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The Jardin des Plantes in Nantes is one of my favorite places in the city. It was established in 1806 (what present-day thing in Seattle was established in 1806 – nothing!**) and is both huge and beautiful. It includes a wide variety of plants, beautiful walking trails, much wildlife, both ponds and streams, great benches for sitting, a children’s play area… Its main entrance is located across the street from the train station but the park is so large that we can access it at its other end not far from the Burger House (to use a Smallman/Shaw landmark).

I took this photo a week ago as Ella, Melinda and I were walking through the park after running an errand at the train station. Ella spotted this magnolia with this incredible heart-shaped moss and suggested I use it for my Valentine’s Day blog photo. I planned to until she up and made Valentine’s Day cookies for her class. Returning to the subject of magnolias, apparently there is one in the park that dates back to the park’s beginnings. What that tree could tell.

I plan to regularly visit the park in the spring with a book in hand. Another dose of sabbatical heaven.

** My apologies to the native people who inhabited the area now known as Seattle.

I’m trying to imagine what you may have thought had you only seen the title of this post without quick access to today’s photo. Perhaps you’d think I went for one of those crazy Groupon packages, the kind that promise some kind of life-enhancing body makeover. Alas, no. I’m referring to the ongoing construction to the front of our neighborhood grocery store, the U Express.

I took this photo no more than 30 minutes ago, excited as we all are by what appears to be the start of a fancy new entrance to the store. Melinda has imagined several different possibilities since seeing a group of workers take measurements several months ago. They must have decided to wait until the worst of the winter weather was behind us before beginning the construction, which has been going on for about two weeks now. At first we wondered if the project was just some kind of new drainage system. Then we began to wonder if it might just be some kind of enclosure for the grocery carts. Yesterday they removed some of the facade above the entrance, revealing evidence that this at one time may have been a Leclerc. What a revelation! Our cute neighborhood grocery is no more than 1/10th the size of a Leclerc. It must have been drummed out of the Leclerc fraternity for wimpiness.

All the same, it is our U Express and we are fond of it. We are pleased to see it get a facelift/makeover. Today’s progress involved the white pillars being put in place in front of the doors. Quite elegant!

Here are several samples of the cookies Ella spent the day yesterday making. Trying to use an American recipe in a country that uses the metric system has posed some challenges, all of which I think we’ve mastered by now. Another of the challenges we’ve overcome is figuring out in France what Americans refer to as “powdered sugar,” a key ingredient in the frosting. It took some doing, especially because granulated sugar is referred to as powdered sugar here. And what we call powdered sugar is called iced sugar in France.

The other ongoing challenge is remembering that the grocery stores are closed on Sundays. And since Ella planned to make the cookies yesterday, a Sunday, she needed to make sure she had all the necessary ingredients on Saturday at the latest. Lo and behold, we were missing powdered sugar and our nearby small grocery store doesn’t carry it. But Melinda came to the rescue and took a late tram trip with Ella to Leclerc on Saturday to get it. The end result? These beautiful cookies. And as good as they look, they taste even better.

Being a person who likes to spread the joy, Ella sent several cookies to Christine’s house last night, took enough to school today for everyone in her homeroom to have one, and shared some with Manon and Alice, our lone two English students today (Romain had an exam).

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

Our incredible weather of the last two days gave way to rain today, certainly making us feel right at “home.” You know, like Washingtonians. No matter, though. We weren’t planning any big outdoor excursions (other than a short trip for some exercise at the Hippodrome that Melinda and I took this morning, only to find an equestrian event taking place that involved children, young adults, ponies, horses and even miniature horses – very fun!). No, the big event of the day was watching Manon play volleyball! Her team, currently in third, was playing the league’s top team.

Laurent picked up Melinda, Chloe and me at about 3:45 (Ella stayed home to make Valentine’s Day sugar cookies for her class). We met Frédérique at the match and later were joined by Annabelle and, for a short time, Joël, Manon’s grandfather. Today’s photo was taken late in the match during the fifth game, the deciding game in the best of five. That’s Manon, second from the left in yellow, a blurry ball above her head (let me just say that she has a wicked serve and a strong smash). Unfortunately, though, after rallying to take the fourth game they could not sustain their momentum and lost this one and therefore the match. But it was all extremely entertaining for us.

I chose this picture in order to include the referee, the man standing on the riser next to the net. We all got a kick out of his hand signals and certain aspects of the formality of the match that he enforced. Laurent and I got a little silly at times trying to anticipate certain gestures. Also of note was this cute little girl toddler who may have been the most attractive cheerleader I’ve ever seen. Oblivious to the game, she was adorable running up and down in front of the bleachers, the perfect between volleys form of entertainment Maybe the professional sports leagues in the United States should hire toddlers for sideline entertainment purposes…

Oh, I can feel spring coming! Despite waking this morning to wet ground and a slight drizzle, the cloud cover burned off and we had another beautiful day. Not nearly as warm as yesterday, the high being in the low 50’s, it was still wonderful. For a summary of what we did on this lovely day, I’m providing these notes:

– Other than taking the water taxi to cross the Erdre, Melinda & I walked to a branch of our bank at the Rond Point de Paris, almost 3 miles from our house. We needed to order more checks and send a deposit to Paris for an apartment we will be staying at as part of Chloe’s 18th birthday celebration.

– Today’s photo was taken at the large farmer’s market in Nantes called the Marché de Talensac. We stopped there to pick up fresh ingredients for tonight’s tofu/vegie stir-fry dinner.

– Chloe and Ella took off on their own to go shopping in town. They came back with a new spring jacket for Chloe and a pair of sunglasses for Ella that make her look like a state trooper. “Please take your license out of your wallet, sir.”

– I walked over to the Hippodrome with 13 year-old neighbor Théo in order to throw a Frisbee, which we did, coupled with watching part of a rugby game, for about an hour.

– Melinda helped Christine, Théo’s mom, with a dress. I’m not sure what the right verb is. Adjust? Take in? Hem? Whatever it is, it involved a sewing machine.

– And the Boudeaus (minus Manon who already had plans) are due to arrive in less than an hour for dinner, meaning the day still has much fun in store!

63 is a very good number. Reason #1 – Both Melinda and I were born in 1963; in fact, we were born 11 days apart during the month of May. Of course, she is older, meaning I married an older woman and she robbed the cradle. But that’s beside the point.

Reason #2 – It was 63 degrees Fahrenheit in Nantes today! Oh my gosh, that’s warm. Even the website where I check the temperature (it listed it as 17, by the way) referred to the day as mild. I haven’t seen “mild” since last fall. It’s been “chilly” or “cold” for months. It’s still listing the temperature as 14 at 8:30pm (that’s 57).

So how did I celebrate this beautiful day? By taking a long walk to the biocoop, of course! As you may be able to figure out, biocoop is a health food store. The expression in today’s photo, “Alimentation Biologique et Écoproduits,” translates as “Organic Food and Green Products.” I’m very fond of this particular store as I find many of my favorite products here including things like tofu and cashew butter. Today I picked up some soy sauce and apricot bars, as well as a few other things for a dinner I’m planning for tomorrow tonight (Shhh, don’t tell the Boudeaus that I’m fixing a tofu/vegie stir fry – they’re our guests tomorrow).

I counted the steps from our house to the biocoop on my new pedometer and it’s just over 4000 one way, which, if the pedometer can be trusted and the measurement of my step is reasonably accurate, is just over 1.75 miles. In fact, if the pedometer can be trusted, I walked well over 16,000 steps today, almost 8 miles. I could lie and say it’s 6.3 miles to try to bring today’s post back home but I don’t want to sell myself short.

PS – To Chloe: Yeah, I know. Not a person in sight in today’s photo…

Chloe told me last night that my blog posts are getting boring. We were at the time watching the France-Brazil soccer game on TV , which was exciting, so the contrast might have been part of her evaluation (btw, France won 1-0). She went on to tell me that part of the problem is the lack of head shots in recent posts. So today I decided I’d take a look and see if I agreed with her. She may have a point. Really, though, I think it has to do with the lack of pictures featuring Chloe. You have to go back 15 days to find one of those.

You see, Chloe has been very busy lately. School started back up and she’s really tried to increase her babysitting hours, trying as she is to save some money for college (in September she starts at the coolest sounding university, Quest University in Canada, just outside of Vancouver). It’s a bit expensive and despite having been granted a nice scholarship, she has some work to do to make up the difference, hence the taking on of more work.

For instance, she got a call a couple of nights ago from one of Ella’s teachers, Madame Lalaude, who had heard Chloe does babysitting. Madame Lalaude has two preschool aged children and ended up in a pinch today. She hoped to find someone from 7:45-4 but was happy when Chloe said she could watch the kids until just after noon. This made for a busy day for Chloe, who followed those 5 hours of babysitting with an afternoon class and is right now in the midst of giving her 90 minute English lesson to a 10 year-old (who, incidentally, loves hockey – last week Chloe had him write a little report on his favorite player, Sidney Crosby).

What this all has to do with an extreme close-up of Ella and Melinda, I’m not sure, other than I’m hoping it counts for an interesting photo in Chloe’s eyes.

A couple of days ago I made a comment about wanting to rename our tram stop. It’s called “Bourgeonnière,” a reference to housing made available for students attending the University of Nantes. I find it difficult to say and have started a campaign to rename it “Petit Homme.” In that post, which you can read here, I offered to award 10 points to anyone who could figure out why I want the stop named “Petit Homme.”

Well, I am pleased to say that the 10 points go to my kindness class friend Linda Taylor! Truth be told, as far as I know she’s the only one who played and I really don’t know what she can do with these points. But she did respond and ultimately figured it out. You can see our exchange in the comments section of last week’s post. In that exchange, we got to the point where I said that had Melinda and I had a boy I wanted to name him Avery. Linda’s response was to sympathize with Melinda. I suppose I should either take her 10 points away for that, or award her a thousand more…

Anyway, today while Melinda, Ella and I were walking along the tram line in the center of town, having just finished lunch at Black or White, I spotted this word painted on a railing. We were hustling to catch the tram but I couldn’t resist pulling out my camera to snap today’s photo. What a coincidence! What does it mean? Have a very nice day?

This one’s for you, Linda. It’s worth at least 10 points.

P.S. – I also suggested Isabella for a girl, but considering we gave Chloe & Ella Melinda’s last name, it wouldn’t have been quite as much fun…

So says the flyer I am holding in my hand from the Black or White Café. And having had lunch there today with Melinda, I can say that it’s true. We learned about the café from Christine, who is longtime friends with Kimberly, captured in today’s picture.

So, yes, meet Kimberly, originally from Chicago but now a restauranteur in Nantes. She and a friend envisioned a café in Nantes in which native English speakers would feel at home, and where native French speakers could come practice English. As you can see behind Kimberly, the menu is in English. On top of that, she speaks almost entirely in English in the café. It’s a very small place, more for take-out, perhaps, than eating in. But it is quite charming. Having lunch there today was like being transported home for a meal.

Upon entering, Melinda and I heard three men speaking French to each other while Kimberly made them their homemade burritos (think “wraps”). But when they turned to talk to her, they spoke English (with a French accent ), as she did to them (minus the French accent). This happened with each customer who came in. It was an amazing experience, to be in France but feel like the native speaker, a feeling I haven’t had since arriving in France. It was oddly exhilarating, especially knowing that as soon as we exited we would be back in the French-speaking world.

Kimberly made us delicious chicken burritos and then served me a chocolate chip cookie and a brownie to Melinda. We talked, in English, about being in France. I told her about the blog and asked if I could take her picture for today’s post.

FYI, we are returning tomorrow with Ella.

Look who we found walking along the Erdre in Nantes! That’s Mr. Pete Dixon on the left, the idealistic social studies teacher at Walt Whitman High in Los Angeles. Next to him is his student teacher, Miss Alice Johnson. Talk about idealistic! She can hardly see straight her glasses are so rose-colored.

What a surprise it was to see Pete and Alice in Nantes in 2011, especially since their hip TV show was cancelled back in 1974. Ah, do you remember those Friday night glory days of 1970, home on a Friday night after a week at school, hanging out with the Bradys and singing with the Partridges before getting that week’s morality lesson from Mr. Dixon? Somehow fish sticks and oven-heated french fries factored in. Can you say Swanson?

It feels appropriate to honor the number 222 today so with that I present today’s post. For more context, please enter your time machine and visit August 31, 2010.