After spending a warm and sunny June and July in Normandy, we were curious as to what it would be like to live here year-'round... luckily for us, our generous friends John (known as Jean-Michel in these parts - or Jean Le Fermier, as we like to call him) and Margaret invited us to spend the New Year holiday.
What did we discover? That this place is magical no matter what the weather. The countryside is beautiful in a different way now - this morning it's glistening with new snow, which looks a little surreal as it sits lightly on the green, green grass and leaves. When I grew up in the Midwest, snow meant SNOW - either 10 foot high drifts or a grey, slushy springtime mess... here it's a little like a delicate meringue that melts off when the sun comes out - a little mini-spring every day!
Of course, we've been keeping warm with food and wine - in addition to the fact that Marg and I have enjoyed cooking together, friends and neighbors have invited us to share. Yesterday was very social - we had lunch with Madame et Monsieur Vaudron, the caretakers who watch M&J's place when they're gone, and then cocktails with their neighbors, the Pelletier family. Luckily, Margaret's French is very good - and I can understand most of the conversation - so a lively time is had by all, especially when the Champagne keeps flowing!
We have adopted some of the local animals, as well. I'm sure these French farmers think we're absolutely nuts, because we talk to our local goat (whom we've nicknamed Gaston) and a beautiful white mare (named Mistletoe, after the gorgeous ball of mistletoe that we cut out of a tree and hung in the cottage - tres jolie).
Until we return to the US next week, we'll continue to amuse the locals - if you're interested in larger images of the photos on the blog, they can be found on Dick's Flickr site - Google dixpix2009. Au revoir!
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