Interestingly, I came up with several titles for today’s blog post before finally settling on “Water of Life.” I considered “Bon Voyage,” since Melinda’s parents left Nantes this morning. By the way, they left our house at a *fairly* reasonable hour, 8:15am, and traveled by train (TGV) to Paris where they are spending the night in a hotel INSIDE the Paris airport – now that’s smart! And we just read an email from them that includes a description of their room. Apparently, there is a view of the runway from their bed! I want that!! Oh, back to titles…

I considered “April Fool’s Day” with the idea that my post would be a complete joke, as well as a test to see if anyone could figure out why I called it “April Fool’s Day” today. Given I passed on this, I’ll tell you. In Europe, and I’m sure other places, the numerical representation of the date starts with the day, then the month, then the year. So I kept seeing 4/1/2011 on reader boards. To an American, that’s April 1st, right? Okay, I passed on that idea…

There was also “Lunch in Angers,” considered because Melinda and I took the train (another TGV) to the nearby town of, get this, Angers for, get this, lunch. With all of our guests having left, we decided a little treat was due the two of us. We found a cute little restaurant, La Soufflérie, and had, get this, wait for it, wait for it…, soufflés (another potential title) for lunch.

But I settled on “Water of Life,” the English translation of “Eau-de-Vie,” the digestif I had after the soufflés (while Melinda ate a caramel au beurre salé crêpe – that’s her in the background). This one is specifically eau-de-vie de poire (pear) and was served ice cold. It was delicious and hit the spot perfectly, just like so many things in France.