Singing a song...

B woke up the morning after his "date" night with R, a fellow 8 year old of the opposite sex. B wore a smile from ear to ear. "I kissed a girl and I liked it!" B blared. Uh oh...

Dans les coulisses

Pendant tout le repas, B et sa nouvelle amie, R, ne vinrent aucunement déranger les adultes qui mangeaient. Ils sont restés tous deux, lovés dans le sofa du salon devant la télé. Un peu inquiète à cause du silence, j'allais jeter un coup d'oeil au salon. R était allongée, la tête sur les genoux de B. "Et puis quoi encore?" Je m'exclamais. "Ils vont nous faire des petits!" La grand-mère de R rigolait...

R, beautiful R...

"Will you play Wii with me, dad?" B asked from the rental house's living room. "Sure," B's dad agreed. Two minutes later they were interrupted by the arrival of the evening's first guests: the owners of the house... and their granddaughter. B's dad greeted them and B followed close behind. "Hi," B said to the little girl. "Hi," she said. "What's your name?" B asked. "R," she said. "What's yours?" "B. How old are you?" "Eight," she told him. "I'm eight too!" B held his hand out. "Give me the Wii controller, dad. You don't have to play anymore."

Je présente quand, moi?

B avait eu le droit de faire une danse exceptionnelle, chorégraphie B, devant toute la famille française. Vêtu d'une jupe fabriquée maison en "herbe" plastique et d'un tomahawk version Fidji, il nous avait balancé toute une danse pleine de sauts, de cris et de sourires. Du coup, sa petite amie, R, voulait savoir à quand son tour. "Toi, ce sera juste avant le dessert. Qu'est-ce que tu vas faire?" "Je vais chanter," me dit-elle gravement. La surprise de la soirée, c'était carrément R. Une voix d'ange - elle était ravissante!

A day of chopping and cooking and drinking

Preparing a family meal in Normandy is an event in itself. Anyone and everyone will be dragged into helping. B safely hid himself upstairs in the office where he could play Wii without interruption. I was not so lucky. Even with my notorious lack of culinary skills, I was drawn into peeling and chopping vegetables, washing dishes, prepping plates and... Yeah, nobody entrusted me with any cooking. That's okay: I was in charge of entertainment that evening and I had two aces in my back pocket.

Tu as apporté QUOI dans ta valise???

"J'ai apporté ce morceau de viande du Canada dans ma valise." Dit mon mari à mon père. "C'est pour le repas de famille demain soir." "Parce qu'il n'y a pas de vaches en Normandie?" Rétorque mon père mais mon mari passe le commentaire sous silence. "Et j'ai acheté deux bbq. Je veux m'assurer de pouvoir faire cuire la viande comme il faut pour toi, donc bleue, et pour les autres. Pas bleue." C'est au tour à mon père de passer le commentaire sous silence. "J'ai aussi apporté de la crème canadienne pour le dessert." "C'est vrai, il n'y a pas de crème en Normandie," Fait mon père. "Mais puisque tu as dit qu'il n'y avait pas de vaches, c'est l'évidence même, non?" Mon père me menace de l'index. "Toi, tu ne t'en mêles surtout pas!"

Salted sheep

Salted sheep are sheep raised near the water's edge in Brittany. The grass they eat is watered by the sea tide that rolls in and out so that when the sheep are slaughtered, their meat tastes naturally salty from the grass. "I don't know how good this will be," hubby says doubtfully. "Everyone is running late." He is under a great deal of stress, given that my father has declared that he highly doubts my husband is remotely capable of cooking the meat to the required degree of rare. "You'd better take it out of the oven then," I tell him. "We'll put it back in when everyone is here." "What if there isn't enough time to cook it!" "There'll be enough time. Remember we'll have cocktails? And appetizers. It'll be fine. And less cooked is better than overcooked." He raises his eyebrow at me, expressing his doubt again, but takes the meat out. (That was my sole and only contribution to dinner. Amen.)