Walls in France: Reunion with the Rodgers

One of the toughest things about coming to France was leaving Kathleen and Lucie’s best friends, Claire and Sarah, behind. Kathleen and Claire met at MPA Fact & Fee right before they started their kindergarten year together in 2004. Through their interaction, Lucie and Sarah met each other and the rest is history… Claire and Sarah are the kinds of friends that you hope your children will find. Because all four girls have a special bond, saying goodbye to them last summer was really difficult. We all kept in touch through Skype; the girls often sitting at the computer and just being silly together, and we planned for a visit from the Rodgers family. Throughout the year, we constantly heard, “When Claire is here, we’ll do this…” or “When Sarah visits, we’ll do that…” The belief that Sarah and Claire would eventually come and visit and experience life with Lucie and Kathleen in Eygalieres gave lots of hope to my girls. And this July, their dream came true! The Rodgers family came to visit us in Provence for ten remarkable days.

Claire and Sarah had never flown before so this trip was an especially big deal. According to their parents, they managed to survive the long trip and made it to Paris for a couple of days of whirl wind sightseeing. So that they could experience the train ride through France, they then took the TGV to Avignon. We met them at the station and screeched and squealed at their arrival. They picked up their rental car and followed us to Eygalieres. When we got home, the four girls immediately headed to the dress-ups and started right back in on the games they used to play. They set up camp in the petite maison and traipsed back and forth through the kitchen to gather more accessories and accoutrements for their games of make-believe. As Suzanne said, it did our hearts good to see the girls playing together once again. Meanwhile, Suzanne, Keith and Matthew got their bearings of the town.

We enjoyed a few days of overlap with the Harvey-Curtis family. All of the kids hit it off really well so we spent time together at their pool, dining together and just hanging out. We celebrated the 4th of July in regular American tradition by cooking out – good ole burgers and hot dogs. Jane even made potato salad (French-style bien sur!). We all cooled off in the pool and Bucky read the Declaration of Independence as he insists on doing every 4th of July. We all listened dutifully.

Bucky took Suzanne, Keith and Matthew to Glanum and we finally convinced all four girls to partake in an outing and went to Les Baux together. We also searched out ways to stay cool…we suffered the cold cold waters at Fontaine de Vaucluse which was really fun! We also went to the river in Collias where lots of us (me not included) jumped off of this huge rock and into the water below. I heard it was exhilarating, and I took their word for it! I definitely enjoyed watching. We also enjoyed an afternoon at a friend’s pool where we swam among the olive trees that we had picked last fall.

Mealtimes were interesting for our meshed family of nine…lots of food and, therefore, lots of dirty dishes. Suzanne was a wonderful help in the kitchen and Keith was on duty for grilling out! Suzanne also enjoyed going to the boulangerie every morning. Often, she got Claire to accompany her. They wanted to try something new every day and we all looked forward to which delectable French treat they would bring home. A couple of times, Suzanne and I prepared picnics for our sightseeing days…sandwiches, chips, fruit, cheese and cookies of course. We enjoyed one such picnic up on a grassy hill by Abbaye de Senanque where the fields were filled with blooming lavender. It was really beautiful!

They also did some exploring on their own…Suzanne and Keith went into the market at St. Remy. The four girls headed up to the windmill in old Eygalieres once or twice to see what they could find in the old ruins. Matthew really impressed me by going out into the town on his own and buying something to eat at the boulangerie or getting a drink at the café on the corner. He even headed over on his own to Café de la Place one evening to watch a local band play! He had no qualms about wandering around this little French town on his own which I would guess is not an easy thing for a teenage boy to do. He really did a great job of embracing the experience, playing his guitar in the courtyard and putting up with four silly girls (not to mention the grown-ups!).

As their visit came to an end, there were no sad faces around here…Lucie and Kathleen were flying home with the Rodgers to stay three weeks with my parents. We had enjoyed a wonderful time with the Rodgers in France and the girls were thrilled to be looking forward to three more weeks with them in Mt. Pleasant. How lucky we are to have such wonderful friends and family!