16 September 2021

Les rues de Bourges — and memories



Most of my recent posts about the city of Bourges have been about the cathedral there and the public gardens. Here are a few photos of the town beyond the cathedral. The first three of these photos are some that I found on my hard disk yesterday. They were taken in 2003 by our good friend Cheryl.




Cheryl was originally from Chicago. She and I worked together as teaching assistants in the French Department at the University of Illinois in the early 1970s. Both of us spent the 1974-75 school year in Paris, she as what they called une assistante d'anglais in a lycée (high school) in the south suburbs (Antony) of the city. I was working on the staff of the U. of Illinois year abroad program in the Latin Quarter. Those Champaign-Urbana and Paris experiences turned us into good friends.







Cheryl ended up moving to California in 1979 and soon met John, a man from Florida who she married in 1986. Cheryl, John, I were together at their house when the big Loma Prieta earthquake devastated the SF Bay area in 1989. John passed away in 1998, and Cheryl passed in 2016. Both were just 63 years old when they died.






Cheryl was one of the first people who visited us after we moved to Saint-Aignan in June 2003.These are from September that year. She stayed in Saint-Aignan for three weeks, if I remember correctly, and one day during that stay she said she wanted to go to Bourges, and she wanted to go by herself. She bought a train ticket for her day trip. I dropped her off at the Saint-Aignan train station in the morning and picked her up in the evening when she got back. She really enjoyed that day, and I'm so glad she let me copy her photos onto my hard disk for safe-keeping.



Walt and I became friends in Paris in 1981, partners in Washington DC in 1983, and spouses in 2012. Over that time, we spent a couple of nights in Bourges back in 1993 and 1995, when we were on our way to other places. We were very impressed with the cathedral there. I didn't do much photography back then. Only when digital cameras became a big thing in the late 1990s did I start to get interested in taking pictures. This one and the two below are photos that I took in June 2008 in Bourges.

In the early 1980s, CHM and I had worked together in Washington DC for a few years as editors and translators on the staff of a magazine published by the U.S. government and then for the agency's press service. Then I moved to California. CHM's partner Frank lived in southern California, and Frank's daughter lived in Silicon Valley. They visited her almost every summer back then, so we kept in touch with CHM, becoming better and better friends over the years through those visits. Then CHM moved to California in the mid-1990's. and we all spent time together in the southern California and in the SF Bay Area. The restaurant in this photo is where we had that memorable lunch of foie de veau.


After Walt and I moved to Saint-Aignan, CHM started coming to visit us here frequently. We've spent a lot of time exploring the Loire Valley and other parts of France, including Picardy and Burgundy... not to mention Paris. I have spent a lot of time with him at his apartment there. Probably a third or more of the material on this blog is about those visits and travels. I really miss the good times we had — Frank (who passed away in 2006), CHM, Walt, and I — over the past 30 years in France and in California. I've been posting about all our travels together for 18 months now, including the day in Bourges... since Covid-19 has made us into virtual shut-ins.

16 comments:

  1. And during the last 2 years, we could have been creating more memories. Hopefully that will change soon. Bourges looks like a lovely town...you know I'm a fan of half-timbered architecure.

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    1. Bourges is really worth seeing. It's a city I think I could live in, as is Auxerre farther east in Burgundy. It's not that I'm unhappy in Saint-Aignan, but after 18 years here I might enjoy living in a place where I can do shopping on foot instead of by car. Also, the yard has become a burden. Not only do we feel we an no longer take care of it the way we used too, but it's also really hard to find landscapers or gardeners who will do it, especially in these pandemical times.

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    2. Yes there is something to be said for doing a lot of your shopping on foot! Bourges seems big enough to have some variety but not too big to be overwhelming.

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  2. Mon Dieu! Que de souvenirs. Yes, so many memories. John, shortly before his death, lying on a hospital bed in their home in Sunnyvale, and on, and on...

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    1. Complerely off topic. Yesterday, I found why I could not paste my prepared comments on yout blog... it was simply because there was nothing to paste!! That means that when I click on select all and copy, it does not copy. Now, if I push longer on those buttons, it works. Quod erat demonstrandum!

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  3. Thank you for sharing Cheryl’s pictures, I must get to Bourges. I definitely appreciate long-standing friendships, I’m visiting my best friend of 35 years right now.

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  4. It was nice to read some of the back history on your friendships with Cheryl and CHM, and your visits with them. As always, great photos, too.

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  5. I love the look of the restaurant with it's blue awning and blue at the roof top. Blogger is kicking me off lately. Maybe not today. I have really enjoyed my new life in the city walking to the Piggly Wiggley, parks and through neighborhoods.

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    1. That's the situation I'd like to be in. Blois, Bourges, Auxerre, Loches, or Tours might be a nice place to live now. Who knows what the next few years will bring?

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    2. All of those places sound good. It would be good if you had some friends or contacts where you relocate.

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  6. Le restaurant, la Taverne de Maître Kanter, where we had that memorable lunch, is no more. It will be replaced by le So Much. If anybody knows what that means, please let me know.m

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  7. I had forgotten how charming Bourges is. We spent one night there around 15 or so years ago, and it was memorable for a number of reasons. We had just flown into Paris from the US that morning (something I will no longer do), and by the time we arrived in Bourges (after, among other things, stopping at a winery), it was quite late, and I was exhausted, grubby, and then wet because it was raining as we walked around town looking for a place to have dinner. We then spotted a place that looked promising, and there were still some patrons there, and when I looked inside I saw that they were fairly well dressed. So I told my wife I wasn't sure about the place because I was so disheveled. But she convinced me to go in, and we had one of the most enjoyable dinners we had had in a long time. The food was great, the wine selections from local wineries was outstanding, especially by the glass, and the staff was very friendly. And at the end the chef came to our table to pour my wife's Calvados, and chatted with us (we found out afterwards that he was a Maitre Ouvrier de France). So I certainly have fond memories of Bourges.
    Ah, France, and travel. At the moment, the best we're hoping for is that next month we'll be able to make our planned trip to Canada. The border is open at the moment for vaccinated Americans, but the tricky part is the timing of the Covid testing and test results.

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  8. Bittersweet memories and beautiful photos. I agree with you about walking for vos courses.

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  9. Well, thanks for the history, Ken! It has been slowly falling into place your friends and your relationships with them!

    Traveling to France is my favorite place to visit! I am so eager to make new experiences and see more of the country. Eventually, I keep telling myself!

    CHM - and so much ... : in my lexicon, that little phrase encompasses everything one could possibly want in a restaurant! (too much for the author to list!)

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    1. Thank you Mary for the explanation. Do you think the non-English speking Berruyers will understand?

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  10. Enjoyed your update about your many shared travels and the splendid city of Bourges. With 82% of the adults vaccinated now in France, travel is looking much less scary and more promising, at least within France. Just got back from our first trip to the Orne in almost two years, which was wonderful. Hope you and Walt and Tasha will be comfortable travelling again soon. Maybe your vet can recommend someone to help care for Bert.

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