Sharing Uzes

For two weeks, we shared Uzes with our grandparents.
Whenever I wanted to go out to get a pastry,
my grandma was always willing to go with me.  

And whenever Frances wanted to play cards
my grandpa immediately sat down on the couch and said,"Frances, bring over the cards!" Frances always beats everyone in cards but my grandpa has the highest card house!
3 STOREYS HIGH!

We went on good walks while it was sunny...

But one night, while it was pouring, we all read aloud a page of the book we were reading

Frances's book was Puppy Place Scout.

Daddy's book was The Moral Animal. I didn't understand a word.

My grandma read Shadow of the Wind.

I read from Lily's Crossing about a girl in New York during WWII

My grandpa read an article from Scientific American about how things smell and taste better with certain sounds. I caught a few words, but I didn't understand much.

My mom read the next chapter of Pictures of Hollis Woods.

Her other book is the New York Times on the internet...

and the book Daddy stole from her.

Pretty much the only other day that was sunny, we went to the Medieval Gardens.

My dad says, "In the middle of Uzes, in the place where two castles used to be, is a walled open space they've turned into the Medieval Gardens."

There were frescos ...

...and fountains...

...and contemporary art in a domed room...with this really amazing echo sound.

We tried singing long, low notes for a few minutes until some other people walked in. I was so embarrassed. It was like a choir until these old folks walked in.

...and photographs of the town. Throughout the years, parts of this town has been destroyed by fire and has crumbled from age.

Above is the Place aux Herbes, just 70 meters from our apartment. To find our building, look to the right hand corner of the photo. Follow that street (you can barely see a street between the buildings) up until you get to a the first open space. Kind of a triangle shape. Our building is the one up and to the right of the cars.

And in the Gardens, there are Medieval carvings...

...and thrones for Ladies...like me and my grandma...

...and, of course, plants...
healing and poisonous...

Speaking of healing, I had another herb class. I taught about lavender.

Lavender heals cuts and bug bites and calms the nerves...except for my grandma's nerves...she's allergic. She had to keep going to the window to breathe fresh air.

We made lavender tea, too.

Frances and my grandma and I made clay figures. The fun spread to Alice when her family came over for dinner. She added to our collection...

We had appetizers and a good dinner...and good music!

Marc loved my grandparents so much that he came over with croissants Sunday

for one more chat. My grandparents felt so lucky to have met him and his family.

Speaking of music...
Marc invited us to go to hear one of his former students play piano. He's 20 years old and trying to get into a conservatory in Paris. He practices from 5 to 8 hours a day. We weren't the only ones at his parents's house to listen. There were about twenty other guests, all of his closest friends and family members.

Meeting everyone in the garden (which was round!)

One of the pianos. There were two face to face in this home.

The home, by the way, was a renovated sheep barn.

Getting ready for the concert.

Everyone gave Frances and me front row seats!
Frances videotaped the whole thing.

Camille thanking everyone for coming...

Camille's mother is a wonderful gardner and lover of all things. Camille's father is the premier authority (in the WORLD) on the Aztec language.

Frances says, "I just loved it. I loved his emotion. He kept rocking forward and backward. His hands were like dancers at a ballet. My favorite piece was the last really long one. I love lots of melodies happening at the same time."

Below, see

Camille sharing his repertoire...
this is part of his first piece by Bach...

One day, we went to Avignon and toured the Pope's Palace.
Our tour guides were giant telephones!

My dad says, "I had no idea that the Popes ever lived in France. It was a crazy political time in the Catholic church. 

This is the chimney in the kitchen! It was like 60 or 70 feet high at least! My dad says, "When one Pope was elected they had a block party...'Hi, I'm Joan; I live down the street. I made some jello and came to welcome you to the neighborhood.'"  

Really, there wasn't any jello. But the feast was crazy big. 

In the 1400s they served 95,000 baguettes and 1200 oxen, 5000 chickens.

Hanging out after the Palace and before the drive home to dinner and bed... 

Frances says, "I slept with Baba and Gaga all the days. We put the 2 beds together so it was bigger than a king! Baba read to me at night. And after counting to 10 seconds, Gaga was snoring his head off. But he was the one who got up with me at 7 in the morning. We went upstairs and made ourselves some hot chocolate."

(we made this rock art with real flower petals)

We drank a lot of hot things. Tea, coffee, hot chocolate.

Most of our days were rainy.

On those days,

we played music together,

we listened to Mommy read,

I re-introduced my grandparents to the game of Solitaire.

We made art. We cooked meals. We talked.

One rainy day, my grandpa found the May 8 celebration in Uzes.

"May 8th is Victory in Europe Day, memorializing May 8, 1945, the date when the World War II Allies formally accepted the unconditional surrender of the armed forces of Nazi Germany." (Wikipedia)

My mom says, "One Saturday, about a month ago,

Eleanore was walking beside me through the market, patiently waiting for the older people to walk s-l-o-w-l-y to their favorite vendors.

Eleanore said,

'Mommy, when I see all these old people,

I picture them in World War II and I think so much about what they went through.'

I think about that, too. It's hard not to think about the world wars here and the grief.

There are monuments in every village to "les enfants."

These small villages lost the children they were raising.  

But many lived...and these were honored in Uzes on May 8."

Another rainy day, we were supposed to have a party

at my friend Clara's house. But because of the rain, we moved it to the house of the WEREWOLF party (remember?) and after playing two games of that, a few of us went into the other room and played

Pictionary...in FRENCH!

Sharing Uzes felt great. 

We got to share with my grandparents what we see and feel every day. 

Frances says, "It was too short.  Now it feels like it didn't happen.

The beds look awkward now."

Thank you for coming all this way to be with us!

Goodnight. Eleanore