This question is a real reach. I stayed with a French family when I was 16 in 1985 in a small town (could not have been more than a few hundred people) within 30 minutes of Bordeaux. I lost touch with this family many years ago (I don't even remember their name). What I do remember is that the family owned a supermarket called SuperU (I think it was a franchise) and that the town was surrounded by vineyards as I used to jog through the vineyards in the morning. I also remember that the family picked me up from a train station that appeared to be within 20 minutes of their home (it was a train I took from Paris). The wife of the local breadmaker was American as well.

Does anyone have an idea of how I can narrow my search for this family based upon the limited information I have? I will be traveling to Paris in July and would really like to reconnect with this family.

Merci bien, Thomas

can you tell me if you remember if this town was at the north, the south, the east or the west of Bordeaux?
I will try to help you with my yellow french pages.

Hi TV,

>..the town was surrounded by vineyards ..<

Since you are in the Bordeaux wine region, that is not surprising.

Did you take the train to Libourne?

cathfrombordeaux and Ira:

Here's what I remember. I believe that the town was either north or northeast from Bordeaux. Within 30-40 minutes.

I remember taking the train to the Loire Valley to see the castles, etc. I think that train ride was about an hour (maybe an hour and 15 minutes).

Libourne? Unfortunately, I cannot remember. More tidbits that I now recall about the family. The daughter's name was Valerie. She must be 40-41 by now. I think the son's name was Nicholas. He must be 41-42. Their house was within a block of their store.

I also remember we went to the beach one weekend. The beach had big sand dunes. Somehow the name Le Grand Pilal (or something like that) comes to mind. But this beach must have been 45 minutes to an hour away from their home, heading west (or southwest) I believe.

I know this is sketchy, but I do appreciate the attempts to help.

the big sand dune is Dune du Pyla in Arcachon (the biggest sans dune in europe), I give you some cities, if one is remembering something to you, tell me :
St Ciers sur Gironde
Amabares et Lagrave
Camblanes et Meynac
St Sulpice et Cameyrac
Ste Foy la grande
Sauveterre de Guyenne
St Seurin sur l'Isle
I wait your answer to continue my research.
friendly

Hi T,

Have you been to www.viamichelin.com AND www.mappy.com AND www.multimap.com?

(They don't all show the same details)

Bordeaux to Arcachon is 65km, so this is your radius of interest.

>I remember taking the train ...<

Did the train leave from town, or did you drive to another town?

Did you change trains?

Thank you both for your assistance. I will follow up on your suggestions and ideas in the next week and let you know what I am able to find.