So, it is summer vacation for the kids finally. The first week, H went to a dance camp in Barcelona, and while she was gone the boys left for their grandparents house in the country, leaving just the teenager and I.
H got back on Monday, did her laundry, repacked and then Tuesday I took the train with her to Oudon to meet up with the boys in the country. The teenager left yesterday for month in Texas, lucky her.
The French country side you say? That sounds lovely for a few days! I know, right?
We get off the train and are greeted by A and B and papi. Possibly one of the cutest little men I've ever seen. He is extremely French looking and just so sweet. He speaks a little English and has the cutest worn little French-English dictionary that he has only used to find the different names of fruits and vegetables to me.
We walk to the car and he takes my suitcase from me to put it in the trunk and I am immediately embarrassed by how heavy it is, you'd think I was leaving France forever by how much I packed. We get the kids in the car and he starts talking my ear off in French and I try so hard to listen and comprehend, he sees this and asks if I understand and I say I understand a lot but sometimes have trouble. He says this is normal but that my French will return and they will help. Phew.
We get to the house and I meet mami. An equally adorable little French woman who ushers me inside and starts to give me a tour. I take off my shoes and start to walk in, she asks if I have any 'chaussons' or slippers, pointing to the children who are all wearing them. I tell her no I didn't brig any I'm fine thank you, but she just shakes her head and wanders into the hallway saying 'non non non' she brings me a pair and smiles really big. So I mean, what do I do but put them on?
I have come to learn that it is absolutely freezing in this house, thank god mami gave them to me, because of all the things I managed to shove into my bag, socks were not one of them, and even if they were, they wouldn't be enough. I have also learned that slippers are a requirement in this house. If the kids walk into a room without them, even with socks on, they are reminded to go find them and put them on, which i can't say I understand completely. But whatever.
I get a quick little tour of the house, find out there is wifi everywhere, I have my own room in the basement with my own bathroom (HELLO REAL TOILET) and they really don't need me until 6:30 at night to get the kids all showered, and then eat dinner with everyone then brush teeth and to bed, I'm free to come and go as I please during the day. Which would be awesome except they are a car ride away from the nearest town. So I figure, get paid to hang out at a cute relaxing house in the country, read a bunch, play with the kids, save a ton of money by not really doing much and then go back to Paris happy as a clam.
Mami and papi have other plans. They keep telling me how easy it is to take a train to Nantes or angers and how there are a million things to do there. I looked up trains, not too bad actually, I may take a train to Nantes for a day and to angers the next but like I said I'm not made of money here.
So I wake up my first day and I go upstairs to see the kids, mami saved some things for me to eat for breakfast so I have some bread and homemade strawberry jelly that was delicious. I then grab a book that one of the girls left before she left Paris and start it.
I play with the kids a bit, then Mami asks if I want to go run errands with her, so I say yes. We drive into this tiiiiiny little village with a giant castle in the middle, all the while she's pointing out things I should see and do, which is like 'here is our pharmacy' 'that's a library' 'that's our big castle!' it was cute.
We go to the butchers and she walks in, orders what she wants, the butcher wraps it all up and she says something to him really fast, he presses a button on the cash register and her name pops up, then we leave without paying him. I look at her curiously and he proceeds to tell me that she is coming back later that night to buy something else so he is letting her pay for everything then. Which amazes me, but works easily for them I guess. We then go to the baker and get some bread where she asks for a baguette 'bien cuir' well cooked, or a little burnt so at crispier.
Then we go home and the rest of the night proceeds as normal. Today I woke up and went upstairs and papi said he would take me to the tourism office in Oudon. Wait, this rinkydink little town has its own tourism office? And you're taking me to it because....oh, I must look bored. How do I explain to these sweet grandparents that I like to read, and i don't really want to spend too much money, and I'm sure their town is lovely, but it's 60 degrees, rainy and I forgot a coat so I don't really want to explore it? The answer is, I can't. So I go with papi.
He pulls every single tourism pamphlet he can find with a little British flag in the corner, even though I insisted that I can, in fact, read French, and then he grabbed about 13 more in just French.
We then got back in the car and he drove me around, stopping at points to get out and look at things. I took a few pictures. It's mostly grey.
After perusing some of the pamphlets, I believe that tomorrow I am going to ask papi to drive me into Oudon after lunch, visit the castle (self guided tour will take about an hour and 15 minutes) stop in at a small art gallery that may or may not be open, go to the library, maybe stop at a bakery and try to kill about 4.5 hours just wandering around until papi hopefully can come pick me up.
Updates to follow.
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