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Does anyone remember that old TV program called “In Search of…” hosted by Star Trek alum, Mr. Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy? At the time of its airing I remember not liking it much, thinking it was taking time away from much better shows like “I Dream of Jeannie,” “Bewitched,” and Gilligan’s Island.” When we went on vacation when I was a kid, one of the first things I’d do when we’d get our hotel room was check the TV listings to see what shows were being aired in the city we were staying that were different than those being shown at home. If it was “In Search of…” I’d be disappointed. What was I going to do when time in the pool was done?

So it’s kind of funny that the show has come to mind when I think of Ella and her quest. She is in search of France’s best cheeseburger. Certainly, this is worthy of a segment on the old program and I’m expecting to see Mr. Spock show up to narrate. Imagine following Ella from café to café as she orders and then samples the cheeseburgers, looking for one that she acknowledges as being on par with those she can get at The Ram in Seattle.

Walking through Pornichet looking for a quick lunch, we found a simple little eatery with counter service. On the menu were paninis and crêpes, even hot dogs and hamburgers. Ella stepped up and said, “Je voudrais un cheeseburger.” She was reasonably pleased with this one, even though it did not come with fries. She was tempted by the bacon cheeseburger but Melinda held her back on that.

Clearly, the search has not been completed. To be continued…

Ladies & Gentlemen,

It was an exciting moment today in the Tour de France as we were fortunate to catch the leaders on their way to Pornichet from their apartment this morning. Our crack photographer was in position to snap this picture just outside of the city. Leader Ella seems to be in complete control as you can plainly see from the expression on her face. While she is undoubtedly working hard as she rounds this bend, the glint in her eye indicates that she is simply toying with the competition. Laboring just behind her is Chloe who, with full basket, appears to be pedaling hard to stay within drafting distance of the front-runner. We believe that is Melinda who completes the trio and is sitting high in the saddle, a posture that typically indicates fatigue. Goodness knows that at this point in the race many a rider has shown signs of tiring. One can only hope that the croissants at the end of today’s stage sustained these impressive riders as they soldier through another tough stage of the race.

That’s all for now. This is Andy Smallman, signing off from Pornichet, France, where the weather has been perfect and the riding conditions ideal. The beach and the pool have been equally refreshing, and the meals and beverages dubbed first rate, for all involved.

So last Tuesday it was my dad’s birthday and we celebrated by walking around Nantes looking for the number 76. And today it’s my mom’s birthday and we’re celebrating by looking at signs in France written in English in need of editing. You see, my mom inherited from her mother what I jokingly refer to as “editing disease.” It can be a serious affliction characterized by an uninhibited need to correct poorly worded sentences, punctuation errors, and spelling mistakes. It’s known to run in families. I know it flares up in me now and then.

So as a gift to my mother and out of respect for her inherited affliction I present today’s photo, found right here at the place we are staying in Pornichet (click on the photo to get it to enlarge if you are having trouble reading it). I’ve tried to imagine the situation in which this sign got its English translation. For instance, construction delays were causing the foreman all kinds of headaches and this sign just had to get done. But no English speakers were available. A helpful worker spoke up, “Wait! Isn’t Jean-Pierre’s nephew, the one from England, visiting this month? Let’s give him a call!” Too bad he was failing English itself back home…

Seriously, and by no means do I want to sound disrespectful, I appreciate how hard they’ve worked here to provide English translations. And I certainly know it is difficult to be understood in another language. Frankly, I hope people are getting a good kick out of the crazy things I’m likely saying in French when I’m just doing my best to make sense. I’m just glad we left our personnel documents back at PSCS.

So happy birthday, mom. I expect an edited copy of the sign in my inbox first thing in the morning.

This morning Melinda and I rented four bikes for the duration of our stay in Pornichet. We thought about renting a car and probably would have spent about the same amount of money on it as we did renting the bikes, but we like the exercise and positive environmental factors of bikes. While the girls relaxed and otherwise got ready this morning, Melinda and I tested out two of the bikes by taking a ride to the grocery store and then the bakery. I thought it might feel a little more dangerous than it turned out to be, especially when inside the turnarounds used in Europe rather than 4 way stops (by the way, I think these are super-smart and should be used in the US). But it turned out to be a breeze, provided you use some common sense.

Here’s Melinda pulling away from me in front of the bakery. You can see she’s adapted to the French way of life because she has a baquette sticking up out of her pack. The rest is probably loaded with wine and cheese and lots of things beginning with the letter R.

Anyway, upon returning to our apartment (Melinda told me it’s an apartment, not a hotel), the girls were ready to go to the beach. Well, not quite ready. Chloe was ready. Ella had found an episode of “Friends” on TV in French so she & I took a few minutes to watch it. It’s a great way to improve one’s French (we saw part of the second Harry Potter movie in French last night). We soon took off for the beach and it took less than 15 minutes to get there. And we were pretty much sitting down the whole way! An added bonus — Melinda’s foot no longer hurts.

On a separate subject, Chloe & Ella have figured out how to access Facebook on our cell phones so you may want to check their pages for other updates. The text on the phones is too small for me to make use of them this way so I’m sticking to my blog postings and 15 morning minutes of connection.

(First, as expected, getting Internet access in Pornichet has proven difficult. I’m paying to get about 15 minutes of access each day from the lobby of our hotel so those of you hoping for updates via email, Facebook or Skype will need to wait until August. Meanwhile, I’ll try to post here to the blog as regularly as I can.)

Many of my blog posts make reference to us walking. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that without a car, to get places you either need to walk or use other forms of transportation. Walking is easy enough in the summer and, truthfully, I’m loving being out on foot. But things change as the need arises.

For instance, today we walked from our hotel in Pornichet, which is a fair distance from the town itself, to the beach. Chloe said it took us 90 minutes to get from Point A to Point B, including a stop at a store for some beach towels. In the summer sun and factoring in some awkward streets for walking, it was quite a hike. But we made it and found the beach. Frankly, the beach is incredible, complete with the softest sand I can remember and acres of space. Chloe admitted she was in heaven and announced her plan to return every day of our stay here.

After several hours in the sun and one excursion into the Atlantic, we started our walk back. We were all pretty tired by the time we got to the hotel and Melinda was suffering from some kind of foot bruise. So herein is the arisen need that will dictate a change in transportation mode. Tomorrow we’ll either bike or find some kind of motorized transport.

Today’s photo was taken just as we arrived at the beach, the girls being the foreground for a slight view of the beachfront. After taking this photo, we walked around to the area just over Chloe’s right shoulder beyond the boats and placed our towels. Not bad.

Oh my, was this ever a crazy day. Around noon, we walked several blocks from the Boudeaus with our small bags packed and on our backs to catch the Nantes tram, Line 1. That worked as planned, other than our bags were a bit heavy for the walk. Arriving at the tram stop, we went to buy our tram tickets but had difficulty with the machine. It didn’t accept several of our coins. Fortunately, we had enough extra to get the tickets and were soon on our way to the Nantes train station.

Inside the station, we studied how to take the train to Pornichet and pretty much figured it out without a hitch. But once the train arrived, we had a difficult time finding the correct car. We got on at “Voiture 15” and were looking for “Voiture 11.” So we traipsed through four train cars to get to the correct one, only to find that our seats were taken! In fact, the family sitting there explained (in French) that these seats were theirs and nothing I could say, in French or otherwise, even showing them our ticket, got them to move. So we ended up standing between cars all the way to the next stop where they got off, taking some 30 minutes of our 50 minute train ride. At long last we took our seats.

Arriving at Pornichet, we needed to take a taxi to our hotel. I asked the one taxi driver at the train station to take us, but he had already committed to another fare and explained that his was the only available taxi. We called our hotel and were given the number for the taxi service, making arrangements to be picked up in 35 minutes (today’s photo is of Melinda and the girls waiting for the taxi in Pornichet). We then watched the original taxi driver come back twice to pick up others, apologizing profusely to us each time and ultimately explaining that our driver was due shortly. She arrived on time and, it seems, in the same car the original driver had been driving. 10 minutes and 15 Euros later we were at our hotel.

We checked in and then frustratingly waited another hour for our room to be available, finally getting our keys at about 5:30. I won’t go into the funny stories of trying to get our keys to work, the sliding glass door, or our grocery store experience. It’s 10:30 as I write, our hotel townhouse space is excellent and we had a delicious dinner on our balcony. So all’s well that ends well, yes?

Our heroes in Nantes are all the members of the Boudeau family. You may recall seeing a picture of Romain, age 17, who helped us tremendously by being our tour guide several days last week. His younger sister Manon, age 15, has been equally kind and nice, and is just one of those people who make you smile. Parents Laurent and Frédérique have gone above and beyond anything we could have asked of them. Among the many things they’ve done for us, not the least is finding the house we’ll be living in beginning in August. And we’ve been living in the apartment of Annabelle, Frédérique’s sister, while she and her two children have been on vacation. The Boudeaus are the reason we chose Nantes for our French sabbatical.

Melinda’s family met Frédérique’s & Annabelle’s family (the Barons) years ago. Both women spent time living at the Shaw’s in Seattle, hence the connection. And the families have stayed close since.

Today’s photo is of the Boudeau house in Nantes, where we are staying tonight before leaving tomorrow for two weeks in Pornichet. The Boudeaus are away themselves and Annabelle gets back today, hence the move.

Note, we’ll have limited Internet access in Pornichet so blog postings etc will not be as regular unless I unexpectedly find an easy access point. If I fall behind, don’t despair, dear readers. I’ll get caught up upon our return in August.

For several days Chloe (especially) and Ella have been wanting to go to a specific French restaurant. It’s on a boat on the Erdre River that flows along our daily walk. The restaurant serves nothing but crêpes and is aptly called La Crêperie.

Well, we made plans to have lunch there today and everything finally came together. We left the apartment around noon, after waiting for a morning shower to pass. Approaching the restaurant, we didn’t see anyone in the outdoor eating area and were concerned it was closed. But we found an indoor eating area and plenty of seats. We each ordered a similar meal, complete with two crêpes, one savory and one sweet, and a drink. That’s a filling meal!

I’ll let you decide if today’s photo is of the savory or the sweet crêpe. Chloe commented that this was her favorite restaurant meal so far and is ready to go back.

I have to admit, for us Bastille Day ended up not being a big deal. Understandably, shops and many restaurants were closed so we chose to make it a quiet day inside. Given that it’s been extremely windy and we awoke to a downpour, staying inside was downright sensible!

A little after 8pm the four of us went for a long walk. The weather had cleared and we were curious to find out what the nightlife might be like on the holiday. We walked to “centre ville” (the center of town) and back, through the older section where some incredible buildings exist and then experimented with a different route home, trusting our directional instincts. We did quite well. Chloe & Ella appreciated this red door we discovered on a side street so I snapped the picture.

Oh, given the national holiday nature of the day and it coming 10 days after the comparable one in the U.S., I made hamburgers for dinner. Ella, our hamburger expert, graded them a C.

It’s my dad’s birthday today and we celebrated by looking for the number 76 (his age) on signs, license plates and buildings. The best we came up with was this on a license plate, Ella making sure you all know what we were thinking. We had a Skype conversation with him and learned about his 30-1 winner at Emerald Downs over the weekend. Happy birthday indeed!

We took a LONG walk, all the way into town and back. Our first stop was for lunch at a very small café along the Erde River. Ella and I were thrilled to be able to order cheeseburgers (just say cheeseburger with a French accent and you can order one in France, too). Each patty is referred to as a “steak” and you could get as many as four! We each had one and a small order of fries (“petite frites”). The “small” was big enough that all we really needed was one order for the four of us. Melinda and Chloe both ordered a “jambon beurre,” a ham & butter sandwich.

After lunch we wandered further into town and did some window shopping. The town was busy, maybe because tomorrow is Bastille Day, or as they say here “le quatorze Juillet,” just like we say the 4th of July for our independence day.