West Coast of France!

BONJOUR MON AMIS!

Sorry I haven’t written in my blog in the past two weeks, especially since the last tough E-mail, but I’ve been very busy and gone last weekend to the West Coast of France with Patrick, his lovely wife and daughter and Marina.

I am going to share a lot with you about this past weekend and let you know and see on my Picasa web album some very interesting things I saw, touched and experienced.

First of all, let me say that Patrick and Cathy were the most gracious hosts and I’m so thankful to have spent the weekend with them. They were so kind and thoughtful the entire weekend and took care of Marina and I in ways that made me think of how gracious I’ll be with my next guests. Patrick even delivered fresh chocolate croissants to Marina and me on Sunday morning LOL.

We left school on Friday and drove the two and a half hours to the coast. It’s on the Atlantic, so Patrick was kidding me about America being his neighbors LOL. The waves are much larger on this side however and I was surprised by that.

On the way there, Patrick and I were discussing me being away from Tom, family and friends and I explained to him that I’ve come to understand and accept that the pain doesn’t go away or even subside. Its there, will be there until the void is filled. He told me he couldn’t do what I’m doing and I smiled over this. This is the hardest part of this journey, but as I’ve said before, the sweetest pain to know there are people who incite this kind of pain in one. You realize just how much you love people and miss them in your everyday life. I also explained to Patrick how Tom and I have to do more open conversations and how that communication helps us to grow closer to each other and that’s another blessing. It warmed my heart that Patrick was thoughtful enough to even think of me being here without my family and to think of what that must be like and to admit he couldn’t do this was big, for me at least. I told him all of the other Americans before me had their family with them and that made me separate from them in so many ways.

We arrived Friday evening to meet the lovely Cathy. She’s naturally pretty and was so nice and we immediately felt comfort in her presence and started telling stories about school, our fun times, the laughter, the joking and kidding we do to relieve some of the intenseness of the class. Cathy understands English very well and it was great for Marina and me to be able to relate to someone who could understand what we were trying to say. There were only a few times, we had to find creative ways to express things so they could understand.

We had dinner at what they call “The Smurf Village”. They own a holiday chalet and Marina and I both got to stay in a private chalet for the weekend. I was staying in Patrick and Cathy’s place. It’s adorable and you’ll see pics on the web album. We had a great dinner.

The following day, we went to the beach and ate a great lunch at an outdoor café. Ate dinner at a restaurant and another great meal where we were serenaded by the choir of Mimizan. Turns out the French go into restaurants and when there’s a group of them like this, they constantly sing LOL. It was fun and loud. I’d say there were at least 40 of them.

Cathy was gracious enough to take us around town Saturday afternoon and while in one store, I heard this commotion going on outside, horns blowing, people yelling. I found Marina and we stood outside and watched this scene unfolding. In France, when they marry, they ride around town on motorcycles; this specific one was a three wheeler. The groom was up front and the bride in the back, with fabric flowing in the wind, riding around town parading themselves, attracting attention. This specific bride had tattoos all over her back and arms and we were laughing at this. We asked Cathy if she and Patrick did this ritual when they married and she laughed and said yes.

On Sunday, we ate this feast of froi gras, duck heart, duck something else, I can’t remember the name of LOL and roasted duck, with oysters fresh from the ocean as our appetizer. Cathy can cook!!!!! We ate for two hours and enjoyed the company of other neighbors and friends who came over. We also, got to spend some time with Audrey, their daughter. We had a good time, laughing and telling stories again.

Marina and I were told stories by Patrick all weekend of special interest to us. He told us on the way to Mimizan about his family being very old, older than the US and how they were royals and how he has documents and various things from his family. As the weekend unfolded, we found out more and more about this and I have to tell you that on Sunday morning, Marina and I were almost yelling at Patrick because in the closet right next to where I slept was a framed letter from Louis XIV. I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears when he brought this out of the closet, as well as a letter from the King of Poland with his stamp on the last page of the document, as well as a painting that is over 500 years old of Mary and Jesus painted on copper. He brought out swords and official documents to family members.

We were also introduced to books before books were bound, as well as very, very old books, which had personal notes written to family members. Turns out, Patrick is quite the collector of old books and admitted that a lot of them were worth a lot of money. Marina and I were constantly in awe and kept telling him these things should be in a museum or something. That these artifacts were too precious to keep in a closet. You’ll also see a pic of swords Patrick was showing us where they were engraved with all kinds of family information on them. The details on even the handles were astounding. They are more like fencing swords, and Patrick and his brother broke them playing as kids. Also, notice in the pic, the smaller sword Patrick is holding in his left hand. This small sword has the original leather piece to protect the knuckles on the hand for the one carrying this sword. I asked Patrick permission to photograph all these things so you could see history. I still can hardly believe I got to see one of Louis XIV’s original documents. This specific document is talking about a piece of property that was given to an Abbey where the monks lived and the King was requesting documentation of this gift. It was given in the year 1393. You’ll see signed Versailles, Louis XIV and at the bottom, is the Prime Minister’s signature as well. The document is signed on the 4th of May or March (translation was difficult because of the time period), in 1701.

We don’t know how Patrick’s family survived the murders that occurred so many years ago when people decided to kill off the royal families in France, but are thankful their blood line was preserved. Patrick is an Earle and his brother is a Barron because he’s the first born. Since France is democratic, these blood lines are not as important as they once were. This was such an amazing experience to get to see historical documents and artifacts such as these. Marina and I begged him to get these things appraised to see what they are worth.

We had a fabulous time and getting to experience some of France in this way was a gift. My kudos and thanks goes out to Cathy and Patrick who made these foreigners feel so welcomed!!!!

We also celebrated Marina's 40th BD this past week and Little Crevette invited us to a dance place her Mom loves to go to. We walked into Caesar's Palace (Vegas it WAS NOT LOL), and it was filled at 5:00 p.m. with 70 to 90 year olds dancing something like the polka, twirling around and around and around. We had great fun laughing and watching and me turning down old, old men to dance saying I was sorry, I didn't speak French ROFL. I was really scared I'd get dizzy trying to keep up with them LOL. I would say this in French and send them to Brigette and she would tell them in English, she didn't speak French ROFL. Too much fun!!!!

We moved into the new studio this weekend and it is magnificent. We are so thankful for this large of a space and it’s so nice. There will be three events coming up in the City of Le Passage for this new school/studio. There is a lighting ceremony of the sign happening this coming Tuesday evening, then an Open House and an Inauguration Event happening in January. A press guy is coming this Monday afternoon to talk to us students and get our input. I’ll have all of this on my blog.

Next weekend, I’m off to Paris in a famous school who is hosting an Open House. Michel is going to be signing his book published this year. I’ll get to meet famous artists and see illustrations of them doing their craft. I’ll also share details about this as well.

I’m doing well, am enjoying the experience of all of this, learning so much that I cannot write in words on this blog and growing. I’m so thankful for everything involved in this journey, for the love I see and feel from those of you at home who are keeping in touch, to the pain I experience, to the frustrations of not being able to communicate sometimes with the French. It’s all appreciated by me and I relish all of it. Not counting the wealth of information and training I'm receiving, as well as the blessing of spending so much quality time with Michel and Kyoko!!!

I’m also looking forward to the next two modules. We are finishing the wood graining and marbling this coming week and are working on a marquetry panel. I’m so thrilled about that and then we go into the trompe l’oeil where another Frenchman will join us and in January, an AMERICAN, YEAH, and a Japanese guy will join us as well, for the mural and landscaping module.

All is well here, thank you for taking the time to read my blog, for partaking in this experience with me in this regard. For those of you who are keeping in close contact, thank you and God bless you for the little gifts you give me each day and Tom, honey, what can I say, you are the most awesome and loving man in the world and I’m so honored to be your wife.

Take care and breathe in the moments, they pass too quickly . . . Tammy