Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Amis et Voisins

Our French is improving and our social circle is expanding!

Our past weekend was busy one and very French which was really quite nice. On Saturday we went to Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer and went for a bit of hike with Pascale and Jacqueline, two of Keith’s team mates from his lab. Instead of simply calling it “the lab” like we did in Kingston, people here call it “l’équipe”.  The hike was fantastic and included a picnic lunch on the beach. Yes, I’m going to rub it in a bit more, it was 16°C and Keith wore shorts. In addition to this the conversation was fantastic.









Later in the evening, some other members of l’équipe got together for snacks after dinner. More French and more good food. They had little cut up hotdog wieners, which I thought was kind of funny, but they were definitely not hotdogs. Just ask the four year old who served me (sometimes without my asking). He quite insisted that they were sausages and not anything else. But really, in my opinion if it looks like a hotdog wiener, and tastes like a hotdog wiener... Well you know the rest.

After losing our way walking home at midnight, we got up fresh and early to get ready for a visit from our neighbours.  This is one of my goals over the next couple of weeks; I would like to have all of our neighbours on the floor over for tea or drinks. There are four apartments on our floor including our own and so this should not be too difficult, although it is key that we have them over separately. I am finding I have difficulty completely understanding what is being said to me when other conversations are happening around me. Those words, that in English I would just simply fill in because I know the sentence structure, are lost. With a bit of fatigue from the night before and two very energetic neighbours and a child playing mini bowling in the foyer, I was not in top form. Regardless, we had a fantastic visit with Noelle, Frederick and their ten year old son (whose name I have forgotten). Noelle is a primary teacher, so we had some common ground to talk about. They brought over a special bread stick that is a Marseille specialty. They smelled very lemony, but according to Keith turned into a paste once you took a bite. He brought the leftovers into the lab and they were snapped up, with many comments on how awesome our neighbours are because they got us the ones from the best bakery. I hope that we were appreciative enough Sunday afternoon, not having any idea of the significance of the bread sticks.

While we were having coffee with one set of neighbours, our other neighbours knocked on our door to offer us some of their excess plants. How great is that? We now have some fun cacti and other baskets on our balcony. This has put these neighbours next in line my hit-list of invitations.
 

1 comment:

  1. I have caught up on your blog and your French experience is sure multi-faceted! From the bureaucratic maze to the flowers blooming all year and the interesting but uninformative museums to the generous neighbours...you are certainly experiencing France in all its myriad ways. I can hardly wait for our holiday!!! And thanks so much for the 'two moms' story...I am lucky indeed to have such wonderful children!!!

    So...what were those things from the museum used for??? They looked like toothbruch holders...or taper holders for lighting candles...or hair stick holders for the big fancy French hairdos of the past. Am I close????

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