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Weekend in Nantes, France
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the Nantes pictures!
Amandine and Elodie LeSaffre were our traveling companions in Vietnam, and Amandine said it best...we would travel with other people, but they would always be special to us! Aside from Gail and Vince, of all the people we have met on the road and traveled with, they touched us the most. So we decided to break our exile in Paris and take the train down to Nantes, where they live. Elodie was working in Florida, but Amandine was there, and so we went to Nantes for the weekend along with Julie (Laura's sister) who was visiting at the time. We arrived on a Thursday and left on Sunday, and in between had a great time. Their house was beautiful and both of Amandine's parents were so gracious! Arielle helped Laura plan the France trip with my parents this fall through France, and Tony, the perfect host, was keeping us happy and comfortable (and was kind enough to donate cigars to a local charity, namely, me!) We could see where Amandine and Elodie got their good looks from. If I had a vote, I would definitely vote the LeSaffre's the best-looking family in Nantes. Even their dog, Funny (for Funny Girl), had style! A quick run-down of what we did:
Thursday - Amandine took us to a very old, very good restaurant, the best in Nantes! Laura had the Steak Tar Tar, and it was delicious. The rest of us had fish and of course a delectable dessert!
Friday - We toured an old chateau and the Nantes cathedral! Because of a fire, the cathedral had been cleaned and redone, and it was bright and beautiful inside. One of the highlights of the trip was the sculptures decorating the tomb of a former queen of Brittany. I was amazed at the atristry and ornateness, hence, two pictures below! After we had lunch with Arielle and then went wine-tasting. Well, Laura tasted wine, Julie and I just wandered around the big steal containers and wooden casks. Amontiallado for sure! Back to town, we then went shopping through Nantes for cheese and chocolate! France was the perfect remedy for India; we began the difficult task of putting weight back on. What a chore!
Saturday - The LeSaffre's were kind enough to take us with them for hare hunting in the countryside. They have friends who are part of the French Aristocracy (I might not have needed to capitalize that, but it fits I think) who were hosting a hunt at their very nice chateau, generations old. Tony joked that we should keep up with the master of the hunt, who controlled the dogs with a horn and with whistles, and I thought that it would be doable. As it turned out, it was easier said than done. With over fifteen dogs running after a hare, we chased after the huntsman and the dogs all day long through the open fields and French countryside. No guns are used on this hunt, the dogs catch the rabbit and everyone gets a workout along the way. Laura and I were the last of the "civilians" to come in five hours later, soaked and muddy. Laura had some difficulty with the mud and manure, but we made it through. At one point, the dogs had a hare on the run and they were howling and barking, running through a field. Laura and I chased after them, slid under barbed wire, and once we finally caught up to the dogs, they changed course and ran right back where we had come. As we tried to catch our breath, we saw the dogs way in the distance, a mile away in minutes. After that, we were done, and so we went back to the road, got lost, and was finally helped by an old woman who pointed us back to the chateau. If they would have caught a hare, Laura and I would have gotten one leg of the hare to 'frame', but as one of the huntsman said, "It is a good thing we do not always catch the hare."
After a long day, we joined Tony, Amandine and some friends in the sauna, something Tony is a true advocate of, and then at ten o'clock, dinner. The French dinner time!
Sunday - We had a long lie-in then went on a boat cruise. Arielle picked us up and we went to a carnival and saw floats being made in preparation for the big Spring festival in Nantes. A last dinner and the next day, Monday, we woke up early and headed back to Paris. A last Thank You for the LeSaffre family! What a treat!
A guardian at the tomb of the queen
An angel laying low royalty - notice the tenderness on the face of the angel
Amandine, Laura, and Arielle sipping wine
Friends Forever, in the blessed name of cheese
Julie, Funny, and Aaron, in a casual, little chocolate shop, centuries old
The Huntsman, chasing the hare
Video Clip - The dogs, the horn, the hunt
Pretty much, every five days we would get visitors from the United States, friends and family, and what a welcome this was after seven months of only each other and strangers. Julie came (Laura's sister), and we had to get used to her, a third person in our duet. On the train to Nantes, we had to tell Julie that sometimes we need to be quiet, and we set up times for being alone. It was quite a jar, and poor Julie, she was the one to break us in! But then she had some adjustments to make as well. On her first night we went for an hour long walk through Paris! We did a lot of walking! Julie was great! On her own, she went to Versailles, the Musee D'orsay, and all over Paris, and this was her first trip outside the USA. She was also a wonderful guest. I must say, I was still afraid to go outside and was still coming down from seven months on the road. When she was here, I worked on my novel while Julie and Laura went around to visit the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower. Two weeks later, Julie left, but then Peter took over!
Peter had been to Paris, so we skipped a lot of the touristy stuff. Laura was taking a French class so Peter and I would hang out in the afternoons. I was still hot and heavy into editing the novel, but I did take a day off to go to Chartres with my buddy Peter! We also went to see "The Barber of Seville" with Peter's old French friend from the boy's choir he sang in as a youth. Staged at the Theatre de Champs Elysee, it was a spectacle, and we had good seats. It was subtitled in French, but I read from Peter's program so I got some of the plot. Here I am, trying to be cultured, trying not to think of Bugs Bunny and his remake, "The Bunny of Seville" when Peter leans over and begins to sing, "...I will be your little senoriter..." from the cartoon! I wanted to get a copy of it for Xavier and Segolene, Peter's friends, but I haven't had much luck yet. The next day Laura and I met Peter to visit the Chateau de Vincennes, but it turned out to be a bust in two ways. One was the main keep was closed for refurbishment and two, Peter got sick (it was very cold and rainy)! The next day we went to visit Peter in his sick bed, at Gerard and Therese's house, Xavier's parents. Laura practiced French with Gerard while Peter and I watched my pirated copy of Dungeons and Dragons on his laptop. I could not have picked a better person to watch that movie with because of our past together. And then dinner at 10pm, of course. Friday, we met Peter and then went to dinner at Xavier and Segolene's house, for Peter's last night. One final note, Peter agreed to take back with him wine and cheese for our financial goddess, Laura's good friend, Ixtlac. Well, two tragedies occurred. One is that Laura and I both caught Peter's cold, and the other was that Peter was forced to dump the cheese because of the Foot and Mouth epidemic! Poor Peter, usually smuggling cheese into the U.S. is no big deal. Sure, it's illegal, but so are Cuban cigars! However, with the Foot and Mouth Disease running around, it was dangerous and potentially expensive. Twenty-five thousand dollar fine! Poor Peter! We felt so sorry that we had put Peter in that position once he told of us of all the hype and security in the USA, opps!
My brother Scott married Nancy Gerlock on Sunday, March 25, in Arizona. Sad to say, Laura and I couldn't make it. Instead, Scott and Nancy came to Paris for their honeymoon! It all started with cold and rain, lost bags, a terrible, expensive hotelroom no bigger than a closet, but the newly-weds handled it all with grace and serenity. We hooked them up in a dream studio just down from us on rue de Rivoli, we went on a little United Airlines lost luggage sponsored buying spree, and soon we were all set! Now usually my brother Scott spends vacations reading books in nice hotel rooms. Not in Paris, he had me and Laura running to keep up with him! With his tour-guide umbrella, we went to Notre Dame for a free tour, we went to the Eiffel Tour, we went to Versailles, up to Montmartre and Sacre Coeur, Sainte Chappelle, Sorbonne, and more old churches than you can shake a stick at. Nancy, on her part, was patient with all the churches, but finally put her foot down and took Laura shopping. The last time my brother was in Paris, the Louvre had been closed due to strikes, so this was his big chance. However, while he was in town the whole week the Louvre was closed due to a strike, and on our museum day, the Musee D'orsay was also closed. Standing there, our women gone to shop all day, my brother said, "Hey, let's go to Fontainebleau." I said, "Okay..." thinking that he was insane! I barely left the apartment without Laura, and he wants us to go to Fontainebleau! Well, we jumped in, did it, and saw the grand estate where Napoleon surrendered. We did the tour and had the place to ourselves, but of course the best thing about the palace wasn't the history of the art, it was the peeing dog fountain in the back. After smoking some cigars we caught the train and showed up back at the house in time for Green Chili and Burritos, a family favorite! Scott's visit ended and we were all so sad. Now that is a sign of a good visit, when you don't want the guests to leave! Both Laura and I feel so grateful that we have such good friendships with our siblings, for all four of us, it has been quite a journey.
It was a week on our own, and we started working on getting taxes done, planes tickets booked and Africa set up and then Kristen St. John showed up! Kristen saw our relationship unfold, she was at ground zero for the Aaron-and-Laura experience! Now Kristen is probably the smartest person in our circle of friends, besides myself I mean. We thought she'd want to go to the museums and all that, but no, Kristen then took us to a side of Paris we had not seen! She and Laura went to a Hong Kong movie with French subtitles, I opted to stay home for that one, but I did go with them to the trumphet auditions at a local music school which turned into a full concert (for free), what a treat! Trumphet auditions, who knew? And then a Parisian flea-market, oh yeah, oh yeah. Laura bought a cool picture of French colonial India and Viet Nam, complete with a picture of Pondicherry. She also bought the chic shirt you'll see in the Fashions section. I was caught up in a huge rewrite of book two of the trilogy, so I missed the Mass and concert they went to on Palm Sunday, but I was there when the great Paris Computer Monoply championship began. Kiristen and Laura went shopping during the day and we ate out at night and then played computer Monopoly, which I have loaded on the laptop. Laura won the first game, Kristen won the second, I won the third, and for the final round, on the last night Kristen was here, at midnight, Laura won for the second time and took away the Monopoly Crown for the 2001 games. Kristen also spent some of her time visiting book conservators in Paris, which is her field of expertise and her vocation back in the U.S. So we asked her, "Kristen, what do you want to do for your last day in Paris?" She said, "I'd like to go to a museum..." and we thought, okay, there's all the art museums, we'll just pick one. "No," said Kristen, "I want to go to the Lock and Key museum." And so we went. More keys, more locks, more metal work, than you can imagine, all housed in the dungeony basement of a rambling old 16th century home.
Another week alone, and then Pam and her husband John showed up at our door. Pam and Laura had met in Europe in 1988, spent time together in Poland when Laura lived there, and we had visited them once in Seattle, but for the most part, Laura and Pam only see each other internationally! Pam had gotten project work in London, and so she grabbed her husband, jumped the channel, and stayed with us for the weekend. John had cast off any illusions that so many Americans hold and embraced the tourist within. We went to the Eiffel Tower, the Arch d'Triumph, the Champs Elysee, and a quick tour of churches. Pam and John were also nice enough to allow us to do a part of the Paris Literary Walking Tour and we saw where James Joyce finished Ulysses and where Ernest Hemingway lived and was "very poor and very happy." Saturday night we ate at our little place which is an old house converted into a restaurant. Jammed in there, we ate wonderful food and talked and it was just really nice. John had a lot of great stories about his time as a marine and all of the embassies he has worked at. Pam and I talked religion and came to the conclusion that religion can be a good thing but is often abused. Sunday I took a day off and wrote, Laura, Pam and John toured markets and flea markets, and poor John. Laura and Pam chatted up a storm and he was the third wheel in a pair of talkers. Sunday evening we took a strool down to Pompidou and wandered around a little shop selling bizarre things no one on earth would ever need. With only a quick visit, John and Pam were suddenly gone.
But we were not lonely for long. On the day Pam and her husband left, Steve Jankowski and his girlfriend Melissa showed up. Well, were supposed to show up. Some plane trouble delayed them a day,and then Steve and Melissa were suddenly in our apartment! Like most of our guests, it was comfortable to be with people we knew, but at the same time, it was strange to be with them in Paris. Steve and Melissa experienced the other side of the problem we had with Julie. With Julie we had to learn to be with people again, with Steve and Melissa we knew how to be social but we had to move out! And we had last minute travel plans to make. Put all of that together, and it forced Steve and Melissa to be on their own more than we would have liked. They wandered around Paris while we made copies of paperwork and sent emails, but they did get to see the free tour of Notre Dame which is very cool and they bought cheese, a Parisian pasttime. We did take a break and go with them to the tours of Notre Dame and took a hundred pictures of gargoyles.
I must say, Steve was born for this town. The French women were throwing themselves at him, and his girlfriend Melissa had to beat them off with an umbrella. Even the gay waiters were making passes at Steve. Melissa was immediatly propositioned for a lucrative modeling career, but she turned them down. Not enough money.
By Friday, Laura and I were doing well on getting moved out, and so while Steve went to the Rodan museum, Laura took advantage of another shopper and she and Melissa went shopping. I stayed home and wrote, yeah, a killjoy. Saturday struck and so did sickness. Melissa had come down with something, and so she stayed home and rested. Steve and Laura got some alone time with each other and they went to the Musee D'Orsay to look at paintings. I said goodbye to friends I had made in Paris. Saturday night Steve took care of Melissa and I watched Ally McBeal. I am not a fan of the show, but it's not bad and it's in English. Both of those things lured me into a Saturday night ritual I tried to keep, but if I missed Ally, it wasn't the end of the world. Melissa thought she was a little better, so we ventured out to see Giverny, where Monet lived and painted. The gardens were beautiful and we wandered around for hours. Laura was heaven! She got a little teary, missing home and her own garden. The smells and sights of being outside reminded us of home, and we both realized that we had spent a long time in the city. It was good to be outside. Our train left Vernon at six back to Paris, and the next train wasn't until nine. Uh oh, the bus we had taken there was nowhere to be seen. We were stranded! It started out as a joke, but we soon were seriously hitchhiking! Steve and Melissa were picked up first, and then Laura and I flagged down this young kid who drove us the seven kilometers back to Vernon. Once at home, dinner was a problem since Sunday nights most places are closed. Melissa took a turn and she stayed in while Steve and Laura went out to dinner. I called my friend Owen and then wrote. Poor Melissa! Sick and nothing on T.V. but hours upon hours of American sitcoms dubbed in French. She did score, one show was in English with French subtitles. But then, I'm not sure if that was a good thing. The last days of Steve and Melissa's visit Melissa was struck down by illness. Laura worked on budgets and did email, I went to the Louvre, and we cooked in. Monday night we had a Mexican food feast, Tuesday morning French Toast, and then after a trip to the doctor, we left our home for the Seychelles.
Julie and Laura at the Eiffel Tower! Ooh La La!
Julie relaxing with a nice Cuban
Let the Honeymoon begin - lost bags, bad rooms, rain, and cold
A little tourism, finally - SR Tours in front of Notre Dame and the Seine
A rare picture of Kristen, dining on the Place de Vosges, with close friends
Pam and John: The Zen of Tourism
By Eglise Saint Gervais - Home of the Jerusalem Monks and Nuns
On top of Notre Dame, all covered with gargoyles. "I'm not even a real modo, I'm a quasi-modo!"
Steve and Melissa at Giverny - Where's Claude?
