Our day in Chatou

Friday, 06 July 07

We are so lucky to be here! The village of Chatou is quiet and quaint and will be a perfect place to return to after the excitement of the city. Clelia, Paolina and Léon’s home is so comfortable and artistic and french! Today we took it easy.

Karl woke up with an abssess in his tooth this morning and we got to see the French medical system up close. Clelia’s daughter, Amalie, came to the rescue. She came to Chatou and took Karl to the American hospital where they saw him immediately and sent him off with antibiotics and pain killers (15 euros worth!! Makes you wonder about pharmaceutical costs in the US…)

While Karl was off with Amalie the kids and I explored Chatou and the Seine river. We were able to order pizza without inadvertently getting snails or pig’s feet on it and we navigated our way through the village and down to a lovely walk by the river.

When we were in Capitola with Clelia last Tuesday she kept saying “California is so different from France!!” She wasn’t kidding. The French do things so well. They move at a much slower pace and take the time to enjoy life. Plus I love the fact that all of the cars are small and efficient. Not a giant SUV in sight. They recycle and consume so much less and live a lifestyle I so admire.

Since we didn’t go to Paris today we took the time to relax and play. We played cuillères (spoons) and merde (BS) and tried French wine (the boys liked, the girls gagged) and learned how to use a different kitchen and french electronics.

Luckily Karl was able to get the antibiotics because he was going to be miserable without them, and we were able to catch up to French time so we will be ready for a Paris adventure tomorrow.

La vie est bonne!

 

Nous arrivons ! !

Dear friends and family,
Most of you know of the great home exchange adventure we are doing this summer with our wonderful new French friends Clelia, Paolina and Léon. They arrived in San Francisco July 2, and we had that evening and the next day to get to know eachother and exchange information and tourist advice. They are an amazing family and it feels like we have known eachother forever. We have so much in common, I want to wait and write another entry about them and sing the praises of home exchanges, which is a fantastic cultural exchange and a terrific way to travel. But on to the beginning of our adventure…

We made it!! It’s been quite a journey just getting to France. Our trip was full of interesting delays and amazing good luck. A little over an hour into the trip the flight attendent got on the intercom and said “is there a doctor on board?” Not a good sign when you have connections to make. Unfortunately a poor guy had what appeared to be a heart attack, or some kind of heart incident that required our making an emergency medical landing in Salt Lake City. While all of this was happening, a passenger sitting near Teal and Uriah started cursing at his girlfriend and then became belligerent towards the flight attendents. They really mean it when they say you have to be on your best behavior on planes because after the EMT’s took the patient off the plane the police came in for Mr. Jerkhead. They escorted him off the plane with no incident (except clapping by the other passengers). Oh, to have the power to do that to any jerk that misbehaves like that!

Anyway, this all made our plane 2 hours late and made us completely miss our connection from JFK. Lucky for us though, there were enough Paris bound passengers on our plane that American Airlines decided to holdover the outgoing Paris flight for us. And on top of that they even got our luggage on the plane!! This is a total plug for visualizing the best in a difficult situation.

Nous arrivons!!

Clelia’s daughter and good friend, Amalie and Pascal, very graciously offered to pick us up and take us to Chatou. They are wonderful, kind people and it’s a comfort to know we can call on them for help. We are certainly Americans in Paris. Everyone is counting on my translation skills from 30 years ago high school french. I should have paid attention better back then… It’s frightening to think I’m the one who can best communicate in our group.

This place is even better than we dreamed of. It is perfect!!! We were all very very tired. Navigating to the little village of Chatou and foraging dinner was difficult and hilarious. We all came home and fell into a stupor before dinner. Woke up, ate and went to bed. I stayed up to set up this blog.

The keyboard on a french MAC (I’m using her computer) is completely different and my head is going to explode from having to concentrate in such a fog of fatigue. More tomorrow, I’m going to see if staying up 30 hours helps my insomnia!