I'm Pretty Sure Big Adventures are Made Up of Little Ones

Who doesn't move to France when they have the chance?  We're going to live here in this cottage for a little while.  It's in the middle of France in a tiny village.  (I stole the pictures from the website.) It's going to be sunny and quiet and we shall have not a single care in the whole wide world except, what's for breakfast? and then, what's for lunch? and then, shall we go swimming, or just stroll through the countryside?  and then, what's for dinner?  

If I spoke French I could have translated all those questions into French for you.  But you know who does speak French, and has had an awful lot of practice doing it lately?   My lifetime travel buddy.  Lucky, I know.

So much has been happening in the past week I don't even know what to think or where to even start thinking.  So rather than do my own (impossible) reflecting, as we sat in the cottage at midnight I told my travel companions (Marc, sister Meredith, and friend Ryan) to say what news they had from our past couple weeks in England and France and I would type it.   And here's what I got: 

Meredith: Every cathedral we've been in has had an organ playing in it! 

Marc: we were craving home-baked goods and comforted ourselves with the thought of Michelle baking us some when we get there [to Boston, our new home in a few weeks]. 

Meredith: the old lady at the boulangerie had a beard

Ryan: I drew some cool pictures

Marc: Chartres en Lumiere (lights festival) (Ryan interrupts): it was cool

Marc: oooohhhhhhhh creperie (everyone together, interrupting each other) ooooooo!  mmmmmm blew our brains out of our noses and onto our plates! which did not affect the quality of our crepes they were that good.   Sausage.  ham.  gruyere cheese.  egg.  mushrooms, mushrooms, mushrooms!  golden raisins and walnuts.  ratatoille! --yours was almost as good as ours. --it was like ten notches down. --no way! maybe two.  

Ryan: London, in two hours. 

Meredith: National gallery in twenty minutes

Marc: raaaaiiiiiny London. (Meredith and Ryan) rain, rain, rain

Ryan: scary Cadbury Chocolate World ride. 

Meredith: all of us carrying at least three HEAVY suitcases in London

Ryan: sneaking bags of trash around town trying to find garbage cans to fit them in

Ryan: Ryan killing it on Settlers of Catan

Meredith: Ryan killing THE CAR five times in a row

Ryan: I've never seen so many bunnies

Meredith: the lady who ran the camp ground and her six kids that followed her around

Marc: the way Ryan can flip a thingie up off the table and catch it

All three: oh! our circus show  -- our three ring circus show that we put on for you.  (this was a show they practiced for a good hour while I was out running and when I came home they had a whole music-accompanied circus routine involving throwing a roll of tape, catching marshmallows in mouths, and juggling tennis balls)  

Ryan: lots of Twenty Questions and variations thereof

(pause) 

Ryan: hedgehog.

Marc: (gasp!) a kingfisher! (screams like a girl)

Ryan: make sure you put down "Marc screams like a girl"

Ryan: um, Joan of Arc stuff in Orleans. 

Marc: sweet stained glass personality show slide show thing

Ryan: she's typing that, Marc, she's typing it all! Marc: no, no! 

Ryan: oh hey, I got a root canal.  

Marc: not being able to fit all our luggage in a standard car and having to get a minivan.  

Marc: pulling over on the side of the road because we had to wait for all the cycle racers to fly by.

And that's what we've been doing.  Glad you could spend this midnight with us remembering the little adventures of these past weeks.  Now back to wondering what's for dinner/breakfast/snack/elevensies...