1) French women wear their hair messy and it looks great.
2) 19 out of 20 people in France wear scarves
3) French men remind me of Robin Williams
4) There is nothing cuter than little French kids
Today Micalie and I got up and headed to The Franco American Institute to meet her program coordinator, Adelaide. Her office is in an amazing, centuries-old building by the Republic, complete with squeaky wood floors, 14′ ceilings, crown molding everywhere and ancient multi-paned windows. She gave us a quick tour, then offered us coffee. I really want to experience everything here, so was looking forward to my very first cup of authentic “café”. I don’t know what I was thinking, but she went to their little kitchenette and pulled out some very fine, delicate china cups and asked if we wanted sugar. We both said yes, and got two sugar cubes wrapped in a foil and a tiny little spoon to stir it with. Then she poured the café. It was the thickest, darkest brew I had ever seen. I don’t drink coffee at home, much less something this exotic, but both Micalie and I did our best to swallow it down. It did warm our hands.
We walked to the mall and browsed the little shops there – not unlike those you would find at Southdale or Rosedale. After riding the bus to the center of the town, we take the Metro (subway) to the area we want, then it is walking everywhere after that. Escalators take us up two flights out of the tunnels, and we follow the cobblestone streets to our destination.
We had “lunch” at Micalie’s school. It wasn’t exactly like “dining services” at Concordia, but the food was good, plentiful and cheap! The Diet Coke, however was not. I think that will be my last one – it’s nothing like the Diet Coke I crave here. From there, we walked around for 8 hours, but I think we were pretty much in a 6-block radius! Every little narrow street holds more treasures than I could count. We took photos of ironwork, doors, windows, chimneys – and tried to get shots of them looking like letters. The most amazing shop was a triangular shape inside and probably no more than 8 feet wide! The proprietor let me photograph his wares.
The best part of the day was spent at “Creperie St. Ann” – sitting in the sunshine outdoors with glasses of wine and a banana nutella crepe. I truly felt like I was on vacation and finally relaxing after the crazy past few weeks.
We got back to the house about 7 PM and spent time drawing and playing “Gares” with Alana and watching Baptiste achieve “Victories” on the Wii. Christophe came home and shared wines from local distributors – in Sauvignon and Bergerac and we enjoyed a soft Rosé with dinner! The conversation was lively with Micalie doing the translations – funny how the children seem to know what I am saying the most.
Valérie and Christophe are very gracious hosts and have made me feel so very welcome! Tomorrow we are off on an excursion with the family – can’t wait!
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