With me will be my daughter and granddaughter... which means this is a trip of a lifetime.
We will be staying with my French sister. Thirty-nine years ago, a French girl named Virginie came to live with my family for a year through AFS. Ever since, we have considered ourselves sisters.
Along with the bread and the cheese and the bread and the wine and the bread and the scenery, we will also get to visit (I am hoping) with Olivier, one of Virginie's brothers. Olivier has visited the US several times over the years, and is quite charming and funny.
On one of my previous visits to France, we stayed with Olivier at his house near the beach. Olivier instructed us--when opening them--to point the champagne bottles toward a stand of pine trees because he was "growing champagne trees." He also reassured us that we could use as much water as we wanted, as he'd rigged the water meter so that it ran in reverse.
So, in the next couple of weeks if you hear of an international disturbance in Nay (a tiny village outside of Pau), please send bail money.
In euros, of course...
