Feeling French

We awoke early to the sun shining in our windows. This morning we decided we were going to live French. We headed out the door into the cool morning air. We took the trail down the hill to where it ended then pushed our way through the brush to the dirt road at the bottom. We took the road by back yards of beautiful French houses and an old, abandoned house. Our dirt road met with a residential road that was a 20% grade to the village center. Approaching the center, the odor of fresh bread walked down to meet us.

At La Roquette sur Siagne, we slipped into the small boulangerie. “Bonjour,” the woman at the counter greeted us, as did everyone we met or passed. We asked for a baguette and she gave us two. Behind her, a man (probably her husband) was removing freshly cooked loaves from the oven and replaced them with lengths of dough. He closed the oven with a cloud of steam. Bernie asked if he could photograph him. The man was flattered to have his photograph taken. Bernie photographed the man at work for 15 minutes.

In the meantime, I decided to buy a pain de raisin which turned out to be much more delicious than I expected. I also studied the stores wares. Pate, Nutella, sardines, vanilla beans, Dr. Otker’s Vanilla Sugar (but not the one that is sold in the states that is artificially flavored), herbs de provence, and a good many other things in this tiny shop seemed appealing. Meanwhile, quite a few men came in to buy bundles of bread loaves that the woman had put together. When Bernie had finished, the man baking the bread announced that he was a celebrity.

We walked back along the road and felt very French with our baguettes.

Today, Bernie weed-whacked and I prepared part of their lawn for grass seed planting. Then in the afternoon we worked together on a major tree/hedge trimming operation. Gaby is very excited that we are letting light into her yard.

We’ve been working on our German a little because soon we will need it. We found with French that we can communicate fairly effectively with “Bonjour,” “Merci,” “Au Revoir,” and if we need help, we say, “Parlevous angleis (sp?)” (which actually had not gotten us very far) so then we just say a noun in French quizzically and they reply in French with pointing and hand motions. We understand a little now. Hopefully, it will work out with the German or maybe more people will know English where we are.

Au Revoir!

Regina