Tours 2015

Pretty early after I arrived in Mauguio, my host family needed to take a trip up to Tours. I was still struggling to put my college French to use - the speed, the slang, the colloquialisms, and the variety of dialects were things college did not prepare me for. And just as I was finally starting to communicate with my host family a bit more, we were off to another town and I’d be meeting a whole new lot of people to try and understand.

Our short trip to Tours left me with some of my most cherished memories. My host family lived there when the kids were really young, so they have a lot of family friends there. One of their friends, Delphine, was having a big 50th birthday that we would attend. I’d say this very birthday party was when I really started speaking French without hesitation or self-consciousness. It was partly thanks to the massive amounts of champagne I consumed on count of the celebration. But alcohol aside, I felt this triumphant, almost intoxicating feeling when the French came out of my mouth without translations happening first in my head. Sure, there were words I wouldn’t know here and there, but I found the people to be so gracious as they helped me along the way.

The party gave me new insight into French culture. There were beautiful hors d’oeuvres on the table; tiny soups and mousse and crackers. And there were a lot of carefree French adults making small talk about life while sipping wine. After the kids went to bed was when the adults started dancing. I was in this middle place, not really an adult but definitely not a child, and so I stayed up to hang out with the parents well into the night. The next morning, we woke up late and slowly prepared our next meal together. We ate outside in the fresh air enjoying the sun. Then, to walk off the lunch, we strolled along the Loire, admiring the variety of protected wildlife living there. When I’m having a bad day, this is one of my memories that I visit and it leaves me feeling a sense of freedom, belonging, and wholeness.

For a small day trip with the kids, we also made a trip to Clos Lucé, were Leonardo DaVinci lived for a while. The grounds were changing with the autumn and peacocks strolled freely. We roamed around looking through the museum of his wild inventions. Delphine’s youngest son was fascinated by the fact that I couldn’t speak his language. I’d see something I wouldn’t know the word for in French and I’d point to it asking him and he’d sometimes giggle that he was teaching me. Learning language from children is definitely the best.