We had an unexpectedly social and wonderful day at the beach! Today, we slept in and planned on driving out to the house and spending some time at the little beach by our house. We packed a lunch and loaded into the car. While we were driving out of our street, we received a phone call from the woman that we had met through our translator 2 weeks ago. She invited us to spend the day at a different beach with them and several other families. So, we quickly changed course and followed Klervi and her husband, Frank and their 5 children out on a peninsula to a beautiful, huge beach on the Atlantic! It was about 20 km from our house. Absolutely gorgeous!!!! There we met 3 other families with 20 children among them ranging in age from 3 to 16. They were all fantastic! The adults tried their hardest to speak English to me or allowing me to answer in English when I could understand their French and to speak French to Josh slowly enough that he could understand and respond. The children all played very, very nicely with our kids and invited them to do all sorts of things. Quincy and Tabitha each got a couple of opportunities to take a kayak out into the ocean as well as climb on rocks and do the long jump with several kids. Max and Calvin weren't quite as social as the kids their age don't speak much English at this point. A girl named Alex who is 13 and goes to Quincy's school had been an exchange student in the US for 6 months when she was 11. She took Taba and Quincy under her wing and helped them as much as she could. Max and Calvin still had a wonderful time and said that this was our best day ever in France! After having a picnic lunch, Josh and I also got the opportunity to take a kayak out into the ocean with a friend. Very fun and such beautiful views of the whole peninsula. We spent more than 5 hours at the beach before the group broke up. We were then invited to follow one family home for a drink. So we did.... We arrived at their house to discover that they own the most beautiful house that I have ever seen!!! They live right on the gulf, with a huge old stone "French countryside" home with a huge yard surrounded by an old stone wall and wrought iron gates. Their house is covered in vines and they even have chickens running around the back yard. It is just gorgeous but I couldn't take a picture without feeling embarrased so I will have to show you a different time. I did take a picture of Quincy feeding one of the chickens with the girl, Alex. We were all hot, sweaty, sandy and tired by the end of our day and didn't eat dinner until 9:00 at night but it was worth it! We now feel as though we have several friends that we can spend time with and ask for help. Josh and I have been invited to dinner with several of the adults next Saturday.
No comments:
Post a Comment