Had A Bad Day

So it was the ultimate improv...

We knew that we were going to have to be a bit creative this year in France with Thanksgiving. We thought that we were going to have friends of ours from London for the long weekend (not a big holiday in England) but because of a change in employer they had passport/visa issues and could not leave the country. Then, we then got invited to a dinner with with some of our American friends but thought that they were celebrating on Saturday (since it is not a holiday for anyone here). So we decided to invite Ellie's school friends, Noah and Owen, and their parents over; Amy (an American whose has been here for 13 years and has given up on T-day celebrations years ago) and Gil (her French husband who has never celebrated Thanksgiving -- why would he?).

Now we needed a turkey. With poultry farms all around shouldn't be a problem, right? We talked to various friends who gave increasingly pessimistic responses ("maybe you could just get two big capons" was my favorite). Finally, we just walked into a butcher in Uzes and plowed right into trying to request a turkey. After the typical tortured exchanges, we concluded that we could order two half turkeys and they would be here in time but a full turkey, no no, that would take much longer. Unable to impress upon the kind bloodstained man that simply handing me the bird BEFORE he cut it would be less work for him, we thanked him, took his card, and left. In a last desperate attempt, we asked Amy, Noah and Owen's mom, if she would call and try to convince the man to leave the cleaver in the drawer. After a thirty minute debate, she prevailed and we were the proud owners of a 90 dollar, 16 pound, farm fresh American-style turkey.

Everything seemed in order UNTIL Amy & Gil had to cancel that day because Owen had been sick for 4 days with a 103 degree fever and the other American celebration got changed to Thursday and we had already uninvited ourselves because we thought we had plans.

So, OK, just the 4 of us. No problem - just lots of left overs.

Dinner was late and neither of the kids ate much. Lance only got through half of his plate because he had been feeling sick all day but I liked it and we were together. We put the kids to bed by 8:30 and began the clean up to only be interrupted by a scream from Ellie who was throwing up in her bed. And so it went, throughout the night. Multiple towels, clean-ups, changes of clothes for Ellie and ME, loads of laundry that had to be hung on the line to dry and hours later ALL were asleep. Luckily Cole slept through much of it, as did Lance since he was sick too and I needed him healthy for the rest of the weekend.

After the first throw-up episode Lance concurred that, yes, this is definitely The Worst Thansgiving We've Ever Had.

"The Sick Ward." Lance and Ellie asleep 1pm on Friday.

Blue Sky

Great Moments in the Annals of Drinking Wine from a Jug, No. 352:

The weather has turned here.  Sure, we've still got a good 10+ degrees on those of you in New England, but it's ten degrees colder here this week than it was last week.  There was frost on the windshield this morning and as I drove Ellie to school, with the sun rising behind me and a cold, quiet fog hanging over the vineyards, there was snow capping the highest peaks of the Cévennes on the horizon.  But after a few weeks of nonstop rain, the bright sun and clear skies that accompanied the cooler weather was quite welcome.  

On the agenda for this past weekend was loading, hauling, and stacking the two cords of firewood that they dumped into the yard on Thursday.  The cool sunny air was perfect for working up a sweat, and a sniffle, getting some free exercise.  After several hours of bending, lifting, tossing, and stacking, the sniffle intensified and it was time to head in for a nice hot apple cider. 

Wait... what do you mean these people wouldn't know apple cider from apple sauce?  So, without the requisite hot cider, I had to improvise.  And it is this necessity that bred the innovation that resulted in the sublime combination of red wine with a healthy shot of Cinzano Rossa in a coffee cup, microwaved until hot.  

Oh, OH so tasty.  Please enjoy responsibly.

Do You Wanna Dance?

How does a small French village celebrate the one day of the year you can buy that season's wine (beaujolais nouveau)?  Why, it hires a celtic/bluegrass band led by a fiddle-toting Canadian, with a Moose as its mascot, it sells the wine for two Euros per glass, and has a hoe-down that would put any Middle-American town to shame, of course!

Ellie had so much fun dancing I had to promise her we'd dance all the way to the car just to drag her out of there two hours past her bedtime.

Kodachrome

More pics. Look to your left.

Nice bright colors... Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah.

War (what is it good for?)

The entire country is shut down today (except the pizza truck but that's a whole different story).  The French seem to put far greater significance on the signing of l'Armistice than do Americans.  Sure, we recognize Veteran's Day and we honor the brave service that all of America's veterans have given to our country.  Rather, where in America we honor all of our veterans from many wars, in France, this is Armistice Day.  They are celebrating the end of The Great War.

There is very little open.  On the little board outside our gate, where the town posts official announcements, there is a notice inviting all residents of the commune to a ceremony in the village, followed by "apertifs" (bien sur).  The kids are out of school, the town hall is closed, and the boulangerie is closed (and yes, we forgot to get an extra baguette yesterday, darnit).  

So it was in anticipation of this day, celebrating the laying down of arms and the welcoming of a hard fought peace across Europe some ninety years ago today, that I awoke at the first hint of dawn to...

...a veritable fusillade of gunfire.  Now, I've seen the hunters wandering through the vines the past several weeks, with their orange caps and green jackets.  And I've heard, at some point nearly every day, the echoing of a shotgun blast, sometimes two if ol' Pierre wasn't so straight with the first barrel.  But this... this had to be at least a half dozen different fellows -- everything from the apparently very near-sighted bonhomme with the semi-automatic (pop, pop, pop, popop!), to the dude that I swear to Yahweh had to be standing directly outside my window with a 12-guage (BAM! BAM!).  Needless to say, the kids didn't take advantage of the holiday to sleep in. I'm not sure if this is a country-wide way to celebrate the armistice or if we're just the lucky residents of a gun-happy commune but I do know that it was a *real* bad morning to be a wild boar, rabbit, or grouse.

The Rising

So I know it is lame to tell this story after the fact but I was too superstitious to post it before the election (did not want to jinx anything.)

Four years ago Lance attended the Democratic National Convention in Boston where a State Legislator from Illinois named Barack Obama gave the keynote address. Lance was so blown away by Obama's speech that he called his Dad during the speech and said "hey, turn this on you gotta see this." Afterwards he told both me and his Dad "I just saw the guy who is going to be the first black President of the United States."

No matter what your politics are, and whether you agree or disagree with his policies; it is a pretty special day. We just got back from an improptu post election party here in France where there was a mix of Americans, British, and French people and everyone was a buzz. It is a pretty special day not only for America but for the world.

The Times They Are A-Changin'

At 5:00am our time...worth a thousand words.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3st13_bob-dylan-the-times-they-are-achang_music

Ain't Wastin' Time No More

From the "Classic Unintentionally Comical Packaging Translations" File:

Are you considering whether you need to buy a smoke detector? Well the good folks at ELRO have a simple question for you...

Seriously folks, "Why risk your life?" Why? Why would you even consider risking your life? Why? Buy this smoke detector now. STOP... Don't walk away! Come back here!! YOU'RE RISKING YOUR LIFE! DON'T RISK YOUR LIFE!!

Kidding aside, you all "fell back" this weekend, so we're back to six hours ahead of Eastern Time. Also, change the batteries in those smoke detectors. I mean, really... why risk your life?

(Also, GO VOTE!)

Born in the U.S.A.

Someone stop the clock at 78 days. We finally broke down and went All-American this weekend (although entirely unintentionally... clearly a result of subconsious homesickness!). Saturday was rainy and not worth much for any sightseeing so we grabbed our ever-growing to-do list and headed to the southern side of the city of Nimes, to the "Ville Active" which apparently is French for "American-style Big Box Store Sprawl."

We hit the French equivalent of Best Buy, the Leroy Merlin (which is literally Home Depot in green), and, of course, the hypermarche for some electronics, clothes, and... oh yeah... groceries.

The highlight of the grocery shopping was that we finally found that one cheese that we've been craving the most. Here in the land of brie and camembert and local goat cheese that is legendary, we openly cheered when we found a block of cheddar. Sure it was orange cheddar from the UK and not proper Vermont Cheddar but no matter. The look on the woman's face when Amy ordered the cheese and kept telling her, "plus grande (bigger), plus. No, plus s'il vous plait" was priceless. I don't think she'd ever seen anyone buy so much cheddar before.

(Mmmm... the big block of cheddar)

Keeping with the American theme, we succumbed to an ad blitz that apparently was directed specifically at me (how'd they know I was going to be in Nimes that day?) that involved no less than four billboards along my drive through town and a prime location in the Hypermarche promotions aisle for that famous old Kentucky Bourbon, Four Roses (yeah, I'd never heard of it either but that didn't stop me). Manhattans never tasted so good.

And to keep things rolling, we kicked it up a notch this morning with pancakes and maple syrup (okay the syrup is imported from Canada but close enough right?).

However, the piece de resistance of the weekend, the one thing without which we could not have truly called it an All-American weekend was Saturday, in the midst of the rainy shopping.

Hungry, wet, with two kids who were even hungrier and getting increasingly cranky, in the middle of a commercialized nightmare with nary a proper cafe or even creperie in sight, we decided it was time to break down and get lunch at Micky D's.

Okay, okay, I know. Go ahead, condemn away.

Done?

Now consider this: the kids devoured their happy meals. Amy enjoyed the "M" which was the prize winner of the day -- a very serviceable burger on an unbelievable fresh roll. As for me? Well, could I really not go into a McDonalds in France and not order a Royale with cheese? http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xtqno_pulp-fiction-royal-with-cheese_shortfilms

And yes, I got the beer too. Everbody was happy.

Don't worry, we'll go back to sustaining ourselves on olives, fresh baguettes, local wine, and a nice brie this week.