What a beautiful weekend

Another miracle is how well everything worked out this weekend, considering that we did everything spontaneously, as the mood struck us. Every day here is a magical adventure anyway, like we're walking in the pages of a fanciful storybook. (Well, it is when it's not raining; it's a bit more dark in the rain..it is raining now as I correct this entry, but it wasn't this weekend...no, no!)

Friday, we ran into friends at the park and went minigolfing (see photos and commentary below). Then Saturday, Lauren was again itching to go minigolfing after reading that Tiger Woods visualizes his wins before hitting. Armed with visions of holes in one, she was on a mission to improve her score. We walked past the library on the way and ended up going in, then (much to Lauren's irritation) we jaunted over to the bank to get money to buy a library card, then returned to browse this big library's lovely selection. This detour not only got us some great music, books and movies for the weekend, it also got us to the park in perfect time to meet up with several friends from school, including Malou again(see Friday's pics) as well as her sister Amelie who is one of Lauren's "girl-illa" friends. We all had a glorious time minigolfing, and enjoying the park. Lauren won.

Then we stopped by the butcher and the bakery on the way home; it was warm, Saturday night, and the shops and streets were more lively than usual. We ran into to James, the British half of the half-British kids at the school, and he kindly invited us for a drink on a patio. He's hilarious (kind of a cross between John Cleese and Frost from Frost/Nixon). He drives a Jaguar and is about 65 (while his kids are 11 and 9 and his wife about 40). He's retired from the British military and he's lived in Dinan for 20 years. All the shopkeepers know him by name. When we ran into him at the butcher, he was gathering ingredients to make dinner the following night for all his wife's family, dinner for 18. He's also a chef in his spare time.

So, home we went after that, tired and happy. Then we talked to Kevin right before bed. Oh, well, Annika went to bed while Lauren and I watch a 1999 version of Alice in Wonderland with very high end cast, like Martin Short, and Gene Wilder among others. I think it was Alec Guinness who played the walrus man who said, "The time has come, my friends, to speak of many things...". It was a great movie, a wonderful discovery to end a day of discoveries.

Then today, we went chez Pascale and her husband, Dablan (Pascale is one of the teachers at the school). Dablan is going to be my "language partner" and help me learn French while I help him with his English. This couple seem like two more wonderful hidden jewels that we found this weekend. They have 4 kids, aged 22-30, even though they themselves seem so young (they're probably just 10 years older than I, so, yes, young, baby, really y-o-u-n-g). One of their sons is an amazing artist and their living room is covered in his stunning work. Pascale also, besides being a grade 1 teacher, is a fabulous artist. Her ceramic sculptures also grace this wonderful room all inside an lovely maison, built 100 years ago in gorgeous stone. AND, as it happens, I've always harbored and desire to try sculpture, or some kind of 3-d visual art. And Pascale said she'd take me with her to the class she attends. Can you believe it? The kids are getting a social life, and it looks like I am too. Oh, and we did also have a lovely visit, all speaking in French, and inspite of a few stalls, I felt really comfortable and so thrilled for this amazing chanced to meet and speak with them. I'm so grateful to God for all these blessings.
We're in McDonalds again, using the internet (for which the kids are infinitely grateful, or, if not infinitely, at least until they get hungry again tomorrow)...and there' s not really more to say than thank you. A la prochaine.

Oh, I forgot to mention the one really bad part about today is that Lauren scalded her hand on boiling water. I think it might be quite bad because it still hurts and I'm trying to decide if I should try and find emergency medical care...there are no blisters but a large red spot that's been hurting for a few hours despite asprin and ice. I better go research. Please pray.

And later....

Can you guess the denoument of this sad story of poor little Lauren and her little scalded hand? If you guessed that I had run out of children’s pain medicine at home, and Lauren’s latest ice pack had melted right about the time that the line in McDonalds was out the door with (presumably) hungry travellers on their way home after a long weekend, and that her pain was apparently becoming unbearable (though there were no blisters and it was 4-5 hours after the original scald), and that my rational mind was telling me it was not a major injury, my emotional mind (if there is such a thing) was telling me to freak out because my baby was hurting, and, if also you thinking that someone had told me there was a phone number to call to find the one pharmacie that was open on Sunday (the towns’ pharmacies in France are obliged to rotate with all the others for the Sunday open), and that searching for this elusive number on the internet was fruitless, then you’d be correct. Breath. If you then guessed that I decided to just go “where the spirit led me”, getting in the car and driving through Dinan, and if you then thought I probably turned a corner and saw the flashing green cross that indicates an open pharmacie, again, you would be correct. We were all so grateful for the cooling gel and children’s pain killer. And that was another solved pain in the hand for Lauren.