subject:  a few more things . . . .

Hi Everyone,

I thought of a few more things of note to pass on your way from that weekend past.

1)  It rained so hard that la Saône was chocolate, like the rivers in Hawaii get when it’s rained a lot.

That lasted for well over a week. There were HUGE things floating very rapidly downstream (south in this instance, though I must add that la Saône is technically not a fleuve, or is it rivière?, because it doesn’t flow to the sea . . .). Large things like trees and who knows what all else. There WERE parking lots below the road level on the Saône-level, which have yet to open because the water was so high. So maybe this is why I see more canal-type boats on le Rhone rather than on la Saône.

2) For the first time ever I took a pair of scissors to my hair and cut, and I do mean chopped! I took off a good inch all around! I’ve cut my bangs plenty of times but never something so drastic as this!

First of all, I ventured forth and cut my own hair because I noticed that Madame’s hair was considerably shorter one day than it had been the day before. I asked her about it and she said she had cut it herself. If you remember, I got the MOST-LAYERED haircut known to man a few weeks back. Alors, the other length still was too long, so I thought, What the heck? All I cut was the part that hits the shoulder. And here it seems to be the style to have your hair all different lengths (at least to my non-professional eye, Laurie), so now I fit right in!

3) “n’importe quoi” = anything (at all)

4)  I went to another restaurant with the school last week. Only thing is, I was the only student to sign up! I signed up because there were only places for 4 students and this was supposedly/allegedly a restaurant where you had to make a reservation for at least a week in advance. Romy, who is the “head” of the school and all of 31 years of age, said she’d never done this before, but she wanted to go with just one student, moi. Now I don’t think it had anything to do with my magical power of persuasion or interesting personality but rather simply because she was dying to experience this restaurant. And I reckon it was on “company” time . . .

Donc . . . it was super!!

It’s called “l’ourson qui boit.” The thing that drinks is a little bitty bear. I have the card with the cute bear wearing a pink shirt and black pants holding a little green bottle (in the same shape of a wine bottle, I must add!)

The chef is Japonais. The restaurant is in France. It was the coolest combination of the two cuisines!!! I loved it!!! Alors, Michele, I got the wonderful meal I was wanting.

For entrée I had a potage of spinach with 3 large dumpling like things that were the Japonaise version of St. Jacques. There was a wonderfully lemony flavor in the soup.

For my main plat I had the poisson. I don’t know what kind of fish it was but the waitress said it came from the sea. It was also served in a bowl over soupy risotto with a wonderful lemony and mushroomy sauce. On top of the fish was what I swear (sorry Mom, it’s the only word that really fits!) were little bitty pieces of sashimi, fresh, fresh ahi. Wow!

For dessert we decided to order two different dishes and share. She LOVED the creme whatchamacallit with a caramèl sauce . . .  but not the bizarre tiramisu ala Japonaise. So I just had two bites of the pudding thing and gobbled up the other . . . imagine a small, flat round dish like the ones used for crème brulèe (but a bit deeper).  Now imagine a cream like substance covered with little green flecks which were a lot like seaweed. The crème wasn’t very deep. In just the slightest press of the spoon you discovered the “cake” part of the tirimisu. It was deliceux; but I think just a bit too weird for Romy (yes, another Romy!!! She didn’t believe me at first when I told her I had a friend at home named Romey, Romey).

We decided to pass on the café after or apertif (both before and after) since we drank an entire bottle of wine between the two of us. I’ve found that most of the French just have 2 glasses of wine with dinner . . . now what they have before, is another story. Non, not really. But what do I know, I haven’t really hung out with LOTS of French people besides by hôtesse and her friends.

Today is mardi the 17th of fevrier, my last week. The week’s activities are as follows:

mardi (aujourd’hui)  bowling

      yep, you read right! bowling! we leave in 15 minutes.

I might go to a play tonight toute seule . . . or not, I saw a poster today that looked interesting. It’s a one-man-show (it said that in English on the poster so I THINK I’m sure) and it opens tonight. It’s tonight or never if I really have the urge . . . (I didn’t.)

mercredi the 18th is dinner night at Via Toscana. Yep, Italiana. I’m going. There’s a movie Wed. too but I think I’m going to pass because I want to go to the greco-roman musée and it’s then or never (maybe Friday I could but I’d rather not leave it to my last day in Lyon).

jeudi the 19th is an organized visit to the same museum I went to last Thursday night. Remember when I told you about the Vernissage? The opening night? I want to go again.

Vendredi soir Madame has said that her oldest son of 27 years and his wife and little 9-month old baby girl are going to join us for dinner. Should be very nice! And then hopefully afterwards I’ll meet “the gang” for a sending off. I think that’s when I really find out what they think of me . . . probably the only 48 year old they’ve ever hung out with.

And then samedi I depart for Annecy . . . it feels like the place to go at this point of my life . . . T booked the hotel last night and I’m going to purchase my tickets after bowling . . .

So, for the moment I think I’m all up to date.  Today I sent off a packet to Tones with a few things including the 4MB chip with a LOT of photos . . . maybe he’ll post them, or maybe he won’t.  It might be best to wait till I return and can add captions . . .

So for now mes bons amis, au revoir, bisous et à bientôt,

Suzanne