Tag: French Sabbatical

The Les Rendez-vous de l’Erde, the jazz musical festival, in Nantes is quite the party. The last weekend in August the city of Nantes throws a huge party that pretty much occupies all of what is called Centre-Ville (the town center). Streets are closed and people come from miles away. There is no cost for any of the performances and you just walk from stage to stage. It’s like Folk Life and Bumbershoot in Seattle, but even bigger. The party is the last big bash of the summer before what is called La rentrée, the big return to school from summer break for the kids and the big return to work from the August vacations for the adults.

Today’s photo is from our trip to the festival last night. We were crossing the river and I was taken by the incredible spectacle. I asked Ella to pose by the side of the bridge and was delighted when Chloe agreed to join her. You can see some of the people packed along the water’s edge but that’s just a fraction of how many were there. On the subject of the music, our favorite last night was China Moses, the daughter of Dee Dee Bridgewater and who sang classics like “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby” and “Cry Me a River.” At one point Melinda & I looked at each other and wished PSCS staff member Liana Green was with us.

Earlier today we went back and were quite taken by “One Leg” Toad, so much so that I bought their CD and am listening to it as I type this up. And Melinda & I are heading back later tonight to meet up with Laurent & Frédérique and to be part of the fun on closing night.

After having had such a fun time last night and having been out a bit late, Melinda and I had a quiet Saturday morning today. We had an errand to run related to finally getting Ella’s cell phone. On that subject, it has taken us since July 10 to get the local provider, Orange, to allow us to have four phones, and that is really thanks to the kind young man, Saad, the same man who helped us way back in July, going to bat for us yesterday afternoon. Anyway, we now have the four phones and this morning Melinda and I went back to the store to set it up so the four of us can have unlimited calls between them.

We arrived a little early so sat down for a pastry and morning drink at a nearby café. Melinda had a pain au raisin (pictured) with a grand café and I had something called a chausson pomme with a chocolat chaud. The weather was picture perfect and the food delightful, giving us one of those “pinch-me” moments. This is the kind of morning we envisioned having when we imagined living in France.

I’m posting early today as we leave soon to head into town to meet up with Laurent & Frédérique and Isabel & Luc (from Pornichet) for Les Rendez-vous de l’Erde, a jazz festival taking place on and along the river in Nantes this weekend. Now that should be fun!

I’m posting later than I normally do because I wanted to wait until we got home tonight from the soccer game we attended. Yesterday, Laurent emailed me to ask if we’d like to go see FC Nantes play Vannes OC tonight. Of course we did! When I asked the girls if they wanted to go, Chloe answered very quickly with an emphatic yes. This was on our Top 5 list of things to do in Nantes. And given the result, FC Nantes may want us to return. They won 2-0.

The victory is significant in that the team hasn’t played very well so far this year. If I understood Laurent correctly, this was their third game at home and the first in which they scored. And we got a great view of the first goal. We were sitting just behind the net and the goal came off of a well-orchestrated corner kick. I must also compliment Romain who correctly predicted the outcome as we were walking into the stadium.

Speaking of the stadium, it seats upwards of 45,000 but probably had 10-15,000 in attendance, a reflection of the team’s recent performance. Still, we had an absolute blast and intend to return. Today’s photo shows Chloe & Ella from behind and our unobstructed view of the game.

As Chloe has gotten older I have been startled to see how much she looks like Melinda. I think this is a very good thing; in fact, it’s a great thing, a tribute to them both. But it is surprising and disconcerting to think that the person walking down the stairs in your peripheral vision is your wife when it is really your daughter.

The resemblance goes beyond the physical, too. Sometimes the two give me the same look, or Chloe will make a gesture or movement that, to me, belongs to Melinda. So I really didn’t find it all that surprising when the three of us went exploring the other day and I got this picture. We were sitting in a café along the riverfront in Nantes (okay, I’m not in the picture but that is my chair between them). I got up to take a closer look of both the river and some cool public art. I turned around to find the two sitting like this and quickly snapped the picture.

They don’t even know I took it…

When I was a little boy my mother instilled in me a love for libraries and, perhaps inadvertently, an ongoing secret crush on librarians. I mean if there are such things as angels on earth I think they disguise themselves as librarians. Children’s librarians are especially holy.

So it goes to follow that I would fall for the librarians at the nearby branch of the Nantes Library System. The woman on the left is named Elodie. She is the person who assisted Melinda and me with getting cards for the family. And the woman on the right is named Céline. Céline not only speaks English, she seems to instinctively recognize my desire to practice French so doesn’t speak English with me unless I ask. Both women are so quick to greet me each time I visit the library that I always feel welcomed and appreciated. I asked if they’d be willing to pose for a picture and got this shot. Don’t tell them but I’m going to try to recruit them to participate in one of the upcoming kindness classes.

Returning to the origin of my crushes, I remember the librarian at Hartman Elementary School in Omaha, Nebraska helping me check out my first book. I was probably in first grade. The book was called “Rough Ice” and was about hockey. When I read it, I pronounced the word “rough” as “rugged” and thought the book was named “Rugged Ice” for the longest time. It was one of those books that I checked out again and again, the librarian always being so kind, understanding and helpful…

At first it might not make sense but today I felt like a little boy being sent off to the barbershop by his mother on a Saturday with enough money for a haircut and bottle of pop. Either I’d been dreaming about being Opie in an Andy Griffith episode, or something about Nantes is making me feel nostalgic. It’s not that I remember my mom ever sending me off to get my haircut like that.

It might have been that I left on foot late this morning to the salon de coiffure, walking on picturesque side streets under a beautiful blue sky, slight breeze and sun. I could picture Opie riding up beside me on his bike and saying hey. There’s something about these walks I take that contribute to me feeling relaxed. They’re quiet and peaceful, yes. But I think the biggest part of it is that I don’t have 25 things waiting to get done, all making me feel like I need to hurry, hurry, hurry. And that’s where I think the nostalgic thing is really kicking in. I’m feeling like a kid on summer vacation, a feeling I haven’t had since, well, I was a kid.

The monsieur who cut my hair was extremely friendly and nice. He didn’t speak any English to me, other than the word “ok,” which I think can actually qualify as both an English and a French word. He did a great job with my hair, completing the job with a flair involving hair gel that made me appreciate having short hair as much for it looking good as it being so easy to maintain.

For Melinda and me, today was a big day in Nantes. Tramway Line #2, the one the runs so close to our house and makes it ever so easy to get around, re-opened. You may recall that part of the line had been closed for maintenance work. We found it more than coincidental that the work began on July 5, the same day we arrived in Nantes.

We had this college kid idea to be up and out the door early in order to be on the first tram of the day. You know, like sleeping outside the ticket window to be the one first to get Springsteen tickets. But that plan was laid to rest when we stayed up pretty late last night and then heard the steady rain coming down this morning. Still, after getting a few errands done around the house we took off just before 1pm and rode the #2 into town for lunch. I know it’s not going to sound significant and may even sound a little silly, but we were so excited to get on the tram by our house and not get off again until centre ville. We found a quaint little café and the two of us were soon sitting in these big cozy chairs eating our sandwiches, each sipping a glass of wine. I snapped this picture of Melinda’s first sip, a minute or two after commenting that the PSCS staff is all working today.

This toast is to you, PSCS staff. Merci beaucoup!

So last night Christine and Bernard invited us over to their house for dinner, specifically for grilled cheeseburgers. Upon arrival, we found that they had set up their backyard for a delightful summer evening picnic. We got to know 8 year-old Claire, Celeste’s younger sister who has been away for a month, a bit better (that’s her next to Ella in the picture). The four girls kicked around a soccer ball while the adults enjoyed the beautiful pre-dusk sky. Well, that is Melinda and I, and to a certain extent Christine, enjoyed the sky. Bernard kept pretty busy throughout the evening. He was tiling the kitchen when we arrived, stopping to light the charcoal and do the cooking.

On the subject of the quality of these burgers, they were so far and away the best we’ve had in France that it’s not fair to compare them to the others we’ve had. Today’s photo, of course, is of Ella enjoying a bite. I’m disqualifying these burgers from our search, however, as Ella & I want to find a place where we can, on a whim, get a delicious cheeseburger. And unless Bernard is willing to drop what he’s doing and grill up a couple for us at a moment’s notice, these don’t count. But they are more than worthy of today’s blog posting.

Oh, after dinner, I embarrassed myself playing a French version of Trivial Pursuit. It was, um, the junior version. I’m tempted to include Melinda in the embarrassment, as well as Chloe and Ella, but would hate to speak for them when it comes to embarrassment…

I was walking around in what is called Centre Ville in Nantes, what I translate as “downtown.” I wasn’t heading anywhere special, just exploring, and a name caught my eye. I went to investigate and took this picture.

Apparently, this is the office of Peter Puget, a realtor in Nantes. I was tempted to go in and talk about my connection to the name, but passed. I figured that it’s pronounced very different here, more like Pew-shay than how it’s said back in Seattle, which brings up an interesting thing. Over the 16 years of Puget Sound Community School there have been countless instances in which people in other parts of the United States have, shall we say, demonstrated creative ways of pronouncing the word “Puget.” Perhaps upon our return to Seattle we should adopt the French pronunciation? Ah, maybe not.

If this post doesn’t seem terribly interesting, I apologize. I’m finding that I’m starting to think in a kind of morphed English-French language (Franglais?) so things like this catch my attention. I think it’s happening to Melinda and the girls, too. I find it both exciting and disconcerting, as it’s making my thought process a little muddled. And no, it’s not the Bordeaux…

When we moved in to our Seattle home in August of 1998 I was thrilled to discover the many trails in Ravenna Park just a few steps from our front door. I thoroughly enjoyed heading out to explore them that August, sometimes with toddler Ella on my back. I’ve been doing the same kind of exploring in Nantes this August, venturing out for long walks and using the knowledge I gain from them to piece together in my head a map of the city. No, Ella has not been on my back but she has accompanied me for some of the walks, powered by her own legs & feet.

On Wednesday night we made dinner for Christine, Bernard and Celeste and during dinner I commented how I had found a shortcut path to both the library and a useful bus stop. I asked Bernard about the trail I found and he pointed out that there was another path, even shorter from our house, I could use. This path had a little wooden footbridge over the creek. Of course I set out Thursday morning to find it, and did so easily enough. Upon arrival at the bridge, I snapped this picture. I also took a few others of the path and one of a tree covered in ivy, all eerily familiar despite me seeing them for the first time.

Back home I told Melinda about it, how excited I was to have found and learned the trails near our house. Significantly, I told her I was reminded of Ravenna Park and when we first moved to Seattle.

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