Lavaud, France

After an expectedly arduous journey across the big blue, we have made it to the tiny farm community called Lavaud! The 8-hour flight was surprisingly fast, relatively speaking, but by the end of it, you inevitably end up smelling like a packed airbus' worth of farts and feet and toilet treatment chemical smell and wanting to run like hell away from any suffering seat mates you were forced to endure. Poor John had to endure one such seat-mate, a chatty Frenchman who was imbibing far too much whiskey the whole trip which rendered him officially schnockered by the end. He talked John's ear off about being from Normandy, and though John said the whole story was quite interesting the first time round, by the fourth or fifth time the man relayed it, was getting a wee tedious. The man ended up folding up half of his dinner and a pair of glasses into the little food tray thing, which made a right mess and broke his glasses which were discovered right before landing. With the red, Delta blankie tucked into the collar of his shirt like a bib and pants dangerously on the verge of "gansta'" low, he staggered around ranting for a bit as the plane descended before getting admonished by the French flight attendant (who seemed quite amused with him) and then slapped the TV screen on the seat in front of him until we landed. After the longest taxi into the hangar we've ever experienced, we were finally set free of the stinky airbus and into the airport. I must mention that this was both Fiona and Dylan's first plane ride ever, so it was fun to watch them experience take-off and landing. Take-off still gives me serious nervous fright, but once we leveled off into the higher altitudes, everyone settled into their in-flight movies, Nooks or endless games of Bejeweled. Gretchen and I kept looking across the aisle at each other with excitement. Fiona, who right before boarding had gotten very nervous and started to talk herself into a bit of a tailspin, was totally at ease after liftoff. She got the window seat and seemed to thoroughly enjoy herself. Dylan was as mellow as ever, but take-off gave him the same fright as it always gives me. I think he might call "shotgun" for the window seat going home. We saw a stunning sunset and then an hour or so later, sunrise! Such a trip how that messes with your sense of time!

Excited for take-off!


Everyone hooked on the in-flight game Bejeweled:


Schmoopies!

I knew the ride to Lavaud would be long, but it suddenly dawned on me that we were in Paris and Lavaud is in central France. Yeeeeah. The blessing of a long car ride when none of the five of us were able to sleep on the flight is that we could all pass out in the van, which made the four hour drive a little less dreadful. And we were all enormously grateful that someone else had made all the arrangements for our travel so all we had to do was wait for the rental van and let Dad and Francine figure out the rest. My poor father had eaten something that he was allergic to the night before, so he had spent the night with the Porcelain God, right up until it was time for him to pick us up. Francine had just arrived into Paris the night before and still adjusting to the time zone, plus listening to my dad yak all night, so she was running on fumes just like everyone else. It took forever to get the rental, and we were all dying to brush our teeth (and have a proper poo!) but it would be four more hours of travel before reaching our destination. We blessedly stopped several times along the way to use the rest areas to stretch our legs and use the very strange French loos. That is one significant thing about overseas travel: they got some weird-ass toilets here. Apparently some are pay-toilets, so we were given coins to carry with us just in case, but thankfully all the ones along our way were gratis. 

The countryside here reminds me so much of Minnesota and Iowa! All the farmland looks just the same as ours, except all of their cows seem to be white. The little towns that we passed along the way all were quintessentially French, with their brick and clay walls, red shingled roofs, tiny little doors and windows and covered in ivy and moss. Dad and Francine's charming little farm is the same; there is lovely thick moss and ivy growing on everything. I am still not really clear on which of these buildings they own, but the neighbors all take care of their property when they are not in the country and it looks like several properties are all co-joined to make one, larger working farm. I have seen three cute chickens and two adorable donkeys, but other than that, I do not know what they farm here. Wheat, I think. I know zero about farm-living. And not speaking the language definitely makes me feel very vulnerable. We met one of their nice neighbor ladies, but I cannot even say 'hello'! Fiona is pretty fluent in French, so we are relying on her, although she can be quite shy about it. Fiona, Gretchen and I went for a walk to meet the donkeys, and a man was yelling something at us, which we assumed was a warning about the electric fence that Dad had told us about, but for all I know, he was saying, "Get the fuck off my property!" 

Francine made a fabulous supper of roast chicken, potatoes and carrots, and a delicious starter course of sliced beets and unbelievably yummy tomatoes with vinaigrette dressing. We ate outside in the perfect summertime weather. After supper, we played Uno numerous times, finally doing something Fiona could enjoy. The whole place is alive with birds, but I kept hearing these repeated little chirps coming from somewhere and we discovered three adorable baby birds living inside an old pump! We are going to try to sneak a photo of them today when the mama is away getting food. So cute! The chickens are so funny, they literally say, "bock-bock-bock-bigock!" Which has me in all kinds of happiness! We all went over to watch the sunset over the fields and listen to the sheep bleating across the way. John and I saw a tiny tree frog. We all chatted into the late sunset (it sets at 10:30pm here) and then I could no longer stay awake. I took a shower and meant to blog before bed, but could not. I was asleep quickly and remarkably only got up twice in the night to pee! Huzzah!

Mum, if you are reading this, we miss you! I'll try to get a hold of you today! Hopefully you got my message and have Dad's land line on your caller ID!!! 

Love and hugs, 

R&J