France

As we get closer to actually going to France, I find myself wondering what, exactly, we're going to be doing, and where we're going to be going.

And I don't even want to try translating that into French.

The primary reason that we're going is to meet the family of the girl who was with us last year. Ironically, we might not see her at all, or, if we do, it will be only for dinner at the restaurant/culinary school where she's working. Where she might actually be working that night, in fact. I'm a little sad about that. Over the past year, I've gone through phases of missing the kid, then being irritated by her - mostly because she's so terribly bad about replying to emails and such. I'd think this is the kid we really liked? Want to see her again? Not hardly. Well.... I haven't quite resolved that dichotomy in my mind, and I doubt I will. I'm not going to try. We're going to France to meet the family, and as a nice side note, to see some of a lovely part of the country. Its to be able to talk with them that I've worked so hard to learn French. Along the way, I wanted to be able to go into a boulangerie and say Bonjour, Monsieur...Je voudrais deux bagguetes, s'il vous plait, et un croissant. Merci. C'est combien? Ah - prenez-vous le carte bleue? Non? Je comprends. Je paierai avec liquide. Au revoir. Now I can. (All but one word in that string was from memory.) My goal is to experience being in Burgundy. Not being a tourist - being a guest. Same with being in Paris. There's no way we're going to see Paris in four days - we aren't even going to try. We have a few places where we'd like to go, but mostly, it'll be to experience being in Paris. Seeing the kid will be nice, but it's not why we're going. Though, I admit, if her parents later say They're so nice! Why didn't you keep in touch with them? - well, that'd be okay. Petty of me, I know.

All of this means that I really don't know where we'll be going when we're there, for the most part. Wineries, vineyards? Probably. Castles and chateaus? Mostly likely - one or two. Certainly, we're going down to Lyon. And in Paris, I know where we're staying, and what we'd like to see. But the rest of the trip is going to be freeform. We're going to take each day as it comes. This is unusual for us, who like to have things planned out, but given that we really don't know what to expect, I'm thinking its the best approach.

Or is that hope?