The luggage incident was, of course, only a small part of our time in France. This was the second part of our Fabulous European Wedding Tour, and it was my (Andrew’s) first time in France. We were staying just outside of a small town called Cordes sur Ciel (built in 1222, perched on a hill, cooler than cool) about an hour from Toulouse in southern France.

When we were planning the trip my good friend James, the groom, knew that we were on a very tight budget, so he kindly suggested that we could stay in the neighbor’s “pigeonier.” I looked up the word and discovered that a pigeonier is more commonly known, in English, as a “dovecote.” Those of us who don’t live on a rural manor might still need a bit of help; according to Merriam-Webster, a dovecote is

A small compartmented raised house or box for domestic pigeons.

Hmm. I took James up on the offer, but wasn’t quite sure what we were getting into.

It turned out that the neighbors in question were stone-masons and had built the pigeonier as a guest-house. It was a four story stone tower with a full kitchen, living room, bath, and gorgeous bedroom at the apex (where the pigeons would have lived had it been a real pigeonier). Pretty awesome.

See many pictures from our trip below (click to enlarge).