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France, Italy and Switzerland, August 2002

Day 1

Friday I arrived, feeling very fresh and excited after the ten-hour flight due to having been bumped up to business class, wow!  By the way, the tickets were very expensive, about $1200, so I asked Emily's parents to use their frequent flier miles to get me a ticket, thanks again!  While Emily met me at the airport her family was at Monet's gardens.  That night, after we all had dinner together, Emily and I were apprehensive about the sleeping arrangements.  Would her parents suggest that I stay with them in the rented apartment, leaving Emily alone in hers?  We came to the junction, one way to her parents place, the other way to hers, and... nothing.  Just good night and see you tomorrow.  We were relieved but it turned out to be far too hot to sleep anyway.  We spent most of night lying on top of the bed with a fan blowing on us, trying to fall asleep.  What your father doesn't know is that up until then, there was no summer.  It had been a rather chilly spring and summer thus far and when the hot weather hit, it hit with a vengeance.

Day 2

Saturday came and found Merle shopping with the rest of us tagging along.  A bit later your mother and I took Donald and Jenny to Le Cordon Bleu so they could buy some gifts to bring back home.  We also snuck into a demo by Chef Xavier.  Your mother's classes had two components, demonstrations or demos and practicals.  Demos last three hours and take place in a classroom setting were you watch the chef cook; of course at the end you get to taste the food.  In practicals you are in a kitchen for three hours and cook.  At the end you can take the food home or throw it away; your mother quite often gave her pasty creations to local restaurants (bars and the like...  Made a lot of friends that way!  Salut mes amis des Guiness Tavern et aussi Le Lizard Lounge!!!)  and gave food the local Scottish homeless man. 

During my three previous visits I sat in on many demos so this time was nothing new for me, but the rapport your mother had with the chefs still amazes me.  I remember one time when the chef told a joke and Emily, sitting the very back as usual, laughed.  The chef saw Emily laughing, stared right at her and started to laugh him self.  This prompted Emily to laugh some more, at which point the whole class had turned around to see what the chef was laughing at.  It went back and forth a few more times before things settled down and the chef returned to his dishes.

On this occasion, with Donald and Jenny, the Chef Xavier spotted Emily and used the occasion to train his new class.  You see, when Chef Xavier asked the students questions, he liked the students to respond, almost shout really, "OH OUI CHEF!"  This class was a bit timid so your mother had to show them, and she did.  Actually, the chef had asked the class a question and there was just a murmur in response.  Chef Xavier actually mouthed the "OH OUI CHEF" to me when he got the lukewarm response from his current class.  I had been in the class that he had trained to give him an excellent response. 

At the end of the demo we sampled sweet puff pastry creations and took home sacristans (puff pastry folded with granulated sugar and almonds and then twisted and baked).  We actually took home all of the sacristans since Chef liked me so much.  The next day, your Lau-lau asked me if I could get some more.  Some people in the class left before even trying the food, what idiots!  Chef was really pissed about that.  He thought that it was inexcusable since half of the point of demo was to taste the finished product.  If you didn't know how it was supposed to taste, how could you know if you had made it right? 

Later that night I met Ivo, a friend of your mothers from Berkeley who lives in Utrecht, near Amsterdam and Stan, the latest love of Kim, a classmate of your mother.  Stan stayed behind, but the rest of us met another Chef Chalopin, along with Christy, another classmate, and we ate at a Chinese restaurant. 

Once again, it was too hot to sleep.

Day 3

It was decided Saturday night that we would go to Versailles early the following day so Emily and I arrived at the apartment bright and early.  We found everyone still half asleep but managed to get out without much delay only to be foiled that most evil nemesis, breakfast.  Not only that, but we ate at La Brioche Dorée, the McDonald's of French bakeries. 

We took the metro to, and ate at a café on the Champs, then finally got on a train to Versailles.  Upon arriving the lines were insane and it was hot!  We decided to take the tour of the King's chambers because we had done the other tours (main castle and Queens chambers) on previous visits.  I delighted in taking off my synthetic shirt and wetting it in a fountain while we waited in line.  Before putting it back on I would wring it out and cool down your mother; we did this several times before getting to the front of the line.  We planned on taking the garden tour after the Kings chamber tour but we were pooped so went home.  That night we ate at a sub par restaurant but were glad to be inside because the sky opened up and it poured!  Later we all gathered in the rented apartment and discussed our wedding of all things.  We also brought some falafel back, (from L'As du Falafel, highly recommended by Lenny Kravitz?!?)  due to the unsatisfactory dinner.  Due to the rain, we slept for the first time since I arrived.

Day 4

Today everyone left, except me that is.  Donald and Jenny left first to catch a flight home via San Francisco while Merle, Wilson and Julie left later to fly back via Chicago (or maybe Washington).  Emily and I escorted them to the airport, which was uneventful except for a really heavy suitcase and a bothersome deaf guy on the train.  The suitcase was tough to move, even using its wheels.  The hardest part was getting it to the metro station, which was at least a 10-minute walk with no baggage.  The deaf guy on the train turned out to just be a village idiot, but he made everyone uncomfortable caused Merle to move seats.  During the train ride all kinds of scenarios of dealing with him were running through my head, such as punching him in the face, but nothing came of it.  Jeez, I never knew your father had such a violent streak running through him!  All along, I thought he was totally oblivious to the situation!

Later that evening we met another Cordon Bleu graduate, Sofia Conradie (La Fille Aux Gros Nichons), at a Canadian pub, the Moosehead.  Sofia and I each had burgers while Emily had fish n' chips.  We were all amused when, after Emily and Sofia were unable to determine the type of fish, neither was the kitchen staff able to.  After dinner we went to Sofia's superior rooftop apartment.  She pays less than your mother, yet she has a bigger apartment with a view of the Eiffel Tower!  At the apartment she gave us the keys to her parents studio in the south of France, where the adventure really begins...

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