Thursday, August 10, 2006

Soiree at La Maison Du Stress

Ok, well, a friend of mine has been sending me some beautiful pictures that she's been taking while she's in Germany and they're stirring up the days that we spent in France.

I'm almost to the very best part of this experience but first have one tale left to tell.

La Grande Soiree....yes, my French was and is still most horrid so have a chuckle or two as you read my poor spelling!!!!

Since things were quite tense among all the band members, it was difficult to arrange for a party and decide on what we should do. After all, we had never hosted a party at our house and since our food selection was so limited to those American things we decided that perhaps an American theme was the way to go. And we hoped that we could pull things off.

Barbecued chicken and potato salad. This was the best I could come up with. I know there was more but it was a very long time ago! So, we planned, invited, and went to get the fixin's that we were going to need. But there was something that threw a wrench into our plans. Well, a couple of things actually but this first was definately a foreign one. Charcoal and lighter fluid. They had charcoal alright but it was more like compressed peices of wood. It was really light and didn't burn very long. Lighter fluid? Well, I don't know if we even bothered.

The other wrench was the singer and his girlfriend. The rest of us in the house had already gone to the store and purchased a ton of food for this party and it wasn't cheap. We had expected maybe 50 people? So, shortly before the day of the party, they decided that they were going to make Mexican food as well! Not that that would have been a huge deal except that when we asked for their input, they pretty much shrugged us off and offered nothing, not even to help with what was finally decided upon.

So I was not a happy camper nor were the others but we made the best of what was to be.

People arrived, the party was kickin' but the grill just would not get hot enough to cook the chicken so it took even longer than forever to cook. However, it was a huge hit as were the tacos and the potato salad.

After everyone ate, we all just lazed around the yard and on the porch and talked. We discussed our departure that was to take place in less than a month and that we were unable to get to see Paris. I was very sad about this. All that way and not much to show for it except those things that were in my memory.

However, that morbid feeling was soon to be eased by our friends of L'Ermitage. It just so happened that LouAnn and Coleire lived in an apartment in the middle of Paris during the week. They worked in the city and traveled to the house on the weekends. They offered to have Pat, the kids and myself stay there for 3 days so we could go and tour the city.

We were so overjoyed and grateful that I think that I shed a tear. Actually, I shed many tears in the last four weeks of our stay but that's just besides the point.

All I know is we had to wait for a week or two before we could go stay there and I was beside myself with impatience.

So, on that note, the next leg of our journey is yet to come....stay tuned

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