I now have my French home and family!
I am living with Madame Mistral, the nicest possible host mother.
She immediately took me for a walk around Aix this morning, stopping by her friend's perfume shop (her friend spritzed us both with some Chanel perfume) showing me the vegetables at the markets, asking me what I like and don't like to eat, etc. We then met up with her daughter and her daughter's fiance, who speaks fluent English due to his 4 year stay in Oklahoma for university. They are in town from London for the weekend.
To my relief, she has no plans to make me eat any weird food. She hates lamb, and isn't going to make fish for me. She made me a very tasty lunch, with salad, ham, and bread.
I have a really cute bedroom (her daughter's old room) which has a balcony overlooking the hills surrounding Aix.
Later in the afternoon, they took me to Mount Saint Victoire, a huge mountain on the edge of town. We sat at a patio at the base of it for our afternoon espresso.
After a dodo for both of us (nap), she made me pasta for dinner (and I sampled French cheese - to no avail). She then made some tea she brought back from her recent travels to India, and we watched the French movie which tells the story of Coco Chanel's life.
Tomorrow, she is taking me to Cassis to see the Mediterranean and the beach! I will bring my camera.
Oh Claire I am so excited for you. I remember being in the south of France when I was your age and how much I loved it. You could be my real daughter even more than we even thought. I hope you have the adventure of your life. We are filling out the forms for Mikhail to do a German exchange in early 2012. He is doing so well in his German class at school this year his teacher suggested this for him. I hope it works out. Kamloops Univ is going so well for Taran - he is meant to take this path I am sure. Stephen is doing well too and may be looking for his own place sometime in the near future. Well I look forward to following your blog - have a blast. We love you. Brenda and gang
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