寒 暗 朝

I have decided that having a “long day” doesn’t have to be synonymous with “bad day”. Call me John Silver; yesterday was long. Like listening to Wilhelm Furtwängler’s symphonic concerto in B minor. Like my middle-school math teacher’s eyebrow hairs. Like waiting for the ice cream truck to make it’s second rounds in Glamis, after you heard it’s song but miss the boat, taking just a second too long gettin’ that dollar from your grandma. It was long, but it wasn’t bad by any means.

The long day began with a cold dark morning in Normandy. After indulging in three presses of the snooze button, I arose at 06:30. I put on Ramsey Lewis and fixed some espresso with milk. France’s shelf stable milk is something one either loves or loathes. Admittedly it smells strange but then, so do my favorite cheeses so…? The dairy in France is unparalleled. The milk is shelf stable because it’s sterilized with ultra-high temperature processing (UHT), which supposedly kills enough bacteria to make it safe. If unopened, it can reportedly sit on a shelf for six to nine months. Really, it can sit anywhere!

Say it with me: MELK

Returning to the cold dark morning in Normandy– I sipped my café au lait and checked my calendar to review the day’s schedule (how civil!).

jeudi, 8 octobre 2015

7:00am – Walk up the hill to pick up girls from their father’s little manor.

8:08am – Catch southbound bus from Fortier to Théâtre des Arts.

8:30am – Drop off girls at école.

12:30pm – Bus to the université; two hours of class.

3:00pm – Bus back to Rouen city centre; bum around for 45 min. read, write, have a coffee, stare at people, etc.

3:45pm – Pick up girls, snack time (le goûter*), take the métro from Théâtre des Arts to Joffre-Mutualité (Love that name. Joffre! Joffre! Joffre!).

4:00pm – Flute lesson for one sister, English marble battles for the other two.

4:30pm and beyond – Métro back to city centre, walk home, playtime, homework, bath, set the table, clean up the bedrooms, dinner.

It all sounded fine, an average day really. Easy, in fact! No catechism, no cello, no ballet, no play dates, no school projects, no swim. But after I took the older two girls to their side of the school, I walked the youngest over to preschool. And what the hay?! The doors were locked. The lights were off. The preschool teachers had decided to go on strike for one day. Going on little strikes is in fact a national sport in France! The strikers stole my only free hours between 7am-10pm: the school day. So I ditched my French class and hung out with the littlest minion all dang day.

A couple hours later, I found out the girls’ previous au pair was coming to join us for dinner. She’s a nice Australian gal who lives in Rouen teaching English, with her French boyfriend who’s just earned his doctorate in dentistry. I was excited to see her, but having a guest for dinner always means a long, late dinner. The French love entertaining. It’s like an art.

After the day’s affairs, our petite dinner des femmes began. The girls’ former au pair brought over a box of sweets for dessert. Chocolate almond layered ganache, pistachio raspberry tart, mini lemon meringues and little shots of mousse with fruit on top. While the spinach quiche baked, the girls held for us a private screening of last summer’s grand ballet. It had over one-hundred ballerinas, starring the two of my three gals, and their mother. We sipped wine & nibbled on breadsticks and grape tomatoes. The wine actually a mistelle called Macvin du Jura from eastern France, where the girls’ grandparents live. It’s a sweet but light aperitif made with brandy and unfermented, mashed white grapes.

Excuse the blur, but this is a simulation of how the label is read after a chalice full of mistelle.

When the girls’ part in the ballet came on, they leaped from the sofa and twirled around showing off their moves. I asked something about the structure of a ballet shoe and the mother zoomed into her bedroom. She brought out a small pair of pale peach colored slippers from her childhood, and her current pair of ballet slippers. The toes were meticulously repaired with hundreds of little stitches by the girls’ grandmother. The three musketeers were quick to strap these slippers on their feet and resume twirling around the living room.

We had spinach quiche for dinner, then salad, followed by camembert and comté with a baguette, & lastly the tarts and mousse. After dinner the girls excused themselves to play in their bedrooms and the three of us ladies chatted about France’s two national sports: finagling maximum days off work and paying the very least taxes one can get away with. It was a lovely day and night, but quite long. I left the girls’ flat around 10:30pm and fell asleep almost immediately.

Now, it’s Friday. God bless ye merry gentleman! It’s Friday! Hopefully I can catch the last train out of Rouen tonight. If not, I’ll be Paris-bound first thing tomorrow morning. Oui!

*Le goûter is the a disciplined afternoon snack. It’s usually chocolate and baguette, or chocolate and cookies, or fruit confit. Always in lilliputian portions, mind you!