We Are Family

Friday morning I exchanged a defective sweater at H & M. It was a rather proud moment when the cashier told me I spoke French well, and walking back to the apartment I felt like I belonged in the neighborhood. Understanding French is becoming a lot easier, because I’m trying to relax and just go with the flow of the language, rather than trying to pick out individual words.

Back at the apartment I packed for five days in Morlaix, and checked everything twice to make sure the garbage was taken out, the heat turned off, and that I had packed everything I needed. When Tom and I travel together, we ask each other, “Did you bring the camera? Do you have our passports? Did you turn the heat down?” Traveling alone is more difficult; you have no one else to ask. It tends to make you a lot more cautious.

I arrived at the kids’ apartment around 1:00 and fo$r the rest of the afternoon we scurried around getting ready to go. There’s a lot to pack when you have a baby! We finally got on the road about 5:00, picked Matt up at work and headed into the Friday night traffic on the Peripherique. We hadn’t realized it was the first evening of the two week February break, and every single Parisian family was leaving town, including us. The trip to Morlaix normally takes about six hours by car; it took us about eight and a half, with stops to feed Juliet and bathroom breaks. We arrived in Morlaix at 1:30 in the morning, and went straight to bed. Juliet’s first long car trip, and she fared better than her parents and grandma.

Saturday I slept in late, and we went to the marche, the market, about noon. This is one of the French traditions I love most: going to the market to get the freshest of vegetables and meats to cook for your dinner. The vegetable sellers display their wares so beautifully. Everything looks appetizing. I would always buy more than I needed! While we were at the market we bought crepes for our lunch. Matt and Jeanne ate theirs while we were walking around; I ate mine back at the house. The afternoon passed quickly; Laetitia and Lukaz and Romane arrived mid-afternoon, and Danny and Caroline arrived at 6:30.

We had a lovely family dinner, beginning with foie gras, progressing through curried pork tenderloin, potatoes and sautéed carrots, leeks, onions and turnips, bread and cheese, salad, cake for Lukaz’ birthday (earlier this month) and tarte de pomme, apple tart, made by Laetitia. It was nice to have Danny and Caroline for dinner; it’s good to stay connected with the extended family. Tom called during dinner. He sounded wistful to be missing another beautiful family dinner, and said he looked forward to such a good time this Christmas, when we’ll visit again. Each time we leave France, we look forward to the next visit with our genial French family hosts!