The Tortoise and Easter Hare

Daddy:

We all know the story of the Tortoise and the Hare. In the US, we have the tradition of the Easter Bunny. In France, to celebrate our slower life, we have adopted the Easter Tortoise as our pagen mascot. Even though there was no rain, the easter egg hunt was postponed for better day.

We celebrated the day with the owners of our apartment at their house in Blausac. Sophie, Benedikt, Gaspar, and Leonore served a feast of calamari salad, poached salmon, steamed potatoes and carrots, and of course the obligatory after-dinner cheese plate and a wild Russian dessert that was like a vanilla cheese cake pudding. Carolyn said she could have eaten the whole bowl of it.

Here's the bowl of it.

Frances:

My first best thing today was when we walked on ropes today, hanging onto another rope above our head. We walked and walked and it ended up at this net and then we took a zipline to the ground. It felt like I could fly because I just sat in my harness in mid-air. I liked the highest one the best.

My second best thing today was cracking the chocolate egg open. A couple days ago, I saw an egg in a chocolate store that was the size of a football. And it was a milk chocolate egg that had different colored buttons on it. I asked my mom if I could get it. She asked the lady and she said, "It's not for sale. Someone already bought that." I really wanted to get it, so I hugged my mom. When I walked into Sophie's house I saw that SHE was the one who bought that egg. I was so happy. The prizes inside the egg were tiny chocolate eggs.

Sophie and Benedikt's house is full of colorful art

We brought chocolate covered olives for champagne. So good!

Carolyn

Of course, my favorite part of the day was the long (4 hour) lunch and the conversations throughout. We did it all! We quoted Monty Python, talked of Obama and the importance of Supreme Court appointments (they didn't know about the Supreme Court's influence on our country). We talked about Green Building and family histories. Sophie and Benedikt want to build a green home in Uzes and were interested to hear about our experience building a green home in Truckee. Sophie's family is like mine: Russian-Polish Jew. Her family left Russia's pograms for China and ended up in New York. Mine missed the China step.

We analyzed cultural differences, for example, how the US culture is consumer-based and French culture is worker-based. Both are trying to create a quality of life. Our culture with our ability to buy anything anyday. Their culture by forcing everyone to take a time out by not working in the middle of the day or on several days per week. As Jeff says with a french accent, "You do not have to buy a television today...You could have bought it yesterday or you can buy it tomorrow." Not everything has to be open every day at all times for our convenience. It's okay if things are closed.

We tried to rent bikes today for our trip to another village tomorrow,

but, alas, they were CLOSED. And they're closed tomorrow. We'll walk instead.

We also talked about how France would probably fall to the consumer-culture too. Sophie brought up the way the French care for their dying. Like Americans, they place their elderly and dying population in "homes." She then used India as an example of a country and culture that she felt had a better relatioship with death and aging: generations live in the same home and "have the ability to die at home," as she put it.

I suggested that our "consumer culture" might have something to do with our refusal as a culture to bring our dying "closer to home." I picture the cultural psyche saying, "It's MY life; I'm consuming it the way I want. I do not have time to deal with the dying. I have only time to do what I want when I want to do it."

Finally on the subject, Sophie said she hoped that because of India's strong traditions, it would never become more western in its view of family. Jeff maintained it was only a matter of time. That it, indeed, would change. He cited mobility. As India becomes more mobile with cars, children will move away from villages and their parents and the disconnect will begin. She said, "I hope not." I asked her why. Why does she hope not? I just really wanted to know why she thought India remaining the same mattered to us.

What would Wisdom "Personified" Say?

We decided there were two answers. 1. We Westerners don't want the responsibility for or the guilt of knowing our consumer-culture destroyed such a long-standing culture. 2. We hope that the Indian way of incorporating death and dying into their life (a kind of intimacy we don't have right now) might reach us again and give us back what we've lost.

Phew. Big stuff.

Anyway, great conversations. And their garden! Wow!

Contemporary concrete furniture everywhere. Take a look:

This is a table with bowls "built-in"

Concrete chairs

Eleanore:

I liked the ropes course the best today. The course was in the Duke's Park, on the hill above the park we always go to. There were many local kids. To warm up, I went on the lower traverse. Then I stood in line for the big one. I climbed up a ladder ten feet into the air and clipped my carabiners into the upper rope. I shinnied along, holding the upper rope and when I got to a corner, I would unclip and then clip into the next rope. I continued this at all the corners until finally I went on the first zipline. I zipped to the other tree about 20 feet away and then clipped onto a net and climbed my way to the other end where I went on the BIG zipline to the end.

I love the feeling of being up above the ground...and I like being a bit scared for the ziplines.

Being with Leonore was fun. After our 4-course lunch she led us up to her bedroom and we played three games. Frances says, "we played her whole DRESSER of games!"

Getting the balance thing DOWN*

Don't even have to mention the how symbolic this photo is for me!

Eleanore and Jeff ran out to the Place aux Herbs hoping to get pictures of the ceramic show trying to protect itself from the rain. But the rain stopped as quickly as it came:

The leaves are coming soon!!!

Footage: Tortoise showing us how to slow down: