Things were as we hoped they would be! On the 22nd we walked over to the
Hertz car rental location, about 10 minutes away. And we stumbled through our explanation about
having a reservation, in our broken French, only to have the Hertz guy reply in
English. We drove back to the apartment
and double parked across the street. I
loaded the car, and Maxine went upstairs to get Emmy. Soon we were on our way to Toulouse.
A lot of the next few days is something of a blur… Late nights.
Wine. Rich food. Traditional Christmas!
We feel very lucky that we could spend the holiday with
our good (and old) friends. Yet, as I
type this on New Year’s day I feel a certain poignancy. It will be 2 years, and perhaps longer,
before we next see them. And yes, it is
do-able -- Bill and I seem to very
quickly come back into sync in the ways we’ve interacted for decades now. But, while it is do-able, is it good? To see friends so infrequently. Is it possible for this to be otherwise, with
friends and family airplane hours away…
Somehow I got a touch of food poisoning which showed up
shortly after we arrived in Toulouse. As
a consequence I didn’t get out of bed till 4:30pm on the 23rd, and
then only barely. Maxine, Bill, and
others made the drive into the city to visit the Christmas market in Place
Capitole and had duck breast and foie gras sandwiches. Bill’s father-in-law made dinner that night. His specialty, Beef Carrots with Reunion
Island spices was delicious (or so Maxine told me). That night we also celebrated the last night of Chanukah. Maxine lit the candles using our lucite "travel menorah" and explained the story of the holiday to the group. Later Bill thanked her for sharing and for helping to broaden his daughters' knowledge.
Christmas Eve was the big formal celebration dinner. We started with foie gras and Sauterne then
oysters (both cooked Reunion style and also raw) and champagne. Our main courses were langoustine (also
Reunion style) and chapon (capon in English) with a white Burgundy and a red
Bordeaux. By now it was after midnight
and we still had the cheese course (6 different cheeses) and 2 desserts – a
homemade buche de noel with candied chestnuts and a chocolate ice cream cake. Dinner ended after 1 am and we fell into bed
knowing that it would be an early morning with the kids excited about opening
their presents.
I imagine you’re asking, “what would this blog be without
beer”, so I do need to report that I got a beer gift pack as a present from
Bill, Waterloo Double Dark 8, and Waterloo Triple Blond. Christmas morning was it is in any household
with kids. Fun. And wrapping paper flying.
On the 26th Isabelle and her parents drove up
to Versailles to see more of her family, leaving Maxine and me with Bill, his
brother and nephew, and Bill’s daughter (my goddaughter) Emily. We spent most of the time doing what I enjoy
most at the holidays, sitting around talking.
(We also did manage to kill off a box of chocolates… And to go out for pizza…). Our last night, we had raclette for dinner –
melted cheese, charcuterie, potatoes, egg, salad – and a beer tasting of the
beers Bill’s brother and I received for Christmas.
Our drive home on the 28th took a lot longer
than the drive down. It was Sunday night
of Christmas week and we were doing something that surely characterized us as
French-for-a-day -- sitting in traffic with everyone else trying to get back
into Paris. A 6 hour drive, with stops,
took us 10 hours. By that night, the 28th,
people were putting discarded Christmas trees into the recycle piles along
Avenue Foch. Walking Emmy that night, I
saw the trees on the coldest night since we got here, with the puddles freezing
over!
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