Thursday, July 9

Reflections on the trip to Switzerland and Germany

It was too hot. Basel, which everyone says is great, was not as great as it would have been. The Van Gogh exhibit was good. The cathedral was interesting. Being able to sit on the banks of the Rhine in Switzerland and see both Germany and France under the bridge was neat. It was too hot, and I lost Lukas’s key to their flat. Admittedly, these hot spells are generally brief, BUT…

Marburg was great. And it rained awhile and cooled off.

Tubingen, however you spell it (there’s an umlaut over the ‘u’) was pretty good, and we ate fairly well.

We spent too much time on trains. And too many of them were too hot (notwithstanding the fact that we were in first class all the way…)

I’m glad to be back in France. The plumbing emergency is fixed, although the soaked wall needs repair as do some other plumbing issues. And the washing machine needs fixing, as does the oven, I guess. It doesn’t work, but the cooktop works and we have a microwave, so it’s not a disaster.

It cooled off here, too.

Martin is not here yet. His plane from Cincinnati to Boston was late (weather), and then there was a “mechanical problem” on the plane they re-scheduled him on, so it left about 1:30 a.m. instead of 10:30 p.m. It is now at CDG and they had to evacuate the place and quit unloading the plane because of a “security issue”, e.g., a bomb threat. He still has to (a) collect his bag, (b) organize a new train to Bordeaux and (c) get on it and get there. I will feel much better when I can actually look at him.

I went to the market this morning (always Thursdays in Lalinde), bought some food, including old fashioned pain de champagne, made by these people in Molieres (have probably already mentioned them) who grow their own wheat, etc. Do it all from scratch. Also some butter and crème fraiche out of tubs. Some kitchen towels not unlike the ones we pay dearly for at Mulberry & Lime in Lexington, but 7 euros each. Then I went to the supermarket and bought yet more cheese and a few other things, AND they had ICE CUBES. I now have a semi-unlimited supply of good iced tea, so I should be much nicer.

I am seriously losing the battle of the spider webs. We were gone only a week, and yet it’s like a plague. We also need more bookcase space. This seems to be a perpetual problem, wherever I am. There are always more books than there is space for them. Can’t figure out why.

Have I mentioned that I will feel much better when I can look at Martin?

Later…it’s 3:30 in the afternoon, he’s still at CDG where they have lost his luggage. He is evidently managing nicely to deal with that ordeal. Now he has to deal with the trains. AAAAARGGGHH…

Rather much later…we got back from the Bordeaux main train station (Gare St. Jean) with Martin in tow about 12:45 a.m., or 0:45 here. The train station, which we were actually in yesterday, but didn’t really see any of it, is (a) enormous, (b) gorgeous, (c) in a dreadful part of the city with “adult” shows and cops all over the place, and (d) without parking as they are doing all these road works all over the place. It was interesting. We parked up on a sort of sidewalk. Illegally, of course, but the car was there when we came back for it. But hey, we’re back home in Couze.

Martin was distressed about taking a shower, because he has no luggage, and I allowed as how we’ll go buy him some new underwear tomorrow. They told him it’ll take AT LEAST 48 hours to recover his suitcase and get it to the Bordeaux airport (gad, yet another drive to Bordeaux…maybe we’ll hit IKEA on the way back…). They are not interested in delivering it here to the cottage in Couze. Welcome to air travel in the 21^st century.

MAYBE I’ll manage to upload some photos tomorrow. I’m waiting for things to calm down.

Lillie