Mélange…

Hey dummy…

Was chastised by the postman this morning because two letters I mailed out were returned. No, no not for lack or insufficiency of postage, no, it turns out that the machine that reads the addresses read the return address label instead of the mailing address. I was told that in the future it would behoove me to place the return address label on THE BACK of the envelope (read the implication "Like a normal French person would do, you crazy American"), so that this would not happen again. Good grief, I've been mailing stuff from here for a year and a half and this has never happened before. But I'll correct my errant and evil American ways and fly right

French women don’t shave…

No, no of course they don’t. They ‘épiler’, now when you think of epilating you think (or at least I do) of that device you could buy years ago that featured a wire springy thing that you ran along your legs so it could rip your hair out. Ouch!

Well, actually, no, epilating is waxing and I’ve never done that before either. Mags, however, convinced me that it was the way to go. It, supposedly, lasts longer and when the hair grows back it’s, supposedly, sparser. So despite it sounding just plain ol painful to me, I figured what the heck, try it once.

My 'esthetician', Jenny, was British and though she kept up a steady stream of chatter, I was not distracted from what she was doing. However, it all happened so quickly that I hardly had time to react. Gentle spreading of hot wax along the entire surface of one leg. This done slowly and deliberately to spread the wax as thin as possible and then she reaches for a strip of cloth and before I realize what she’s doing, rip, rip, rip. All done.

A week later, my legs are still pretty smooth, we’ll see. Maybe I’ll do my armpits next time. Ooowww!

Weekends…

Last weekend we visited Auch. I would see the signs for it on the autoroute, but had never been there. It’s another typical French town, but this one has a cathedral that is a Unesco world heritage site. It’s massive and the stained glass is cool. Napoleon II is quoted as saying that ‘a cathedral like this should be put in a museum!’. Well, I wouldn’t go quite that far, but it is a nice mix of Gothic and Florentine architecture.

If you head out of the south side doors of the cathedral and head east you’ll come to the ‘Escalier Monumental’ Auch’s 370 step stairway that takes you down to the river. Halfway down the stairs there’s a cool statue of d’Artagnan, you know, from ‘The Three Musketeers’. Fair warning though, if you go down the monumental stairs, you will eventually have to come back up, either by the stairs or the long way around through the uphill streets of town, there is no escape. I tried to get S to go back up and get the car and come back for me, but not even a faked heart attack could convince him. I couldn’t walk for two days after.

On the return home we passed through a town called Geret (?) where we saw a store called Le Contess du Barry (?). Anyway, the store sold fois gras and we bought a couple of ‘Bloc de foie gras de canard à la compote de figues & au porto blanc’. The stuff was fabulous!

Aches in Provence…

Actually that’s what it sounds like, but it’s actually Aix-en-Provence. That’s where we’re off too this weekend. Just to tour the town and get a small pre summer peek at the Provence region. We’ve not spent any time there yet. Of course the second I made and paid for the reservations, the weather turned decidedly nasty. Well, we’ll explore with umbrellas and avoid the sidewalk cafes.

Weather…

Well the wind that is carrying the lovely blizzard of almond blossoms currently blowing past my window is also now carrying other types of pollen and my face is red, eyes swollen, and my nose is running. Ah spring!