It has been a few days since the last blog. This is probably a sign that not very much is happening in our lives at the moment. We have two big trips planned and so we are laying low with our ever weakening dollar and trying to budget for our train trips. Next Tuesday we are going to Montpellier to visit a city that we so enjoyed many years ago (1986) when we spend nearly 3 weeks in France with our friends, the Bradens. This time we are going over the have lunch with Natcha Price’s sister. If you don’t know Natacha, she runs the Madrona Hill Bakery. Her sister lives outside of Montpellier and is coming into the city to meet with us. We are looking forward to meeting a part of Natacha’s family and to see the city again.
On 30 avril, we are traveling up to Paris for 4 days. We are planning to see Genevieve Galman, the very lively lady that we met (along with her husband, Jacques) several years ago and with whom we have remained in contact. We are planning dinner out with her and she has invited us to come to her home as well. More on those trips later.
As for our lives here, one thing that has limited us is the weather. They may sing of “April in Paris,” and “holiday tables under the trees,” but the reality is that your holiday table will consist of most “frozen food”! It is very cold and very windy. April has seemed to get progressively colder since we arrived. The first week we were sitting out in some café each night. That has not happened at all this week. Cafes are closing early because so few are sitting out doors. This also effects many of the smaller cafes because the have so little room indoors. They are turning people away because of no place to sit. We did have lunch out on Wednesday. We do our laundry right next to a nice little café, so we had lunch and every 15 minutes or so checked on the progress of our laundry. We did happen to use a larger machine for our load white clothes and a French woman was none to pleased. She explained that the machine was strictly to be used for coverlettes and comforters. However, she soon forgave me for my error and we talked about learning some English in England and we ended up :bon amis!
There are always those moments where because you are a stranger in a strange land, that you spend money needlessly. We were out of bread and happened to be a part of town we didn’t usually frequent. We saw a bakery (boulangerie) and went in. Picked out a large loaf of bread and set it on the counter. The woman weighed it and announced that it cost 6.44 euro – about $10.17! It turns out that this bakery charged bys the kilo and this was one dense loaf!
I will say that it lasted about 4 days, so, as Natacha’s huband , Will, taught us, we were able to depreciate the cost.
Tuesday evening Polley and I went to the ballet at the Théâtre du Capitole, right on the Place du Capitole. It was amazing. The program featured choreographed works by George Balanchine and a Czech dancer named Jiri Kylián. Kylián’s work was some of the most dramatic dance we have ever seen. I urge you to go to UTube and search Kylián and a piece called Petite Mort. There is a sample of what we saw and it is amazing. It is funny, but right from the opening moment of the evening, you knew that the dance you were seeing was a cut above Portland. My sense of that continued to grow as the evening went along. Toulouse has a very active arts community and we are hoping to get tickets the opera and one more dance program before our time is done.
Well, little more to report. We continue to watch the weather in Portland and then realize, perhaps we arre not soo bad off. However, we are hoping for better things to come. When sitting out and watching the people is your favorite thing to do, this weather is not helping us one bit. But when we have complained a bit, we then think, “Nous sommes en France” (we are in France) and that helps a good deal. À bientôt.
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