Weekend in Deutschland: June 15-19, 2007

For all you Deutsch sprechers out there, a big shout out from Hemmerde! Hier ist it kalt diese morgan aber das sohn ist jetz starten to shinen. :-) I arrived Friday evening to the warm welcome of the Familia Gunther. Peter chauffered me from Dusselfdorf airport in horrid traffic, but Fredde was home from university in Münster to spend the night just to see me, and her warm hug and radiant smile with the same from Babsi made me feel right at home. The weekend visiting Heidelberg was splendid. We stayed at the Hotel Golden Rose, whose wi-fi introduced me to the success of Skype and the joy of blogspot. My former exchange student son Christian has a family parallel to mine: His older sister Tina and her husband Stephane and their twins Julien and Finn (the blond) welcomed us, and little sister Johanna joined us, taking time from her law school studies. She and Fredde are heading in to the final weeks of spring semester exams, so it was great that they took time to visit. I mailed a third package home to ease the load on the suitcase. I'm traveling light!


Here is Peter with Julien, who has Babsi's energizer bunny transmission, and Finn, more contemplative. With his fair hair, he looks so much like baby Christian!



Here is Katya, currently living and working in the Black Forest, a long way from Christian in Cologne. Watch for a move as soon as she can find a new job.


Tine, Christian, and Hanni all lived with us for a while, Tina for a month of medical internship at the Parkview Hospital Emergency Services, Christian for a year at Lakeland, and Hanni for several months of limbo waiting for immigration to take our money and approve her visa as a Lakeland student - only to finally have to give up on her semester and go home, a collateral damage casualty of the war on terror. She is studying law. Maybe she can improve on what we've got.

Chateau d'Autigny-la-Tour: June 8-15, 2007

Wow, after a train trip shared at first with Léa and J-B from the depths of the French central hills and ending in the far northeast, it was an amazing moment to stroll through my chateau away from home. This is the Chateau d'Autigny-la-Tour, an 18th century manor house built for the local Duc with a large enclosed garden and woodland. The interior is immaculate and carefully refurnished in period decor, breathtaking, lovely - and not for photos! So you will have to believe me that the reception rooms, salons, and dining rooms are simply divine. Here is a sample from the public rooms of which I had use during my 3 days as a Comtesse.

After a delumptious croissant and petit pain with coffee, I explored the public area of the chateau, then took a long walk in the gardens and woodland, where I stopped to read for a bit. Before the leaden sky began to rain, I wandered the circumference of the walls. What a quiet stroll, serenaded by bird song and a rising breeze!

The relative isolation of the village, with no commercial stores or cafés, required a rental car, so the next morning, Julien , the son of the owners, drove me into Neufchateau to the Renault garage where I got a Twingo. Lovely!






My day of solitude as a Comtesse came to an end with an afternoon of computer work and writing by a open window listening to the rain.

Cantal: June 8-10, 2007

The train system works wonderfully in France. I left the metropolitain behind, changing trains in Clermont-Ferrand, and wound deep into the valleys of the Massif Central, worn volcanic hills, reminiscent of the Smokies, the Appalacian foothills. I called the Ginioux home at noon from Lyon before leaving, and Jean-Baptiste assured me that his mother would come by after work. She did arrive, astonished as I to see each other again. The quality of friendship that thrives far apart in time and distance, yet picks up again after 11 years simply astonishes me. What a source of hope and faith in mankind!

Gérard and Jean-Baptiste, Léa and Bernadette, host me at dinner at Le Mazet, the home of their grandparents a short hike up the road from their house, Cavalhac, outside the village of Lacapelle-del-Fraisse, about a half hour drive from Aurillac.


While I was visiting, the French legislative election first round vote was held on Sunday, so I accompanied Bernadette into the townhall to cast her ballot. She picked up one of each of the papers with candidates names, ducked into a private corner booth to stuff her choice into the envelope, and dropped her vote into the box. The election drew a smaller turnout than the recent presidential election, but it was the lead story in all the news.

The beauty of the French countryside calms and invigorates me. This is a lovely flowering place steeped in ages and ages of human history.

Lyon June 5-8, 2007

You who know me can well imagine the state of slow in which I arrived in Lyon. The end of the school year Friday, the move home to LaGrange and graduation on the weekend, and flight over night Monday followed by transfer by train to Lyon spelled utter slow motion for the first few days.





It was a delight to be the guest teacher in my partner teacher Yvette Jeandet's middle school English classes Wednesday and Friday. The students, some more willing than others to speak in English, led me in lively discussions on a diverse variety of topics about life in America, schools, families, sports, culture, music.



The Thursday afternoon tour of the city guided by Yvette's English friend Barbara showed me the Roman to the Renaissance wonders of France's 2nd city. We happened on an artisan spinning silk thread in his workshop, and after a tour and demonstration of the old Jacobin looms bought a souvenir stoll of his loom woven silk. Wow.

Friday after a morning in school, Yvette dashed me to the train station on her lunch hour. Yes, it is a lunch HOUR, and a half. Lovely concept, time to reflect and integrate the morning. We stampede through our days in the American culture of fast and big is better. The horror and disbelief on the 11 year old faces when the Clay 25 minute lunch was explained said it all. "We'd all go on strike," they shrugged, nodding at each other as a fait accompli. I hope to visit them again, with their partner students. Wouldn't that be wonderful?