (frozen) turkey!

Because Alex's birthday was also this week, we are going to host a big Thanksgiving feast / Birthday celebration this Saturday.  All of our European friends are very curious about this Thanksgiving that the Americans celebrate so we're going to have a full house.  Hopefully our apartment can hold 30 people (and the tiny oven can hold Mr. Butterball :)  I will fully document Saturday's Thanksgiving / Birthday celebration one day next week!

On this Thanksgiving Day, I have so much to be thankful for... 
I'm thankful for a precious family back home who loves me and misses me. 
I'm also so grateful that I have a plane ticket home for Christmas in just over 2 weeks! 
I'm thankful for a husband who has made our first year of marriage the best year of my life. 
I'm thankful for friends both here in Luxembourg and back in the US (we'll come back, I promise :) 
I'm thankful for an opportunity of a lifetime to make my home in lovely Luxembourg for a few years.
I'm thankful for my health.
I'm thankful for the unconditional love of a Savior who gave his life for mine.

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all! 

With love from Luxembourg...Melanie

Tales of a visit from Ms. Connie

Clearly, I have no excuses for the delay.  I can't believe its been so long since my last post but I'm back with news of recent adventures in this little Luxembourg of mine :) 

The day after Alex and I returned from Italy, we had a very special visitor!  Alex's mom (AKA Ms. Connie) arrived from Tulsa, all smiles - and seemingly without jetlag - ready to hit the ground running in Luxembourg!  And that we did! 

A few hours after Ms. Connie's arrival, we piled in the car and headed through the beatiful countryside toward Vianden's Walnut Festival.  Vianden is a cute little Luxembourgish town north of the city that is best known for two things - the annual Walnut Festival and its huge castle...

Vianden Castle

Over the next few days, Alex and I were able to give Ms. Connie a grand tour of Luxembourg - the countryside, the Grund, the City Centre and the vineyards - in addition to taking her on a few day trips to Belgium and Germany.  Here are a few pictures from our travels.  The first, is perhaps my favorite...

Dinant, Belgium

Luxembourg's bi-weekly market

Luxembourg's vineyards

Cochem, Germany

Cochem = Adorable!

One of my favorite things we did during our road-tripping with Ms. Connie, was a cruise down Germany's Rhine River.  The tiny towns that dot the coast of the Rhine River are quaint and lovely.  The river cruise we chose took us from the town of St. Goar, Germany to Bacharach and we saw castles galore!

Perhaps our most amusing part of the cruise was our encounter with a German bowling club.  It was noon, they were several drinks in and they were having a jolly good time.  Ms. Connie and I even got serenaded (in German, of course :)

A few from the top of one of the many castles

Many castles later, our trio returned to Luxembourg to spend a few more days with Ms. Connie before she headed home.  What a fun week and a half it was!  We covered most of Luxembourg and numerous cute towns in Germany and Belgium.  I think Ms. Connie quite enjoyed herself, as did I!

Love until next time...Melanie