Andy Smallman

Ella and I went for a LONG walk today, one that started at the Boudeaus, crossed the Erdre, went passed our old house, along the trail next to the racetrack, before finally ending at the tram stop for Line 2 (Ligne 2 in French) not far from her old school. By that point, our feet were worn out. I bought a 24 hour tram pass and then for the next 90 minutes, Ella and I sat on Line 2 of the tram and rode it to its end and back (Ella snapped this picture of me for posterity).

I know I can’t make this make sense, but sitting on Line 2 and knowing all the turns, being so familiar with its squeaks and hums, and, most significantly, hearing the stops announced was wildly nostalgic for me. Doing so, I could easily believe that we never left Nantes.

For a little refresher on what Line 2 means to me, I direct you to this entry from March 15, 2011.

This was an exceptionally good day for us in Nantes. It began, as all good Sundays should, with a 60 minute run. Laurent took me from the Boudeau house, down to the Erdre, and then up the river, and back. It continued with a long-planned pool party at the Boudeaus, one that brought both the Bertail and Boudeau families together on our behalf. The weather cooperated, allowing all the kids ample time to play in the Boudeau pool. I caught them in the midst of a game involving two teams, a volleyball-like ball, and two nets, with rules resembling soccer. Chloe and Ella, nearest to us, were on opposite teams but don’t seem to be concentrating so much on the direction of the ball. Manon is about to catch the ball and is going to turn and perhaps score. The four Bertail children are all to the right. Noticeably absent is Romain who is in Paris right now.

This evening, Melinda and I, accompanied by Christine and Bérnard, went to the house where our family will be staying for the rest of the month beginning on Thursday. It’s a classic Nantes house in the center of town, next to the Jardin de Plantes. Our host family, who happen to be very nice (go figure), will be vacationing in Spain. The dad is a co-worker of Christine’s, which is how we found the house.

Now, at about 11pm, we are back at the Boudeaus, enjoying a cool drink with Frédérique and Laurent before getting ready for bed.

Today we transferred our things from Pornichet to Nantes. And despite a message I received yesterday from Frédérique asking us to leave the rain in Pornichet, apparently we packed it in one of our bags because it arrived in full force this afternoon in Nantes. If only we could have had it transported by Icelandair. If so, it would undoubtedly be wandering around Iceland, being put up in a cheap hotel, and being made to eat prison quality food. But, no, we rented a car and carefully filled it today with all of the things we picked up in Pornichet, including the rain.

Manon told us that today has been the worst weather of the week in Nantes.

Melinda, Chloe, Ella & I decided to brave the weather and drove our rental car into the main part of Nantes, our first time in “centre ville” in almost a year. We even stopped for crêpes at our favorite crêperie, where I snapped today’s photo. Ella blames her curly hair on it being wet from, yes, you guessed it, the rain.

For the first time in 2 years I have a guest blogger, 10 year-old Claire who, along with her parents and sister, came to visit us in windy, rainy and cool Pornichet today. I hereby turn the blog over to Claire (note, she first wrote this in French and then laboriously translated her written French into English).

Today , we are going to the beach. Christine, Ella, Celeste and Claire are swim in the cold water. All of her are in biquinis (except Christine). Christine and her daughters are already in the water, they are talking, and Ella goes with them. How did they do swim if someone is walking on the beach with a coat, jeans, and sneakers? Or, this person must be allergic to the cold! And yet, she puts on her hood. Which means that perhaps it’s raining. Why did we say “cold water”? Just look at the way Ella is entering into the water, you can guess that it’s cold.

On the far left, the woman in the raincoat, to her right is Claire, next is Christine, and then Celeste, and on the far right Ella who’s arriving.

Well, it’s been another gray, windy, wet day in Pornichet. That being the case, we drove to the nearby town of Guérnande for a little sight-seeing. In the center of town is a château partially surrounded by a moat, and inside the château is a whole small town of shops. We wandered around, going in and out of several stores.

Near the end of our self-directed tour, we stopped at a cute café that specializes in tea. Of course, Ella order a chocolat chaud, one that came with a foot of whipped cream on top. Her loving older sister, only concerned for Ella’s well-being I’m sure, commented about the number of calories in a foot-high pile of whipped cream. Spoon in hand, poised to pounce, the concerned older sister then demanded tastes of said whipped cream and sips of hot chocolate.

In response, Ella wrapped her arms around her mug, reminding me of the moat surrounding the château. I hope the moat was more successful at repelling attackers than Ella.

I was telling the truth yesterday. Because of the crummy weather, Melinda rented a car so we could get out and about, given we aren’t able to just lounge on the beach (our original plan for this week). So where do we get out and about to?

Nantes.

That’s right. We drove our rental car to Nantes. Christine had called this morning and happened to mention she had the day off. This prompted Melinda to announce she was driving to Christine’s house and did the rest of us want to come. I’m not sure whether or not she was disappointed when we said yes, we did.

So we spent the day in Nantes and did the following things: Went to Decathlon, Leclerc, and Picard.

I ran around the Hippodrome, just like I did when I started running 18 months ago. We had dinner at the Bertail’s. And I took this picture of their kids (L-R: Max, Celeste, Théo, Claire).

All is right in our world.

With the weather being under itself (that makes sense, right?), we decided to rent a car today. And by “we,” I mean Melinda. It’s the same “we” that remodeled our house, put in a 5 zone sprinkler system, did the research that led to the purchase of our new used car, and planned this vacation. It may very well be the same “we” that had children. You’ll have to ask Melinda on that one.

Anyway, with it being gray and windy (the rain held off today), cabin fever took control of Melinda and “we” rented a car. Now “we” can drive places! Yup, write that down. You have a car. You can drive places.

But to get to the car rental place, we, as in all 4 of us, walked for about 2 hours, from Pornichet to La Baule. “We” got us lost along the way, prolonging the walk. Deep into the walk, Ella spotted the car in today’s photo. I looked around for either Starsky or Hutch to see if we could use this car, but I couldn’t find them.

Instead, “we” got an Alpha Romeo. Me, I just say, “Oui!”

What do you want first, the good news or the bad news? The good news? Great.

I had some serious fun with both of my daughters today. Ella & I watched a movie called “Swing” that I had saved to iTunes for an occasion just as today’s (that’s part of the bad news). The movie features swing dancing, something Ella loves. Afterwards, she even taught me a couple of dance steps. Well, a dance step. Well, how not to fall down while listening to swing music. And Chloe & I, as evidenced in today’s photo, went for a run together. Ella stood on our balcony to take the picture as Chloe & I started up the boardwalk in the direction of the main part of town.

Now for the bad news. It has been gray, windy, and raining basically all day. I ventured into town this morning to pick up some food and got both wet and wind-blown. Everyone else stayed inside. The other bad news is that we don’t have Internet access in our apartment. To get online we have to go next door to our landlord’s apartment. We sit on the hallway stairs and connect through his Wifi (pronounced wee-fee here).

Um, the weather may not get better until Thursday or Friday. That’s potentially really bad news.

I hereby declare July 1 as Smallman-Shaw Family Independence Day! Counting today, the last three 1st of Julys have been, in a word, spectacular. Two years ago it marked the official beginning of the sabbatical. And last year marked the beginning of our “bonus month” in Nantes. Today we arrived in beautiful Pornichet.

I took this photo of the four of us toasting “Family Independence Day” on the balcony of our Pornichet apartment (yes, it overlooks the ocean) after we spent over 3 hours sunning ourselves on the beach. Earlier in the day we were treated to a classic French breakfast at the home of the Boudeaus (man, the baguettes and pastries here are good). Frédérique drove us to the train station in Nantes, a tour that provided us all a great feeling to be back “home.” We were picked up at the Pornichet train station by a very thoughtful friend of our landlord who took us into town so we could pick up some food for the day. And our landlord invited us next door to his place for a delightful apéritif.

The 1st of July. What a day.

This picture was taken this morning shortly after our arrival in Paris, and even more shortly after we discovered that all four of our checked bags did not make the flight with us. So by the time Melinda had snapped this photo we had already started the process of considering things like:
– not having our swimming suits for our week at the beach
– not having any changes of clothing, for that matter
– not having our toiletries
– not having our (I mean my) running shoes, shorts or knee supports
– not having our (the list goes on and on)

Clearly this is some kind of a test.

Having adjusted to the reality of our bags still being in Iceland and the four of us being in France, mixed in with jet lag and sleep deprivation (I basically haven’t slept since Wednesday night became Thursday morning), we got a call that our bags caught a later flight and were waiting for us at the Paris airport. And as all happy stories end, we were reunited with them just a short time ago, in time to bid them a fine trip to wherever they are heading next.

Melinda, Chloe, Ella & I are flying to Nantes in about 30 minutes. We can only hope our bags are doing the same.