I got a late start this morning. Though I woke up
at 9h30, I didn't get out of bed until 10h30. I put my clothes in the wash for
once and had breakfast. On the kitchen table was some cash and a note to grab
some groceries.
When the washing machine had finished its cycle I
threw my clothes in a bag and headed to town. I had Jacob meet me at my car so
he could help me carry the mountain of clothes to the laverie. When we arrived,
Mark and Will were there waiting for us. I combined the clothes into one
machine and put it on the hottest cycle for about 40 minutes. Since the clothes
had some time to dry the three of us headed to centre ville for some lunch.
Jacob had been craving a panini so we decided to
go to Paninaix. This place was pretty awesome! For 5.50 euro I got a delicious
tomato/fresh mozzarella panini and 50 cl beer. Besides the fact that the
employees understood our broken french and spoke english, there were super
sweet 90's music videos playing on the tele--most notably: "Truly, Madly,
Deeply" by Savage Garden which the guys were too young to remember. Ha haha.
After lunch, we headed to Mark's so he could grab
his books. We still had time to kill so we hung out on his balcony. It was such
a nice day to be outside! I made the huge mistake of wearing a long cardigan,
scarf, and boots. That's the french style for you though--modest. Everyone is
always in a cardigan and/or scarf even if it's hot out. Rarely will you see a
bare shoulder--even in the summer apparently.
Around 14h40 Mark and Will headed to class while
Jacob and I headed back to the Cours Sextius to check on my laundry. It still
wasn't dry yet so we made the short trek to Pavillon Vendome so that Jacob
could get the chance to see something besides markets and cafés in Aix. We went
to the papeterie afterward so I could send a few faxes.
At this point all of the clothes were dry so I
packed them back up and headed home while Jacob went back to his hotel room to
read about algorithms. It was about 16h30 and I didn't want to go home alone so
I grabbed Gregoire from the creche. I didn't have to pick him up until 17h30
but Wednesdays are long for him so I decided to make his day a bit more
eventful.
As soon as we got home Gregoire asked for a bon
bon. I said no and asked him if he wanted a sandwich instead. Surprisingly, he
said yes! I threw together two pieces of a multi-grain bread with a cheese
spread, ham, and dijon mayo and cut it into little triangles. I walked up to
Gregoire with the plate and he delightfully picked a piece up in each hand and
ate it. I wonder what Super Nanny would think of that.
I had a few hours before everyone would be
getting home so I opened all of the doors to let some fresh air in and went to
the other side of the house to iron some clothes. Gregoire mostly played by
himself and with the dog during this time. He couldn't see me, but I was able
to keep an eye on him. He tried to get away with a lot of things like climbing
a tree before he realized I was watching him. I think me saying "get
down" out of nowhere would be a hint. Kids aren't stupid. He eventually
came inside and watched the Wild Thornberry's while I was ironing.
The rest of the family arrived around 19h00,
minus Camille who is currently on a field trip. Didier called me down to the
kitchen to notify me that he added me to his car insurance. He also mentioned
that he spoke to his agent about adding me to his home insurance policy. I've
never heard of this being done for an au pair before but I guess if it helps
him sleep at night then there's obviously no issue on my part.
I went back to ironing but a few minutes later
Didier came to retrieve me from the family room. Our conversation:
DIDIER: "Melinda, come downstairs. I've
opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate."
ME: "Okay. What are we celebrating?"
DIDIER: "Everything! You becoming a part of
our family...Life...Céline...The kids...Your glass is ready."
ME: "What a great philosophy...Those are
perfect reasons to celebrate!"
And down I went :-)
Tonight for dinner we had the rest of my risotto,
peas, and fish sticks--Baptiste's favorite. Nothing glamorous like the norm but
Wow...I really enjoyed those fish sticks...I got kind of nostalgic. It brought
back memories of being a kid. Plus, they were made with real fish so they were
perfectly enjoyable. Once we finished eating Didier broke out a bottle of red
wine. This one was more special than those we've had in the past because it
came from a vineyard Didier previously owned. The wine was made from syrah
grapes--one of my favorite varietals. It was exceptional! It had had time to
age so it presented a lot of good complexities. For a medium bodied wine, it
had full fruit/tobacco flavor with rich color and a delicate berry nose. I
would drink it every day.
I'm not sure if my host parents were drunk or if
they're just extremely comfortable around me but they started talking about
"getting it on." It wasn't a gross conversation by any means. It was
actually pretty cute. I'm so happy that I'm with two people that are actually
in love. Céline wants to have more children. I guess 4 biological children and
5 step-children are just not enough ;-) She's a great mom though. She kind of
reminds me of Michelle Duggar with how involved she is in her kids' lives,
except she works outside of the home too.
I left the parentals around midnight-ish to go to
Lydia's. As soon as I got in the door there was a knock behind me. I opened it
and it was a guy complaining about us being too loud. Apparently he does it all
the time. But seriously, the girls weren't even speaking at a normal volume
since Maggie was sleeping. It must've been me running up the stairs. The
neighbor looked so uptight like he got no enjoyment out of life...He probably
just needs to get laid. Good luck dude!!!
Jen, Sara, Danielle, Lydia, Jacob, and I walked
around a bit to find a chill bar. After seeing that most places were closed, we
went back to a bar we avoided earlier because it was a complete sausage-fest.
Jen and Danielle left us since they had an early morning ahead. The rest of us
had one drink and headed home. I dropped Jacob off at his hotel and Sara and I
continued on. When we pulled up to the roundabout at La Rotunde we were stopped
by police. Merde!!! It was a checkpoint. I didn't think these occured outside
of the U.S. but I guess it's a good thing. I really didn't know what the cop
was saying but when she held out the breathalizer I just blew. She showed it to
her supervisor and waved goodbye to us. It was kind of cute.
I eventually got Sara home. My 5 minute drive could
have been a 30 minute walk for her. I would never make someone walk home alone
that far and that late unless I was drunk.
When I got home tonight I was surprised when I
saw a lizard on the kitchen floor. I thought it was one of Gregoire's toys at
first. I turned around to find something to trap it in and when I went to look
for it again, it was gone. I searched all over the kitchen until going back to
the origin. There it was, only about a foot from where I first saw it,
perfectly camouflaged against the stairs. I grabbed a piece of tupperware and a
sheet of paper and caught it. I put the lizard in a fish bowl with a make-shift
lid which I poked holes in. I left it on the table with a note for my family.
Hopefully when I see them for breakfast in the morning they won't think I'm a
complete weirdo!!!
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