In which we are invited for dinner

While we were in Clermont-Ferrand, one of Blaise's friends invited us to come to his house for dinner with his family Tuesday evening. Blaise had a full day of talks and meetings with people in the philosophy department in Clermont-Ferrand, and so the kids and I were on our own for much of the day. We spent the morning at the playground, though we were forced to come back to the hotel twice: the first time because Ezio decided that he desperately needed to have brought his soccer ball with him, and the second because Cherry needed to go to the bathroom and the toilet at the park was locked. Then we walked to the Petit Casino (which is a French grocery chain, not a place to gamble) and picked up bread and ham and chips and juice to go with our oranges for lunch.

After lunch I decided that Cherry should take a nap (hah!) since she had been up late the previous night and I figured that it would be another late night, so I sent Sapphire and Ezio into the other room with their books and DSs, and put Cherry in bed and waited for her to fall asleep. Eventually she did go to sleep, and by the time she finally woke up it was close to 4. Now, a problem: Blaise had said that he would probably be home sometime between 4:30 and 5:30, but he wasn't at all sure, and I didn't know at what point we would need to leave for his friend's house for dinner. Perhaps we could just play quietly in the room until Blaise got back? That worked fairly well until 4:30, but then the kids started asking, "When is Papa coming home? Is Papa coming home soon? Do you think Papa will be here soon?" and climbing on the furniture and bouncing off the walls and it became clear that we needed to get out of the hotel room before someone started pounding on the door or something (or someone) got broken. Of course now the problem was that we didn't know how long we could safely be gone for. What if Blaise came back with Sébastien and we were going to walk to their house and we weren't there? I left a note, hanging over the top of the door, which said that we had gone to the playground and that he should find us there if necessary, and we headed off.

We returned around 6, driven by Sapphire's concern that they would have left for supper without us and that we wouldn't be able to find them. The note was still hanging over the door. Blaise arrived a few minutes later, and we left soon thereafter.

Sébastien and his younger son were waiting for us when we arrived, and his wife and older son pulled up in their car as Blaise tried to park our monstrous vehicle. We all headed into the back yard. Cherry, of course, refused to so much as look at anyone, but Sapphire and Ezio immediately hit it off with Sébastien's sons, who are slightly younger than they are. They spent the next 45 minutes running around the backyard together, occasionally coming over to grab a carrot or olive or slice of sausage out of the bowls on the table. Cherry sat on my lap and ate cheese crunchies. The grown ups talked. Fortunately, Sébastien's wife speaks English, as does he, so conversation was easy from my side. Perhaps not so easy from their side. Their kids are also bilingual, having spent a year in school in Ontario, but I think most of the conversation among the kids was in French.

After dinner (which did not consist of little nibbles but of grilled pork and savory tartes and salad), the adults decided that it was getting awfully chilly and that we should all head inside. The kids headed for the living room where they watched a movie, and the grown ups headed for the table, where they did not. Cherry stayed safely entrenched on my lap. Then, dessert (chocolate cake with strawberries and whipped cream) and we gathered our kids and headed out to the car. As we left, their younger son was trying to convince his mom to let him eat the last slice of cake.