We flew to Philadelphia and arrived early. We landed at Gate A 25 and one hour later we flew out of Gate A 24 to Paris. That never happens! The flight to Paris was less than half full so David and I each got a row of four seats all to ourselves. That hasn't happened for a long, long time either.
Pretty quickly after take off they served dinner. We had a choice of chicken in orange sauce or spiral pasta in cheese sauce. We both had the pasta. My friend Sheryl always says that the food is rarely good but passengers eat out of boredom and I think she is right! The only really good thing about dinner was the free glass of red wine and a very good brownie.
I wasn't sleepy at first so I watched the movie "Burnt," with Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller. It was pretty good and helped pass time. After that I stretched out in my row of seats and slept pretty well for a couple of hours. David said he slept some but wasn't all that comfortable. Sometimes it pays to be short because I had plenty of room!!!
About an hour before landing they turned the lights on and served breakfast which was coffee (thank you!) and yogurt with granola, an orange cranberry muffin top and something else I can't remember. Nothing special.
You won't believe this: we had a scheduled flying time of 7 hours and 25 minutes but had such a strong tailwind that we arrived in 6 hours and 12 minutes. Isn't that incredible? When we landed it was only 30 degrees F in Paris!!! We passed through Customs quickly, picked up our bags and made the long walk to the train station located in the airport which is very convenient.
We had about a two hour wait for the train and the waiting area was very cold. I bought us coffee and hot chocolate and we settled down on a wooden bench to wait. After sitting there for a few minutes we realized the seats were heated. Very nice. At 10:15 we boarded the train for the trip to Saint Aignan. It took a little over one hour. We got off the train in St Pierre des Corps and our friend, Douglas, picked us up.
When we left the train station it was cold and rainy. Douglas stopped at a grocery store so we could purchase some basics. Wine. And then we headed to Saint Aignan. The closer we got, it started to snow! It was so very beautiful and such a treat because it doesn't snow here very often (according to Douglas). He drove us to La Boulangerie, dropped us off to get settled in and then told us to come over for lunch.
We walked in the door and both of us felt very at home! La Boulangerie is a special, beautiful home and Rachael continues to make it more beautiful. First thing we did was walk all over to see what had changed. First of all the furniture had been re-arranged and it looks very cozy and nice. The kitchen tile has been replaced with a wood floor and it is gorgeous. The large, comfortable kitchen looks even larger with the lighter floor. And there is a new, fabulous kitchen table and chairs!!! I'm sitting at the kitchen table right now and the height is perfect for my computer.
Upstairs, in the room where we stay, the en suite has a new glass shower stall which is great. The bedding is different and beautiful and the duvet is warm and wonderful. And, again, the sheets and pillow cases were ironed. LOVE THAT! I still don't know why my linens at home aren't ironed???
We unpacked and walked over to Douglas and Claire's for lunch. Claire had fretted over what to make for lunch and finally decided to make one of her Grandmother's recipes. Douglas called it French comfort food and it surely was! It was boiled and mashed carrots and small potatoes with lots and lots of butter. Who wouldn't like that??? She also made a good salad with spicy greens and she had set out a bowl of pureed beet root with black radishes and crackers. Everything was delicious and we were famished! It was all topped off with a nice red wine.
Obviously David really liked the pureed beet root!
After catching up we walked home for a much-needed nap. We slept for about two hours and made ourselves get up so we could go to bed at a normal time later and get on "French time."
We were in the living room deciding what we wanted to do and Nathalie, the house manager, dropped by to say hello. She had been working all day at her parents' business which I gathered is some kind of wood, lumber business and she was very tired but she still took the time to stop by and greet us. She is delightful. She invited us to join her and her husband, Yves, on Saturday for an aperitif. How very French! While Nathalie was visiting us, Claire and Douglas stopped by to see if we wanted to go to L'Amarena for pizza. Of course we said yes.
Now here's the difference between Americans and French people: we each ordered a pizza and David and I ordered the "normale" size. Claire had kind of a horrified look on her face as she and Douglas ordered the "petite" size. Sorry I didn't take pictures of our pizzas but they were all delicious. Eaten with a very good, local red wine.
After that we walked across the street and went to bed about 10:00 pm. At 1:00 am we were awake and alert and thought we were done sleeping for the night which was not a good thing but we both read for awhile and were able to go back to sleep.
I apologize for the long post but I like to remember every minute of our time in Saint Aignan.
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