Pen Pals

So, I'm not usually big on making friends on the internet. However, a couple of months ago I felt like I had hit a wall in my study of the French language. I had found quite a few resources online and obviously had a lot of opportunities to practice speaking, but was starting to get bored and lacked real feedback. Long story short, I found a post of a French woman online who was looking for an Anglophone to correspond with. She was 30 years old and mentioned wanting to write about subjects that I was interested in, such as literature, current events, and our cultures. The post was kind of old, but I figured I would give it a try since she seemed so perfect. I was thrilled when she, Aurélie, responded and we have been writing back and forth ever since, correcting each other’s emails. It turns out that we actually have a lot in common: we both have two young boys with our oldest ones being the same age, a shared disgust for George W. Bush (okay, well, us and most of the world), and a shared perplexity regarding the popularity of the Twilight series. It also so happens that we both live in the south of France, just 2 hours away from each other, what luck! She invited us over to her house in Jacou, right near Montpellier, and we had a great time with her, her husband Olivier, and her boys Titouan and Aubin.
We spent a morning at the "Amazonian forest" near their house. We enjoyed all sorts of jungle animals and the kids had a blast. Jonas' favorite were the monkeys; he shrieked in contest with them as they jumped through the trees. Maybe he would have preferred a monkey raising him.

Jaxon and Titouan on the "Adventurer's Bridge". They spent a whole lot of time right here, but it was amazingly difficult to get of picture of them standing even relatively still.

Just a "me and Jonas were there" picture...

A visit to the zoo.

Daniel showing off his bubble blowing skills. We had a lot of fun just hanging out in their backyard, something we don't take for granted anymore. They live in a very cute French town, a nice contrast to the urban environment that we are used to in Marseille!

Seriously, if we had a backyard we wouldn't even need a bedroom for Jaxon; he would definitely prefer to sleep in a sandbox. I love Titouan's smile in this picture; he humored me much more than Jaxon does for pictures.

We spent an afternoon in Aigues-Morte, a quaint French village surrounded by a wall built in the 12th century. Of course, ice cream was essential.

Hmmm, maybe we could have avoided some problems if Jaxon had had a cup rather than a cone.

These two boys had a whole lot of fun playing on this ancient wall. However, Jaxon was a little out of control... And one of their favorite parts? Collecting dry leaves. It is always amazing when they find something entertaining to do that isn't really mischievous...

Just enjoying ourselves

In addition, we enjoyed a whole lot of one of my very favorite French pastimes: eating! For those who have never experienced this, eating a French meal really is a pastime, an art. It is meticulous and it takes a lot of time. Although there are different variations that we have experienced, a French meal seems to include at least a main course, followed by cheese, followed by dessert, and there my be appetizers and drinks as part of the procession. One eats slowly (okay, so I always seem to be the slowest) and deliberately and before you know it, 2 or 3 hours or more have passed! I totally love it. Anyway, it was so fun eating with them and we had some new delicious discoveries: duck steaks, Petit Basque cheese with homemade cherry jam, and homemade foie gras with fresh figs. Amazing! I have no idea how to even try to follow this when they come to our place this fall.

Well, I guess good things can come from meeting people on the internet. Thanks for the great weekend, Aurélie and Olivier!