This past Saturday, we strolled a bit in the garden of the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, which is always lovely, but especially when the sun breaks through the clouds . . .

But even better than that, on Sunday, around noon, Pascale picked us up here . . . →

. . . since living right in the center of town makes getting to us a bit more challenging. She was bringing us back to Pascale and Jacky’s house to celebrate Jacky’s 70th birthday with family and some of their closest friends. What a treat to be included in the celebration.

I was a little intimidated at first, wondering how my language skills would hold up. And certainly a great deal of French went right by me, but it didn’t matter.  A LOT was very fast and multiple conversations were going on all the time, as you would expect, and jokes were frequently of the jeu de mots variety (play on words–absolutely no idea how to pluralize that correctly in either language — jeux de mots and “plays on words” maybe, but it sounds weird in English, so who knows).

Anyway, I did manage to understand quite a bit and even converse with a few people. It helped that everyone was so very welcoming and friendly.

And it was just plain fun in any language. Antoine, who was sitting next to me at the table, was helpful and hilarious. ↓

We had no idea what was in store for us. We knew we would be wined and dined, but had no idea this party would last TEN hours. And it flew by. We started with champagne, ended (the first meal) with cognac and had amazing wines in between, not to mention the courses that just kept coming. Here’s Jean, who is working toward being a chef, assembling the entrée (which is the first course after the apero and amuse geules) . . . . ↓

Then of course le plat principal, then salade et fromage, then . . .

. . . le dessert, in this case a birthday gateau carrelet. A carrelet is a type of fishing hut on stilts from which one lowers a net into the sea and some time later brings it back up, preferably with fish in it. The “boulders” below were little eclairs, and the small white “rocks” were candy-covered almonds. Super creative.

So after several hours of eating and drinking, a number of the women took the dog for a walk and all the men, plus Anne-Marie and I, got in a couple of cars to go play pétanque.  The first thing we learned is that you can play ANYWHERE.

Fortunately, both David and I acquitted ourselves reasonably well, and our team, Jacky’s team, won all three games. Nice for Jacky to win on his birthday, but there was a fair amount of chance and mischance involved, since we were playing in a random industrial construction zone, so the ball would hit a rock and go jetting off in a completely unexpected direction. Still, super fun. And don’t you love how great David is looking?

Then back to the house, where the aperitifs came back out and another smaller meal, but still with le plat principal, la salade, du fromage, et dessert. Pretty soon it was after 10:00 at night and time for Pascale, who had been slaving away all day, rather than drinking like the rest of us, to take us home.

We felt so very privileged to be included in this special day.

We had found a card to accompany our gift to Jacky which really says it all:

Être avec des gens qu’on aime, cela suffit . . . . ∼Jean de La Bruyère

(To be with people one loves, that is enough.)

Wishing you beautiful places, whenever possible, but more than that, beloved friends and family with whom to share special times, even if that means playing games among the rocks.

Most important, of course, is an update on David, so I’m very happy to report that he continues to do well. We walk a lot every day, starting with the marché every morning . . .

The marché  is impressive every day, but only Wednesday and Saturday marchés are so huge they spill onto side streets like this one. We browse a while then buy what we want for the day, which happens to be mostly strawberries this week. Les gariguettes, an early season variety, are tender and sweet and we can’t seem to get enough of them.  

After dropping everything at the apartment, we’re ready for a bit of wandering. We stroll rather than power walk, but we are definitely out and about every day, visiting our favorite spots.

We still love the verdant peace of Parc Charruyer . . . ↓

A stroll through the park can take us all the way to one of the beaches, Plage de la Concurrence, but we only stay if the breeze is not too brisk. Today we kept moving.

Tour de la Lanterne has been spiffed up since our last visit. It was covered in scaffolding by the time we left in October 2014, but is now practically gleaming. David is not quite up to climbing the towers, but we did that more than once the last time we were here.

There’s always something to see, no matter where we walk. Found this interesting little piece on the wall between Plage de la Concurrence and Tour de la Lanterne. ↓ 

Cours des Dames is still excellent for people-watching, so today David decided to stay there on a sunny bench while I went off to find a shop I’d heard about and to take a few more photos (below).

Sometime between noon and 1:00 everyday, we decide where we’ll have lunch. Today we chose the terrace at  Brasserie des Dames, right in the center of all the activity of le vieux port. Bliss, once the sun came out.

In some ways it feels like we just got here, but the reality is we’ve now been here a full week. Until today I haven’t even had my camera with me, partly because it has often been overcast or even raining a bit, but also because I kind of wanted to pretend to be a local. Of course if I speak, no one is fooled.

It turns out no matter how comfortable I felt speaking French with the taxi driver and defending our seats on the train, the reality is that my level of spoken French has slipped since last time we were here, even though my comprehension is better. Pascale and Jacky were too kind to mention it, being friends. Although I certainly consider Natacha a friend, too, she is also my tutor, so basically required to give me a realistic evaluation. Ouch. There went all my confidence for a few days. Bit of an overreaction, I know, but my emotions are a bit more fragile these days. Natacha is strict but encouraging, so I’m hopeful of regaining and even improving on my level of spoken French by the time we head back to the states at the end of May.

David is also sometimes discouraged, not about French, of course. He’s absolutely carefree about knowing just barely enough to be polite. But being back in a place where he had routinely walked four or five hours a day, the difference is hard to miss. The reality of lower energy levels and the uncertainly of the future sometimes weigh him down (and me along with him). But it is also reality that he is doing so much better than expected, and there’s hope in that for both of us.

There’s a bittersweet quality to being here in beautiful La Rochelle, the heart and starting point of our grand adventure. Memories are everywhere of a time when anything seemed possible. The reality, of course, is that no one knows the future. We have today. We have now. We have hope. And today, in the now, we have each other. We are so very grateful for that.

Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness. ∼Desmond Tutu

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. ∼Martin Luther King, Jr.

Wishing you hope and gratitude even in the midst of difficult reality.

We’re back in La Rochelle, first time since our long séjour in 2014. Planes, trains and automobiles were all involved, but we’re here at last. I can already tell I’m a bit more comfortable speaking French. I chatted with the Paris taxi driver most of the way from the airport to Gare Montparnasse, then dealt with an issue on the train without switching to English. When asked if I spoke French or English, I said “les deux” (both) and defended our right to our seats in French without hesitation.

What fun it was to walk out of the train station, to the familiar streets of this charming town . . .

Yesterday afternoon, we scrambled to get a few groceries to tide us over until Tuesday, since most shops close on Sundays, and Monday is a holiday in France, so we weren’t really able to take advantage of the warmth and sunshine–not to mention being nearly comatose from fatigue.

Today, Sunday, after an excellent night’s sleep, we were ready to reacquaint ourselves with one of our favorite places. Half a block from our apartment, the main central marché was open . . .

This marché is open every day, so we buy only what we need for the day or in this case two days, since I wasn’t sure about the holiday tomorrow.

The breeze was a bit brisk this morning and the sky was overcast, but it wasn’t too bad. Then the weather went a little crazy around noon, sending chairs and signs flying. Fortunately, we were already installed inside a port-side café by then, with pineau des Charentes and moules frites, so were able to watch the drama from l’intérieur.

Here’s le vieux port on sunnier days back in 2014.

The space got a bit cozy as more and more people sought shelter, but that created an air of camaraderie enough that we (well, mostly I, since it was in French) ended up chatting a bit with the people at the next table. (Remember the “next” table in France is often only 3 or 4 inches from your own.) It reminded me of Frederick Buechner’s comments about rainy days.

We lingered a bit over coffee and dessert, but finally ventured out to head back “home.” What a relief it is, having an apartment this time en plein centre ville (right in the center of town). Still David has done more walking in the past two days than he has in months, but he insists he’s doing well.

With the intermittent rain, we took advantage of les arcades . . .

. . . which covered us nearly all the way back to the apartment.

Tomorrow, we’ll see Pascale and Jacky, our companions in so many adventures. Can’t wait.

The more one does and sees and feels, the more one is able to do, and the more genuine may be one’s appreciation of fundamental things like home, and love, and understanding companionship.  Amelia Earhart

Wishing you congenial companions in both adversity and adventure!