FRANCE!!!!

10 OCTOBER -- Friday

OUR CAST OF CHARACTERS FOR THIS AMAZING WEEKEND:
(L-R) Craig, Marcia, Geoffrey, Corentin, Bruno, Edouard, Beatrice, Dee, Allan & Susan.

Carrie and I arrived on The Night Train to Paris, where we took the train to Laval, where Edouard (18) and his family resides.

Okay, this is going to be a long weekend and you need some background information here. My son Craig and his wife Marcia hosted two foreign-exchange students a couple of years ago - Tatsuhiko, from Japan and Edouard, from France. Eddie told us that he wanted everybody to come to France to celebrate when he turned 18 (in France, turning 18 is a BIG, BIG deal). When I received my invitation a few months ago I enquired if Carrie could join the party and they said "yes!" In addition, Allan and Susan, Craig & Marcia's neighbors, were invited. Whenever Eddie (conveniently) forgot his key he would drop in and Susan always had soup on the stove or cookies in the oven, and they, too, became friends of Eddie.

Interestingly enough, Craig, Marcia, Allan and Susan were on the same train from Paris. We hadn't planned that - they had arrived in Paris the day before; however, upon our arrival in Laval I saw no familiar faces at the station. Neither our hosts or the four of them were in sight. Earlier I had told Carrie that Craig was tall and bald, and after we had waited several minutes outside the front of the station, wondering where everyone was, she said "there's a tall, bald guy over in the parking lot waving at us."

With the four of them was Beatrice, Edouard's mother, who hugged and kissed us so warmly and loaded us up in her family's company van. After we arrive at the family's beautiful home we are greeted by Beatrice's husband, Bruno, who was in the midst of gardening and lawn chores. We are then shown to our rooms. The three sons in the household - Edouard, Geoffrey and Corentin - had all moved into an upstairs room together. Carrie was given Corentin's room, I was given Geoffrey's room, and up on the third floor Craig and Marcia were directed to Eddie's room, while Allan and Susan were given the guest room.

In addition to personally planning each and every detail of the up-coming party for 80 people on Saturday night here was Beatrice, hosting six house guests and planning and overseeing our itinerary for the weekend! She is an amazing woman, full of vitality, humor, and generosity of spirit.

After we were shown to our rooms, we came down to the kitchen where Manou (a woman who has been with Beatrice's mother since Beatrice was a child and is now helping Beatrice's family) had prepared hors doerves which we ate, along with champagne, and Beatrice announced that she was going to take us to see Mont Saint Michel. She said that, while the Eiffel Tower was the number one most-visited place, Mont Saint Michel was the second most-visited place in Europe.