The long a waited day had finally arrived, Saturday July 27th, the day that my Tonton and Tantine celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary. When we arrived with Michelle and Frank, who are wonderful hosts, they immediately offered to put us up for Friday night and Saturday night, we, meaning the baby girl and I were given such a warm welcome back to France. All my aunts and uncles, cousins and second cousins came up to the baby girl, so happy to see her and exclaiming wondrously over how much she had changed and grown and how lovely she is. I know that it was a little overwhelming for her, we are talking about 50 people, all family, coming at you with kisses and questions in French which are to be answered in French. At first the baby girl was timid but by the end of the night she was speaking to several of her cousins in French and doing a wonderful job with having herself understood. I was just plain old happy and I felt as if I had come back home after a long voyage. I know that my home is in Blandford but Bordeaux is my other home, a place where I learned how to hunt lizards with sling shots and bow and arrows with my favorite cousin Leon, who also taught me how to find the best places to hide and other trouble making things to do. Leon was actually put out that I hadn’t written about him earlier, he was miffed that I hadn’t told my audience how much he had influenced me and taught me. I had a great laugh at that one, if there was only way to describe Leon, it would be that he is extremely witty. I laughed and laughed all day and evening with my cousins as we reminded each other of all the crazy stunts and capers that we pulled on each other and even together. One who I spent a long time reminiscing and laughing with is Didier, he is the one that you always want to be seated next to, guaranteed laughter near his seat, which is why you had better call it quickly. We also spent a lot of time missing all the wonderful times we had at my other cousin’s house, Martine, and how she took care of us, cooked for us and she was a wonderful cook, and took care of us. Francoise and Nicolas along with the two girls and their newly created families were not far, so I took as many opportunities to sit next to Francoise and the babies, I love babies you know. It was so great to just look around and see my family who I have missed for so long.
The food was excellent, the celebration was catered and the meal tasted as if it had come from a three star restaurant. While we were milling around having drinks, the wait staff walked around offering hors d’ouevres such as smoked salmon canapés, lamb, goat cheese and red pepper canapés and coppa on a olive sable canapés. When they were finally able to herd us to the table, the first course was a terrine of salmon mousses with scallops and topped with lobster and caviar. It was the right amount, very refined and delicious. The second course was my favorite, a breast of duck topped with hot foie gras and drizzled with a rich reduction, perfection in my book. There was the cheese course and then dessert. That is always the fun part, we had a chocolate mousse cake filled intermittently with fresh raspberries. It was so good.
I am exhausted now and once again, this day was a phenomenal day. I am so happy to be with family.
