The People of L'Ermitage

After a few days of sleep and settling in it was time for the girls and I to go meet the wonderful people of L'Ermitage. This was the name of their 'hunting shack'.

It was very difficult for us to get around in France. We had no vehicles. That would prove to make things quite interesting.

The manager of Bluex, whom I neglected to speak of in the details of the band just happened to be from the L'Ermitage homestead. Actually, I'm not really sure if he lived there or not but it seemed as though he did because he was always there. His name was Pierre. He smoked like a fiend, loved to drink Scotch and water, and always looked as though he just rolled out of bed. His hair was always sticking up.

Pierre is the one who came to pick us up. Thank God Pat was going to be going. Pat was terribly excited. These people had become his family. I was nervous because I was told that their English was not very good and I have never been very good at meeting new people. It's something that causes me great anxiety. Not sure why.

We crammed into Pierre's wee car, the girls and I stuffed in the back all crunched together and off we went. It was really the first opportunity that I got to look around at our surroundings. It was beautiful. I can't pinpoint any one thing that caught my attention except for the uniqueness of the chateaus. So much masonry and so square. And many of them had stone fences around the perimeter. Few possessed the typical peaked roof. And just in looking around, it looked like a foreign country. (duh)

It took us what seemed like an hour to get to L'Ermitage. Winding roads through trees and not much more. Finally we arrived. Again, a stone fence surrounded three sides of the place and two black iron gates used up the fourth side. Behind the gates stood L'Ermitage. It really didn't look as large as Pat had made it sound. It had a big nameplate over the door with the name of the chateau and another building off to the left.

It took me awhile to adjust to the look of the places around France. Certainly they were beautiful and not something that one would see all that often in Minnesota. But in walking up to this place I wondered what was so special about this chateau. It was a square looking brick place that didn't seem to have anything to offer except for angles and absolute squareness. Huh, what a fool I was.

We entered the home and immediately the girls and I were embraced, kissed on both cheeks by a flurry of people. To this day, I honestly don't remember who it was that I met that day, just a bunch of hugs, French words, and kisses, tears and smiles. I was really taken aback by all the kisses. It was explained to me soon after that the custom was to greet people with a kiss on both cheeks. Call me uneducated or simply just naive but back home, this sort of affection was very rare among family and friends. Hugs maybe but not nearly as warm as those received throughout our stay in France.

You see, I am not much of a history buff and never really got into research before this trip. I am not really into customs of other people either. I respect their customs, oh yes, but am only intrigued when it affects me. We are all different and those differences I like to keep a surprise until I get to know another.

Anyway, I will never get the spelling of the names correct but this family, gosh, what a great family. They all lived in the same chateau. Grown, married children with kids. For sure I remember meeting Natelle, the man of the house, Patrova, the lady of the house, and Beja, a son in law and artist. Such odd names for my native tongue. They laughed at me a lot because of my inability to pronounce words and names. Then there was Laina, daughter-in-law whom was married to Beja and they had a 9-yr. old daughter Nej. Beautiful, beautiful women. And Nej, I can only imagine how she must look now. She was a ballerina. Great at it too. Then there were LouAnn, son-in-law and Colleire who had a three year old, Millesonde who was just a little doll.

Then there was Pierre but I'm not sure where he fit in. Owen and Swaney, both women visited often. Then there was a doctor whose name I can never remember, Paul Louie who was a comic and looked like the dark haired singer in the band Hall and Oats and his wife and their precious little girl, and Elan whom we rented the house from, man, so many people. Now these are not just people that we met in passing, these are the 'family' of L'Ermitage. And I am sure there are some that I am missing here.

However, I will get back to that. The actual family of L'Ermitage, Natelle, Patrova, Laina, Beja, Nej, LouAnn, Colleire, and Millesond, they inhabited the chateau. Natelle and Beja were comic book creators, adult comic books. There was a second building on the property that was their art studio. It wouldn't be until later that I would get to see inside their studio though. Laina, she was an artist and she did just breathtaking work. Very mysterious, and very full of feeling. I would look at her work and I could feel the pain of the subject. LouAnn and Colleire lived in Paris during the week, I'm not too sure what they did. They would come to L'Ermitage every weekend for the weekend parties. And what great parties they were...not your typical kegger. No, these were special and some of the most memorable things about France. Then there was Nej, oh, sweet little Nej. Shy, long long hair, and man could that girl dance. And she adored our little girls.

This family was very artistic, obviously. But in more than just what I have written in this entry. But now that I have sorta introduced the family of L'Ermitage I can move on.

But one other thing before I end this post. The Chateau? It had 3 levels to it, 6 or 7 fireplaces, stone floors, and 8-9 bedrooms. And "The Blue Room" was haunted by 'Grandmama'.