Final Update!

Hello everyone!

So the kids have left, and I’m done! They left Wednesday afternoon with plenty of tears and hugs. It was very fun and interesting seeing the parents and siblings of kids we’ve gotten to know for the past 2 weeks! That night we (the 7 of us who were left, a very fun, close-knit group) went into Montluçon for dinner. We ate in the old city at this pizza place that was amaaaaaaaazing! I got a pizza with mozzarella and chèvre and mushrooms. It was suuuuper delicious and very fun sitting outside on the terrace in perfect weather.

Then yesterday, 5 of us went to Clermont-Ferrand for the day! It was seriously one of the best days ever. Nancy Drew (a counselor) has a friend there who we went to go visit. Two other people and I took the train since there aren’t enough seats in the car. We had a cat with us too, since our director had found a tiny kitten around town and we were taking it to Nancy Drew’s friend who was gonna keep it. It was really funny dealing with a playful kitten on the train. We had a box for her that she had zero interest in staying in, much preferring to explore the train. But she was surprisingly good overall despite some really cute high-pitched meows! At one point she escaped the boundaries we set up for her so Nancy Drew was on the floor of the train trying to get it out from underneath someone’s seat with a tissue lol. The whole train was looking and laughing at her, including some Japanese people who were taking pictures haha.

But we finally made it and Nancy Drew and I got picked up from the gare by her friend’s dad. We went to the house, had a super delicious, home-cooked lunch of yummy summer tomatoes, great pasta and sunny side up eggs (a real treat in France for some reason—seriously, everyone loves them here). But it was all super good, sitting outside in their garden in the breeze. For dessert we had this homemade crème brûlée that they’d made, but instead of burnt sugar on top, they put blueberries that they’d picked last week. So good! Finally, the dad showed me their garden which includes an abricotier (apricot tree)!! I kinda went nuts, eating 4 of them and taking pictures. The apricots were so unbelievably good! Soooo sweet and juicy!

Next, we headed into town where we wandered around, shopped, saw the city, etc. all afternoon. It’s quite a nice town. Pretty old section with pedestrian only streets, the big Place Jaude with big statues, the huge cathédrale that’s black not due to pollution but because it was built using the area’s volcanic stones, etc. Then we met up with Leo, the friend, and we chilled at a café for a bit. Eventually, after getting lost for a long time, we went back to the house for dinner!

The evening was soooooooo French and I loved it in every single way! We started out with the aperitif outside in their garden, having drinks and little munchies (including more apricots) while hanging out and talking. Two of their neighbors came over in the process too and ended up staying for dinner. They were super funny and fun to talk to. We then had dinner which consisted of barbecue, grilled peppers, tabouleh salad, rice salad, potatoes, tomatoes, eggs, homemade bread…think that’s it haha. It was delicious! A 2005 red wine from the Ardèche was served then. Then afterwards, we had cheese (Carré de l’Est, Brie, St. Nectaire, Cantal) which was quite good. With the cheese we had a 2003 red Cahors that was really, really good. The smell was amazing and it tasted really good too!

Finally, we ended with dessert—homemade abricot ice cream!!! It was like eating pure, pureed abricots basically. Such smooth flavor and taste. The dad liked me a lot because I liked it so much (he said earlier that they had to drag me away by my hair from the abricot tree when I first discovered it that afternoon haha). But it didn’t end there. The aforementioned neighbors are from Lorraine (northeast by Germany), so they went home and brought over some canned mirabelles that his mom (who’s 82) had made. Do yall know mirabelles? I hadn’t seen them before last night. They’re like plums except a bit smaller and yellow—a specialty from the Lorraine region http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirabelle_plum . They were very delicious and from the year 2000!! With that, Alain (the neighbor) served a homemade eau-de-vie de mirabelle, basically homemade Mirabelle alcohol. It was from 1995!!! Crazy! It was really good and quite aromatic and tasty. Sooo smooth, I suppose because it was so old? And then we had some calvados as well since the friends whose house we were at are from Caen in Normandie. By that point it was 11 pm so we had to leave since we had an hour and a half of driving ahead of us back to the chateau. So we said our thank yous and goodbyes and left.

But such a nice night and sooooooo French…it all being outside, the different courses and alcohols with copious amounts of each, merry conversation and people (including adults) singing dirty French songs, all being at one big long table, etc. So fun and enjoyable!

Today, I’m just chilling here at Petit Bois. Tomorrow, I leave early to go up to Paris where I’ll meet up with a friend from the first session of camp who lives there and then home on Sunday! So much traveling and so many changes so quickly…too much to process all at once! See yall very sooooon!

Love,
Peanut Butter