a shout out to a teacher

an




i took french in high school, three years i think, studying a language that i had no relationship to and never utilized (until now), in classroom full of the Sons of Virginia (just imagine the comedy of a "bonjour, mademoiselle" rendered in the finest southern drawl), with a teacher that, until this day, i considered amongst my worst. This blog, though, is meant to give a long overdue shout out to her, wherever she may be. Because I am parlering en francais, at least a little. And I am finding that, in fact, I did learn something from my Gloucester High School french class. So there you go...

We continue in the same vein as before, loving this little jaunt through France, visiting stunning small towns with nearly incomprehensible history, looking at many old pieces of rock, trying out some wines, eating enough baguettes and cheeses to plug us up for decades to come. Such are the hazards of journeying in the old country. We are nearing the south coast of france now, and may be speaking spanish before next weeekend.

A few photos. My personal favorite is the one of the two of us because it was taken after we were invited into a bar with a group of basque folk singers. One of them took my camera and shoved us right in the middle of the singing group for a photo. It was a pleasantly uncomfortable situation. All of those guys around us in the photo were in the midst of song!

Ian