- i didn’t actually end up going to sleep last night, instead I skyped greg, read about 40 pages of dearblankpleaseblank, and worked on my bracelet. at 5:10 the alarm went off, just as I was starting to drift to sleep and i reluctantly got out of bed, put on the kettle, and we rushed out the door
- caryn and i were in good time for the airport bus at 5:40 and had the whole thing to ourselves… i guess no one else is crazy enough to want to be at terminal 5 before 6am! we had a bit of a wait for the bag drop and caryn’s bag was 3kg overweight, luckily i was under by 3kg so we managed to rearrange things without too much trouble
- got a final english breakfast from the restaurant in terminal 5… we also got tea, of course, and were tempted by the idea of a pint since it still felt like the evening for us, but we figured that would be inappropriate for 6:30am!
- wandered the terminal for a bit… past gucci, prada and all the other designer stores before we headed to the gate and got on the plane where we had the window and middle seats and nobody in the aisle, hooray!
- got off the plane, got our bags, figured out the rhone-alps tram and, 30 minutes later, we were at lyon part-dieu station. after a bit of a fiasco with the ticket machines, caryn and i managed to get tickets for our TER (regional) train to montélimar. we bought some sandwiches from a café, boarded the train, and were on our way
- we arrived in montélimar a little bit behind schedule, caryn bought her train tickets for paris (!!!) and we sat out at the bus stop in the sunshine for about 40 minutes before getting on the bus to dieulefit. about 40 minutes later, we were pulling into the main station in dieulefit and we were met by hilary and victoria
- caryn and i were exhausted, so we had a cup of tea with almond cakes out on the terrace with jean-pierre, maman lIgot, hilary, and victoria. there was a prize hidden in the cake, which i found, so i got to wear a crown and show off my tweety bird toy. the weather has been quite english: during tea it started pouring, then the sun came out, and there was a beautiful rainbow across the sky over the pool, just in front of the mountain peaks in the background… too perfect
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| view from the terrace - with rainbow |
- back at the house, victoria, caryn and i went on a mission to find pillows and sheets to make up our beds. meanwhile, johann returned with constance so we finally got to meet the baby! she is absolutely adorable… she has this goofy little smirky grin and her hair is this perfect little ginger tuft on her head. she is so silly and her favorite toy is this squeaky plastic giraffe… so odd!
- dinner was quite the french affair… we began with cantaloupe for starter, then we had fish soup with croutons that had this zesty tomato paste and cheese on top. this course wasn’t at all popular with caryn, but victoria and i also found it a struggle. soup was followed by a spanish-y rice pilaf, which was absolutely delicious and then we finished the meal with yoghurt and peaches. of course, the meal was accompanied by wine and bread… because this is france
- after dinner, jean-pierre set a fire in the living room because it was quite cold outside, and victoria and i got into our pajamas and made s’mores for hilary, johann and ourselves before settling down to watch the second half of jane eyre with hilary (which they had began the day before) while johann and jean-pierre puzzled over the seating chart for the christening. there are so many preparations going on all over the house: sachets to be made, fabric to be cut, flowers to be arranged, and guests to be housed anywhere and everywhere possible. i’m glad caryn and i arrived a bit before the mad rush to give ourselves time to get settled in and be as helpful as possible
it’s strange being in france... i can understand everything that’s going on, french and english, but only to a point. when i know what’s going on the conversation anyway, i find it quite easy to follow jean-pierre, maman ligot, and johann when they talk. sometimes, however, they will ask me a question i’m not expecting or i will lose concentration for a while and suddenly i will have absolutely no clue what is happening anymore. hilary is trying to stop translating as much to force me to use my french both in speaking and in translating for victoria… it’s a challenge, but not too bad since i can always turn to my sister or best friend and jabber in english as always. even though i’m tired and ready to go back home, especially to east lansing, i’m glad to be here. i am so happy to meet a new baby in the family and it’s great to practice my french in such a comfortable atmosphere… i even seem to smell of lavender now just by proxy
