Les Vacances

Boy, what a difference a few months make. My summertime blues have been replaced with "Yea, summer!" and things have just been fun and busy. I am officially on my seven weeks of (unfortunately, unpaid) vacation, but boy, how can you complain about seven weeks of vacation??!!

I am off to the U.S. on the 11th for a two-week visit, partially for work and mostly to see my friends and family. I am just so excited - I can't wait to see everyone. One of the good things about having Facebook (despite my mopey previous post) is that I have reconnected with several school friends, and one teach from grade school, so I have visit planned with lots of people I haven't seen in ages. Like, literally, ages. Twenty, 25 years or more.

I think getting summer underway really kickstarts the energy. Not working such a long week, I am free to ride my bike (doing about 100 miles per week), take care of the house (and my husband!). Tonight we are meeting some friends in next to us for dinner and karaoke, although I think I am the only one who will sing (and I use the term 'sing' pretty loosely...). On Monday, I am driving to Angers to spend the day with a friend to do some shopping and girl stuff (and speak English - she is a French woman who teaches English in a nearby school), so I am looking forward to that.

In July, I had a real treat because a client of mine from Portland came to visit Paris and Patrice and I went to stay there and give her and her colleague a tour around. It was great to see them and show them "my Paris". The funny thing is, I had thought that a great business to start here (along with the million other people doing it) would be a travel company but just one day of trying to keep TWO people on track and get everything done in time was pretty exhausting. Still, that's something I may keep in mind for the future.

Summertime Blues

Summer is now approaching and it's bringing with it a restlessness to be out and about and doing things. However, this is emphasizing, in a way, the isolation I sometimes feel being separated from my friends and family in the U.S. Despite having lived abroad before - Germany, England & Canada for a total of about two years - I really have been unprepared for the homesickness and feeling torn between two worlds that never seems to end. Not to mention the daily challenges of learning and speaking a new language.

I don't know if modern technology like free internet phone, Facebook, Twitter, etc. helps or hurts. On one hand, it's great to have updates and information for my friends back in the States, but on the other hand, I see every day all that I am missing in my life here. A niece I have never met, a good friend that has suddenly died, concerts and groups and life and activities that I won't ever be a part of if I choose to stay in France. Living 90 miles from Paris makes life very "so close, yet so far". It's close enough to spend the day there seeing a movie or eating a yummy Indian meal that I can't get out in the sticks, but just far enough to be hassle to get in ($50 just for the train).

The little things I took for granted living in a big city in the U.S. are just harder here and the longer I am here - as the newness wears off and real life settles in - the bigger the hole I feel is left by my "old life". Simply going out to see a movie in English or browse around an English-language bookstore (Powells, I miss you!) is an event that you have to plan - 90 minutes (and a chunk of change) on the train to Paris or, if I just want to see the movie - an hour by car to the nearest "big" cities (Orleans, Blois or Chartres). While I have made new friends here they, too, are scattered an hour in each direction, making get-togethers less than spontaneous. I just miss going out shopping, for lunch or to a movie with my friends.

I love my husband and I love France but, dang, I just did not expect this 'new life' to be so hard to get used to...

Our Local Hero

Patrice and I attended a very touching ceremony last Sunday to honor 98-year-old Raymonde Piedallu, a local woman who hid two Jewish children during World War II. The two "girls" (now in their late 60's and 70's) were there along with some of their family from Israel and Canada and our little salle des fêtes was packed to capacity. She was given a medal of honor by the president of the National Assembly from Paris and there had mayors and representatives present from other cities in the region.

When I was growing up, hearing about WWII (or "the last war", as it's still sometimes referred to here) everything seemed (and was) so far away. It's "over there" and "somewhere else", but living here in France, seeing roadside memorials to fallen American and British soldiers or ordinary French citizens killed on that spot for their resistance is an unreal feeling. The Nazi headquarters in our village was just a few minutes walk from our house.

The picture above is Patrice with Raymonde - she was the lunch lady at his school and he remembers her giving him spiced cake with cinnamon, which he still doesn't like to this day! It was really a beautiful afternoon and I feel really lucky to have witnessed this little piece of history.

You can click on this link below for the story of the reunion last year between Raymonde and the women she saved.

http://www.jewishtribune.ca/TribuneV2/index.php/200810231013/Jewish-sisters-reunite-with-French-woman-who-was-like-a-mother-to-us-during-World-War-II.html