Gourmand Goodbyes

I'll admit it. Leaving this place is hard.

The other day we celebrated 50 years of my husband's family at La Morinière with a buffet. Dessert consisted of tarts made with fruit from our trees and sorbet made with berries from our bushes. People are going to think all we did on this vacation is eat till we couldn't breathe. That wouldn't be too far from the truth.

We did just ordinary family things on our last day here, but because it was our last day, the ordinary took on special meaning.

My kids and I hung laundry out to dry on the clothesline. I hadn't done this in years before this trip, and it's quite therapeutic!

I finished François Mauriac's brilliant novel Vipers' Tangle (Le Noeud de vipères).

I talked to my daughter a little bit about Apollinaire, and she made a calligramme. Can't see it that well because it's in pencil, but it's about her teddy bear.

The kids and their cousins, who have the summer place next door, played signal, a variation of hide-and-seek, after lunch, for which my husband's aunt had made a delectable charlotte.

For our last goûter we threw my son a small birthday party, with multiple generations of cousins and siblings, cakes from the bakery in Pacy-sur-Eure, a musical birthday card from his great-aunt, and a few presents from the toy store in Pacy - a medieval knight, some trading cards, and Monopoly Express. He turns 7 on Monday.

Tonight for our last family meal Oncle G. (the priest who helped marry us and who makes all our sorbets) made us a divine fondue with Emmental cheese and white wine. The kids put on a little show afterward.

Before leaving the U.S. I was concerned about how this trip would go. A colleague at work jokingly told me her "motto" for such circumstances: "Wine, and indifference!" Wine is good here. But indifference I've never been good at...so what can I say? It's sad for us to pack up and leave what for my husband and his family, and now me, is truly a home.

Au revoir, then: until the next time we see each other again.