Tag: French Sabbatical

This may very well be my all-time favorite sign. Not only is it funny, it’s to the point. I also think it treats you as if you already know how human beings use toilets and that seeing such a representation isn’t going to shock you. I spotted it while looking for, of all things, a bathroom while out in public. Needless to say, I had no trouble making sense of this sign. So, after fulfilling the reason of why I was interested in finding such a sign in the first place, I came back to it and took this picture. Not only that, I showed it to Melinda. She thought it was pretty cool, too, and she has a pretty discerning eye for all things design-related. Not that my approval of this sign needed her approval, mind you. But it felt validating to get it.

An acquaintance of mine is bestselling author Dan Pink. Dan is a fan of what he calls “emotionally intelligent signage” and posts regularly about the topic on his blog, providing examples. Here are a couple: Parking Lot ** Airport

Dan says that such signs appeal to people because they invoke the power and language of empathy. I certainly think we all share the feeling of knowing the discomfort of needing to find a bathroom now.

The dinner dishes are done, school doesn’t resume until Monday (Ella went back today, btw), and it’s that great time on a Friday night when your whole weekend is before you. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ve got a craving for The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family. Either that or some high school football.

Instead, the house has been taken over by a group of women and girls. Okay, so “taken over” is a bit over the top. Melinda, Chloe, Ella, Christine, Celeste and Claire (not a Marcia, Jan or Cindy in sight) are all sitting around the dining room table. Melinda and Chloe are giving knitting lessons. I took this picture less than 5 minutes ago of Melinda telling Celeste just how much fun a ball of yarn can be. Just ask a cat. And Melinda’s last name is Shaw which sounds like chat, the French word for cat. So it all makes sense.

No, I haven’t been drinking.

Well, I did make smoothies. You can see Celeste’s empty glass in front of her.

Speaking of Celeste, doesn’t she look older? I mean take a look at this blog posting from last summer to see a younger-looking version by the pool.

Okay, so someone comes knocking on your door. A little nervous, you don’t answer and instead say, “Who is it?” From the other side of the door a mumbling response comes, “Plumber.” You say, “I didn’t call for a plumber,” to which you get a reply of, “Pizza.” But you didn’t order a pizza and say so. In response and from the other side of the door you hear, “Flowers.” Flowers!? No one ever sends you flowers so you excitedly open the door, only to be devoured by a land shark. A land shark is, of course, nothing more than a person standing upright wearing the top of a shark costume. It’s a classic “Saturday Night Live” skit from the 1970’s, a fabulous spoof of the movie “Jaws.” You can see it here.

As you may have gathered, many things make me think of 1970’s American TV so when I walked into our neighborhood grocery store and saw this particular display being created, I thought of the old Land Shark sketch. I almost laughed out loud, right there in the grocery store. I think it was odd enough for folks to see me taking a picture of it. But laughing, too? That may have been too much.

Speaking of people knocking on the door, neighbor John came by this morning to check on me. He didn’t devour me, nor scare me in any way. We chatted for about 30 minutes and he gave me a couple of wrapped presents for Chloe and Ella, the kind man that he is.

First, some housecleaning duties. Melinda and Chloe are back from Bordeaux, having returned to the land of the zombies this afternoon. Zombie-Ella was pajama-clad and under a blanket watching a TV show on my laptop when they returned. Zombie-Andy had showered, shaved and was fully dressed when they arrived, just too exhausted from the effort to greet them at the door. So, yes, the family is reunited but Ella and I aren’t fully ourselves yet. Ella will spend another day home tomorrow. It somehow seems unfair to send her in for an 8 hour school day in another language when she’s not feeling 100%.

Regarding the blog title and photo today, I’m referencing a king’s cake, part of fun French ritual in January we are learning about. If the concept is new to you, as it was to me, take a minute to review this very informative Wikipedia entry. It’s all pretty fun and the entry seems to have it spot-on, or it was written by an American like me who is trying to figure it all out. My favorite part about the whole ritual is having the youngest person sit under the table and tell who gets each slice of cake when its sliced. Perhaps that’s because growing up I was the youngest in my family and wish I could have had such a power.

Melinda picked up a king’s cake from our favorite bakery tonight and was surprised to find it came with a crown and a bottle of hard cider. She and I each had a small slice of cake but the fève remains hidden. We should have had Ella under the table dictating how the cut slices were to be distributed, but she was in her room not wanting dessert (THAT’S how sick she is). And Chloe missed dinner for babysitting.

Well, it was either Bleak House or Hard Times, you take your pick. I thought calling it Oliver Twist would be too graphic, as the only twisting we’ve been experiencing around here is in our stomachs. And no one really wants to hear about that, I’m sure.

Truthfully, it’s not all that bleak. Ella’s appetite is starting to come back. Her request for food today came twice. She wanted a panini, twice. In other words, she wanted a crushed grilled cheese sandwich, once for lunch and another for dinner. I ventured up the strength to make a trip to the pharmacy (by the way, Imodium is the same in French as it is in English – just make the “I’s” sound like “E’s” when you pronounce it), and stopped in the grocery store next door to pick up some cheese and the loaf of bread featured in today’s photo. I got a kick out of it being called American. True, so true. Back home, I made her the first of her two sandwiches before taking a nap. That LONG walk to and from the store, you know, to the end of the block and back, did me in. I was awakened by the buzzing of my phone, a text message from Melinda checking in on us. She and Chloe get back tomorrow, an occasion I plan to celebrate by dropping the Charles Dickens references.

Speaking of Ella, I’m tracking how she is doing as I think she got sick about 12 hours before me. If that is true, then at about midnight tonight I’m going to have a hunger craving, perhaps in the form of the ghost of the Christmas panini.

More apologies to Master Dickens…. If I had it in me I’d try to make some kind of Pip reference. I’m just not feeling that pippy, I guess.

Regarding my great expectations, I had such fine plans of things to do, what with Melinda and Chloe gone for a few days and with Ella at school. But then Ella and I get knocked out of commission with a nasty flu (or something), and my best laid plans were put to rest. Instead, I’ve been alternating between dozing, watching some TV, reading, and otherwise being distracted from those three things by the more unpleasant effects of having the flu. Ella is feeling a little better but is still not well.

Meanwhile, from what we can tell, Melinda and Chloe are having a fine time in Bordeaux. From the looks of this picture, it was sunny there today. Nice. And they are reporting that they feel fine. It’s far better that they are away right now. No need to be living in a sick ward when you can be traveling in France.

Last word is one of thanks to Christine who dropped by a baguette an hour ago and is bringing some soup later. I am so touched by the realization that we have such good friends in France.

Today was the best of times, it was the worst of times…

City #1: Bordeaux
Melinda and Chloe left this morning by train for 4 days in the city of Bordeaux. Chloe doesn’t start back up at school for another couple of weeks, thus presenting the opportunity to do a little traveling. Melinda did some serious online research, one of her specialties, to find the best deal, both in the cost of the train travel and in accommodations in Bordeaux. I just received via email today’s photo. From the look of things, they seem to be managing just fine.

City #2: Nantes
Ella and I are both here at home in Nantes and, as it turns out, are both quite sick. I’ve been feeling so crummy today that I wasn’t sure I’d have it in me to post. In fact, I’m writing from bed, propped up on several pillows, having just awakened from an evening nap. Ella has also been under various covers herself all day, dozing and watching television. We’ve already determined that she won’t be going to school tomorrow and that I won’t be providing Monday’s English lessons. From the feeling of things here, we are doing our best to manage (dinner tonight was a couple of fruit smoothies, for instance).

My apologies to Charles Dickens….

Melinda even said there should be a third H for me, Heaven. Yup, that was what tonight was like for me. Heaven. For quite some time I’ve talked to Laurent about taking him to a hockey game. He suggested that we combine the hockey game with another of my desired plans for him, going to the Burger House (remember Ella’s and my first visit in September?). So that’s what we did, a night of hockey and hamburgers. Indeed, heaven for me.

But get this. Frédérique came along, which means Melinda came along. So it was a double date! I was with my date, Laurent. And Melinda was with her date, Frédérique. It started in what I think is very French fashion, with a glass of wine. But that’s where the French side of things ended (well, other than we are in FRANCE!). After our glass of wine, we zipped over to the rink for the game, only to find the place was filled. There were not 4 decent seats to be found together. Nantes was playing Cholet, a city about 30 miles away and the top team in the league, so lots of Cholet fans came. In order to be together, we sat on the steps in an aisle way. It was a great game, back and forth, until the 3rd period when Cholet scored 3 quick goals to win 5-3.

Afterwards we drove into town to the Burger House. It was difficult to find a place to park and the tiny restaurant was overflowing with customers. But our desire for hamburgers and our patience won. Besides, Rick and Sidonie, the owners, took good care of us. I know I still have some work to do with Frédérique and Laurent. They ate their Route 66 cheeseburgers with knives and forks (other than this first bite photo I got of Laurent). But I did get Frédérique to practice saying, “I’d like a classic cheeseburger, hold the mayo.”

I took this picture this morning at about 7:45. That’s Ella’s left ear in the foreground on the right side of the photo. We are both standing at the end of the tram, Ligne 2, of course, on our way to her school. I took it to try to represent how many people were on the tram. It was fairly packed.

It’s an interesting thing, riding the tram at this time in the morning just before school or when school lets out in the afternoon. On Monday morning we could hardly fit on the tram. In fact, my arm was in the doorway and kept the door from fully closing at first, thus delaying the tram’s departure. I think something like this had happened on some earlier stops because that tram was late Monday morning. It also was the first day back to school after winter break so I think students were a little earlier than what becomes normal. With trams running every 7 minutes and it being easy for them to get delayed by a minute or two, it’s not surprising how some trams end up more packed than others.

Ella has developed some theories about this and suggests waiting for a later tram if there is too great a gap between one that recently left and the next one coming. The next one, she says, is bound to be full, just like this morning’s. I think she should create a guidebook, “Ella’s Guide to Riding Line 2.” After all the coverage I’ve given it you’d buy a copy, right? In no time at all it would be Amazon’s bestseller, I’m sure.

If you are unfamiliar with Groupon and are a fan of cost-saving concepts, you really should check it out. The word is a combination of two words, “group” and “coupon,” the idea being that if a minimum number of people sign up for an offer, one of which is presented each day, then the deal becomes available to all of them. If this minimum is not met, no one gets it. Groupon exists in a number of cities all over the world. I signed up for Groupon Seattle and used it for several things, including Chloe’s senior photos last year. Imagine my surprise when I discovered there is such a thing as Groupon Nantes!

As you might expect, Groupon Nantes is in French so to fully understand the offer I sometimes need to use a translator. This is where the fun begins! The explanations of the offers are often poetic and Google’s translations are hysterical. Today’s blog post title comes from one for a weekend getaway that translated as follows:

“Get out of your cocoons during those long winter months foggy, drizzly, leave the pollution in cities for the serenity of wide open time for a romantic stop. Groupon invites you to head for the Ile de Ré, you rub spray, let the wind blow like a gale of freedom in your hair disheveled, smelling the sea air wake up every part of your body.

“Le Relais Thalasso Ile de Ré opens one of its cozy rooms for a weekend under the sign of well-being. Upon arrival at the Relais Thalasso, you will be overwhelmed by a feeling toned and soft at once, triggered by the special glow of soft light and this unique space, facing south, which extends over five acres. Here you’ll enjoy all the pleasures of outdoor life, go for long bike rides through vineyards, tidal marshes and rugged coastline and relax in their space Hydromarin.”

I thought today’s photo fit the title somehow, especially when you see Melinda in the background, peaking through at the camera.