I love all the wonderful days we have in France. We have great friends who are willing to entertain, feed and house us, as well as take us to places we’d never know to see and do things we’d never know to do. Perhaps it’s because of these things that days like today become all the more special. Christine and Melinda buddied up, leaving me on my own. So I did what I love doing in Nantes. I just starting walking. I walked along my favorite trails, stopping to read on park benches. I spent an hour in our old neighborhood library, recognizing the librarian who was so helpful to me during the sabbatical. I continued on to the shopping center at which Melinda and I would buy our groceries. Then I followed the path back to our old neighborhood, walking the trail to Ella’s school that borders the Hippodrome. For me, it’s both time traveling and being in the present. And because I’m alone, I go at my own pace and in my own way. It’s perfect.