Monday, May 9, 2011 2:23 AM
Dear Family and Friends,
How I’ve been putting this off! Almost as if not sending out this last email about our trip would make it last longer…but we have so many memories, and photos to go with them – so here goes.
ROBERT WRITES:
This was to be our last full day on our vacation with our new French family. It was Good Friday, so Dom was able to start a four-day weekend off of work. He’d been working all week while everyone else was playing and seeing the sights, so we were very happy to have him with us.
The decision was made to take a boat trip on the Seine for a couple of hours, and then drive back to Yerres for the American BBQ that I was cooking. There would be nine of us for dinner, with the addition of Isa and Dom’s good friends, Christian and Elise, and their two sons, Nathan (17) and Martin (15).
So Dom was our chauffeur for the day, and we all hopped into the Renault Scenic (or the BIG car, as they called it!) and once again headed off to the heart of Paris. We chatted along the drive, but for me there was an underlying current of dread, for lack of a better word, that our time in France was quickly coming to an end.
SUSAN WRITES:
I still can’t believe how fast the trip had gone! I was trying to put my finger on exactly what was so hard in thinking about leaving –- and all I could come up with was: Some cities you love, and some you “fall in love with.” I had fallen in love with Paris and with London. I felt I could stay here for months and not see everything I wanted to see. My French was just now starting to become somewhat comfortable, and Robert and I both thought that if we stayed longer, we could learn the language very quickly. We also now felt that we could get lost in Paris, and still find our way back to Yerres with a minimum of difficulty –- something I’d never felt in New York, Los Angeles, or San Francisco after such a short time.
Without infusing it with too much drama –- it felt as if it could be home, actually. As if it would be possible to live here. And leaving it made us start thinking about when we could come back...
ROBERT WRITES:
Dom parked the car near Notre Dame, as we were to catch a flyboat from Pont Neuf on the Île de la Cité, and began our short walk along the Seine towards our destination. As we walked, all of our hearts seemed to get lighter as we realized that the universe had saved the best day for last -- as if to say, “Remember this day.” The sun was out and it was a perfect temperature with a light little breeze. There were people out walking and sunning themselves along the embankment, and all the vendors and shops and cafes were open. It was a picture perfect postcard day!
Having seen a lot of the city from the roadside, it was great to get the view from the river, which is truly the heart of Paris. There are still many boats that cargo items into Paris on barges. There are houseboats, tourist boats, recreational boats, and people out walking along the river enjoying the view. Views of the Eiffel Tower are amazing, and all the bridges that span the river cannot truly be appreciated any other way. We all had a great time on the boat, and later, we found out that Dom and Guillaume had never done a cruise on the Seine!
SUSAN WRITES:
One of the things we realized when Isa’s family visited us last year, was that we hadn’t looked at the Pacific Northwest through “tourist eyes.” We’d actually never been to Glacier National Park, until we went with them! Showing off what makes your home special is a part of the joy of having people visit -– and we saw that in Isa, Dom and Guillaume.
There is a magic to Paris that can’t be described, but it can be seen in the eyes of people who feel it. Robert and I definitely felt it.
After the boat ride, we stopped for ice cream, and I got a lemon sorbet that I’d been craving on this warm day. We took a leisurely walk to the car, and drove back to Yerre for the American BBQ that our lovely French friends were so looking forward to!
ROBERT WRITES:
When we got home, Isa and I once again went shopping, first to the Intermarche market, and then to the butcher’s shop, or “Boucherie,” to get the meat. What a great little butcher shop! Isa had me pick out the meats, and she told the butcher that I was her American friend cooking BBQ tonight.
The butcher seemed impressed with that and tried to chat with me in French, but I couldn't keep up so Isa did most of the talking. We bought a lot of meat -- much more than I thought we were going to need -- but as it turned out, Isa, as always, knew exactly what she was doing. Yerres reminds me a lot of Coeur d’Alene in a lot of ways. On the way home Isa told me that the butcher hand selects the animals he wants the meat from and that all the farmers he buys from are organic.
My French phrase of the day: “La Magnifique Boucherie” – or “the splendid butcher”!
SUSAN WRITES:
Robert did “American BBQ” proud. He had painstakingly packed our “Sweet Baby Ray” barbecue sauce, and the Yoshidas in our suitcases. We thought that Homeland Security might have something to say about it, but there was no problem – and under Robert’s perfect sauce, the massive amounts of food disappeared. Christian and Elise’s son, Martin, didn’t say much, but he had fourths on the barbecue!
They all appreciated the dinner so much, and we, in turn, were given the gift of spending an evening in a real French home with delightful people who are good friends. Much of the French language flew by us, but the joy of people spending time together over a good meal is universal. I found myself sitting back, sipping my wine, and listening to the laughter, with the feeling that, no matter where we live, we’re really not very different at all.
The next day, we awoke, packed, and drove to catch our plane.
ROBERT WRITES:
We had stayed up late and partied into the night holding back the reality that was today. It was great to give it all that we had the day before -- and being exhausted while flying 10 hours to get home means that you have the potential to sleep your way through most of it!
Then it was time to say goodbye. We all did the best we could, but as Susan and I went up the escalator and our new French family faded out of view, we both broke down into tears. They were hard to hold back. I can only imagine that Isa, Dom and Guillaume felt the same.
For me it was not so much for the sadness of leaving but for the profound realization of the gift that they had bestowed upon us, and the memories that will go with us through the rest of our lives. As good as all the pictures are, and as much as we could describe in these letters to all of you, it doesn’t even come close to the actual experience of being there. The sights, sounds, smells, tastes, warmth, language, lights, laughter and love that we felt there was, for lack of a better word, amazing.
Our French phrase for this day is: “Au revoir et à bientôt!” “Goodbye, and see you soon!”
SUSAN WRITES:
So, thank you all for taking this journey with us!
And especially we send “beaucoup d'amour et merci,” much love, and thank you, to, as Robert said, “our French family” -– Isa, Dom and Guillaume. We’ve already planned that they will visit us in San Francisco next year, and in 2013, we’ll go back to Paris to see what we missed: The chateaux of the Loire Valley, the Alps, Montmarte, Sacre Coeur, the Musee d’Orsay, and some more much-needed days at La Louvre...not to mention another side-trip to England to see some of the North, and if possible, Scotland.
In the next week, I'll send out an invitation for our photo album in Shutterfly. Please feel free to wander through it if you’re interested – and download any photos you'd like... We took a few! :-)
Avec l'amour,
xxxxx
Susan and Robert
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