Bob and Gayle's France Trip

A New Friend and Disaster Averted

Creteil is an unusual village, wrapped around the Marne River and it’s watery children, it’s a series of quaint homes, footpaths, and bridges. We decided to leave Paris, the buzzing motorcycles and cross walks that are identified kill zones for cars vs. people, and walk in the country which is only a short metro trip away. You can see this in our pictures and some of the lovely and historic homes that dot the countryside.

At one location there were three people talking in front of a series of “WOW” homes. Gayle walked up to the lady and asked her if this was her home. She said yes, and a formidable conversation in French and broken English started for 10 minutes or so. As a non-French speaking visitor these conversations are a bit strange. Imagine standing amid these lovely homes, waterways on all sides, cobblestone streets lined with tall budding trees, and you hear sporadic words such as “Poor English”, “Mercer Island”, “Deux Chats” (two cats), “20 Years”, “Not Pretty”, “Juice”, and “New York”. These fragments turned out to mean that Jeanine, our new French Friend, speaks very poor English (not true by our French speaking standards) has a friend on Mercer Island near Seattle, has lived in this home on the banks of the Marne for 20 years which is protected by two cats, is having construction done which as we all know is not a pretty sight, has visited New York also, and wouldn’t we like to join her for juice.

We sat outside under a covered patio and discussed the best cheeses and how to smuggle them into the states. Apparently she has given this considerable thought and has hung them under her clothing at critical places and has shrink-wrapped them in her luggage. “We do this for customs and to fool the chiens (dogs) who smell everything.” You see we are becoming French as we are taking this cheese business very seriously. I am thinking about wearing two camemberts under each arm, which should confuse les chiens at the airport! We left with an important note to our Fromager (cheese seller) on how to package our cheeses for clandestine travel!

Disaster Avoided, barely
On our train ride back, we decided to visit the Gare de Lyon train station and purchase our reservations from Paris to Avignon, which is only 40 days away. When we got to the ticket counter the lady explained to us that there are no tickets available on that day except in the evening. She said she could get us there the day before though. Have you ever had one of those moments when every hair on your body jumps up and starts doing jumping jacks? We have a car to pickup and 10 other people counting on us! Before I could cut off my ear or throw myself in front of a train (laden with rounds of Brie) she mentioned that we could purchase 1st class tickets instead of our planned 2nd class seats and mingle with the celebrities such as Pat and Marty Miller who are expected on that train! Voila, we are saved! The only thing which jumped in front of a train this day was a pocket full of euros.


Picture Set 1
Picture Set 2

posted by Bob and Gayle @ 4:24 PM