This post, one of the last for 2025 is a compendium of several days activities. Maintaining chronological order is sometimes a challenge but here goes.
Any post is lackluster if it does not incorporate at least one balloon photo so this is no exception.
What made tonight's viewing even more significant was sharing the experience with someone even more enthusiastic. Our house has two units so we have had a steady stream of downstairs neighbors. The most recent was Denny, a 31 year old Brit traveling on her own for a few days to escape family life back home.
She lives in a small hamlet between London and Cambridge which has a balloon operation right out her back door. So seeing this spectacle was an every day occurrence while growing up.
She is divorced and single mother of two young children. So ensnaring her ex to watch the kids was a coup. We invited her up for a glass of wine which turned into a whole bottle that she consumed on her own. Her stories were vast so a quick indulgence turned into a three hour visit. She was not shy about sharing her life story and we were a captive audience. Suffice it to say that no subject was overlooked, especially her infatuation with American politics in which she responded to each aspect with "That's Crazy" As said before observing the chaos in America is a obsessive spectator sport outside our borders rivaling soccer, rugby, and even cricket. It was an interesting evening as we matched her drinking with wine and G&T's of our own. France is wonderful to experience but pales by comparison to the people we meet.
Sunrise comes late in this time zone but never disappoints. We managed to sneak in a shortish ride since we knew that dinner out would sneak up on us after our obligatory nap and shower. On the way back we stopped in Daglan for coffee with Thom and Mel.
Our last dinner out was with Natasha and Tony, our up the hill friends. And in the French tradition we were joined by Dasha, their chienne (the female version of dog). We ate at this restaurant before with Darlene and Shaun but this time Kim ordered the sliced duck breast which was the best she has ever had. After three hours it was time to bid farewell, but not goodbye since we will stop by their place on Tuesday before we leave.
For Monday we planned our last ride but that was not to be. The fog was so thick we could not even see the bridge until our planned departure time came and went. Oh well, not that we have not had so many glorious rides we did not want to ruin these experiences with a freezing ride just for the fun of it. Before diving into the chores we invited Thom and Mel to stop by for coffee and goodies. This was a fantastic trip down memory lane. They wanted to hear how we stumbled on our Africa period so we started with our first trip on 1993 with the girls covering every chapter through our last year of volunteering in 2008. As each story surfaced it jogged our memory of the times and places we have not recalled for a long time. What fun it was for us and hopefully not too tedious for them. We ended the get together with a plan to reunite in Sonoma in May, 2026 when they will be in the Bay Area for their daughter's graduation from San Francisco State. Hope they can fit it into their travel schedule.
Of course as we packed up the bikes and bags the fog cleared and the sun made it's appearance. At least it was not raining. In the future we may have to alter our schedule to rides later in the day rather than suffer the foggy cold.
To cap off our day of packing our host Sandrine and Franck decided to come by for a departing array of pate goodies and drink. Franck's English is good but Sandrine's is a work in progress. Since so many of their guests are English speakers she is working hard to improve her communications. Communicating through WhatsApp and the AirBNB site is easy using the translation functions. I am thinking of getting a pair of the recent Apple iPods which also provide real time translation in addition to their hearing assists. Will bring them next year to allow her to follow the conversation without an intermediator to translate.
