Saint-Etienne sock monkey and the wine gnomes
After an incredible Toulousain Noël complete with an American turkey and stuffing, we bid adieu à notre famille français, stuffed our suitcases and headed for Denver… Denver, ColoRADO! That’s right folks. After a mere 15 months it was time to ‘meet the family’ ! Equipped with his hand-scratched family tree de Liz, my Frenchman stole the hearts of everyone. Why am I not surprised? In the words of our Tata on day two in Boulder… Boulder, ColoRADO: “we love him, he’s a keeper!” ❤️ His very own Saint-Etienne sock monkey pretty much sealed the deal.
We had so much fun goofing around with three rounds of family. We explored Boulder and its breweries, then wined at the stunning new Union Station. Of course we drank beaucoup champagne and even made a little trip to a dispensary! I conceded to my frenchman’s intent regardé of the Denver Nuggets Cheerleaders from a box suite at the NBA game. We took the light rail and wandered around downtown and Tattered Covers. Ma mère made tacos with real corn tortillas. We made an inaugural visit to Costco and cuisiner homemade crêpes! Maybe now it’s easy to understand the need to lose a few kilograms!
My new all-time favourite game is a French game called Dixit. There are clever and obscure cards with incredible drawings which players have to invent phrases for. It’s brilliant… we brought it along and played a few times with everyone. With another ‘Fat Day’ behind us, new pajamas and superb memories, we forge forward into my 42nd year. I always thought age 42 would be ridiculously boring, given the extreme even-number. But I suppose 44 is worse… with the double-whammy Chinese death number 4 repeated!
As cozy and wonderful as it was avec ma famille ☺️ I was happy to be home, in 2016, in my Midi-Pyrénées: La Ville Rose. The cat’s out of the bag now and the time has come to really own my life in France! I will get legal and find some french potential for Envizage! With my bagful of Arm & Hammer toothpaste, beaucoup corn tortillas and Excedrin… I’ve got the best of all worlds. But everyday gets more cozy in Toulouse! My illustrious frenchman is continually more lovable, the kids and I are on a routine kiss-kiss basis, friends are plentiful, interesting travels are imminent and our jobs are propitious! This is what I call “living the dream”, complete with the luxury of ignorant bliss in the circus election that has absorbed America.
I face more comfortable challenges now. Like how to get my lovely couch, dining table and chairs out of hawk from French customs. And how to speak French well enough to say a few vows. Oh… and how to smuggle in more corn tortillas once my 100… ummm… 93 in the freezer are gone!
Let’s go… Denver Nuggets Cheerleaders!
a flight of beers in Boulder, ColoRADO
