Our trip is winding down, but there’s still a lot to see (and do, and eat, and buy) so we made the most of our time. We checked in with Girard, our housekeeper friend to let him know we’d be leaving in the morning. I wish I had a picture of Fie, his schnauzer-mix dog with an unusually large head. Michel, the owner, sent Nathalie to reconcile the bill and she tried to take an extra 100 Euros. Luckily, Joe caught on and challenged the extra fee and she gave in because she knew she was caught (“The fee is for the washer and dryer!” “We didn’t use it.”) Nice try.
Girard was great, he brought us in and showed us his apartment. You could tell he really loved the place and took great care of it.
Breakfast first of course. How do you choose?
We spent some time shopping for our kids today and the cute family watching them this week. We hit Leclerc, which is like a Super Target or something and found some really cute stuff. Because we had Mark’s handicap marker for the car, we always found excellent parking. We also found some funny signs to go along with the parking stalls…(If you want my place, take my handicap). It’s a good point, really.
At the store, Joe tried to ask the guy a question and he said, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand you, what language are you speaking?” It was funny because Joe’s French is excellent…ask him about the time our Ward Mission Leader in Toulouse mistook him for a Frenchman.
Another gentleman at the store heard us speaking English to each other and approached us. He was a rough-looking older fellow, but he wanted to express his thanks. “Are you Americans?”, he asked. After we answered yes, he said, “Thank heavens the Americans came in 1945 or I’d be speaking German!” It was nice thing to say, especially since whenever I heard the French speak about WWII and Americans, it usually wasn’t to thank or praise us…quite the opposite, especially in the south where there were incidences of misinformation that led to the Americans bombing innocent people instead of military grounds.
Anyway, it was an interesting shopping experience and we found the things we were looking for (I wanted some French soap…lavender, vanilla, honeysuckle, mmmmm). And, oooh, look, cute shoes! We even saw hot air balloons on our way out.
We had more time, so we decided to spend the day in Blois. It really is a beautiful little ville, I could easily live here.
Joe showed us around to his favorite places in town. We saw Jean D’Arc, visited the cathedrale, and walked around centre-ville. Gorgeous, I love it here!! We did some more shopping in the smaller stores and found some treats to take to dinner tonight at the Poznanski’s, flowers and dessert.
We saw this welcome mat “Happy House”…that’s what Sue calls our home (I love it when she says that!). I totally would’ve gotten the mat, but it was very thick and heavy and I’m already worried about bringing all our stuff home.
Who’s kid is that, she looks like she’s 25! Sorry kid, I want you to stay 14 a little bit longer.
Shopping and walking worked up an appetite, so we stopped in a little café for a snack. Emma had an amazing salad, we got potatoes au gratin, crepes, paninis, and of course some Orangina. We even learned a new word “pote: a friend, buddy, pal”, thanks for expanding our French vocab, Coke!
We got our flowers and dessert and headed over to Poznanskis. Joe thought he could remember where they lived, but he was off a little bit. Or was he? Turns out they had moved and the place he remembered was right! He has an amazing sense of direction, that one.
It was a marvelous evening with Richard and Veronique, and their sons Lucas (17 years) and Ian (almost 14, on Nov. 1). Joe knew their older brothers and sisters when he was there as a missionary…actually Lucas might have been a baby at that time. They have a daughter on a mission at Temple Square right now, so we’ll go visit when we get back.
We had a great conversation and they pulled out their missionary book with Joe’s goodbye letter and they had put our wedding announcement in there too! We re-signed the book, even the girls and took some pictures with them. This is a great family!!
One of their daughters eats gluten-free, so dinner was sans gluten! It was so good, rice with citron sauce (lemon, crème fraiche, salt and pepper), tuna loaf with mayo piquant sauce, salad of carrots, corn, cucumbers, beets, tomatoes and a balsamic vinaigrette. We even got to try sirop de menthe (an acquired taste) and grenadine (yum!!).
It was so fun to visit with them, ask how the church is doing in France and become close friends by the end of the evening. We still communicate online and I’m so grateful they welcomed us into their home, this was the pinnacle of the trip for me…spending close, personal time with our dear French friends.
We went back to our place, packed up and put the pictures back on the wall in the bathroom. Our trip is nearing the end, but we have one more day of adventure!
