Having been back in France
for a whole week, my wife seemed to feel the need for social engagement. Not yet being completely steady on my French
feet, I must admit that I was none too keen on the prospect. As is usually the case in my life, my wife
knows best, so I reluctantly agreed to the evening out. Though my heart was not initially in it, I
thoroughly enjoyed the evening among new found friends. The cast of characters was eclectic. Our hosts . . . wine makers. Location . . . their lovely chateau in a
well-known neighboring village. Two
other couples would join in the festivities and for once, I would not be in the
minority. This would be a meeting of
legal minds . . . sort of. I am not sure
I would call mine a “legal mind”, but two of the other invitees were also
attorneys. One was French Canadian
gentleman who personality so agreed with my own that we are now in the process
of setting up a second meeting of our own.
The other was a Parisian woman who practiced in the criminal arena and
seemed to miss the faster pace of the big city legal game. She was very pleasant in her own right, with
a very expressive manner, but not as easy to get to know from first
impressions. We ate, drank and conversed
until the wee hours of the morning.
Well, they conversed. The wife
and I just sort of smiled and nodded as though we understood. The further into the evening we got, the less
I understood. A liberal application of
libations has a way of turning very considerate slow French and occasional
English translation into a blur of babble that I could only catch a word of two
of.
Our hosts were tremendous and
I learned a great deal from the evening.
I had a nice conversation with the lady of the house regarding the state
of the wine making industry that made me feel sad for the direction it seems to
be heading. What I love most about
France is the preservation of the
artisan nature with which all endeavors are carried forth. It would seem that this is seeing its final days here to some extent, and to hear that from the horse’s mouth was a sobering
experience. We have murdered this
sentiment in the US and are NOT better for the killing. Automatic for the People huh? Uniformity and automation for the sake of
uniformity and automation. That kind of
homogenization has killed small business in the US and makes it next to
impossible to get a nice loaf of Brioche . . . I know from experience. That being said, I don’t want to get too political
here. I have had enough of that in the
past. It was a pleasant evening with
brilliant people (whom I will describe further as relationships develop) which gave way to a weekend full of preparations for future travel
and a week without mom.
We used the Nationwide soldes
as an excuse to outfit ourselves for our upcoming ski trip into the
Pyrenees. As the saying goes . . . “as
long as you are taking the cow to market . . .”, so against my better judgment
I purchased a discount car stereo to fill the gap in the center of the dash of
the now famous 206. Handling
installation myself, I learned a very valuable life lesson. Self-sufficiency leads to lacerated
fingers. A good friend recently tried to
relieve himself of several digits at the hands of a circular saw in the name of "do-it-yourself", and though my
injury is a scratch in comparison, the SpongeBob bandaid adorning my middle
finger doesn’t make me feel terribly “handy” . . . pun intended. And so, the weekend melted away like they
always do, and the dawning of the new week has me back at the helm of our ship without my usual co-pilot. The wife is setting up shop in
Portugal for the week, so just the lads and I are holding down the fort here in
France. I realize that I have become so
accustomed to this way of life, I hardly notice her absence anymore. That is not to say that I don’t miss her
tremendously, but the day to day must carry on as it always does. Trips to and from school with homework to
complete and bedtimes to be observed.
The only notable exception was that I used a late bedtime and early rise
to see the wife off on her trip as an excuse not to do a damn thing today other
than the absolute necessities. The
boys prefer simple food and could give a damn whether their bed is made or not,
so I took the day off with the exception of a few dirty dishes that needed some
serious attention. Though the relaxed
pace felt good, I know it did nothing but create at mountain of work for
tomorrow, but what the hell . . . tomorrow is a new day, right? R.
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