A real French family

Arrived in Avignon. Today we arrived in Avignon. We are staying with Dr. Jacques Pollini at his parent's house in Avignon right outside the city walls. When we got there they welcomed us with open arms and showed us to our rooms.  Robin and I stayed in one of Jacques' sisters' old room with a bed at the bottom and then a bed in a loft. I love lofts. It was the most adorable house, filled with the family's history.  Jacques' dad was a doctor, a kidney doctor or something like that. His mom worked for the city but now was retired, as was his dad, and volunteered.  After dropping off our stuff we went downstairs to the kitchen to find that everyone was sitting outside on their patio. They had a large backyard which was their garden and several tables that they were setting up for dinner. Jacques started a fire in the pit for the French style bbq. Just grilling, but this was not on a grill but right over an open fire (YUM). Placing crackers, olives, cashews, nuts, and some sort of olive mix sauce that looked like grey poupon mustard, in front of us, they began offering us all this food and various assortments of juices. 

Cherry juice is really good. New found love I have discovered over here: cherries. Absolutely delicious. I even have fed cherries to someone while I've been over here, but that's for a different story.  Oh, another new found love: olives. I freaking LOVE olives. I think they taste better over here though because they are grown over here, olive trees everywhere. Probably.

We were famished and ate lots of appetizers only to realize that the Pollinis like to cook and eat. A lot. A lot a lot. They brought out the entree which was some cantaloupe (DELICIOUS) and some sausage from their village of Corrisica? OH MY GOSH THAT WAS THE DANKEST SAUSAGE EVARRR! It was so good. Sausage and a ham sausage that was just to DIE for! Then they cleared the table and brought out the main course (I was already full by this point). Dr. Pollini had been cooking more sausage and lamb (DOUBLE YUM) and piled it on our plates, while Mrs. Pollini brought out this zucchini dish. 

Zucchini dish: 

Brown like half and onion I think in some olive oil

cut up some zucchini and cook it with the onions for a little bit

put it in an oven dish. 

put lots of light light sour cream on top

then shred some parmesan on top and bake

DEVINE 

It was one of the best meals I've ever had.  Then they brought out fruit and a variety of cheeses, which were also delicious, and we were drinking lots of wine the entire evening. Afterwards we had a digestive (a shot of liquor that was grape flavor or made from grapes or something along those lines). We were so full! But it was so nice to be staying with a real French family. They are the sweetest people. Then we were off to bed! Oh, before we went to bed, however, they warned us about the mosquitos…

I didn't think anything of it at the time, naturally thinking French mosquitos had nothing on the ones in Arkansas, so I confidently threw open the windows and let the cool night air in.  During the middle of the night I heard one literally right in my ear. I swear it was in my ear, although it didn't bite me. But that was the beginning of the swarm...