Photos!

EN: This is it, it's done, and it was a fantastic day. Thanks a lot to all of you for your presence, your help, and your happy thoughts.

Here is the first set of photos from our photographer, we expect to get a lot more from some of you.

FR: Ca yest, c'est fait, et c'etait une journee parfaite. Merci encore de votre presence, de votre aide et de vos sourrires.

Voici le premier ensemble de photos prises par notre photographe, en attendant d'autres photos venant de certains d'entre vous. Le premier diaporama montre les photos de la ceremonie, alors que le deuxieme montre des photos un peu plus kitsh (mais que nous aimons beaucoup) prises avec seulement le photographe.

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First the photos from the ceremony and cocktail (that you can find here):



Then the photos we took alone with him. Beware, they're cheesy, but we like them a lot :)

Train tickets

EN: Just wanted to let you all know that now is probably a really good time to buy your train tickets to ride the TGV (acronym for High Speed Train in French) if you need any. The wedding is 2 months away and the train tickets are at their cheapest (they can go up to 80€ each way if you wait too much; they are half that right now)

The site to use if you live in the US is:
http://www.raileurope.com/.

The train company in France is called SNCF and this site allows you to buy your tickets from outside France at the same price as if you were in France (varying with the EUR/USD rate)

I've noticed that they add by default a $10/ticket insurance that raises the price but that you can delete if you want.

For Paris, depending where you leave from, you can use 2 stations:

• If leaving straight from the airport, us the Paris Cdg Airport station
• If leaving after hanging out in Paris, use Paris (this will make you leave from Gare de Lyon in Paris), which is more convenient if you're already in town.

For Valence, there's only one choice proposed when booking even though there are 2 stations:

• Valence TGV
• Valence

TGVs leave mostly from the TGV station, but curiously from the downtown station as well sometimes. Just make sure you know where your car rental agency is.
Both stations are equally accessible.

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FR: Si ce n'est deja fait, maintenant est un tres bon moment pour prendre vos billets de train puisqu'ils sont peu cher en ce moment et les prix vont ne faire qu'augmenter.

http://www.voyages-sncf.com

La gare de choix est Valence.
Il y a en fait 2 gares: Valence ville et Valence TGV. Si la plupart des TGV partent de la gare du meme nom, il arrive que certains partent directement de Valence ville. Pensez-y si vous louez une voiture et que vous ne repartez pas de la gare ou vous etes arrives!

Contact Info

If you need to contact either of us and don't want to do so via comment. Please feel free to email:
denise.flaherty@gmail.com
vroussilhon@gmail.com

Hotel Booking / Reserver l'hotel

EN: As mentioned earlier there are two main options for the hotel, the Best Western Clos Syrah (€85) and the BnB(€44) (refer to this post for more info on both)

We locked 20 rooms at the Clos Syrah for the night of September 20th, at a rate of €80 for a double room.
To get this rate, or even be able to book a room at the hotel you will need to email them at:
info@clos-syrah.com 
They will need your name, nights you're staying, credit card number and expiration date to be able to book the room for you.
Don't forget to mention that you're booking a room for the Rousilhon/Flaherty marriage so that you get the €80 rate.


Alaternatively, or if you have questions you can call them and mention you're part of the Roussilhon wedding. Since we realize that calling France is not necessarily something you want to do from your mobile or home phone, we have setup the following button for you.
Just click "call me free" enter your home or mobile number below, click the CALL button and the system will call the hotel and you as well, and connect you. It shows my name because i set it up but it will call the hotel. For your phone company, it will look like a local phone call and it won't cost you a dime.

There's no catch, we use it to call France all the time.

Please be aware that there is a time difference between US and France and so you're more likely to get someone in the mornings than late afternoon if you call from the US. For a little help here is the local time in France right now:

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FR: Nous avons repere 2 hotels en particulier, le Best Western Clos Syrah et le BnB, pour deux types de budget (85€ et 44€ respectivement). Pour plus d'info sur ces deux hotels lisez ce billet.

Nous avons en particulier bloque 20 chambres au Clos Syrah pour la nuit du 20 Septembre. Pour en reserver une il suffit d'appeler le 04 75 55 52 52, de mentionner qu'il sagit du mariage Roussilhon, et de prendre une chambre tant qu'il en reste.

Ne tardez pas a faire votre reservation!

Navigation and Rental Cars

Since most of you will be renting a car, you will most certainly benefit from a navigation system (GPS). Even if you have to learn right and left are in French, it will help you! The little villages and the cities have narrow streets, and oh the round-abouts, they're everywhere. We got lost and Vince has been going to the country house since he was little. So if you don't own a GPS with a European map, get one in the rental!
I looked on http://www.travelocity.com/ and http://www.orbitz.com/ and they both have car rentals for Lyon, France (airport code LYS) and Valence (if you're taking the train from Paris, you'll want to rent a car in Valence). They start at $44 a day for manual transmission and go up from there. If you didn't bring everything and the kitchen sink, get a small car, they come in handy!

Hotel Rooms / Reperage des hotels

EN: On our weekend trip to France, we checked out a couple of hotels. By far our favorite was the Best Western Clos Syrah. Here's the link.
http://www.yan-hotel-valence.federal-hotel.com/page_en_1.html
We've reserved a block of 20 rooms for the night of Sept. 20th. The rooms are 85Euros a night. I would suggest calling for reservations, and telling them you're with the Roussilhon/Flaherty wedding. I have a feeling the rooms will go fast. If for some absurd reason they don't, we'll be cancelling our hold on the rooms at the end of August (to get our deposit back). So certainly book before then.
If 85 Euros a night is a little too rich for your blood, we went to see the B&B Hotel just around the corner. It's 37 Euro for 1 person 44Euro for 2.
http://www.hotel-bb.com/detailhotels.phtml?hotelid=4704
It's very clean and has been recently remodeled, but is in an industrial part of town, may have thin walls, and the elevator is kinda scary. We didn't book any rooms here but I'm almost certain they won't run out of space.
Both of the above locations are within 10 km of the reception hall. If you want to stay in the city of Valence proper, you're on your own.

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FR: Lors de notre weekend en France nous avons repere quelques hotels non loin de la salle des fetes. Notre prefere a ete de loin le Best Western Clos Syrah avec son style assez sympa et sa piscine. Voici le lien pour plus d'info:
http://www.yan-hotel-valence.federal-hotel.com/page_en_1.html
Nous avons bloque 20 chambres pour la nuit du 20 septembre. Les chambres doubles sont a 85€ la nuit.
Je pense que les chambres partiront vite donc ne tardez pas trop pour reserver. Si par une force du saint esprit il en reste des non reservees 3 semaines avant le marriage, nous annulerons notre commande sur les chambres restantes afin que l'hotel puisse les louer a d'autres personnes, donc n'attendez pas la derniere minute.

Si 85€ la nuit est un peu hors budget, il y a un hotel de la chaine BnB non loin. C'est 37€ pour une personne et 44€ pour deux.
http://www.hotel-bb.com/detailhotels.phtml?hotelid=4704
On est alle voir et les chambres sont tres propres et ont ete refaites recemment. On n'a pas mesure l'epaisseur des murs pour l'insonorisation, mais vu que vous devriez vous coucher tard, ca devrait pas etre un soucis. Nous n'avons rien bloque a cet hotel mais vous devriez pouvoir reserver directement sans problemes.

Les deux hotels sont a moins de 10kms de la fete. Si vous preferez dormir sur Valence centre, on vous laisse vous debrouiller comme des grands!

Brunches, Parties, Photos, and DNA

We've taken a break from the blog for a while. Sorry. We both started new jobs, and have both been enjoying our more hectic schedules. In between invites (coming soon), pictures, and DNA, we managed a quick trip to France to check some stuff out. I've seen the reception house, in which we can party until 4 am, and I love it. Vince's mom has been a busy bee planning tons of stuff. She's a rock star! She's taking care of a get together the Friday night before the wedding, and a brunch the morning after (a French tradition). And yes, after staying up until 4 am, people make it to the brunch.
sept 19 Hors d'oeuvres and drinks Friday evening
sept 20 Wedding at 4 pm Saturday
sept 21 Brunch around noon

Registry

We really want to go on a honeymoon. Really! But we don't know when or where yet. I've decided it must be somewhere warm and tropical, preferably where I can drink the water. :)
For now, since Vince is sick and tired of the blue plates I've had since I was a sophomore in college (not one of which has broken) and since I only have 6 of those. --Not so good to serve guests elaborate dinners in paper plates. And since I've had my second hand flatware just as long -we've registered at Crate and Barrel. Here's the link.

http://www.crateandbarrel.com/gr/guest/viewRegistry.aspx?grid=3869245

Whatever you do, please, please, please don't buy us something we didn't register for unless it's a consumable ie a gift card, massage etc. We have limited storage space, and I just love throwing out (giving away) stuff that I don't need and don't use.... it's a favorite pasttime.... Ask my sisters. The best present is your presence!

Paris for Foodies

As many of you may or may not know, I love food. Yup, it's Denise writing now, we all know how much Vince loves food by his size. One of the best gifts I've ever been given was a subscription to bon appetite by my grandmother, renewed yearly at Christmas time. Thanks Maw maw!

What does this have to do with the wedding? May's issue is "The Travel Issue" and there's a almost 20 pages of Paris food with subjects from new hip cafes in the Right Bank to recipes for crispy waffles with salted caramel coulis to "10 more things we love about France." So if you live in Paris, and you can read English, or if you're flying from the states to Paris then taking the train, you should certainly check it out.

I'm tearing out the pages and taking them with me, and perhaps we'll have a foodie evening or two in Paris, since, thus far, we've been mostly unsuccessful at finding fantastic restaurants in Paris. I looked for the link to the articles and they don't yet have the May issue up, but feel free to check back with them later at http://bonappetit.com/.

The article features Clotilde Dusoulier who "has made a career out of blogging Paris on her popular website http://chocolateandzucchini.com/ .

----Please pardon my non-use of accents----

It also mentions some restaurants of interest:

La Cantine de Quentin -- specialty food shop, restaurant, wine cellar combo. --Lunch and Brunch only Address 52 rue Bichat in 10th arrondissement Metro: Jacques Bonsergent

Zoe Bouillon -- Weekly rotation of soups, seasonal side salads, veggie friendly for Lunch, turns into a regular restaurant in the evenings with a "gently priced menu cooked by a Brazilian chef." Address 66 rue Rebeval in 19th arrondissement Metro: Pyrenees

Urbane: Noon service -- daily formule. Evening flashier menu. DJ's create ambiance on Friday and Saturday nights. Address: 12 rue Arthur Groussiner in the 10th arrondissement. Metro: Goncourt

La Boulangerie par Veronique Mauclerc: Lots of different breads, savory tarts and pastries, salon de the (tea) Breakfast, Brunch, and Lunch. Address: 83 rue de Crimee in the 19th. Metro: Laumiere Closed Tues. and Wed.

Quedubon: Good wine list, short and sweet menu, try the charcuterie from co-op in French Basque or artisanal cheese from Auvergne region. Address: 22 rue du Plateau in the 19th. Metro: Buttes-Chaumont

La Cocotte: Kitchenware and cute linens share the shelf space, tea salon with cookies and biscotti. Address 5 rue Paul Bert in the 11th. Metro: Faidherbe-Chaligny

Happy Eating!

Finding plane tickets

If you are wondering when is a good time to buy your tickets, it seems like right about now is a pretty good time to get decent prices (we got our tickets this week)

Now the daunting question is to know which service to use to find those tickets and how to make sure you get the best deal. We don't mean to say that we know everything but there's a pretty good chance that you will find your best deal on www.kayak.com (unless you have special connections somewhere).
It is the service we use for all our travel needs because it searches through almost all the other sites you usually check and then sorts them to present you the cheapest ticket they found.
There are also a few others tools to see how the prices have evolved through time and which days are currently the cheapest around the time you fly.
Once you found your ticket, kayak sends you to the site that actually sells it, which is why we trust it. It is simply a search engine for flights.

A little note regarding the schedule. Most of the flights leaving Paris leave too early to allow you to take the train from the south of France the same day (there's a train station in the airport) so you will most likely have to spend the night in or around paris the night before you fly out.

Happy hunting!

Airports / Aeroports

EN:

Valence is the closest city to the wedding. It counts around 70k inhabitants (more from Wikipedia)

Lyon is the largest closest city to the wedding. It has an international airport named Lyon Saint-Exupery (airport code LYS). If you want to see South France, and not Paris, you should probably fly into Lyon. You can then take the train from there to Valence but you will most likely want to rent a car, and drive to St. Laurent du Pape and Valence, about a 1.5-2hrs drive. (directions from Lyon to downtown Valence)

Paris is the largest city in France, with the biggest international airport (airport code CDG). (i know..... you knew that) If you want to see Paris, it will probably be cheapest to fly into Paris. You will probably want to take the TGV to Valence and rent a car there. The TGV is FAST (2-3 hrs from Paris to Valence) and reasonably priced at around 44 Euros round trip --IF you buy your tickets 90 days in advance.
Do not rent a car from Paris unless you want to visit everything there is between Paris and Lyon. By car it would take you maybe 6 or 7hrs to make it to Valence (Vs. the 2.5hrs in TGV)

Of course, even if you don't plan on visiting Paris, landing there and then taking the TGV is a really good option (a TGV station is located within the airport) depending on the price to fly into Lyon. Vince usually does that.

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FR:
Si vous lisez le Francais, vous vivez en France et savez deja comment vous rendre a Valence ou Saint Laurent du Pape donc je vais eviter la traduction du pate d'au dessus.

Hotels

I've looked on www.google.fr maps for hotels, and have found a few that are very reasonably priced, but no one's been to see them yet, so I can't vouch for them. I think Vince's mom has found a little chateau, for the Americans/a big stone house, for the French that has rooms for rent. She plans on booking all the rooms, and we'll see how many people fit in those. We'll let you know when that happens. But here are my favorite hotels (from the photos at least)

http://fr.federal-hotel.com/hotel-information_hotel-le-valentia_100531.htm

this one also looks nice in the pictures, and is reasonably close to the reception.

http://www.yanshotel.com/

coming soon........... which airport to fly into/how to get to Valence/St. Laurent du Pape

Guide Book

Vince's mom found a guide book in English for the region. We have a copy if anyone would like to look over it, let me know, I'd be happy to loan it to you for a bit.

Michelin guide to Auvergne Rhone Valley

THANKS MARYSE!

The Location / le lieu du deli

EN: the date: September 20, 2008

The wedding will take place in the department of Ardeche located on the south east part of France.

the exact location: St. Laurent du Pape, France for the ceremony.
(Look for "rue du Moulin, Saint Laurent du Pape" in your Google Maps)


View Larger Map

Beauvallon, France for the reception

Beauvallon is 10 miles from Saint Laurent du Pape. The biggest town nearby is Valence.


View Larger Map

We've booked the reception house, and Vince's parents have graciously resigned themselves to allowing us to use their backyard, so you can look into tickets.... Think good thoughts for a sunny day!

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FR: On a decide de mettre quelques informations a jour, notamment pour nos amis americains qui ont quand meme un voyage a planifier.

Le mariage aura lieu le 20 Septembre 2008, exactement 5 ans jour pour jour depuis notre rencontre (on n'a pas fait expres, c'est juste bien tombe)

Pour les plus curieux l'emplacement du mariage sera bien entendu a Saint Laurent du Pape. C'est en fait la qu'aura lieu la ceremonie.

La reception qui s'en suivra se deroulera a Beauvallon, non loin de Portes Les Valence.