Sorry, But I'm off to Paris!

I have a few blog entries to catch up on, but I have to leave to Paris in the morning! So, not sure that I'll be able to blog for the week I'm there, but I will catch up when I get back. AND I'm coming back with my baby! I'm so excited, I miss my love and I can't wait to show him all of the amazing sights, and discover new ones, together!! Woo-hoo! I am so thankful for all that I am able to do right now, and my incredible host Kim, her fantastic daughter Johnelle, and the big guy ;) THANK YOU WORLD FOR THIS!!

Wordless Wednesday: Brantome Cemetery

ISO "Le Big Mac"

Today a friend of Kim's was nice enough to offer to take me back to Emmouse (the GW/ Salvation Army type place) to pick up my bag I had forgotten, and it was all still there! Yea!

On the way back he wanted to stop to get some coffee at the French McDonald's. I saw this as my opportunity to confirm whether the ever so famous scene in Pulp Fiction where John Travolta talks about the "little differences" in Europe was true. One of the "little differences" was that they call The Big Mac "Le Big Mac". I didn't see that or a "Royal with Cheese" either. But I did see a "Le Double Cheese" which was still amusing for me.

We took a very scenic route back, on this very hot day, which was beautiful as always. The valley here looks so much the Willamette Valley, of course, until you see that castle (excuse me Chateau) off

in the distance. We stopped by a lake and waded around which was quite lovely as well. I think we'll go again when I get back from Paris (going next weekend) and actually have a bathing suit.

Well, I think I'm going to go on a little bike ride to the cemetery now!

Still on my mind...

Today when I was at the market I saw a couple (English I believe) that had two boys that appeared to be the result of international adoption (of course you never know, but genetically speaking I really don't know how these two could have biologically produced their beautiful boys but who knows?), I am in another country now though, I shouldn't assume. It's quite possible that they were adopted domestically in their home country, okay I've been diplomatic...moving on. I've been in a small village, and a few others now, and the races don't vary dramatically (granted being in Paris will be quite different!). It's almost like being in Corvallis again where you know (GENERALIZATION, forgive me) if you see people of certain races that they are students, adoptees, or something else exotic and exciting, "hp"?

I felt that my adoption aspirations, which means kids in general for us, had cooled since being on this grand adventure, but seeing that beautiful family as well as having down time that allowed to read a few of my Eithiopian adoption blogs (families being united after long waits, families being made in a court of law "official" and family firsts) just put me right back there. I'm happy to wait and happy to explore and educate myself in the process (which I think is the only intelligent option when having kids in general, not even adopting!) but I can happily say that I can't wait for our lives to be at that point and for us to start the adoption process when we're ready. It's just another grand adventure that awaits.

Wordless Wednesday (a little late): A lunch out in Brantome.

My first French windows...

Yesterday I finished my first window installation at Kim's shop, The Bohemians. When I was researching the windows that I would be doing while I was in France I tried to come up with one window that would be pretty much ready to go right when I got to France. The birds are made out of tissue paper so they packed very well. I used double stick tape, then adhesive spray glue and finally a glue stick to put them all up and here they are!

Market day in the village!

Today was the market day in Brantome (my "home" village), it's very much like a Farmer's Market in the US but it also has clothes and other wares, every kind of food you could imagine, flowers, sausage, everything! I bought a bag of nectarines and this beautiful little item from the Patisserie or Boulangerie, I always mix them up. One is for pastries and one for bread but this one has both, so it's a patisserie and boulangerie?

After the market I walked over to the riverfront and wrote in my journal for a bit, cheesy I know, but it was quite lovely! I'm finding myself stuck between this thinking of "being in the moment" and "enjoying the moment", just reading and relaxing and taking everything in, and then the feeling

that I should be documenting all of this. Will I forget the weird white, big as my arm, sausage that I saw at the market?

Or the black spandex, liquid leggings I saw on a woman today who was at least 60? I don't want to forget these little details and yet I also don't want to be spending so much time writing, or on the computer that I miss these things in the first place.

When I stopped philosophyzing and headed back to the house Kim and her friend made Brochette (like shish kabobs) and sausage with fresh vegetables and meat from the market over the barbecue. It was amazing, but then again every meal that Kim makes is incredible (I swear she made soup out of a box one night, that was better than I would have done from scratch!) and vastly

improved from what I had been eating for the majority back home. Perhaps if mon amour starts working mornings (fingers crossed!) then I'll start cooking for us all more...that and not working three jobs in one day so I'm actually home at dinner time, that would help as well!

We were invited to a BBQ at a friends house on Monday (when the shop is closed) and we may possibly be going swimming

at a lake too! I can try out my new bathing suit and, sigh, have to confess, my romper *cringes apologetically* for the first time. Very excited!

I have been thinking that I want to start doing a fun French (ugh, not only am I not able to speak French, but I kid you not, I have actually started forgetting English words! And I fear my spelling (which, honestly I just spelled wrong) are suffering greatly as well!) fact each entry! Today: I learned that it is not proper, or thought of as appropriate, for a woman to drink from a bottle in public. Mostly, I was told, this is from the perspective of older people. And a straw is more polite if you were going to a park or something.

Another thing that I found amusing, which is not actually French, was an RV that was driving by (English I presume) that had a bone china teacup and saucer on its little table through the window! Very different from the view I feel you would see inside an RV in the US, but maybe I'm wrong? There are actually a lot of RV's in town now because it's tourist season and they have a campground right next to the park, it's so beautiful! French and English mostly, but German and Dutch commonly as well.

I also got to see the French garbage truck and collectors this morning, cleaner and more attractive than in the US, both the truck and the men...