My Life Today: I am back in British Columbia, after two months in Europe, mostly in France

Last Monday, September 24^th, I came back to British Columbia from France, after having spent two months in Europe, mostly in France.

As I explained in this post: One Wedding and a Funeral, I initially went to Transylvania, Romania, for the wedding of my wife's eldest son Péter (@peter-z) with Timi (Timea, @stimea). Then I went to France at the Abbey, for the funeral of my mother who died on July 24^th at the age of 97.

Here is a picture of my nine bothers and sisters and myself on the day of the funeral, July 31^st: Philippe, Bruno, Vincent Monique, Antoine, Benoit, Grégoire, Jérôme, Bernard and Nicole.

After the funeral, I stayed with my brother Philippe at the Abbey, then I went to Carnac: Visiting my brother Antoine and his wife Marie-Hélène in Carnac.

From there, I went to visit first cousins, first in the house of my great grandmother: Pilgrimage to "La Salle", the house of my great grand-mother, then in the house of my grandfather in Binic: Return to the house of my grandfather in Binic, and meeting Vincent Le Roy. In Binic, I met for the first time Vincent Le Roy (@vincentleroy).

After Binic, I went with several of my brothers and sisters to the house of my brother Jérôme, near Chalon-sur-Saône. We all went to the wedding of Matthieu, a son of my brother Bruno.

Next, I went to visit my goddaughter Valérie and her husband Benoît in Toulouse, for two days. They have 8 children and already 15 grandchildren. Valérie showed me the city of Toulouse, but I did not take any picture.

I went back to the Abbey for several days. In the cemetery, the tomb of my parents had been closed.

On September 3^rd, my brother Benoit, his wife Jeanne-Marie and their son Clément, came to the Abbey to celebrate Philippe's 71^st birthday.

I went to Le Minihic-Sur-Rance to visit my aunt Thérèse, the widow of my godfather, my uncle Gildas. She has 6 living children, 32 grand children and 38 great grand children.

They bought this big house some forty years ago. Since then, 4 of their children bought a house less than 15 km away.

Then, I went back to Binic to visit Vincent Le Roy. Here he is in front of his new sailboat, Plouf 3, that he is renovating and that should be ready to navigate next year.

For two days, we went sailing and Vincent made 3 posts about it, that I translated: Vincent is in Binic Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

I had stayed for so long in France, because fifty years ago I started my first career of Navy officer at the École Navale, and with my colleagues we had a reunion on September 19^th and 20^th.

I stayed for several days near Brest with my cousin Fabienne in Kersaint. She is the same age as me and is the widow of a Navy officer. With her, we went to visit her brother Christophe and his wife Françoise in Brest.

I was very happy to meet again with my fellow Navy officers. Out of 75 in the promotion, 25 became admirals or equivalent, including at least 2 with 5 stars.

Here is a picture of the main building where I spent 2 years in 1968-1970.

In front of the statue of Neptune, the sea god, in the great hall.

I went to visit my old dormitory, the "poste 11".

This was my bed. Not much had changed in the sleeping area, although I hope that they have changed the mattress!

View from the balcony of poste 11.

Group picture in front of the "tour de commandement" (command tower). I am the one with the hat near the admiral commanding the École Navale.

The command tower had just started to be built 50 years ago. Unfortunately, it had not been built correctly and needs to be destroyed.

Here is a picture of my colleague Jean-Marie Van Huffel, who commanded the École Navale in 2001-2003, in his old office that is no longer in use.

On September 21^st, I went back to the farm of my brother Benoit, where I left my car. And on the 22^nd, with Jeanne-Marie, Clément and Philippe, we went to the house of our brother Antoine in Chatillon. We had a family meeting, that had been organized several months ago and my mother should have been there.

The few pictures I took were not very good. In this one, you see my sister Monique (photographing the cakes) and on her right her husband Albert and two of her grand children Hector and Constant. These are the sons of their son Vianney who died two years ago from a brain tumor, and of his wife Lydie who committed suicide three months ago. At the age of 66, Monique is now their legal guardian and they live in their apartment in Ermont, near Paris.

During my stay in France for almost two months, I slept in 12 houses. I had a great time as I visited family members that I had not seen for many years.

On September 24^th, I flew back to Vancouver, and I have already slept in three different houses!