Catching up

It's been a while since I posted, but we haven't been idle. Friday we all came down to the town of Chartrettes, where our great friends Mary and Gilles live. They drove to Paris to pick up luggage and a few of us for the drive back to Chartrettes, but we had so many bags/strollers/car seats/etc., that we almost filled the car with luggage. Gilles and Laurie drove to Chartrettes; the rest of us took the train.

Saturday we had a huge dinner: Craig, Annie and Clara; Derek and Jill; Laurie and me; Mary and Gilles; and our other great French friends, Jamie and Hervé. We had a huge amount of duck, fabulous potatos, salad, cheese, blackberry crisp. Oh, yeah, I forgot: we had a bit of wine. And champagne. It was a wonderful dinner; as I said then, we had together our American family and our French family. Very nice, indeed.

Then Sunday, as we tried to recover, we decided to celebrate Clara's first birthday, which is today (Tuesday); and yes, we don't know where the year went, either. First, she got to eat her first shouquette, which is a French breakfast sweet. She liked it, and I took my favorite picture of her.




Better than any other picture I've got, this one captures the gleam that Clara often has in her eyes. Craig and Annie are going to have their hands full with this little angel.

That night, it was on to the birthday cake, or, in is case, birthday pastry. This one had custard and whipped cream and other stuff (Craig, who picked it out, likes "teeth-hurting sweet" treats). She liked this, too. As did we.




After all these sweets, there was no mystery as to she didn't sleep much that night. Can you say "suger high?"

Monday morning, Craig and Annie and Clara flew back to Berlin, and Derek and Jill took the train back to Paris. For a year, we've hoped that this Paris/Chartrettes family reunion would work out, and that it did still kind of amazes me. It was just wonderful. Many, many thanks to Mary and Gilles, who opened up their home to the Zumsteg horde, fed us excellent meal after excellent meal, decimated their wine cellar for us, and made us their family for the weekend. You don't find friends better than that.

Today, we go to Burgundy. Our first stop mystifies people: Colombey-des-Deux-Eglises, the home, and burial place, of Charles DeGaulle. I've read quite a bit about DeGaulle, and just kinda want to pay my respects. Then on to Vignory, a village of a couple hundred people that has a beautiful Romanesque Church. We're looking forward to seeing a part of France we haven't visited yet.