I arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris at about 10am on September 23rd after a very long flight (I have an extraordinary inability to sleep in airplanes) where Fixou (Francios Xavier) picked me up. Somewhere along the highway the imitation chicken/pasta dinner that was served on the airplane decided that it didn't feel like being digested and used my esophagus as an emergency exit on the side of the road. Needless to say, I could have imagined a much less disgusting beginning, though it did break the ice in a very weird way. Luckily, Fixou is one of the nicest people on the planet and, far from making the situation even more awkward, gave me a bottle of water and told me to try to sleep. When we finally got to the house, I quickly met Berengere (his wife) and Marin (one of their children) before they insisted that I take a shower and a nap.
I woke up at 10:30 the next morning. Luckily, sleeping for fourteen hours straight seemed to have cured me of the majority of jet lag.
Very quickly I want to describe my room, so no one at home thinks I'm living in a dungeon or something. It is true that I live in what is technically the basement, but the house is built on a hill, so my room is actually ground level, as is the floor above it. I have my own room (which Berengere decorated with wall stickers, picture frames, a chest of drawers, coat hanger, and pretty much anything else I could possibly need). My window looks onto the lower part of a yard which has yet to be developed, so it's mostly a little field with a row of very tall hedges at the border. At night if I sleep with the window open I can hear the ocean. Outside my room is a door that opens onto the yard which is what Berengere calls my private entrance. Across the hall is what will be my private bathroom when their office moves to a new building on Wednesday. The office will become my little salon. Moving on...
Berengere and Fixou are, quite possibly, the nicest people I've ever met. The morning I regained consciousness Berengere showed me around the house and told me that I was part of their family now, so I should feel free use anything in the house and raid the fridge whenever I like. They've also drawn up a schedule for me: I "work" Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Tuesdays, Thursdays, and weekends (unless notified in advance) are mine. Therefore, Berengere is trying to get me to join different groups around town to meet new people and make my own friends (a choir, animal rights groups, etc... I think I'm going to take yoga instead). I try to help out around the house as much as I can, but they insist that they do the majority of it themselves.
The other night Berengere's friend from university, Sophie, and her husband, Fabien, came to visit. We had apertifs on the terrace, watched the sun set, listened to the ocean, and hung out until about 2 in the morning. When I asked if I was being intrusive on their time with friends, Berengere insisted that I stay and be with them as I was part of the family and welcome whenever I wanted. I'd compare her to a really cool aunt (though not as cool as mine, of course). Essentially, I think I've been hired as an older sister to the boys who has discipline power and as an assistant to Berengere whenever she needs me.
I hit the jackpot!
Yesterday, Berengere, Sophie, Marin, Leandre and I went to Granville to walk around the old city. The way towns work in this part of France is kind of like series of suburbs, you'll be driving through Jullouville and then you're in St. Pere, and then in Granville, which is the biggest town around here. The old city is very high up and surrounded by a wall that served as protection in the middle ages. You walk around it now and everything looks onto the ocean. It's really to beautiful to try to explain so I've posted pictures of everything below.
As for the kids (you know, the official reason I'm here) there are the two I've mentioned: Marin (three and a half) and Leandre (15 months). Marin is a handful but is also very sweet. When he likes me he calls me "ma copine!" (my friend!) and when he's angry with me I'm "mechante!" (mean!). Mind you, my status changes every five minutes. He loves to play hide and seek in the back yard (though there's only one place to hide), play in the dirt, and hit balls around with raquets. Berengere was an au pair in upstate New York. Apparently durring her orientation the one thing that was drilled in her skull by the agency was "don't shake the baby!" so now when Marin or Leandre are getting too much to handle we look at each other and go "don't shake the baby!" and we feel better. Leandre's nickname is baby glue. He's a huge mama's boy, but is slowly getting used to me.
Last night I met up with the other au pair, Danielle, from Canada. She's 19 and trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life (same situation as me, only before college). She seems quite nice, and knows things to do around here so I think we'll be hanging out quite a bit. Today (in the middle of writing this actually) the big sister of the little girl she takes care of who happens to work for Berengere and Fixou came upstairs and took me for a quick drive around the town so I can start to actually orient myself. She and Danielle hang out quite a bit and she seems very cool. I asked what people do for fun around here and she promised to take me to the popular bars and things this weekend with Danielle. Yay, friends!
Honestly, I do not really remember what I've done on individual days, so here are the highlights from the past week or so in no particular order.
1. The beach is a five minute walk away. It's gorgeous. I sat on a rock for two hours and read a book. P.S. The Shadow of the Wind is really beautiful read.
2. I have to learn how to drive a stick shift. My first try, the car felt like it was having a seizure and then died. Great.
3. We've decided that French is to be spoken at all times except for Wednesdays when everyone speaks English (except to Leandre, the 15 month old who barely understands French). This means that my brain hurts a lot, but I think I'm slowly getting better.
4. French reality TV is hilarious though I try not to show it. It's probably that reality TV itself is ridiculous, but not really understanding what's going on only highlights how stupid the concepts are.
Photos!
This is my beach. Apparently in the summer you can get these car like things with sails and drive around the beach at low tide. These are the first two kids to arrive for a lesson. I watched for about half an hour as maybe 10 kids and an instructor zoomed around.
My beach again, you can barely see it, but that speck in the middle is a horse drawn chariot (not kidding). In the summer there's a big race, but for now in the fall you just see a few every now and then. Gorgeous.
This is the view from Granville.That's all for now! I need to take a shower and go get Marin from school.
Love,
Kate
