Andy Smallman

It’s just past 6pm in Nantes as I start this blog post, meaning our train to Paris leaves in 12 hours. We have a layover in Paris of a few hours before flying to Iceland, and then a short layover in Iceland (knock on wood) before flying to Seattle. If all goes as scheduled, we’ll be touching down at SeaTac in about 33 hours.

Go ahead, do the math.

The time, as you can imagine, has flown by (go ahead, do the math), but I will admit to a little glimmer of anxiousness to get home. We brought home some of our sabbatical last year in the form of Romain who stayed with us in Seattle for a month. This year we are bringing home some of our vacation in the form of Manon, Romain’s sister. She’ll be with us for a week, and then Frédérique and Laurent are joining us at home on August 6th.

That means that our French vacation is being extended to Seattle!!

For now, though, as in RIGHT now, it’s cleaning and packing, packing and cleaning. Just why is Ella smiling?

That’s how Melinda & I have spent a good chunk of the day today, running errands. Among the many we completed include washing the car we’ve had use of since moving in to our Nantes house. The family who rented us their home tossed in at no charge the use of their car. Having a car has given us a whole new perspective of the city. It really is interesting how different things are when you know all you have to do is hop in a car and go instead of timing things to public transportation.

Anyway, a new experience we had in Nantes today involved filling the car with gas and figuring out how to use the car wash at the gas station. That’s Melinda studying how the driver in front of us did it. Unlike at home, you actually get out of your car while the machine washes it (note the driver just under Melinda’s glasses).

That may not sound that exciting, but, hey, the whole experience really was interesting. And if you can find the experience of getting a car washed interesting, you’ll never get bored. That’s my story. Well, that and bad puns.

Okay, so maybe it IS just another dorky self-portrait. What are you going to do about it? Sue me? Fly to Nantes and challenge me to a fight? Complain? Well, as my father used to say, “The Complaint Department isn’t open.”

In all my life I have never located the Complaint Department, let alone heard that it was ever open. On a similar subject, I’ve never tasted ends meat, either, even though I’m from Nebraska. I figured it was some kind of end cut on the cow. So it never really made sense to me when my mom would say, “I don’t know how we can make ends meat.” Did we make it or eat it?

But I digress.

Today’s photo, I took yesterday. And it’s important because I’m standing on the finish line at the Nantes racetrack, taking a picture of my reflection in the photo finish mirror. That’s the grandstand of the racetrack in the reflection behind me. I’m smiling because well, the Complaint Department has had no reason to be open, as far as I’m concerned, and if ends meat tastes anything like confit de canard, it’s got to be good.

Now if I can only fit some of that ends meat in my suitcase.

It’s late as I’m writing this, past midnight in Nantes. We got home just a few minutes earlier, after leaving our house right around 2pm. That’s 10 hours away. What did we do for these 10 hours?

First, we dropped Chloe & Ella at the Boudeau’s where they got in an afternoon of sunning and swimming with Manon and two of her friends. Melinda and I went to the Bertail’s where Christine was busy building dressers from Ikea. Melinda joined in to help (see today’s photo). Bernard was working on electrical issues in another area of the house so I kept out of the way by finishing “The Hunger Games” and then going for a walk.

We returned, Melinda & I, to the Boudeau’s for a swim and a delicious dinner of mussels and potatoes, among other things (Frédérique is quite the chef). After dinner, just before 11pm, Laurent & I went for a swim, after which my family finally ventured home.

I’m not sure about you, but let me just say that’s a fine way for me to spend 10 hours in France.

Really, I was just looking into the sun when I took this self-portrait today at about 3pm. I was again in one of my favorite Nantes spots (and today, at 80+ degrees, you’d be right calling it a “hot” spot), the Jardin des Plantes de Nantes. The park is about a 5 minute walk from our house and it is a delightful place to read. So with Melinda off to Christine’s to help with their remodel, and with Chloe sunning herself just outside our door, and with Ella content to read in the cool comfort of the house, I took myself to the park.

If you are interested in what I’m reading, it’s “The Hunger Games.” And if you’re further interested, I’m reading it on a Kindle, the eBook reader from Amazon. I bought a Kindle just before leaving for France and am quite taken by it, somewhat surprisingly. It’s so lightweight and functional that I may be converting to becoming less of a book reader and more of an eBook reader.

Maybe you now have a furrowed brow?

It’s taken most of the vacation, but the last few days have been EXACTLY what we imagined when we were considering our return to France for this month. There would be lots of sunshine and time by the water, both the pool at the Boudeau’s and the Pornichet beach.

We got a Sunday night barbeque and pool party with the entire Boudeau family on Sunday night, and we got 80 degree weather and a day on the beach at Pornichet today.

To those two things I can say, “Check and double check.”

You know, it’s funny to think about what you anticipate happening when returning to somewhere or something special, and what actually happens. I’ll likely be writing more about that later, either before we leave (next Monday) or once we’re back in Seattle. There is a lot to consider.

To illustrate a post titled “What We Imagined,” I grabbed this photo from way back on the 1st of July, taken right after we arrived in Pornichet. We got a couple of hours on the beach that afternoon, the only time that whole week that it wasn’t raining or threatening to rain.

Nantes has great parks as you can learn by looking here. And in the glorious weather we had today, I got to experience two of them.

First, Melinda & I went for a morning walk that ended at the Jardin des Plants de Nantes, one of my favorite places in the city and one I’ve often referenced. There is a small café in the park and after buying some French pastries in a nearby bakery, Melinda & I enjoyed them in the café with a morning drink (coffee for Melinda, tea for me).

Then late this afternoon, as I was walking back by myself from the Paridis shopping center, I stopped to enjoy the Parc de La Noé Mitrie where I took today’s photo. It was a long walk home, about 45 minutes, and the park was near the end, not far from our house. Part of what makes it attractive are the happy kid voices, splashing in the wading pools on a summer day.

That’s good stuff if you’re me.

Those of you who are paying close attention will notice that yesterday’s and today’s posts have the same title, but yesterday’s is inside quotation marks. Why? Because yesterday I was referring to the art installation in Nantes by that name. And today I’m referring to Melinda’s, Chloe’s, Ella’s and my installation in Nantes this summer.

Today’s photo is meant to illustrate our installation. It was the first picture I took upon our arrival, and it was taken in the Nantes airport. That’s Melinda clad in the orange striped sweater on one side of a glass partition, and Christine & Bérnard on the other. Melinda and Christine are talking via cell phone. As tired as I was when we arrived, I got a huge kick out of seeing them communicate like this. I remember thinking it was like some kind of specialized zoo exhibit in which patrons can communicate with the animals. I still haven’t figured out which side of the glass is for patrons and which side is for the exhibited animals.

Of course, part of what makes this picture so special is the “A Journey to Nantes” sticker/poster in the frame. At that time, I had no idea what it was so decided it was meant for us (I think that makes Christine & Bérnard part of the animal exhibit).

In French, it’s actually called Le voyage à Nantes and its English subtitle is “The City Turned Upside Down by Art.” It’s a pretty spectacular thing, in fact, and it’s taking place in Nantes this summer. It’s described as a 5 mile long urban trail in the city and you can walk it by following a pink line painted on the sidewalk that takes you to various art installations. There are something like 40 of them. Wow!

My favorite so far and the most dramatic, as you can see in today’s photo, is this one. I took the picture last night in the neighborhood known as Le Bouffay where Melinda and I had gone for dinner. As we walked around on an incredible Friday night in Nantes, among sidewalk cafés and restaurants (trying to choose one), we stopped to look at this exhibit. Right in the middle of the La Place du Bouffay is this installation, a partial apartment facade hung some 30 feet in the air. That’s Melinda looking up at it, wondering as everyone does, how did the artist make this work.

We are guessing the room is made of some lightweight material and the ladder base is extraordinarily heavy. Your guess?

Two years ago today I celebrated my mom’s birthday by posting a picture of a sign we saw next to the pool at the place we were staying in Pornichet. I got such a big kick out of the way the English was written, and knew the editor inside my mom would appreciate it.

So today I post another sign in honor of my mom’s birthday (dare I say it’s #79?). This one attracted my attention because of the French writing, specifically the date. So bold, so attention-grabbing, “Vendredi 20 juillet.” That’s today. My mom’s birthday.

Happy birthday, mom. If you swing on over to Nantes we can go grab a glass of wine at Le Chavallais and enjoy a jazz trio. Not a bad way to spend one’s birthday, I think.