A Visit!

I will not say "a visit with an old friend" because neither of us are old, but we have been such good friends for over twenty years and we have stayed in touch. We met when we were both students of French at the university in Toulouse. For J. her second language was English, but she is bilingual, so she hung out with the silly Americans because we could communicate. She taught me how to cook, inspired me to take better care of home and husband because she understood it was a privilege to do so, and obligingly had a baby first so that I could test out that theory as well. "Do I want one too?...yes, I do!"

J. took the train from Paris to come see me here, way down south in Mont-de-Marsan. She arrived Tuesday and we walked downtown, exploring the town center and stopping for coffee at my cafe. We had to have a minute alone, because as soon as we arrived home, the children were so happy to have an audience (show-offs) that they chatted the rest of the evening. The next day it rained all morning. We spent the time inside, not even moving from the kitchen in between breakfast and then tea, with the dainty treats J. brought us from "Fauchon" in Paris and enjoying J.'s wonderful photography exhibit online. It started with Lily's flower sketches; J. has an entire collection of flowers. As we looked through different collections, we talked of food. Ah-ha! In her private albums, she keeps a whole stash of food photos. Amazing! She won't do a food blog, because it is "so yesterday," but I think I have convinced her to at least share the photos publicly for us poor sops who have not a clue of what new to cook, especially at the end of a long day with children.

I packed off part of the children to Mamie and Papy's, fed the others and set off downtown with J. in my elegant coach; the city bus. At least it had stopped raining. After a Southwestern lunch of duck; confit for J and magret for me, I saw her back to the train station and walked home in the rain. A lovely visit!