La Sleepover

Frances says, "Today was the best day I have ever had."

The fun started at art class.

Frances was painting a caterpillar.

Clara was painting two marmots and red flowers.

And I was painting my violin.

We skipped toward home,

dropped off a dinner invitation to a sculptor we had met the day before,

gave our friends a quick tour of our apartment,

and then went up to the tower.

We played with clay and

Frances and Clara started making more and more and more escargot.

Dana made the snails' house--for all 13 of them.

Here is the video of clay time, as Daddy made dinner.

We ate caramels for dessert and played cards.

We taught them how to play spoons

and they taught us how to play their game, battaille.

It's pronounced Bat-eye.

Finally, after a great night, we yawned our way downstairs at 11.

No one brought any books to read, so we all read about french artists...

Clara had Matisse, Dana had Chagall, Frances had Degas, and I had Monet.

Good morning!

We played more cards in the morning.

You guys know this one!

Poisson dans le derriere

For the GRAND petite dejuner, GERMAN PANCAKES.

That morning, we were very antsy to get outside,

so we went to a little place just by our house,

and threw pebbles in the well,

climbed trees and walls and

ran funny obstacle courses in the street.

Then we played followed the leader. Dana was the leader this time.

My mom was buying her sprouts and taking pictures.

Les Petites Mains was sadly our departure location (or so we thought...)

Frances shared her dried flowers for today's art project.

She says, "I was nice." Yes she was.

This is our art project.

Patricia and Dana and Clara met us back at LPM for an organic INDIAN food lunch.

Here is my mom and Patricia.

She was telling Patricia about the dog and the bite and suddenly,

she looked to the table next to us

and at the very end of the table

a kind of toothless man sat there smoking.

THE DOG'S OWNER!!!!!!

She just couldn't believe it.

Patricia got up a few times to saunter past to get a better look at who it was.

After lunch, Clara invited us to go to her pottery class.

YES!

My mom says,

"When the kids romped off with Patricia for art in

St Quentin la Poterie, Jeff and I went to Vladi and Jana's house,

Czechs who moved to France."

"Homemade chantilly, strong coffee, conversation

in the only language we had in common:

French. Vladi talked about his favorite Italian moviemaker,

Jana about how much she misses her friends

(she's so lonely, it makes me ache for her--she wants to laugh and hug and LOVE!);

we even laughed at jokes...

all in French!"

"Vladi is an architect who collects art and designs all his furniture"

"Try to guess what this piece is. Jeff got it in 3 seconds. I did not.

Answer will be at the end of the entry.

Meanwhile, as mentioned above,

the kids played with clay, rode bikes on the dirt road

(WITHOUT HELMETS, WHOO-HOOO!),

played music on the piano which is placed in the enormous fireplace at Patricia's house.

Eleanore says, 'On the bikes we rode, there were little stickers that showed a red line through the head without a helmet and next to it a head with a helmet and no red line. We really obeyed those rules!'

At the end of our day, we picked up the girls and met Charlile and Carolin in Uzes.

Friends, friends and more friends."

Still from my mom:

Unabashed Nonsiquitur...

(I looked it up, I swear)

"The other day the Accordian Festival came to town."

"We pinky-danced in the streets with complete strangers to

this band's music.

It was traditional french accordian music."

"And then drove to St. Quentin to hear a 'World Music' accordian band that night.

The house was PACKED."

Who said the french were provincial?

They LOVED the creole band--

way more spice and groove than the traditionalists earlier in the day.

This band was incredible.

Here's a picture of the band...and...

after a video clip of its performance.

Here's the video:

"We just had to buy the CD.

After digging through every pocket of our pants and our backpack,

we ALMOST found the perfect amount of coins.

Exhausted by the search for centimes, this woman said,

'C'est bien, c'est bien!' and gave us the CD.

Phew!"

"Fitting that it was the accordian festival last week.
We have only a week-and-a-half left in this town we've come to love.
I feel like time is an accordian being squeeeeeeezed,
and while there are lots of beautiful sounds emenating from our last days,
it gives me a tight feeling."

Now, if you think that metaphor is hard-pressed,
wait 'till we go to the CHICK PEA festival next weekend!

Answer to above question:

Buns and legs.