Author: Andy Smallman

Meet one of my French professors in Nantes, the auto-cashier at the nearby U Express grocery store. I had a funny realization while checking out there just a few minutes ago. How much better would my French be if every time I buy groceries I interact with a real live human being (a real live French person, no less) instead of scanning my items myself and interacting with a machine?

Digging deeper into this philosophical question, I wonder if using my computer as much as I have (to blog, of all things, and in English, no less!) has also hampered my French language acquisition. Another question, how different would my experience be if we were living here 20 years ago?

Clearly, there are positives and negatives to this. 20 years ago I could not have gone online to look up the local bus schedule, or used a translator to help me understand things better. But each of those interactions with a machine is one less potential interaction with a human being.

Still, I will report that I can say, “Passer les articles devant le lecteur.” At least that’s what I think the machine is telling me when I’m scanning things too slowly.

And, oh, the woman (French, I presume) who cut my hair today told me my French was very good. That came after I told her, “Je ne parle pas très bien le français.” Ironic, huh?

I mean, something about this photo just says rural France to me. It’s the color, the blue of the sky mixing nicely with the greens and browns of the grasses. The presence of horses adds to it, as does the bike. Then there is the beautiful girl, always an important component of a classic French photo.

Yes, Melinda & Ella returned last night with a camera full of photos. Indeed, as Melinda had been reporting to me by text and phone, the Île de Ré looks beautiful. As the picture provides testimony and as I mentioned earlier, they rented a couple of bikes and rode all over the island. It’s reputed to be extremely flat, making bike-riding a breeze. I caught Melinda hard at work earlier today, busy counting on her fingers and toes. I think she was doing what Jethro Bodine called cipherin’.

When she was done she announced that she thinks they biked over 61 miles in the two days they were on the island. That’s something!

I had hoped to provide some interesting posts of what Melinda and Ella were doing on their little two day vacation (they get back tonight). But Melinda hasn’t been able to send me any photos and, well, no photo, no blog posting.

I WILL say that they’ve spent their two days on the Île de Ré riding bikes. Ella reported that she’s a little sore in an area that gets sore when riding a bike for something like 7 hours in one day. They haven’t spotted Johnny Depp despite having heard he is a frequent visitor. Melinda has mentioned several times that we should move there, and I don’t think it’s because of Johnny Depp. Anyway, it will be fun to see their photos and get caught up properly when they get home.

Meanwhile, I’ve spent the last two days more or less working on the computer. As a Washington state certified teacher I am required to earn “clock hours,” 150 every five years, to keep my certificate up-to-date. I signed up for a 60 clock hour class on “web technology.” So I’ve been studying things like wikis, RSS, Google apps, and the like. Here, you can look at the kindness wiki I made as part of today’s assignment (feel free to add to it, please!). And today’s photo is of me with my iGoogle page, complete with RSS, Facebook and Twitter feeds.

Aren’t I savvy? Or maybe just a little silly to be using valuable sabbatical days on things like this…

I mentioned at the end of Friday’s post that we were heading over to the Boudeau’s for our first foray in their brand new pool. That’s right, the Boudeaus have put a pool in their backyard!

It’s pretty spectacular, their pool. It’s got a deep end so Romain spent a lot of time showing off his diving prowess. And it was pretty funny watching Chloe try not to get her hair or face wet when she first got in. She made the mistake of showering and getting all cleaned up (after sunbathing most of the afternoon at our house) just before we left our house.

Frédérique described what we would be eating as a “light dinner.” Wow, I don’t know. For one, she’s an amazing cook so everything was delicious. And two, it just seems a 4 course meal can’t be considered “light.” What a meal…

I delayed posting about the pool party, hoping to get one of the Boudeaus photos. Laurent sent this one and several others to me late last night. We had gone back in the pool after the “light” dinner. You know, the one that took a couple of hours to complete. And since it’s still light here at 10pm, you can guess it was pretty late when this picture was taken.

No, I’m not referring to how Melinda, the girls & I slipped into the country. I am, of course, referring to the significant tennis tournament that is taking place as I write. It’s in the middle of the second set, Rafael Nadal having taken the first 7-5. Roger Federer won the first 3 games but couldn’t hold off Nadal.

You may be asking what today’s photo has to do with Nadal, Federer and the French Open. Well, let me tell you.

Théo, there on the right, is a tennis fan. He told me that he can serve like Roger Federer. I’m not sure if he was referring to hitting a tennis ball or bringing dinner to the table but it really doesn’t matter. Bérnard, there on the left, is also a fan of hitting a fuzzy little ball over a net. Christine, there in the middle, is a supportive mom and wife.

Oh, in terms of explanation, there’s more. The Bertail family doesn’t have cable TV. We do. The French Open is on. They asked if they could come watch (note their glazed TV-watching eyes).

On a different subject, one I promise had nothing to do with the fact that half the Bertail family was coming to watch tennis on our TV, Melinda & Ella left today for a couple of days on the Île de Ré, a spontaneous vacation that emerged when Ella learned she need not attend school tomorrow or Tuesday. I’m hoping Melinda can send me a photo for the blog tomorrow but we aren’t sure she’ll have Internet access.

Our minds have been on PSCS all day today, knowing that our four seniors will be graduating. The ceremony is scheduled to begin in about an hour, what is 7:30pm in Nantes. For about 45 minutes each, each graduate will be honored by the community. Please take a minute to learn more as the ceremony is unlike anything else I know. Of all the things we’re not participating in this year, this one is the hardest. What I am especially missing is handing each graduate her/his diploma, something that has become a tradition (or least for me) for me to do each year. Truthfully, it’s harder today than I thought it would be.

Melinda and I have created various tributes to the graduates, Aaron, Clare, Kestrel and Tristan. As small as it is, wearing my PSCS T-shirt (see today’s photo) while the ceremony is going on is one. Over the last few days we created a short video for each graduate, videos that will be played during the point each student is appreciated by the community during the ceremony. We honored the graduates by featuring them on the Kind Living blog today, a post that includes links to “mixed tapes,” a collection of songs I created for each and uploaded to a website where anyone interested can listen.

Congratulations to my students and my dear friends, Aaron, Clare, Kestrel and Tristan. We are all missing you today but are with you in spirit!

This may be one of those posts that is of less interest to most of you but serves the initial purpose of this blog, a reminder photo and some text about some of what we do in France to get along. For instance, this lovely photo is of our bank, at least the branch where we most frequently go. If you can’t figure it out, the bank name is CIC (which in French sounds like “say ee say”). I have no idea what the letters represent.

If you’re interested, we handle our French finances by withdrawing money from our American account at an ATM and then depositing the cash into our French account at this branch. We found we get the best exchange rate following this protocol, although the way the US dollar has been faring against the Euro over the last few months we’ve had to tighten our belts.

It’s about a 15 minute walk from our house to the branch or we can take a bus. I prefer the walk, which is what I did today to make a deposit. “Je voudrais faire un dépôt,” I said to the teller.

By the way, it’s a scorcher today, temperatures into the low 80’s! I’m posting early because we’re heading over to the Boudeaus for our first dip in their pool. That’s right, they’ve had a pool built in their backyard. Look for a photo on Sunday (tomorrow I’m dedicating to the graduating seniors at PSCS).

It’s a national holiday in France today, Ascension Day. If you are wondering just what Ascension Day is, it is a Christian holiday commemorating the day Jesus ascended into heaven following his resurrection.

Being a national holiday, schools, banks, stores, etc are mostly closed, and public transportation is running on its holiday schedule. Of course, many bakeries are open (at least for part of the day) as it is important for the French to have ready access to fresh bread.

Melinda and I have spent the day working on a little project for the graduating seniors at PSCS. This involved traveling to different parts of Nantes and taking some pictures and a little video. Back home, we are trying to morph it all into something wonderful and meaningful. Today’s photo comes from one of our stops, the old LU factory (which was opening up as we walked by). We sat down to rest and have a quick drink, and I spotted this sign on the wall. It greatly appealed to me.

If you want a translation, try Google.

I went and did it. Yesterday, I bought a piece of rabbit meat. Today, while the girls were away at school, I prepared and then ate it. Here’s how I fixed it:

I started by braising the piece, a section of the back, fleshy side down, over medium heat in a frying pan in which I had put a small amount of olive oil. I then flipped it, adding the herb seasoning that came with it. I covered it for a minute, then added shiitake mushrooms, walnuts, and some lemon juice, on top of which I added sprinkles of salt and pepper. I covered it again while I sliced two apricots, lowered the heat a touch and let the whole thing simmer. I then added the apricots to heat them while slicing half an avocado and preparing my plate.

Today’s photo is of the finished meal just before I sat down to eat it. Dining alone as I was, I chose to do my eating with the companionship of the TV. I have one episode left of the second season of the classic American program from the 60’s “Mission Impossible” (“Good morning, Mr. Phelps…”). Somehow, the rabbit and the Mission Impossible program, let alone the theme song, seemed like an appropriate match.

Oh, for those of you keeping score at home, I have to agree with the old adage. Rabbit tastes a heck of a lot like chicken…

First, we figured out what that wet stuff falling from the sky yesterday was. It’s called “rain” and apparently has something to do with the air, condensation and several other factors that I neither understand nor want to take valuable blog space to talk about. Apparently, though, rain is a fairly common occurrence in many parts of the world. It’s not so common here, however, as we were back to our blue sky selves today. A bit on the cool side with some wind, but none of that odd wet stuff.

It’s a little later than I normally post. Melinda and I just got back from a rare evening jog, deciding to add a short one to our Tuesday schedule. We walked from our house to a nearby trail, then jogged from it to the Erdre (river) and back. It was a little less than 20 minutes total so a pretty quick little run. A nice thing before dinner. I held out my cell phone camera to snap this picture as we were just starting out.

Earlier I walked with Chloe to her babysitting gig, this taking place after Melinda and I had met Ella at school and the three of us walking home together. Christine’s son Théo came over to watch the exciting tennis match on our TV since they don’t have cable at their house.

All in all, a pretty typical day.