Mami's trip

It was an absolute pleasure to have mama-mami over this weekend. They reached on Saturday. Tweedledum and I had gone to pick them up from Orly airport and as usual, in our regular fashion, we got lost. The best, or the worst part, was that we got lost for 5 minutes on the way to the airport thanks to which mama-mami had to wait outside. But on the way back we got lost for a good half an hour, so they had to believe that we did leave on time to pick them up. Tweedledum was dropped off at school and we headed off to our forest home where we started off with the first bottle of wine. Mama's display of strength - after a couple of twists, the screw was in the cork and the handle in his hand! But, no worry...mami displayed why some marriages are perfect marriages. After scraping off the top of the cork with a knife, the rest was pushed into the bottle. The wine was then sieved through the paper kitchen towel (believe me!!!!) into three glasses. We had to finish it in one shot since the cork was inside (the excuses we search for!!). The plan was to go for a walk in the forest but some debate about politics/ social/ something of the kind started off and the next thing we knew, Tweedledum was calling for dinner.

When family visits, the safest place, is 'La Poterne' in Moret. The village is so picturesque and the food is good. Two bottles of wine was smoothly wiped off but what impressed me most was that after the crepe both mama and Tweedledum could order another round of pasta - amazing - and this was without the walk in the forest. We got back and they had another round of scotch which mama dug out of his bag (he really is something!!)

The next day was mami and my trip to Paris. Mama went off in a cab from Gare de Lyon and we headed off to the Louvre. I will describe the Louvre in a blog next week - it deserves a seperate mention. The evening was Onion soup at the Montmartre, which mami didnt seem to relish so much because of the cheese. What could I do, cant waste food, I wiped it off ;-) The day ended with a mad dash at the station. We were coolly headed for the 9:20 train as I had thought we would certainly miss the 8:27. But as luck would have it, when we got down from the M14, it was 8-22. One look at the watch and we were transformed into Olympic sprinters. Our lucky day - we made it!!

And now for yesterday. It was a beautiful day. Didnt start off too well because around 10ish when we decided to head for a walk in the forest, it started to rain. As a compromise, we thought lets drive around to the neighbouring villages. First stop, Barbizon and the village museum. They had an exposition of the Hungarian painter - Nicolai Gringescu. Lovely images and great paintings of people. The museum was an auberge where quite a few of the poor painters use to stay and now it has been converted into a museum - it does retain a bit of the air. Next stop, the chateau at Courances, after an unending drive through the forest on roads like back home. At one point, we just parked and went off for a walk in the woods. It was beautiful. Every 5 minutes we thought we were lost but just kept going along to see where we would reach. Unknowlingly, we were on the right road but on the wrong day. The chateau was closed. Arbonne, Acheres, Milly - we drove through them all. But the unchallenged hero of the day was this hill in the Foret de Trois Pignons. Am amazed with mami's stamina. She actually climbed it with me. Since we didnt know the route, it was a bit scary and we didnt want to venture too far. This is a pic from as far as we got. I certainly want to go there again.

I think the beauty of this trip was that for the first time I saw both of them away from family - grandparents, parents - it will be a really treasured memory.....