We had a strange thing happen yesterday. Walt had an errand to run in the morning. He went out and tried to start the Peugeot, but the car's battery was dead. He came back in to tell me the Peugeot wouldn't start, so he'd be taking the Citroën. It was parked in the garage, but it wouldn't start either — dead battery. It was weird that both batteries failed on the same day.
The weather was cold, but not that cold, and anyway the Citroën was in the garage, which is not heated but not that cold either. I called our insurance company's assistance line, and within half an hour a man with a battery and a set of jumper cables arrived and started both cars. We drove them over to our mechanic's garage and another 15 or 20 minutes later we had two new batteries.
The weather was cold, but not that cold, and anyway the Citroën was in the garage, which is not heated but not that cold either. I called our insurance company's assistance line, and within half an hour a man with a battery and a set of jumper cables arrived and started both cars. We drove them over to our mechanic's garage and another 15 or 20 minutes later we had two new batteries.
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On the evening of February 1, 2003, I was in Rouen, staying in a little apartment that my friends Jeanine and Henri owned in the building where they lived. Another Rouen friend, a woman I had met on an internet forum a couple of years earlier — her name is Marie — and her husband, Francis, invited us all over for dinner. Above left are H and J and then F and M. I've known Jeanine for more than 50 years and Henri for at least 25. Above right is the main course for our dinner — un plateau de fruits de mer (a seafood platter). Actually, there were two of them.
Above left is another photo of the dinner hosts and guests. The woman in the center of the photo is Florence, an English teacher in Rouen. Marie was an English teacher too, now retired. And on the right is the plateau de fromages, the meal's cheese course. A good time was had by all.
Nice pictures. The seafood platter is most attractive and has a few things we might not see over here - the snails and the crabs cut in half. Stuffed crabs?
ReplyDeleteI don't know if those are crabs stuffed with some other stuffing or just crab shells stuffed with crab meat.
DeleteDid Yveline and Lewis ever met Jeanine and Henri?
ReplyDeleteI can see a Neufchâtel-en-Bray and (?) Saint-Nectaire. I can’t put a name on the others.
I don't think Evelyn and Lewis ever met Jeanine. Marie-Jacques introduced me to E. and L. in 2003, soon after we moved to Saint-Aignan.
DeleteNo, Lewis and I never met Jeanine and Henri. Marie and Francis are wonderful hosts and I know you must have had a nice evening with them.
DeleteWe had lunch with Marie-Jacques in a restaurant near the cathedral in Rouen in 2010, before we met with the curator of the Musée des Beaux-Arts and I gave him that drawing of Joan of Arc in her prison’s cell. Time flies! Was that before or after La Fontaine de Mars?
DeleteThe first time I met Marie-Jacques is when you came to Paris and we went to Rouen. She invited us to a sumptuous lunch! She is such a marvelous hostess!
DeleteWas that lunch at Marie's house in June 2001? Walt wasn't with us; he stayed at the gîte in Vouvray. I also remember the 2010 lunch with Marie in the restaurant near the cathedral in Rouen. The Fontaine de Mars dinner in Paris was in August 2009, I think.
DeleteYes, that lunch was at her house. Wasn’t it outside of Rouen?
DeleteYour photos always present a prospective on lifein France that someone like me will never witness in person. How good the food looks! About the batteries, were they old? Do the new ones have warranties in case of future problems? I do have an inquiring mind. LOL.
ReplyDeleteOne battery dated back to 2016, and the other to 2014. So yes, they were old. The new batteries may well outlive the cars, since one car is 15 years old and the other is 22 years old.
DeleteNice to see you with Marie!
ReplyDeleteGlad you got the batteries sorted out... how annoying!
Judy
I think I met Marie-Jacques in person for the first time in 2001 when CHM and I drove from Vouvray to Rouen to spend the weekend. I have to thank her for convincing me to go to one of the most fantastic events I've been to since Walt and I moved to France — the horse show at the Haras du Pin in Normandy in 2011. It's been a while now since I've seen Marie, with the pandemic and all.
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