24 July 1999
I've been in France for 4 days and it is amazing. The Delacour home is located in the southern part of the country, a short apparition from the Mediterranean. The all magical beach Fleur and Gabi dragged us to was great. It has nothing to do with wandmaking, but if I ever take a real vacation that beach would be perfect. I'll be returning to collect wand components from the sea sometime in the next week before Bill and Fleur return home. Bill said he wanted to join me. I'm not sure how much is because he thinks it'll be fun or how much is because they think I need a babysitter, but either way I'll be glad for his support.
That doesn't merit an entry though. This entry is because today Gabi, who is starting her 3rd year, and Fleur gave us a tour of Beauxbatons Academy of Magic. The school is located in the mountains in Southern France and is one of the most breathtaking things I have ever seen. It is one of those things you will remember for the rest of your life right up there with the first time opening the portal to Diagon Alley and riding the boats to Hogwarts. I don't have the words to describe it, but having alumni who can create gold effortlessly is a wonderful thing for a school.
Onto the business side of things. Beauxbatons has a herd of Abraxan horses. I'm not sure if their tail hairs are usable in wands, but I managed to collect a good amount of strands before I pissed them off too much. While Fleur said I couldn't kill any of the creatures for wand parts (I didn't protest too much I still don't like the idea of slaying innocent creatures) the gardens around the school had some amazing trees. The best find was the Rowans. While I don't have any experience to compare them to yet Fleur tells me that thanks to all the work put in by the groundskeepers these trees are much bigger than normal. I also managed to get some good samples of what they called Silver Fir. I'm not sure if something is getting lost in translation, but they look like really tall christmas trees with white wood. I don't remember seeing them in any of the books, but I know he uses pine so I am hoping it is close enough.