It’s birthday week in the Boudeau family, well for at least 50% of the family. Manon’s was on Friday and today it is Frédérique’s turn. You may recall the big bash for Romain’s 18th birthday in September. And we still have Laurent’s to look forward to, although he is going to have to compete with Melinda and me since his birthday is in May. Still, yes, putting everything else aside, today I turn my attention to Frédérique.

Now here is the nitty-gritty detail you have to understand. Regardless of whether or not it is her birthday, there is a standing rule in the Boudeau family that Frédérique does not make dinner on Sundays. Given that her birthday this year fell on a Sunday, I wasn’t sure if perhaps this would be one of those double negative things. You know, where somehow a normal situation is flipped and then the opposite thing happens. Which, of course, means that Frédérique would have to make dinner since her birthday this year fell on a Sunday. So I paid close attention to see if that might happen, or if we perhaps would cross into some parallel dimension in which Frédérique ONLY makes dinner on Sunday nights.

Okay, okay, so I am being a overly dramatic (or ridiculous). There was no way that any of us were allowing Frédérique to make dinner tonight. The rest of us took care of that, including Laurent who bought this incredible “cake” at a bakery in Les Carroz. It’s not really a cake, but is something called a “tarte aux myrtilles” (blueberry tart), a speciality here in the Alps. And, yes, it was delicious.

Given the recent focus on birthdays I should add a belatedly happy one to Melinda’s sister, Brenda, whose birthday was yesterday, sandwiched in between two of the Boudeaus. I was working on writing something about making Brenda into a Boudeau birthday sandwich but it really didn’t work out so I scrapped it.

Meanwhile, Melinda thinks I should mention that the gang (minus me) all went skiing today. She tells me I should say that the skiing was excellent and that it is quite something to be in the middle of the French Alps on skis with her two daughters. Before the week is out, I might just say it.