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Here’s an idea. You know how yesterday I was lamenting the fact that my French summer is over now that the Boudeaus have gone home? Well, I’ve got a somewhat solution to offset the sadness! I have to find “French” references wherever I go!

In support of this brilliant idea I present today’s photo, taken at a local grocery store, PCC. This is coconut milk. One side of the package was in English, the other side in French. I turned it French-side-out for this photo.

Then I left it that way. Shhh!!!!

Our French summer has officially ended. We left for France on June 28 and spent a full month in and around Nantes, an incredible recap to our sabbatical. As Melinda explained recently, it’s like we have two wonderful lives, one in Seattle and one in Nantes. It was reassuring to return to Nantes and have it feel like home.

Anyway, back to my point. We left on June 28 for France and returned to Seattle on July 30. With us, we brought back Manon, whose presence helped us feel as if our French summer was continuing. Then a week later, Frédérique and Laurent arrived and stayed with us for over 2 weeks. That means our French summer lasted from June 28 until August 22, almost two months!

Today’s picture was taken this afternoon at SeaTac Airport, just after the Boudeaus had checked their bags and just before we bid them our goodbyes at security. Checking their flight status, they are about 2.5 hours from Reykjavík, about 15 hours from walking in their front door at home in Nantes.

It’s a very sad night in our house but it’s been filled with laughter. I made the dinner I referenced last night, and our families, the Boudeaus and the Smallman-Shaws, sat around the table for hours enjoying each others’ company and friendship. At one point I just sat back and reveled in the awareness that it wasn’t two families sitting together, no. It was one.

It IS one.

Laurent, pictured here from our trip to REI of a few days ago (when he spotted a Tour de France hat in the sale section), made a lovely speech in English about both the historical and current connection of our families. It was both poignant and funny, and more than a little bit sweet.

Manon and Frédérique had to resist the temptation to correct his English. What was impossible to correct, or improve upon, is the sentiment. I gave his speech a perfect score, what in France is a 20.

It’s been a busy series of dinners the last four nights for the visiting Boudeaus. First, on Friday that were taken out by Dwight & Michele, Melinda’s parents, for a fancy dinner at the Seattle Yacht Club. Then on Saturday night, we took them out for an Italian dinner at Mamma Melina’s. Last night, it was an elegant dinner at the home of Dwight & Michele. Then tonight, it was over to Mercer Island for a very fine dinner at Bennett’s courtesy of my parents.

What’s funny is that prior to them coming I was thinking about the different dinners we would cook for them at our house. As the two weeks have flown by, including their 3 nights in Canada, we’ve only had dinner at our house a couple of times. And I’ve had this one meal, salmon wrapped around crab meat, that I’ve been wanting to try since before they arrived.

Tomorrow night is my last chance at it. Sadly for us, they head home on Wednesday afternoon.

Melinda & I took the Boudeaus to both REI and Easy Street Records today. As much as I like looking around REI, sometimes evn buying a couple of things, I LOVE Easy Street. It’s one of the last remaining record stores in the area, a place you can go and actually pick up an LP, in vinyl or CD form, and get a “feel” for it, if you know what I mean. None of that downloading digital stuff here.

When I was younger, records are what I spent my money on. I regularly hunted for disks at the local record shops and sometimes bought the hard-to-find ones via mail order. Over time, I amassed quite a library (as opposed to a collection – don’t ask me to explain the difference), and was quite proud of it.

So when Manon said she wanted to find a vinyl copy of a recording to bring home to Romain, I knew where to go. From the looks of today’s photo, we were successful.

With both sadness and anticipation, I can feel the summer starting to wind down. It’s been a great one, what with our month in Nantes and the Boudeaus coming to Seattle. In fact, I can’t think of there having been a better summer than this one. But the weather shifted in Seattle today from being extremely sunny and hot to cloudy and cool. Fall isn’t far away.

Before bidding goodbye to summer, however, we still have the Boudeaus here to remind us of our connection to France and that summer is far from over. Tonight, we took them out to dinner at a favorite neighborhood Italian restaurant. We sat outside. Before dinner was over, we asked if the nearby heater could be turned on.

Melinda’s parents took the Boudeaus out for dinner tonight. They got back home about an hour ago and, boy, was Manon ever silly. She kept trying to draw her mother into a tickle fight. All Frédérique could do was defend herself, punctuating her physical defenses with expressions in French that clearly were attempts to get Manon to stop:

C’est fini
Terminer
Arrête

It didn’t work. I told Manon that she was being silly, a word she didn’t understand. She went online to translate it and decided I was telling her she was being ridiculous and stupid.

I think she knew I wasn’t telling her she was being either of those things, but in her silly state she made it seem so. Ah, poor Manon.

To honor her silly state, here’s another picture from our trip to France in 2000. That’s Manon on the left with her cousin Alexandre below her. Romain is on top on the right, with Chloe & Ella below him. We were in Paris all having dinner together but the kids got a little bored. I took them outside for a little game-playing.

I received this picture via email today from my uncle, my dad’s brother, Bob. Bob and his wife, my aunt, Marcie came to Reno two weeks ago to attend my niece Jessica’s wedding. They used that event for a little extended vacation with my parents. Bob and Al, my dad, like to get together. Marcie and my mom get along well so this was a win-win-win-win situation.

Receiving the photo was a pleasant thing. You know what I mean, having a photo unknown to you about a special event appear unexpectedly? I’m not saying this is necessarily a great photo, but the subject matter is pretty hot. Of course, that’s me on the left and Melinda on the right. And if you look very closely you can tell that’s Ella in between us, sitting at the table behind us (click on the photo to enlarge it).

The photo took me to a fun moment at a supremely happy family event. And isn’t that what photos are for?

About the photo I have chosen, it’s an old one of Romain & Manon that I had put in a file for days like this, days in which I’m not sure what I’ll write. I decided to use it because it gives me an excuse, as if I need one, to write about the Boudeaus. They’re up in Canada right now, having left our house early Monday for a few days up north. They’re due back tomorrow night and we’ll be with us until next Wednesday.

That means more French summer!

That’s been one of the many great things about having the Boudeaus here. It’s like our July trip to France got extended to August and our home in Seattle.

You hear that, Christine & Bernard?? Nudge, nudge.

Melinda & I took a long lunch from our administrative work at PSCS today in order to ride the light rail (tram) from its stop near the school to the airport. After having lived in France and made it our practice to ride the tram (light rail), we wanted to experience the new one in Seattle. On top of that, we wanted to know how it is riding the light rail (tram) in case we ever choose to use it to get to the airport. The similarities to the tram in Nantes were striking, which pleased us very much. It was like experiencing a little bit of “our” Nantes in Seattle.

Once at the airport, we found a nice spot to sit outside and eat our picnic lunch (see today’s photo). It was fun to be at the airport even though we weren’t flying anywhere. Watching the people in “travel mode” was entertaining, not being in travel mode ourselves, especially the young man giving flowers to his girlfriend.