Travels with The Rayman

Well.  This was it.  Our last day.  Overcast.  France was weeping and sad because we were leaving.  Right.

The day was really fun because we met our new french friends for some visiting and settle up a few things.   So here we are!!!

Rachid (dad)is looking serious.  He has a great sense of humor as does the whole family.  We had a great time together and decided we would keep in touch!!

When they left we headed to our hotel and waited for our friend, Gary and Flo, to arrive from the U.S.  They are just starting their great adventure.  We planned to stay in the same hotel and go to dinner.  They arrived and needed some quiet time.  This gave me an opening to drag Ray to Printemps (I know I am spelling this wrong, sorry.)  It’s a huge department store.  Blocks and blocks.  So we were duly impressed.  And while they were very upscale, I was able to find two scarves to buy!!!  And we had a bite of lunch and watched all the beautiful people prance around the store.  The most amazing thing is that there was a line to buy Givency (I think that was it) purses.  There were about 20 people in queue just to get into the store.  What gave?  Who knows?  Another Parisian mystery.

To find this store was an exercise in patience.   When you emerge from an undisclosed unground location (read Metro), you have no idea where you are in relationship to were you are going.  At least that was the way it was for us.  So at my urging, we asked for directions in a tobacco/lotto/bar because we had gone in to buy a calling card (good move!).  They told us to go up the hill.  When not finding this store, I asked two women on the street.  They looked at me like I was speaking swahili (why does that happen to me all the time?).  Third time was a charm.  Got those directions.   In Paris, it is not so easy.  It’s a huge city.  Lots of people in a rush.  When you visit Paris, you do not visit France.  It’s all together different than the rest of our trip.

But I digress.  We found our way back to the hotel and we all went to a seafood restaurant for dinner.  This did entail some more getting lost but this time we had friends to lead astray.  And we forgot the name of the restaurant.  I knew it started with Le.  Big help.  But we searched and searched and found it and we were happy we did.  It was fabulous.  This was a recommendation from Kris’s (a friend from Lincoln) bother and sister-in-law.  They own Hayes Street Grill, a famous fish restaurant in San Francisco so I knew ahead of time it was going to be a winner.   We are pictured below enjoying a bottle of wine at a sidewalk cafe before dinner at Le …….

See my new scarf?   Below is Flo’s red snapper.  The guys got salmon.

I forgot to take a picture of mine.  And I didn’t take pictures of the first course.  However, I did snap a picture of our last dessert in Paris, first for friends…of course.  And look at our last picture!!  Voila!!

And the trip came to a close except for one thing.  I locked my jewelry in a safe in the room.  This is all the jewelry I brought and never wore, except my fun watches.  Well, couldn’t get the safe open.  Tried and tried.  To no avail.  Finally at 10:30 p.m. went down stairs and got the secret code.  It took one more trip down and a few, “gosh darn it” and “fiddlesticks” to get it open.  We tucked ourselves in after 11.  Had a taxi coming at 4 a.m. so we needed our beauty sleep.  And that was our trip to France!!!

 

Well, here we are.  Rain, rain, go away.  Come again another day.

Yesterday was sort of boring!!  The tower Eiffel, the Champs Elysees.  Ho hum.

I’m pretty sure we walked about 10 miles yesterday.  We also conquered the metro.  We think it helps to be rested and well planned.

The other big event was going to the Charles De Gaulle airport.  We met our new french friends there to return the car.  It was great to see them and meet one of their daughters.  She had been in Rhode Island ahead of CA visit, so we missed her when they first arrived to the U.S.  To show you how stylish the french women are, Martine (mom) bought a pair of red cowboy boots after having gone to the rodeo at the Mid-State Fair in Paso Robles!!  They were beautiful.  Their daughter bought a brown pair as well.

We made sure they got to experience the “Jackson Effect”.  When we arrived at the airport, we had no idea what terminal they were arriving in because the french airport people did not post which airline was assigned at which terminal.   In order to find out, we deduced that we had to ask.  In order to ask, we parked in free 10 minute parking across a roadway from terminal two.  Luckily, they were arriving in terminal two.  Oh, I digress.  In order to get the 10 minutes of free parking, you had to get a ticket.  When you leave the parking, you put the ticket in and they give you your ticket back as the arm swings up.  After leaving that free parking, we then found our way to the short term parking which required a separate ticket.  I dropped that ticket on the floor.

When we went to leave, we needed the ticket to pay the parking.  The ticket wouldn’t work at the machine.  So Ray and Rachid went to the car to look for another ticket.  They came back with it and it wouldn’t work.  So, off we all went (7 of us) to find the another ticket.    About this time, I’m feeling very old and inadequate.  What they must be thinking.  Something along the line of perhaps, “and we let them use our car for a month?  and our house?”.    Well, it turns out that one of the tickets was from the car park earlier in the day.  One ticket was from the 10 minute parking and the last ticket was THE TICKET.      Mystery solved.  Jackson’s totally embarrassed.  However, we all got a chuckle out of it, except I think their chuckles included a bit of nervous twitter as well.  So they all piled in and drove away.  We walked half way back to Paris looking for the train station and took the train in.  We had an 8:30 dinner reservation at a charming , small restaurant and dragged ourselves in at 9, perfectly willing to grovel for a table.

At dinner we sat next to a British couple and had a great conversation about how the government is allowing the banks to borrow from the Fed at 0%, making beaucoup bucks, but then withholding loans for small business.  And the same bankers that had to be bailed out are still in their jobs etc.  They said the same thing was happening in England and they were very concerned for their children.  The rest of the conversation revolved about golf and food and wine!!!  Fun dinner.

The rain doesn’t stop anyone here.  They are thinking it’s summer and wearing all manner of shoes.  Flip flops were on many feet.  I had on my Eccos and after about mile 8, my feet were hurting.  So even though showers are predicted again today (I was too tired to write last nite), I’m wearing sandals without socks.  It’s my only alternative.

Regarding scarves.  The french are known for their scarves, both femmes y hommes (women and men).  Returning from France without a scarf or two seemed, well, sinful.  So, we went on a mission for a scarf or two.  First stop was Au Bon Marche, the fabulous Parisian store designed by Eiffel, of Eiffel Tower fame.  The least expensive scarf we found was 200 euro.  Bottom line, I’m without a scarf.  The only thing in that store that we could afford was lunch and that is where we ate.  Espresso and the view while lunching.

The store and their button library.  Never seen a button library before.  Below see Ray and his new femme ami (lady friend).

Then it was on to Champs Elysees.

We came across this in the Renault showroom.  Wow.  Very impressive.

This is the one seater on the right (above) and pictures of our tiny room below.

Finally, the starter for dinner.  Baked camembert with almonds and honey.  And the salad.  I took pity on Ray for ordering so much cheese and helped him eat it.

The other picture is our waiter trying to retrieve something from on high.  It illustrates that the only thing smaller than our room is the restaurant.  Also, isn’t he cute?

We didn’t get back to hotel until almost midnight.  Then my work began.  I had to try and fix a problem of paying our credit card bill on-line.  I tried to pay it on 8/4 and that’s when things went wrong.  And ever since then when I’ve had access, I’ve tried to fix things.  Well, now I was down to the wire.  The bill is due on 8/18 and last night it was  8/16.  We called from de Gaulle and tried to get things done.  But Murphy’s law struck.  So, we sat in the lobby and tried to get things done because it was on 2:30 p.m. in the states.  We didn’t get a reply so went to bed exhausted and frustrated with the wired world.  I woke up at 3:30 a.m. in Paris with another idea.  I pursued it until I ran up against another brick wall.  And at 4:30 a.m. I finally gave up.

Ah, the pleasures of travel.

I’m not sure where to start.

Have you ever had that kind of day, where you get back home and don’t even know where to start your description of the day?  Well, it’s like that.

Perhaps I’ll start at the end and work backward.  Why not?

We’re in our room and Ray is watching soccer while I do my thing.  So relaxing.  But a few minutes ago we were down on the street, walking in a steady downpour of rain.  Ray was soaked…at least he was wetter than I was because of karma.  Earlier, when we arrived at hotel in Paris, the nice young woman at the front desk checked us in and assigned us to room 403.  Ray, as he always does, insisted that we get everything out of the car, which was parked half on the sidewalk and half off.  So that’s what we did.  Well, the elevator didn’t hold all of it because half the elevator was filled with?  linens?  towels?  whatever it was it was in a heap and it took up half the space.  Did I mention that the elevator was very, very small?  So Ray took up some of our “stuff” and I waited in the lobby.  About 5 minutes later he came back and proclaimed that he could not get the lock to work.  So the nice young woman  behind the desk scurried up the stairs (she didn’t wait for the elevator).  Well, Ray decided to take the elevator.  So a few minutes later, she came down and said, “where is your husband?”.  I informed her that he just took the elevator (ascenseur) up.  So she ran back up the stairs.  Well, Ray came back down in the elevator.  Finally, she came down and announced that the lock worked.  So they both went up.  A few minutes later, she came down and was panic stricken.  The door did open but someone else had the room.  Luckily they weren’t there.  Ray came back down and we took the elevator with the rest of our loot to room 304, rather than room 403.  Getting lost is rubbing off on everyone.

So, I’m not saying our room is small, but the charging cord for computer goes 3/4 of the width of the room!!  Alas, that is really not a problem because our big window opens to a boxed shaped interior exterior that does not face the street so we’re happy.

Next bridge to cross was that we needed to park the car.  The hotel does not have parking but they have an arrangement with a car park down the street several blocks.  So we jumped in the car and looked for the car park.  It was closed.  Two women were trying to get inside.  I think their problem was worse than ours.  We couldn’t get in.  They couldn’t get out.  We went around the block several times and it kept being closed.  So we returned to the lobby and the nice young women behind the desk informed us the car park was never closed.  She had no solution.  So I said that we ought to just take the car to the airport and park it there and take public transportation back.  Ray said okay.  We had two paraplouies (umbrellas) with us.  I wanted to take both.  Ray only wanted one.  There was a “discussion”.  He won.  We only took one umbrella.  We got in the car to drive to the airport and Ray suggested we just park on the street over night and park in a car park in the morning.  We need to be at the airport tomorrow night (Monday) to pick up our new french friends who are returning from our house at 1835 or 6:35 p.m.  Okay.  We’ll do that.  We parked on the street and retreated to our room to figure out where to eat.

We found a place, got a reservation for 7:30 and killed time watching the world championship petanque tourney on TV.  A very interesting french game.  I sent a picture earlier.  Anyway, we left for the restaurant.  I had the only umbrella and he had his golf jacket and baseball cap.  Well.  That’s how he got soaked.

Okay.  Dinner.  The place was tiny.  We arrived and were the first people there.  By the time we left, it was packed.  Ray order gazpacho with goat cheese and arugula on the side.  I ordered a carpaccio of artichoke with three little pieces of pork tenderloin.  He won the first round.  We always compete to see who can order the best thing.  Second round, he ordered salmon with cucumber salad that had shelled mussels and other things.  I ordered cod with fois gras and julianne of various veggies.  I won.  And I don’t even like fois gras.  But the combination was sublime.  Sometimes you take a leap and it works out.  That was one of those occasions.

So, this morning we cleaned and washed sheets and towels, etc.  We left at high noon in the rain.  And darn it.  It rained all day and it’s still raining.  We had lunch (1/2 sandwich each)  while sitting in the car because there were so many people at the gas station restaurant, there were no places to sit inside.  And we drove to Paris and found the hotel without much incident!!!!!  But you know the rest of the story.  It was a day of yings and yangs.  And we’re in Paris!!!  Even saw the tip of the eiffel tower lit up in the rain tonight.  Fabulous.

The pictures.  Starting at the top, I took this while we were waiting in line for gas (diesel, of course).  The picture illustrates what the french people do when they go on vacation in a small car.  While in line, grandpa got out of the car.  He was sitting in the back seat.  He came back about 5 minutes later and got in the car.  Then he got out of the car, opened the front door, and let the dog out.  He walked the dog and came back and installed both himself and the dog in the car.  Then junior got out.  He went into the gas station.  About five more minutes and he came back.  The teenage daughter was in and out of the car many times.  Lots of energy there.  By this time, they were one car from the pump (about 30 minutes, I’d guess) and dad got out of the car and went inside.  Of course, then, the line moved so mom had to get out of car and get in the driver’s seat and pump the gas.  So, not only did you have five people in the car, but you also had the dog (30 pounds at least) and all that stuff hanging off the car.  What a hoot.  But they don’t own a gas guzzler and they do get by.  The french have these little baby open trailers that they hook on to their small cars to carry extra stuff.  You see them everywhere.  That’s how they solve the space issues of the small car (along with the roof top storage and the bike racks).  When you are around town, you take the little trailer off.  When you go on vacation, you hook it up.  Oh, you also hook it up to take yard trimmings to the dump etc.  Pretty smart.

Dessert our last night in La Ferte.  The local pastisserie produced this!!!

An example of signs (unlit at night) that dot the roadways.

Where we ate last night before everyone showed up to be with us!!

A street light.  They have a good system.  In order to see the color of the light, you have to stay behind the line.  And you cannot see what the other lights going in the opposite direction are doing….so getting a jump on a light is tres dificile (very difficult).

It’s now the next day.  Couldn’t get a good wi-fi signal.  So, I putting the finishing touches on yesterdays happenings before going down to the lobby to transmit.  It works fine down there.  Ray is the shower.  The shower is the smallest shower we’ve ever seen.  I dropped the soap and, well, let’s just say when you drop the soap you have two choices.  Stop the shower, get out, pick up the soap, and start over again.  Or contort yourself in such a way that you may need to go to physical therapy when you return home to work out the kinks.   I contorted.

More later!!

 

 

Here’s the local meat market.  It competes with two supermarches in town and it is doing quite well.  We needed two pieces of bacon for a quiche I intended to do for dinner tonight.  So off we went.  While we were there, I took some pictures so you too could see la boucherie!!

I took the picture of some of the workers while waiting in queue.  It’s very interesting.  Every one gets in line as they enter the shop.  There is no number system.  There are no ropes.  Every one just knows that it is the polite thing to do and they do it.  Very impressive.  Anyway, I told Ray one of these guys was going to get stuck waiting on us.  The butchers take turns waiting on people.  Anyway,  our brave butcher arrived and somehow we conveyed that we wanted deux pieces of bacon.  As he was ringing us up, he and one of his co-workers came up to us over the counter and started speaking francais very quickly.  It somehow involved the camera.  I offered to take a picture.  They waved me off.  I offered them the camera.  They waved me off.  Finally, I brought up the picture I had taken of them…bingo.  That’s what they wanted.  They were delighted that they could see their picture.  So I took another!!  And they posed!!!

Besides meat, pig hooves or ears, veal head…you could purchase all kinds of other things which is pictured above.

Fun place to go.  We loved this place and will miss it.

Then we walked down to the boulangerie and bought a baguette (finally found out how to spell).  In francais I said, “Nous allons demain pour nous maison.” (We go home tomorrow)   She had no earthly idea what I said.  Ray started a sentence but got stymied at the word “leave”.  I flapped my arms.  I think she thinks we’re looking for bird houses.  Who knows!!

I took a picture of dessert for tonite but haven’t imported it into the computer.  I’ll feature it in the Paris blog entry.

You all are probably wondering if I spend hours doing this.  And you are thinking, ‘why don’t they go see something if she has all that spare time?’.

Well, all TV channels in France are in francais.  So, even if I wanted to watch TV to brush up on my francais, I would only be able to take so much of not knowing what is going on.  Ray watched part of Gulliver’s Travels with O’toole and Danson the other nite.  Dubbed, of course.  I, on the other hand, wrote in my blog!!

I will report, though, that we haven’t missed TV much.  An observation.  Their news is adult-like.  No talking head stuff.  But they remind me of CNN in that they run a Headline News type show on several channels.  We only get about 12 channels so can’t speak to all of TV.

Funny conversation.  The first nite in Thorny Brasseries, the other visiting couple from Ireland were discussing TV.  They asked if we watched The Wire on HBO.  We said no.  He said it was a fabulous show and as a result of watching it he really wanted to visit Baltimore.  Who knew?  The Chamber of Commerce of Baltimore might want to underwrite re-runs!!  Too funny!!  We sure had fun with them.  Great couple.

Okay, what else?   The rest of the yesterday’s free time was used up cleaning house.  And while I was dusting the tile floor, I moved a chair, apparently grabbed a leaf of a fairly large plant, and the plant (planted in a terra cotta pot) took a dive.  So then it was off to the quincaillerie (hardware store) to buy a new pot.  Took a piece of the old one in case we needed to “communicate”.  No problems.  OH, and the other thing we did was try to plan our assault on Paris.  We reserved a taxi for Wednesdays trip to the airport at 4:15 in the morning (ugh).  We verified that our hotel in Paris has no parking.  And we located a few places we want to go on the map.

Our friends Bob and Linda Brownson loaned us their Paris Michelin map which they swear by.  We have deduced that they are much smarter than we are because they used it effortlessly.  Well, we’ll see.  More to come!!

Oh, the other city we “nick named” was Vierzon.  We called it Verizon.   It’s nearby and we saw it all the time on the signs and it was just easier to say.  We laughed every time we did it.  Fun stuff.

 

I forgot to mention health care so I’ll do it now.  Back to Thorny Brassiers.  Sele, our innkeeper, had the need for a gall bladder removal four weeks ago.  They have officially lived in France a year.  They bought Le Presbytere four years ago.  They still own their home in Ireland.  Anyway, I digress.

She had to have surgery.  There were scans.  Tests.  The operation.  Martin was afraid.  Very afraid.  Not of the surgery…afraid of  the bill.  They don’t have French insurance but they do have  a card from Ireland that identifies them as someone with health insurance.  They pay not a dime in supplementals here or there.  Anyway, he went to the billing office at the time of discharge and found that he owed 127 euro.  The french woman behind the desk apologized about the bill.  Case closed.  Viva le difference!!

Oh, and Martin said an interesting thing over breakfast.  “You really are quite isolated over there in America, aren’t you?”  After reflecting, I think he is right.  We have friends whose daughter lives in France right across the border to Belgium.  Her son grew up in France and decided to go to university in Rhode Island, I think.  Anyway, he came back to Europe because the food made him sick and he missed the cultural diversity in the northeast.  We really are isolated.  Just never realized it as much as now.

I’m making a conscious decision to not have my blood work done for a year.  After consuming about 60 pounds of cheese with Paris to go, I don’t dare.

French children are taken everywhere including restaurants where they behave beautifully.  They speak quietly as do the adults.  We even witnessed a 9 year old garcon (boy) eating a bowl of mussels.  That’s a first.  Anyway, the children of this country are very well behaved.  It does not go without notice.  And so it is with the dogs.  They are also very well behaved.  They don’t bark, they don’t bite.  They don’t jump up and down on you or try to hump your legs.  They are fabulous.  No wonder they are allowed everywhere.   We haven’t minded seeing them in restaurants or national monuments or anywhere else for that matter.  I want a dog.  But Ray tells me I must settle for a gold fish.

Today, I got my cheveuz coupe (hair cut).  I opted not to get coleur as I was unsure of my francais.  It ended well.  Came home.  Took a nap.  Cooked dinner.  Am having rhubarb crumble for dessert (from the boulangerie).  And we ate the last of that fabulous chocolat!!!  The best chocolate that has ever passed my lips.

Also today, did the laundry and hung it out to dry.  Amazing how unwrinkled it is.  And listened to the start of  the next Stieg Larrson book.  Ray also relaxed.  It was a day of rest.

No pictures.  However, I have been recording some french TV.  The sports announcers at one event wore pink shirts!!!  It was fabulous.  And I’ve got it on tape!!  I will not bore you with it…if you ever come over, I can show you on TV!!

See you manana!!  or demain in francais.  Samedi is Saturday in francais.  Sadly  it our last day at our base camp.  We clean up and pack tomorrow and then head for Paris on demanche (Sunday).  We have a lot of places we plan to see there.  And scarves to buy.  I’ve been totally restrained this trip.  So far.

he rest of the trip goes like this.  We leave Sunday for Paris.  We pick up our french friends at the airport Monday.  We see the Bartells, our friends from Los Osos who fly to Paris, on Tuesday.  And Wednesday morning at 6:30 we leave France.

We can’t believe it’s been a month.  And we are very sad to go.  Having said that, we must get home in time to pack for our trip to Oregon with our crazy golf friends!!!   We leave for that extravaganza on Sept. 25th!!!  We’ll probably will be suffering from jet lag.  An, the built in excuse for a rusty game!!!

We will squeeze in a few things at home.  Some golf, a gourmet dinner party, and pay our DMV tax.  Then off again!!!

Here are some other pictures from the other camera for your viewing enjoyment.

A painted wall in Thorny Brassiers.  The bridge.  We think the architect designed the sundial bridge in Redding.

An interesting car.  What is it?  And the cliffs over Millau as taken from the bridge (pont).

 

When the bells woke us up, we were just glad to be there!!  Ray scurried down and moved the car as it parked it in an awkward spot.

It’s hard walking downstairs with your tail between your legs.  But we managed.  Our hosts were quite forgiving.  It seems that the man with the young, engaged woman was staying there for 10 days.  But they hadn’t seen him yesterday.  They think he came in at 4 a.m. but it was 10 and he had not made his presence known.  When we left to go back to base camp, he still had not appeared but we weren’t too concerned about that because we had other fish to fry.  Our host didn’t take credit cards and we didn’t have enough euro left to pay him cash.  Not to worry.  He gave us a bill and his back info and we would electronically transfer money to him.  So gracious.

We had breakfast out on the terrace to start with a great Irish couple that had arrived in our long, long absence.  She had been on the “telie” (TV) and was quite well known in Ireland.  Her husband apparently was an “unknown” since we didn’t know at all his background.  Anyway, a fabulous visit over croissants, poached apricots with fresh white peaches and nectarines, bread, coffee etc.  Mid-meal we had to move in to the house as a light rain started.  It was, however, warm and wonderful.

Martin was a man of many talents.  He and his wife had owned a restaurant in Ireland.  She had been a school teacher and he cooked at the restaurant.  In conversation with the Irish TV host and her husband, we discovered that he does some radio.  Apparently he does a program with an Irish station.  And he talks about his adventures of living in France.  The TV host’s mere (husband) was Michael.  She Marion.  They own a place in the south of France and spend a good deal of time here.  Anyway, they had to have their place re-wired when they bought it and someone gave him the advice to mark exactly where the switches for lights should be located.  If he didn’t, his switches would be down lower than he would like because all the men of their village were short and they located the switches where they would like them to be, which of course, would be lower than normal and stooping to turn on the lights would be a drag.  We all agreed that it sounds like the french don’t have building codes…or if they do, they don’t follow them.

The building we were in was called Le Presbytere because it was across the street from the church and the nuns lived there.  So, it was very, very old.  Much renovation was required.  That is the way it is here.  The old ancient places look old on the outside but they are quite modern on the inside.  It is very cool.

I wondered how the Irish folks were accepted by the locals.  Apparently just fine.  They both speak francais which is a huge help.  When I came down for dinner the first night, a neighbor was in the kitchen window (that was located above the kitchen sink) chatting up a storm.  Quite lovely, really.

It is quite interesting that the french had the foresight to install such big windows everywhere.  No small rectangular windows anywhere.  If there is an available large wall, you will find french doors or very large windows that open out from the middle.  Lovely again.

Shutters are ubiquitous and are used for insulation and security.  Most windows have soft, wispy fabric that you see through but that provides privacy.  Okay, so that’s the scoop.

The bridge that I’m posing in front of is fabulous and new.  Going through the mountains was a wonderful experience.  There are fabulous old french villages located mostly on knolls or hill tops throughout the region.  We left and took a different way home so as to see more countryside and we are so glad that we did.

This bridge was located by Millau.  Quite a fete of engineering.  We had to walk up a very big hill to get these shots.  So worth it.  It cost 8 euro to cross the bridge.

And the top of each “pole” has lights on it to protect it from aircraft I suppose.  As you look to the left, there were para-gliders jumping from cliffs.  Too far away to photograph.  It was all together beautiful.

Above is a village, blurred because the picture was taken thru the windshield.  The other picture is a motorist that surely filled up with the wrong kind of gas.  And the truck looked just like the truck that picked us up.  Ugh.  Then a movie to show you the condition of the road, the feel of the speed.  Plus this is how we spent a large amount of our time.  In the car.  Below, another little snippet.

Another thing.  Look at how smooth their roads are.  All the major highways are in excellent condition.  No potholes, no seams where they dug something up after the road was laid and then patched.  And clean.  No litter anywhere.  And you did notice the sky I hope.  The clouds of  France are stunning.

I know I haven’t taken many pictures of bridges but there are bridges everywhere.  It cannot be overstated.  I’d love to know the count.

For those of you that have been to France, I hope this isn’t boring.  We just love it and wanted to share the pictures.

Anyway, we arrived back in La Ferte and were glad to be back.  After aperitifs, walked to dinner, came home and retired.  Much to do tomorrow.  Remember, I am getting my hair done in francais!!  If it’s orange when I return, it’s only because I mispronounced something important!!