We left off hopping in the vans due north for France and ready to take on the second part of the trip.

We were about half way through our 4+ hour drive north when Fitzie got sick in the car. Post stop at McDonald’s of course. After cleaning him up, we continued our trek and made it to Chateau Couffins, just east of Bordeaux, around dusk. To say this place was beautiful is an understatement.

We settled in and got the lay of the land, starting in on what would end up being my main project during our stay at the chateau: an epic Coco-Cola puzzle my sister-in-law brought along.

The following morning, we took a one-hour day trip to the quaint seaside town of Arcachon. They were still in their festive holiday mode with an ice rink and small stands. We shopped around the Christmas market for a while, then visited Grand Cafe Victoria for an amazing lunch.

After lunch a few of us took the kids down to the beach to look for shells while the rest went grocery shopping for our New Year’s Eve dinner later that night.

On our way back to the chateau, we stopped for a winery tour and tasting at Chateau Croizille. The grounds also included a stable and six horses that the kids loved meeting.

Back at the chateau in our jammies and ready to ring in the New Year, we thought it would be a good time to try and capture a photo of all the kids. Ha! This is as close as we got.

Everett went to bed early that night and woke up a couple hours after that and got sick. From then on, he remained under the weather for the duration of our trip. So we spent a lot of time in bed, trying to stay away from the rest of the family, and missing out on all the other adventures. Oh, and I worked on that darn puzzle A LOT!

On our last full day in France, everyone (except Everett, Eric [who also got sick] and myself) headed off to check out another amazing winery: Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte. And according the photos I received while they were there, it looks like we really missed out. But don’t worry, Fitzie was living his best life!
The next morning we got all of our gear loaded up and took one last look around our chateau. At this point, the China crew headed to the train station and we started our 6.5 hour drive down to Barcelona with our sick little buddy in tow.