France 2024 – Day 2 – Joyeuse fête des mères

Nothing like a good night sleep to restore the spirits of a tired traveler 😊

Today, the last Sunday of May, is Mother’s Day here in France, so I will take the opportunity to wish you all moms a joyeuse fête des mères! As a present to you all, here is Ronnie’s poem to his Mom:

Mommy dear, you are the best!

With you my days are full of zest.

As baseball mom you are full of cheer,

Even though sometimes the team is in the rear.

 

You’re the best doctor for our pets!

Their lives are as good as it gets.

I love it when you make me mac-and-cheese,

And of your yummy bread I always want another piece

 

Mommy dear, you are the best,

But the endless reading is a pest.

Could you please let me play my videogames?

“Not until you read another chapter in The Big Book of Trains”.  ☹

                                 Love,

                                                Ronnie

 On other news, I woke up early in the morning, had a much needed shower, and then went for a long walk along the Seine. Triel is a beautiful community about 30 km out of Paris, where some of the old aristocracy had their summer residences (I believe the physician of king Louis XI was given the community as his fief), so there are beautiful old mansions along the Seine, with vast gardens that extend down into the river. Géraldine’s own house is one such mansions (although originally it might have been simply the carriage house of the nanny of the brother of Louis XVI), and as I sit writing these words I can see through the vast garden a glimpse of the river.

As part of my walk I stopped at the boulangerie to buy a baguette and a small tarte a fruits to wish Géraldine a joyeuse fête. 

On the way back I was greeted by Nazú, Géraldine’s Maine Coon cat. He is a very friendly large cat, ginger striped, with tufts at the end of his lynx-like ears, and a very long feathery tail. A beautiful example of the feline tribe, who inexplicably likes to climb along the side of the house to the gabled roof, and there sit for hours at a time meowing at the passersby.

The boys celebrated their Mom with a grilled lunch on the terrace, which unfortunately we had to move indoors in a hurry because of an unexpected shower. The weather had been “unsettled” this spring, with the barometer going up and down, and the sky changing from sunny to cloudy to sunny again in a matter of minutes. Generally wet in Paris for this time of the year, and last year very dry during the fall. Climate change?

I was bitten by a tsetse fly immediately after lunch, and spent the best part of the afternoon in an extended nap. Jet lag is finally getting to me!