Salut, tout le monde!

Les and I hope you all had a very happy 4th of July! We certainly did. We let it go right by us, doing our normal things: Les did a few business things and I painted another room.

We are getting somewhere with this house. Today, Monday, July 8, our English Plumber is here, working on the evacuation (drain) for the summer kitchen sink, on the terrace on the 4th level. He's draining through the shower. So far, so good. I've taken some "in progress pictures", just in case you really care about what an evacuation project in France is. That, and updated village photos (including the weekly marche) are in our album titled "Notre village, Laurens".

Our week was eventful! On Friday, the Tour de France ran very close to our house. We decided, since most of the nearby roads were closed (to accomodate the bikers, the support staff and advertising hoopla cars), to walk to a crossroads to watch them whiz by. It was a good 45 minutes to get there, past the old railroad station and up and down a hill or two, and, once there, we had our picnic lunch of charcuterie, fromage, pain et chocolat (very good!). After about an hour, we could see the buzz starting. First, helicopters appear (they do lots of the filming), then motorcycles, then an official car, then a few "break-aways", and then finally, the "peleton" (the big bubble of cyclists) arrive all together and swish by in all of 20 seconds. I caught it on video, so if you want to see an up-close version of the Tour de France on a small country road, check it out. It's only 29 seconds long. The kid in the background was quite energetic, and he is saying "Allez, Go Fast!". Actually, nothing eventful happened that day on "Le Tour", but according to Les, there are now some big differences between riders, and it's getting more interesting. The whole thing lasts another 2 weeks, ending in Paris, as usual.

You may remember that Les and I spent two lovely summers at a villa in a vineyard called "Le Domaine de Bayelle". The couple who own it, Marie-France and Philippe Bec, invited us (and 63 others) to a "Bal Masque" there on Saturday evening. The invitation said "deguisement obligatoire", and people really did wear incredible costumes and were enjoying themselves immensely. Check out photo album "Week 3" to see how clever they were. We were impressed with the warmth of our welcome, and how open they were to "Les Americains" (see photo for this blog to see how idiotically dressed we were--our star necklaces actually lit up and blinked--Go TARGET!) and how willing they were to try out their English on us.

The photographer lined people up for photos according to countries. Philippe, our host, is a dentist (besides being a vigneron of organic wine) who did his "service militaire" in Morocco many years ago. Marie-France and he enjoyed their 2 years there very much, and made wonderful friends, many of whom were in attendance Saturday night. So their group got together for a Morocco picture, and another for an African photo. (A lot of the people had done service in France's former empire before they gave up their colonies.) There was also a totally French picture, then a European picture, then they got to us. Didn't know where to make us fit in. So....we ended up in a photo of misfits including Mexicans, Australians, South Americans, Caribeans, and us. (All of these people, except for a British couple, were really French, just dressed as somebody else.) Unfortunately, I don't have that picture, but I do have a whole group photo that's very indicative of a lovely evening.

The man dish was a huge (I mean HUGE) pan of paella, brought in a catering truck. There were multiple hors d'oeuvres, and wine, of course. After dinner, they started a sing-along, and we left around midnight while the party was still going strong. It was a delightful evening.

We capped off the weekend with a trip up to Lodeve to go to one of our favorite art museums, similar in size to the Gibbes in Charleston. It's called "La Maison Fleurie", and they do have nice exhibits there that we always enjoy. This one was called "Cubism and Beyond", and highlighted 2 painters (Metzinger and Gleizes) from the early 1900s-1950. I'm still not sure I understand the difference between analytical and synthetic cubism, but I did enjoy the experience. We will be visiting our other 2 favorite art museums as well this summer, one in Montpellier (Impressionism), the other in Sete (Signac).

All in all, a lovely Languedoc week! We are loving our terrace and still intrigued by the swallows. They are still energetically feeding their babies across the canal from us, and seem a bit alarmed that there are now people in their house. We have no idea how the birds know that they are not to go in the open windows, but are allowed in the tiny holes obviously created for their use. I'm also (this is for the Charlestonians....) wondering if the French have their own version of "haint blue" paint they use for window shutters. I see it everywhere. Does this signal the birds not to enter? I'll have to ask someone who might know....

In the meantime, have a good week, wherever you are! We have friends in New Mexico and Hawaii, will soon have a niece in Berlin, and our children and grandchildren will all be in Iowa for a family wedding next Saturday. To all of you in Charleston, Chicago, and elsewhere, Bon ete!

And to our oldest grandson, Jackson, a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY from Mimi and Pappy.

A bientot,

Elise et Les