Fréjus, France

Fréjus, France
Aqueduc Romain

Sunday, December 7, 2008

An Impromptu Weekend

It's Sunday, late afternoon, and the sun has just disappeared behind the neighboring building. It was un beau jour, one of the nicest in weeks, as the strong winds of yesterday had calmed to nothing, and the cold of the night finally gave way to warmth this afternoon. Right now, Lisa is out walking l'Etang du Villeprey with her friend Nathalie. Earlier today, Lisa sat outside on our veranda reading, taking in le soleil while I went for a hike with my friend Laurent (Nathalie's husband). He picked me up at 10 am this morning in his sporty BMW and drove us to Le Rocher de Roquebrune which I have seen in the distance, but had not actually visited. Roquebrune is a gorgeous red "rock" that juts into the sky giving magnificent 360° views, both to the sea and to the snow-capped Alps. We hiked the path that ascended mildly upwards, through the trees, before getting to the base of the rock where we had to do some 4-point climbing to get to the top. It reminds me of Pilot Rock back home in southern Oregon, though bigger.

Yesterday, was another interestingly fun day in France with what has become our core group of friends here in Fréjus: Laurent, Nathalie (and sometimes one or both daughters Laure and Fanny), Michelle and her daughter Abbie, and us. We were also joined by one of Lisa's hula dancers, Hélène, and later, yet another new friend, Katell. After arriving at the Bruzzone's centre ville maison and having an appertif, we walked across town to a charity bingo event. I must admit that I have not played bingo even once as an adult, but hey, it was for charity, we were with our friends, and it gave me a chance to work on my numbers en français. The event, which took place in a local school, was nearly packed. The prize packages were quite nice including a trip to London and a trip to Morocco, but no one in our group won anything. At one point, the girls were bored so Laurent took them back into centre ville where the christmas marché is in full swing. We all came back through after bingo, in the dark, and enjoyed the lights, some vin chaud (hot wine), and the girls a few kiddie rides. It was very festive and reminded us that it really is christmas season. We then continued on our way back to the Bruzzones where the night got a bit more festive with drinks and wood-fired pizza from across the street. Here are some more pictures of the day from our friend Michelle who is always taking pictures. I like that! Not only is her camera better (notice that her night pics at the christmas marché are much better than mine), but then I can finally be in some pictures proving I'm actually on this trip too.

What Lisa and both remarked on this evening is that we had no plans for the weekend, so everything that occured (except for Laurent and I usually taking a bike ride on Sunday mornings) was completely spur-of-the moment and impromptu...and fun!

4 comments:

Bill and Karen Browne said...

Hi All:

Some of best times have been impromptu. Just go with the flow.

FYI It is winter here-cold about 24 and we got about 18" of snow on Saturday.

Mom & Dad Browne

Nathalie said...

Encore une bonne journée, et une bonne fatigue après nos promenades! Laurent a fait une bonne sieste!!
Nath

Anonymous said...

It sounds as if you had a great weekend. Hiking in the rocks also sounds wonderful. From Nathalie's description it sounds as if you wore out Laurent (the French lessons from the BBC online are great).

We had our annual community Christmas concert here in Richland tonight. I sing in our church choir (not very well) and it was a good time. One of the Churches did a very good gospel number. They were really belting out the song and it made for a fun evening.

While its cold the snow is beautiful, not the brown slushy stuff we normally have at this time of year.

Ken

French for a While said...

Great to hear from you. Hope you're enjoying your time in France. Perhaps we'll find a way to run into each other sometime.

Oregon, huh. I grew up in Walla Walla, WA!!