Day 129

I scream for Escrime: Breakfast with a long nosed fellow and a little crotch pot cooking for dinner.

Day 129 would be a day full of history and an excellent day of exploration. We had made plans to meet another one of my wife's colleagues EARLY on Sunday morning. The day would start at 6 am or so and we would load our little ones in the car for a 2 hour drive east. The colleague is the French family I have mentioned in prior posts and their son is fairly accompished at Escrime. Back home, we call the sport "fencing". Now, after a full day of education, there is quite a bit more to this sport than meets the eyes. The event we would be watching involved the use of the Epee. This is the traditional fencing "foil" that you have seen on television, but apparently there are many different types and the sport is interesting enough for further inquiry.

The truly special part of this day was that the competition would take place in the streets and courtyards (place) of a town by the name of Bergerac. Sound familiar? It should. That is of course, if you paid any attention in school. Yes, this is the home of one Cyrano De Bergerac. Fairly well known in history for his ability with the sword and a remarkably long nose. The village of Bergerac, is spectacular. It is nestled in the Perigueux, which is a region that is reminiscent of the Ozarks of my youth. You replace a grove or two of mighty Oak with a rolling vineyard of grapes and you have the Perigueux. We didn't even travel the picturesque portion of the region and the views were amazing.

This would be a day where my youngest would find another sport for which he would seem to have a passion. The fighting arts come natural in our family. The eldest and I have a growing history with the martial arts, so it is only natural that the youngest finds himself drawn to a combat sport. During the days events, we couldn't help but indulge a request to purchase a wooden toy replica of the Epee for our youngest to play with. He is very keen on the sport and would spend the afternoon imitating what he had seen using his tiny wooden sword. The pictures are priceless. As an aside, I would be interest to here how many of those reading this crap would like me to include photos. I have been hesitant to do so in the past, but I have received many a request for the addition of this feature and am uncertain as to its impact on the project as a whole. Feel free to post a comment to let me know what you think. I have removed the editorial feature of the comments as well, so when you comment, it will immediately post onto the blog. Keep it clean . . . this is a family joint . . . sort of.

Back to the day. It was a wonderful morning full of sword fighting and story telling. A wonderful walking tour of the city had us delighted with the idea of a return trip to explore further. Our friend's son would do well and it seemed that the tournament would continue on well into the early evening hour. We would leave after lunch, but that in an of itself is worth a description. Given the sporty nature of our family and particularly our eldest son, we have had many opportunities to spend a weekend or two in the pursuit of a tournament trophy. In the US, lunch usually consists of a quick sandwich or picnic lunch in between matches. Sometimes a concession stand is available for the purchase of a candy bar or two in the event you came ill prepared. Lunch at the fencing tournament would be a different experience. It would be a semi-formal 5 course meal served under a canopy of trees in one of the city's central plazas. The meal would start with an Aperitif for the adults and small snacks for the kids. The starter would be a salad of greens and duck stomach. Main course would follow full of an Au Gratin potato dish and Duck breast. Red wine would of course be served with the main dish. We lucked out a bit as the table I was at was filled with youngsters (surprise), so the bottle of wine was only split 3 ways. The meal ended with fromage (goat cheese) and a nice apple and rhubarb tart.

By the end of the meal, the temperature had become fairly uncomfortable. 38 degrees to be exact, so the cup of hot coffee that I dumped in my lap didn't do me any favors. Since lunch ended somewhere around the 2 hour mark, we decided that we would not push our youngest any further. The fact that he spent lunch asleep in my lap and only narrowly escaped being scalded by hot coffee help the decision along. We wished our friends well and the best of luck then retreated for home. We had one last stop to make for the day. Our friends had graciously offered the use of their work van to aid in our upcoming move. On our way home, we stopped back by their home to pick up said vehicle. It is a fair sized vehicle by French standard and goes by the name "Jumpy". A Citroen Jumpy to be exact. There is but one draw back to the Jumpy that made itself known on this afternoon. The Jumpy is NOT equipped with an air conditioner. With the fam resting comfortably in the climate controlled Renault, the old man spent the next hour and a half commute back home rattling through the Jumpy's gear box in the blazing heat with the windows rolled down. The highway breeze would have made it tolerable, however, it would seem that the electronics in the aging Jumpy make for a Gremlin or two. When I rolled the windows down, the heating system spontaneously engaged and I spent the entirety of the ride with the heater blowing its full force in my face.

For those of you that aren't math geniuses out there, 38 degrees Celsius works out to roughly 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit. Certainly not the type of weather you want to be running your heater. Finally arriving at Madame Chaboud's, I was not well cooked, but a bit over done from stewing in my own gravy for an hour or so. I brought the old Jumpy to rest and sort of melted out of the driver's seat and onto the side walk in front of the house. Dehydrated and somewhat delirious, I spent the remainder of the day in a sweaty fog attempting to recover a bit for the week ahead. Things are moving fast and furious these days, and I find it difficult to complete my usual daily posts. Remain patient with the process. I will get them all posted, it just may remain on a day or two delay. The weather has turned quite hot and the lack of air conditioning in our home has us spending most days fairly still with the windows drawn shut in an attempt to shield ourselves from the heat. We would be enjoying our last few days in Madame Chaboud's pool had our pool boy not gone on strike leaving it to once again turn somewhere short of Kelley Green. I have set about rectifying this problem, but for now we will just have to sweat it out, so to speak.

The moving process has already played host to a number of follies, so stay tuned for the next few installments.  They promise to be full of adventure.  Until we speak again.  R.