I am back at long last to continue my trip saga for those of you who have been nice enough (and patient enough) to read it...Merignac and Bordeaux: Day 6
I wish I could say that all of those days were spent in more exciting ways than they actually were. My cousin and her husband left Wednesday morning for a much desired break in the beautiful Pyrenees, leaving us to watch their adorable 16 month old son. We took Henrik to the park in the morning so that he wouldn't see his parents leave (a very upsetting thing for one so young), and the hope was that when we returned, he would just not notice that his mom and dad were gone. The day started out very cloudy and a little chill was in the air when we set out for the park. By the time we were heading back to the house, a light drizzle had started. When we let Henrik out of his stroller, he went running around the house for a minute looking for his mom. We distracted him with some milk and play, then fed him lunch and put him down for a nap. Now it was raining and cold. I searched all over the house for a blanket and couldn't find one. I finally found some linens in my room, so grabbing a sheet and a baby blanket not in use, I wrapped up as best as I could. Who would've ever thought that I could be cold in July? I am ashamed to say that I am a weather wimp, and when we went out shopping later that day, I wore a long sleeved shirt under a cotton summer vest. Yes, it was strange, even for France. But I was comfortable all day...
We took the tram into downtown Bordeaux to do some shopping. Our first stop was the mall at Meriadek. A modern mall with something that our American malls never have: pastries. Delightful, delicious sweet pastries and a petite cafe creme at Brioche Doree - ooh la la! For Henrik we bought a mini pain au chocolat* (can you understand that without translation? That was one of my first French words to figure out and I salivated over them the rest of my visit). He didn't eat all of it so we kept the rest for bribery on the tram. We went into downtown from there to shop for things to take home. Walking up and down busy streets with a stroller wasn't easy and although we stopped at several places, we didn't buy much that day and ended up hurrying back to Merignac so that Henrik could get his dinner, bath and then to bed on schedule. From 7-11 o'clock pm Ashley and I had nothing but free time; reading, email correspondences, knitting, movies and just basking outside on a deck chair reveling in late evening breezes filled up this time. That is my idea of vacation!
*Chocolate bread!
4 comments:
Hey, Shelbi. I'm Allie - I saw your comment on The Rebelution, when you said you'd been to France I knew I had to come visit your website! That's awesome! France, England, and Ireland have all been the major places I've wanted to visit. Then there's Wales, Scotland, and Germany. One of my aunts is from Germany, and she's been to France numerous times and speaks the language. Is it difficult to understand or can you speak the language??
-Allie
Hi Allie,
I am so glad that you "dropped by" and I hope that you enjoyed the trip posts. I am in my 20's and this was my first trip to Europe. There is nothing like going someplace at long last that you have always wanted to visit! It's truly an incredible feeling, to say the least. :-)
I tried to refresh my basic French before going, but I realized when I got there that even my best French, learned from reputable sources, wasn't good enough. :-) Thankfully, I had studied Latin previously and since both English and French have that language origin in common, that helped tremendously in identifying the meaning of words. I could read and understand a lot more than I thought I would be able to, but when it came to speaking, I had to rely on someone else translating or hope that the person I was talking to spoke English (most did).
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