Month: December 2010

So what are your plans for the 31st? I know it’s a big event every year all around the world. Lots of parties, special menus in restaurants, even fireworks in some places. Melinda and I try to be humble about it, all these events being scheduled to celebrate our anniversary. But this year we are accepting them as they come. I mean it’s our 20th, after all. And we’re in France! Everyone should be having a good time!

Yes it’s true, we took that faithful leap on December 31, 1990 and what a fun ride it has been since then. 20 years multiplied by 365 days equals a total of 7300 dinners. And for us, this one coming up is an important one, hence the need to consult our local restaurant experts. Here are Frédérique and Melinda, together in our home an hour or so ago reviewing restaurants in Nantes up for consideration. When I took this picture, Laurent was sitting across the room next to me assisting with the suggestions.

So make sure you do something fun, too, to celebrate our anniversary. It shouldn’t be difficult to find a party or an event. Lots of them are being planned. Check your local listings. You may see them referenced as “New Year’s Eve” or something like that but don’t let the title fool you. You know what’s up and why the extravagant events. You read it here.

It’s two weeks before Christmas, four days before we leave for Paris to meet up with Melinda’s family, and eleven days until we ALL return to Nantes to celebrate Christmas. In other words, its about time we set up our tree. On Thursday Christine took Melinda to Ikea where both picked up trees for their families. Ours cost 20 Euros, 19 of which you get back as Ikea store credit if you bring the tree back for recycling purposes. The other Euro goes to charity, if I understand correctly. Now that’s a smart system (remind me to tell you all some time about the super-smart shopping cart system).

So here is Ella posing with our tree. Melinda came up with the idea to “plant” it in this tall pot we found in the house in order to give it some additional height. Chloe searched the house for Christmas decorations and found several boxes. Ella and Melinda took charge of decorating the tree while Chloe put up homemade snowflakes, an important family tradition. I guess you can say my job was to supervise (actually, I brought the tree inside and got it anchored in the pot, as well as carted boxes up and down the stairs).

After only finding blue lights to use, I think I overheard Melinda referring to the decorated tree as a “blue light special.” How many K-mart shoppers recognize that reference?

I did NOT title this post because Stephanie left France today. While it is true, I accompanied her by tram to the center of town at 9am today so she could catch the shuttle to the airport. And it’s true that she has returned to Spain, having travelled by plane to Paris and on to Madrid where she is staying tonight (and, hopefully, salsa dancing). She and I had a great time yesterday taking the tram and a bus to get around Nantes in the sunshine. She got to know Christine and pick her brain about what it’s like to have been raised in the United States, marry a Frenchman, and live in Europe for 20 years. So, yes, we had a wonderful time having her visit us, so her departure has nothing to do with today’s beauty. The beauty in the day came in the form of sunshine and a temperature that approached 50 degrees Fahrenheit! That is something, especially after days of freezing temperatures, wind and rain.

I took today’s picture a few minutes after bidding farewell to Stephanie. It was such a nice morning I decided to walk most of the way home from the center of town. I stopped at various places and took some pictures, this one being among my favorites. Ah, what a difference a little sunlight can make. I highly recommend it.

Something not funny that happened today:
Just out the door at 7:45 this morning on her way to her final final (a 5 minute oral presentation in French on a subject determined by random draw), Chloe slipped on the ice on our stairs and tumbled down, landing on the softest part of her anatomy, thank goodness.

Something funny about that:
Later, when describing what happened, Chloe was grasping for the word having to do with the rise of a stair and referred to it as a crack. She said, “At least I didn’t fall hard on the crack.” To which I responded, referring to the softest part of her anatomy, “I think you did land on a crack.”

Something not funny that happened today:
Ella’s rowing class went out on the river in freezing temperatures to practice. Everyone was very cold, needless to say. For the first time, Ella was the coxswain and told us her main job was to look out for ice.

Something funny about that:
Being the quick-witted, clever guy that I am I said, “Wow, I didn’t know that the Titanic was a rowboat,” followed by, “Women and children to the lifeboats!”

Okay, okay, maybe none of it was that funny. But at least I got a chuckle out of it. Today’s photo is of Chloe explaining to Stephanie how NOT to fall down the stairs.

I hereby dedicate today’s post to Chloe! She took a 4 hour final at the University of Nantes today, the first time in her life that she has taken a test of this sort. We chatted about it beforehand. If you know anything about me, you’ll know something about PSCS and you’ll know that I don’t think tests of this sort are terribly useful or important (which goes a long way in explaining why Chloe had never taken one prior to today). I told her that she knows what she knows, regardless of any score, good or bad, she gets on the test. We are very proud of her for her work effort and her consistency, character traits not being measured today.

Pictured with Chloe is her friend Hillary, a classmate. Hillary and Tina, Chloe’s other good friend from the fall, are both leaving after this semester so the goodbyes are starting. I think something celebratory is being planned for Friday night and my hunch is it doesn’t involve timed tests, teachers patrolling the aisles, and being required to sit at least three feet away from your closest neighbor.

…that leads to the mall! And by windy, I mean WINDY (apologies to the Beatles purists). This is Stephanie crossing a bridge to get to Beaulieu, also referred by me as Bellevue Square due to its upscaledness. She and I were crossing this bridge to get to the mall because we overshot our stop by one. Melinda decided to wait for the bus to take her back in the other direction, but Stephanie and I decided to walk. For some crazy reason, she wanted a photo on the bridge. We stopped halfway across and she handed me her camera just as the wind picked up and turned her umbrella inside-out.

You may be wondering why we would venture out on such a blustery day. And if you know where we live in relationship to Beaulieu (Line 2 to Line 1 to Line 4), you may wonder even more. But just after lunch today Stephanie said, “Let’s go on an adventure!” So that’s what we did. Just think what an adventure she would have had if she had been blown off the bridge!

Before we left for France several people predicted that we’d likely put on a few pounds if we weren’t careful. You know, all the great breads and cheeses and delicious French cuisine. So we’ve tried to be very mindful about what we eat. Still, if we’re being honest here, it may be true that an extra half pound or so may have found its way on one of us (I’m not saying who!).

So to keep an eye on our weight, we play some games. Admittedly, these are more games with words than anything else but, hey, at least they’re funny. For instance, the delicious flaky pastry you see in today’s photo is called a “Pain au Chocolat.” Literally, that’s “bread at chocolate” or, obviously, “Chocolate Bread.” Yes, it’s incredibly delicious, especially when you get one straight from the oven. And with bakeries located approximately every 5 feet on any street, that’s pretty easy. Just how much butter do you think is needed to make it so flaky? Anyway, we have a new translation, one in our invented language of “Franglais.” “Pain au Chocolat” is “Pain of Chocolate.” See if that doesn’t slow you down from eating your fourth or fifth, washed down with a steamy cup of thick hot chocolate soup.

Still, if the “pain of chocolate” isn’t enough we have a couple other phrases to help. Take your pick from: “Pastry to the waistry,” “Apply to the thigh,” and “Goûter (sounds like gootay) to the booty (say as bootay).” With phrases like these I think I should write a diet book (oh, a diet in French is a “régime” – perfect!). After my book climbs to Amazon’s bestseller list I’m sure to get on Oprah. Can’t you hear “pastry to the waistry” appealing to Oprah?

I could just as easily have called this post Cake! Cake! Cake! or Cookies! Cookies! Cookies! but I decided Girls! Girls! Girls! was catchier. Not only is it the title of an old Elvis Presley movie, it better represents the content of this photo. I assume you all recognize Ella (on the far left) and Chloe (second from the right). That’s Stephanie on the far right and Manon between Ella and Chloe.

I took the photo at the Boudeaus, from where we just returned (hence the late posting). We were invited over for the Sunday goûter, which consisted of Cake! Cake! Cake! and Cookies! Cookies! Cookies!. Manon made a chocolate cake and Frédérique made a lemon cake. The cookies were of the Christmas variety and were those made yesterday by Chloe, Stephanie and Ella. In addition to the cake and cookies, the girls had bowls of Hot Chocolate! Hot Chocolate! Hot Chocolate! Which means everyone consumed a lot of Sugar! Sugar! Sugar!

I trust that explains the repetition and the exclamation points.

Just seconds ago I took this picture of Stephanie and Chloe. That’s Stephanie on the left, in case you can’t tell. I wanted to take a picture that included more of them than their arms and hands, but Chloe wasn’t having that. So you get more of a close-up.

Of greater interest anyway is what their hands are doing. They are making Christmas cookies, of course! We don’t have any cookie cutters so they are using whatever they can find to make shapes, including a wine bottle to roll out the dough. So far I’ve mainly seen things with round shapes, like snowmen, that are easy to make with drinking glasses. They are very proud of their “flower power” cookie made out of circles of different sizes. And I’m not sure how they did it, but they made a Christmas tree, too. Maybe with a knife? I don’t know. I never was very good with shapes. You remember when you had to manipulate shapes in your head to make an imaginary box or something? What had that to do with anything?

Fortunately, the shapes Stephanie and Chloe are making will soon come out of the oven. And then the only manipulating I have to do is with my teeth

Before explaining the title of today’s post I am very excited to report that my niece Stephanie arrived safely in Nantes late last night from Spain and is secure (and warm) in our home. She’ll be staying with us for a little more than a week. Undoubtedly, I’ll have several things to report about her visit and some photos, too. But she took off to Ikea with Melinda today so I was left to my own devices. And one device you all know I like a lot is the library.

Arriving at the library I was warmly greeted by my librarian friend Céline. She proceeded to tell me in French about this little holiday game they are playing at the library this month. Get this. They’ve wrapped up library items (books, CDs, movies) in bags, green for adults, purple for kids. If you want, you choose a bag and then get surprised by what you find. Bags have 3, 4 or 5 items. I understood about half of what she was saying, and more than half of the first half. I was too busy trying to make sense of the half of the first half I didn’t understand to follow much of the second half of what she was saying, if you get my drift. Fortunately, Céline then told me the whole thing again in English, of which I think I understood close to 90%.

Anyway, game for this sort of thing, I took a green bag with 3 items. When I got home, I opened it up and found a book, a CD and a DVD:

• Book – Le Vacillement du Monde by Alain Nadaud
  
• CD – Nuevos Sonidas Af’no Penuanos
  
• DVD – Arbres

I think I’ll have better luck making sense out of the CD and DVD than the book. And what a fun concept for a library to do! Nothing like a grab bag. It’s how my brother Scott sold old cereal box toys to the neighbor kids for more than the cost of the cereal!