The Most Fabulous of Weekends: Weekend 3

Saturday: We woke up around 11a today and took some time coming around and getting ourselves ready. When we were all up and awake, the three of us left Crystal's to go get some baguette sandwiches. We went to a little pâtisserie/bakery type of place called "Paul" where I bought a sandwich with mustard, chicken, vegetables, and hard-boiled eggs. I also bought a treat that is a Bordeaux specialty called Cannelé and that was very good.

After lunch, we went to a store that Crystal describes as "boot heaven" to check out the Soldes. I bought a pair of very cute brown boots for 19 euros- now I am content. :) We took our shoes and things back to Crystal's after that and then Roshanna and I (Crystal went over to a friend's to plan their spring break in Portugal) headed to the Mussée d'Aquitaine. We sat for 20 minutes or so at a nearby café to drink a little pick me up and then we took a lovely, casual stroll through the museum. The permanent exhibit (which is huge) is free- we had absolutely no hesitations against that.

My Grand Café Crème :)

It was very quiet in the museum and nearly empty of people. We got to see art from Ancient Greece, the Roman Epoque, and more.... and we didn't pay a cent for it! This was such a fantastic way to spend an afternoon and it makes me so excited to see more museums in France.

After our two or three hour stroll through the musée, Roshanna and I met back up with Crystal and two other girls (one of whom was with us at The Houses)- Kelly and Liz. It was getting close to dinner time so we made a plan: we wanted cheeseburgers but didn't want to go out and pay for some at a restaurant, so we decided to split the groceries we would need to make some. We headed to the nearest market place and bought fresh cheese, patties, buns, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, Roshanna bought us some red wine to share, and Kelly bought a cream-cheese-type spread to go with some baguettes as an appetizer. We then headed back to Crystal's and got to cooking! It ended up being a delicious meal and I wasn't at all surprised that it was so good- I hadn't had a cheeseburger in over a month. Crystal fried the buns in a little butter and we topped them with the grilled onions. This, of course, all being consumed after our baguettes and cheese and red wine. For dessert, Crystal and Liz made a very interesting and surprisingly delicious cake: the filling was shredded zucchini, banana, vanilla, and spices and the frosting was cream cheese, a candied walnut spread, vanilla, and sugar. So good!

Our baguettes and wine

The cake. It doesn't look like much but man was it good!

The typical thing to do after dinner on a Saturday night in Bordeaux is to "go out" so that's what we did. We went to an apartment where a bunch of students were having a party, but I found it to be pretty lame. There was a ton of alcohol, a lot of noise, and a lot of cheesy young people who seemed to have reputations to uphold. Oh well; they can't all be amazing experiences. Crystal and Roshanna found it to be kind of lame after an hour or so too so Crystal took the two of us to a club where we could dance for a while. That was more fun than the house party but not great- there were too many yucky boys there for my taste and we were crowded almost to the point of not being able to move at all. Saturday night wasn't epic but I did have a fabulous dinner and a truly great time on Friday. I'm taking everything as it comes and making the most of it.

Sunday: Our half day in Bordeaux today completely made up for last night. We started off the day by taking our time waking up, getting ready and then heading to an English Pub called "Sweeney Todd's" for Sunday Brunch. Sweeney's is one of the few restaurants in the area that stays open on Sunday's and it seems that it does so simply to serve up an English Breakfast of magnificent proportions: you can either get the traditional plate of two pieces of toast, two bacons, two eggs, two sausages, mushrooms, beans, a tomato, and home fries or you could get pork with apple cider gravy, mashed potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, and cheese. Phew! I got the traditional Full English Breakfast and ate the whole darn thing.... be impressed. :)

YUM

After brunch we had just enough time to take the tram down to the center of town where there's a huge flat, tiled square that is watered every so often so it looks like a mirror. Depending on which side you stand on it, it either reflects the beautiful old architecture of the city side or it reflects the massive expanse of water on the river side. It was terribly foggy and cold today but it was so worth seeing. We took some pictures and then headed back to Crystal's to gather our things and head to the train station.

Rosie and I made it to our train with a few minutes to spare and then it was simply a matter of killing time for the 2 hour ride. We made it back to Pau around 7:00 and Lionel was waiting to pick me up. He offered to drive Rosie to her dorm and then we headed home for dinner. Christine had the soup waiting: a potato and celery cream soup to which we added a little milk. The main course was ham and Gruyère cheese crêpes, and Christine offered to make a second round so I had a sweet Nutella crêpe too. :) There was a half left over at the end so I ate that one as well! With raspberry jam this time. Dessert was a creamy pudding-type thing that kept its shape when I turned the cup over and poured it out. On top it had a raspberry sauce. It was good but I still love the natural yogurt with raspberry jam the best. :)

This was another great weekend and I appreciate you so much for waiting patiently to hear about it! Next, I'll recount my week and my absolutely magnificent weekend in San Sebastián, Spain! Internet will be back up this week so the posts will flow regularly again.

A tout à l'heure!

The Most Fabulous of Weekends: Weekend 3

Friday: I had breakfast with Lionel and Christine again and then Lionel took me to Roshanna's where I could drop off my back pack for the weekend. I made it to class just on time and then slowly moved my way through the school day until it was the evening and time to depart for Bordeaux! I had lunch with some other friends today (Erin, James, and Shay) and ate what I think is a very french dish: a pile of fries topped with two hotdogs. The French love this dish and it varies between a couple of hotdogs or a hamburger patty. I also treated myself to the vending machine today when I bought a pack of Madeleines- 4 chocolate chip cakes with a strip of chocolate bread in the middle. I bought those thinking they would help me get through my last class but it turns out I didn't need any distractions to get me through today: the topic of conversation in class was "what behaviors do you do when you want to seduce a member of the opposite sex." Have I mentioned that some topics of conversation we Americans find embarrassing are completely normal to the French? Needless to say it was a rather hilarious class; especially because the guys all wanted to show off their funny-sides by saying things like, "oh I give her lots of wine" or "I show her how much money I have" etc, etc, etc. One guy kept asking me to marry him and I told him I would consider it once he showed me the ring (which must come with a massive diamond surrounded by a wreath of smaller diamonds- then and only then would I think about it). After class I met up with Roshanna in her room and found out that 3 out of the 5 of us going to Bordeaux had cancelled. Roshanna and I were the only ones still in and I'm totally fine with that, but I had already booked our rooms. She got in touch with her friend Crystal who lives in Bordeaux and Crystal agreed that she had room for the two of us in her apartment. I ran over to the university to use the computers and sent a quick e-mail to the hostel to cancel our reservation and then crossed my fingers that they wouldn't charge us for the first night. Afterwards, Rosie and I made our way downtown with what seemed to be everyone else alive in Pau on the bus. Once off the bus we ran with our bags to the station, bought our tickets, and boarded the train as it was pulling up. Phew! Talk about good timing. We finally found two empty seats and then it was just a matter of enjoying the two and a half hour ride to Bordeaux.
We made it to Bordeaux at 8p and met right up with Crystal to get rid of our things at her place and then find food. I had another french classic that is not really french: Kabob. Basically- meat that has been roasting for God-knows-how-long gets shaved off into little chunks and stuffed into a tortilla with french fries, vegetables, spices, and other yummy-ness. It was an epic sandwich and I ate the whole thing, so I wasn't hungry again until 12p the next day. After dinner, some of Crystal's friends walked over to her place and all five of us girls headed out to an English bar called The Houses of Parliament. I CAN NOT TELL YOU HOW MUCH FUN I HAD THERE!
One of the girls who was with us (also named Rosie) works at The Houses during the week and lucky for us, the boss was in the house that night. Of course he recognized her right away so we got- you guessed it- free drinks of our choice. Being 20 years old, I don't have a lot of bar experience, so I asked Crystal to pick something for me. I'm glad I did because she got me a White Russian. Oh my goodness it was so super creamy and delicious! After that we grabbed a table and the owner's wife came over to chat. She brought us a bottle of red wine to share between the 5 of us. Good deal right? We spent the next three hours or so just having a great time talking, watching the people, and enjoying the scene. I bought myself a small glass of 1664 beer because I remember trying that when I was in Paris in 2007 and loving it. It was very good this time too. There was live music as well: one guy with his lone acoustic guitar. He's also British so you know he played a great line-up of music. He played everything from Lady GaGa to Journey to Katy Perry to Bon Jovi. It was one of the funnest nights of my life! It was hilarious watching the french people in the bar who thought they knew the words to the music; it was all in english so those french people who could sing along were like insanely cool or something. Well, our group blew them all out of the water because we actually speak english! haha
At one point, most of the bar was dancing to "Don't Stop Believing" and I had a little bit of a moment- It happened when Liam (our live music provider) stopped singing and everyone in the bar, french or otherwise, kept on going at the top of their lungs. Luckily I had my camera out to record the moment. I was just thinking, "how cool is this that I'm in an English bar, in Bordeaux, France, having the time of my life, singing at the top of my lungs to one of the greatest rock songs of all time, with dozens of french people I will probably never see again?" Very cool.

Roshanna, Me, Crystal

*I have tried to upload this video at least 10 times and it just isn't working. I do have it up in my photo gallery, though. Please feel free to go there to enjoy it. gallery.me.com/ranthy*

"Don't Stop Believing" at the Houses of Parliament in Bordeaux, France

(You'll have to excuse Liam; he starts cracking up a couple of times but I'm not sure at what exactly)

Again, I had a truly fantastic time at The Houses! We went back to Crystal's around 2a and then we crashed. Roshanna slept in Crystal's bed with her and I slept on some mats on the floor- something I would normally hate but was too tired to even notice....

Annoying internet...

I wanted to let you all know that my host parents are replacing their internet this week and it means that I can't access it for a few days while it gets switched over. I used McDonald's Wi-Fi to do my Week 4 post but I can't use it for as long as I would like every day. Bear with me over the next few days- I'll add everything I can whenever I can!

Thanks again for reading :)

Week 4

Yes this is all old news at this point, but I KNOW you want to hear about what I had to eat each night, right?!

Monday: Today I slept in but woke up at a reasonable time. I ate breakfast, took a shower, and hung out around the house until lunch time. Lionel and Guilhem came home for lunch again and then we (including Emma and Guillaume) had a delicious corn, tomato, green olive, greek cheese, and vinegar salad. It was so good because it had a tangy-ness to it but the corn also gave it a sweet kick. Then we had our delicious main course of baked pork, potatoes, and onions (yes, all baked TOGETHER so the flavors were epic). With that Lionel and I enjoyed some of that whole-grain mustard. We topped off the lunch with fruit and then enjoyed our coffee and chocolates. Typically I have a mild coffee that is 40% coffee beans and 60% chicorée and it is so good. Sadly, though, they ran out of that this morning so I tried the stronger café filtre. This was also good coffee but I like the pleasantness of the chicorée better.
After finishing my reading for Business, I said goodbye to Emma and Guillaume and walked to class. I wish I had something interesting to tell you about that class but I honestly do not. My favorite part about Business in the EU is that it moves quickly. After class I met up with Roshanna to do some french homework and talk about our upcoming weekend in Bordeaux. What we figured out is that we have 5 of us wanting to go, Roshanna's friend Crystal is going to show us around the city (she lives there), and we need to look up the prices of train tickets and two nights in a hostel. I took the bus home after that and then settled in for the evening.
When I got home, Lionel was sitting by the fireplace complaining that he thinks he has the flu. The poor guy ended up spiking a fever during the night! I felt so bad for him... the flu is miserable by itself but it is also super cold here right now. At least he was able to eat dinner, so maybe it wasn't a full flu. Dinner was a new cauliflower soup and I think it might be my favorite way of preparing cauliflower now! It had a lot of flavor and it was almost creamy. After that we had the most delicious crêpes ever: melted cheese and slices of thin lunch-meat style chicken. Mmmmm my mouth waters over it still. With that we ate a spinach salad that was tossed with vinegar, olive oil, and a little salt. For dessert I had a peach yogurt. Another lovely day :)

Tuesday: I had breakfast very early today because my classes started at 8a. But I didn't end up eating alone- Lionel was there too and he said he felt so much better. He had definitely spiked a fever during the night but he said that at one point he got so hot he had to get out of bed. It must have been one of those 24 hour things. After breakfast I walked to school because I was running too late to make the bus. Class was rather sleepy today; I don't even remember everything we went over. During our break I had lunch with Roshanna in her room. She heated up a pasta she had made the other night and it was actually pretty good. It had ground beef, green beans, shrimp, and cheese all mixed together so it was very filling. After lunch she made me a vanilla tea and shared some chocolate with me. Strangely, that chocolate she has is some of the best chocolate I've had yet- it's baking chocolate!
When school was done I managed to make the bus home. I got right to homework, hanging my laundry, and other chore-type stuff. This is the first truly productive afternoon I've had in a while and it paid off: I had all of my homework for the next two classes completed hours before bed time. :) I also had all this free time to look up train tickets and hostels for Bordeaux and was able to help Guilhem with some of his english homework. That was fun because part of his homework was to complete a crossword puzzle and it was like a race for him. So much fun to watch.
Lionel got held up at work really late tonight so dinner was with Christine and Guilhem only. Tonight there was a truly amazing lentil, cucumber, potato, and chicken bouillon soup. Oh my goodness am I making this when I get back to the States! It was so delicious that it warmed up my soul. Plus, there was a slice of the ever-delicous homemade wheat bread on the side and that is just the most perfect of meal-toppers. To make the meal even better, Christine had hand made raviolis that were stuffed with a soft meat and tomato filling. Well, she said it was meat; it was soft enough to be cheese. We dressed our raviolis with olive oil, parmesan cheese, and piment d'espelette (a mild spice) and it was absolutely amazing. I ate something like a spinach and avocado salad too but I didn't care about it- the soft, warm raviolis had my undivided attention. To prove to me I was in Heaven, we finished off with my favorite fromage blanc and raspberry preserve dessert. Ahhhhhhhhhh
After dinner, Guilhem showed me a video of their family at Christmas performing a song from some french movie. Christine and Guilhem sang, Emma played the flute, and there were cousins playing the guitar. It was rather adorable. And after that, Christine showed me her other daughters' (Maÿlis and Anne-Sophie) facebook pictures. I'm not sure why that's what we did but it was fun. Well, it was fun until she said, "Now I must look someone up" and began typing "S-a-m-a-n-" into the search bar. Yes, we spent the next ten minutes going through MY facebook pictures. I was thanking my lucky stars I've never been one of those people to post ridiculous pictures of myself on public websites. It ended up being only mildly embarrassing. ;)

Wednesday: I had breakfast with Lionel and Christine this morning and then I walked to school because Lionel left too early to drive me there. Class was a little difficult today: it started off with the teacher saying that students have been going into Ryan and Robina's office to complain that the class is too easy. She seemed a little offended by this and apparently went on to prove that we were all wrong by making the rest of the day's work very difficult. I managed to keep up with it pretty well but it required my full and undivided attention to focus on the rapid french. I know that some students weren't as lucky- Roshanna left class feeling pretty annoyed by the entire thing.
On a side note, something pretty exciting happened through e-mail today. I got in touch with a professor at the university who was looking for an American student to teach her two children (11 and 9) english every Wednesday afternoon for an hour and in exchange would give a private french lesson every thursday for an hour. I told her I was interested and she asked if I could start today after school! The lesson was to take place in a conservatory for music and dance and since she is incredibly interested in music, Roshanna decided to go with me to check it out. I met with the kids in a little homework room and just sort of talked to them in simple english and had them repeat certain things after me. It was both difficult and really cool at the same time. Next week I want to bring some fun english music (like Disney songs) for them to listen to and see if I can't get them really excited about learning english.
Roshanna and I met back up after my first lesson to get a warm drink. She took me to the most adorable and most girly of cafés I've ever seen! It was called "Café Boutique" and was covered in pink and cutesy details. I got a "decaf" espresso (if that's even possible) and I loved it.

Unfortunately the day took a somewhat negative turn when I got on the bus going in the wrong direction and didn't realize it for 15 minutes. I got off in a really shady part of town and sat in the freezing cold and dark all by my lonesome for almost 20 minutes waiting for the right bus. I called Christine to let her know I wouldn't be home in time for dinner and to let her know what happened. She didn't seem too concerned so I just took a deep breath, relaxed, and kept my eyes peeled. The bus came, I got on, got home, and had no problems. At least now I can be sure that I will never let this happen again. haha

Dinner was perfect, as usual, because it was not only delicious but warmed me up mentally and physically from my bus escapades. It was another round of epic fondu and potatoes, ham, pickles, and spinach salad. YUM. I topped it all of with some wheat bread and another raspberry/yogurt dessert. Happy me :)

Thursday: Today was breakfast again with Lionel and Christine but this time Lionel dropped me off for school. I was early (for once) and did pretty well in class today. We had difficult activities again but I felt really good about them and was able to answer a lot of the teacher's questions. I got a cheese, lettuce, tomato, and hard-boiled egg baguette sandwich for lunch and splurged a little by also buying a warm Nutella panini. I am so happy I did- what could be more delicious than melted Nutella on toasted bread?! After school I had my first lesson with Cécile (the woman whose children I'm tutoring in english) and it went very well. We simply talked and chatted in french. She had me do a very  simple activity on the computer and before I knew it, the hour was over. I can definitely do this each thursday. Afterwards, I met with my group of girls to organize our weekend trip to Bordeaux. I booked our hostel online and we made a plan for what time to leave after school tomorrow. Finally, I received a coat that I bought from a french clothing website called La Redoute and it put a smile on my face that must have freaked out the other people on my bus. I had some time to myself when I got back to the house and used it wisely to listen to music, have tea, and dance around my room.
For dinner we had a very good pumpkin and carrot soup with fresh wheat bread. Our main course was something I find to be very french because who else eats fried eggs for dinner? The eggs were cooked in a skillet with a little olive oil and they came out simply sliding off of the serving spoon. They were super soft, runny, and not at all burnt. We each had two with another spinach salad and then it was mango and banana fruit salad for dessert. Top that with some sugar and it is surprisingly delicious. I showered after dinner and then talked with my mom for a while as I packed for the weekend. Lastly, I finished my homework for the glorious last day of the week and hit the hay. Next stop: another Best Weekend of My Life in Bordeaux, France!

This Week

Sorry I haven't been on in a few days. My plan was to do one big post this evening about the past week but it has gotten very late and I'm just too tired to do it. I did want to come on here and let you all know that I'm going back to Bordeaux this weekend! I'm spending the night there tomorrow and Saturday in a hostel with my group of girls. We wanted to go back to really see the city and experience everything there is to experience. It's going to be a fun weekend! I  won't have my computer with me so I can't update you until Sunday evening, but I will definitely be on that night. Plus, my class for Monday has been cancelled so I have that whole day to post pictures and tell you my stories from the weekend. :)

Talk to you soon!

The Most Fabulous of Weekends: Weekend 2

Sunday: Slept in today and woke up about 9:30a- early enough that Christine and Lionel were still at the breakfast table. The three of us sat in our pj's and had bread with jam and drank coffee as the sun warmed us through the windows. It was such a simple breakfast but somehow is one of my favorites so far. Maybe part of it is that Guilhem was away with boy scouts and Emma and her boyfriend were still asleep, so it was like the three of us woke up just to have a secret breakfast together where no one else was invited.
After breakfast I went up to my room to work on my blog, laze around, and whatnot. My friend Roshanna texted me after that to get together for lunch. I got dressed and made the half hour walk to her room and then we sang Disney songs for a bit before walking downtown. We had both apparently forgotten that it was Sunday and that means that almost nothing was open today. We were very lucky to find a pizza place, "Pizzeria L'Etna," that was open but was serving a limited menu for lunch. Roshanna and I each ordered the calzone with ham, cheese, mushrooms, and one fried egg inside. Mmmmm mmmmm it was good

After lunch we walked around downtown Pau a little bit: we went in a couple of shops, walked by the château, and strolled down the Boulevard des Pyrenees. Unfortunately, it was freezing cold out and we could only stand that for so long. We took the bus back to Roshanna's after maybe an hour outside.

In front of the Château de Pau

Now for the real reason we got together today at all: to plan out our weekends! We went through my tour books and maps for at least two hours planning out trips to take each weekend for the next 3 months. I'll be posting the list up here pretty soon but for now, I satisfy you with this:

~In February, we have about a ten day break. My group and I are going to use that time to fly to Athens, Greece; spend three days there; fly to Naples, Italy; train to Rome, Florence, Pisa, Venice; and back to France.   =)

This was not a very magnificent day but I am truly bouncing in my seat with excitement over everything we planned out today! It looks like every weekend for the next few months is going to be the best weekend of my life.
I made it home in time for dinner: a tasty cauliflower soup and a couscous/ham/bacon bake. It looked like the couscous, meat, and tomatoes had been mixed together and then baked with a thick layer of cheese on top. It was very very good. After dinner, I was able to catch up with my family for a good hour and a half and told them all about Bordeaux. I think my parents are looking forward to that wine I bought. ;) Another very enjoyable Sunday in Pau!

The Most Fabulous of Weekends: Weekend 2

Saturday: Blah, 6:20a is far too early to wake up when you live in France. It certainly was a struggle getting out of bed this morning, especially when the entire rest of the house was still asleep, all the lights were off, the sun hadn't even woken up yet, and I knew I had a half hour walk in the freezing cold ahead of me. Although, it's not too too too bad when you know you're headed to french wine country for the day....
I made it to the bus just on time this morning but we ended up sitting for an extra 15 minutes waiting for one guy who forgot to wake up on time. Eventually, Ryan and Robina decided that we were getting too behind schedule to keep waiting and we took off without him. I would HATE to be him today. We drove for a little over an hour and then stopped for a bathroom and coffee break. There's another clue you're in France: every so often it is absolutely typical to stop what you're doing and refuel your body with caffeine. Once on the bus again, we made the hour and a half haul to Sauvignac to tour the château La Peyrere. *A château in France could either be a castle or a winery.* While it was truly freezing cold outside (most of the leaves on the ground were crunchy with ice), we got to see some of the most beautiful landscape yet. We also learned a lot cool facts about the wine making process and about this vineyard in particular. The one fact that really surprised me the most is that they harvest all of the their grapes by hand and they only have one full-time picker per year! During the harvest, they just hire a few temporaries to get the job done. Also, this vineyard limits their production in order to produce better wine. The woman who gave us our tour said that it is possible for the vineyard to produce 60,000 bottle of wine per year but they choose to only produce 40-50,000. Why? So that the wine they do produce is stronger, more concentrated, and just tastes better overall.

From left: Chantalle, Selene, Chai (pronounced like the Greek symbol Chi), Me, Roshanna, Allie

Believe it or not, this picture happened on accident

There were two massive Pyrenean dogs who came to greet us when we got off the bus!

After a tour of the grounds, we went in some of the wine caves and one of the production rooms. I wish I knew more about wine or had more experience drinking it or something that would make me a little more fascinated by everything we learned today. I did have a great time, but I think I lack the experience to truly appreciate everything we got to hear about and see today. 

This is the really good stuff (aka: most expensive)

After our tour, we were treated to an absolutely fantastic lunch and wine tasting inside a beautiful grand hall with a roaring fire to warm ourselves. It was very casually done: glasses were handed out and then 3 or 4 people would walk around with bottles to fill them up. First came the white wine and it was so so fantastic. 10 minutes or so later they came around with a chose of either a rosé or a clairet. Finally came the rouge: a Bordeaux of course! During the tasting we were free to sit on the couches by the fire, mingle by the snack table (where there were pretzel sticks, potato chips, and two different flavors of puffs- one was definitely tomato and the other I'm not sure. Although according to Roshanna it was butter flavor), or we could find a seat at one of the lunch tables. The lunch was completely delightful: there was a couscous salad, a chicken and tomato pasta, three different quiches, and bread. Cheese platters, apple tart, and coffee came out after that to finish off the meal. And lastly, I bought two bottles of wine for my parents and I to share when I get home in May. :)

My wine- A Bordeaux Clairet 2008 and a Bordeaux Superieur 2006

Can you believe this is only part one of the day? Next we hopped back on the bus to head to Bordeaux where we mostly just had free time to explore the city. I went off with the same group of girls because Roshanna has a friend, Crystal, who lives in Bordeaux after falling in love with the city during her USAC program two years ago. Crystal was able to take us to the Cathédrale Saint-André in the city and her favorite coffee shop cleverly named "French Coffee Shop." There was a carousel in the middle of a big square and the 1 euro fee to ride tempted us all to hop aboard. After that, we had what I still feel is a very San Franciscan experience: we watched a live street band, passed by a gold-painted man-statue who dances when you give him money, and pushed through a crowd who was admiring this guy as he balanced a basketball on his shin. I thought we were in France??   ;)

We ended our walk at the French Coffee Shop were I ordered hot chocolate plus caramel. Such a great choice! In my opinion now, hot chocolate should always be made with caramel. It warmed my bones just enough to make the walk back to the bus.

Lionel was kind enough to pick me up from the University when we got back and I came home to re-heated fondue, potatoes, and some more cold deli meat (all of which is still delicious the second time around). My soup was another vegetable soup but it was much lighter in color so I'm thinking cauliflower? It was late enough that I was eating by myself but I wasn't alone: Christine was on the phone with her daughter Anne-Sophie and she made sure to have that conversation at the table with me. And like a typical mom, she managed to stay engaged in her conversation AND pay attention to my meal enough to know when to take my plates, bring me more food, etc. I felt like she wanted me to have just as great a dinner as I normal have with them even though the circumstances were different. After dinner, we sat in the living room with Lionel to watch a little bit of some sort of France Has Got Talent type of show with magic acts, acrobats, and dancers. It was actually really neat to see. During the show, Michat the cat came in and jumped up on my lap. When I started scratching his ears, he pressed his head against my leg and melted into me. It was so precious and made me miss C.D. and Scamp terribly. Lionel and I have this on-going joke about all of the things that will be in my suitcase when I leave France. Every time he sees that I genuinely love something that gets added to the suitcase (so far we have coffee, raspberry jam, homemade bread, cheese, Spanish wine, and whole grain mustard). Tonight he told me that maybe Michat will find a way to sneak into my suitcase to come home with me too. :)

This was a wonderful Saturday and Bordeaux was so beautiful I am probably coming back next weekend with my group of girls.

Hope you enjoyed this rather bloated post! 

Bonne nuit