"Bon Appetit"

The cutest thing happened to me on the way to school today. I was walking down the street eating an apple for breakfast, and there was this adorable old man walking just in front of me. He seemed to sense I was in a hurry (which I was, having left the house a little late), so he stepped aside to let me pass. I had my mouth full but I covered my mouth with my hand and managed to say "Merci." He smiled and replied "Bon appetit," gesturing to my apple. What a nice guy!

But people-watching as I walk around town is pretty entertaining. The other day I saw a teenage guy, shirtless and wearing basketball shorts carrying a Louis Vuitton man-purse. Guess that's acceptable here. Apparently, what is also bizarre but culturally acceptable is venturing forth without a bra, and what's more, being very obvious about it. Sometimes it's not too pretty. But I am noticing more and more familiar faces. Avignon is pretty small and I walk the same route to and from school every day. There is one man I pass all the time on my way home...he walks with slow, halting steps and sort of has a weird expression on his face, as if he's not quite all there. And he's always smoking some sort of noxious cigarette. But I pass him every day.

Most everyone here is pretty nice about letting you by if you're walking faster than they are, but I did encounter one guy today who was a total jerk about it. It was one of those things where you are approaching someone on the street and you have to move to the other side of the sidewalk to pass them, but you both simultaneously move to the same side and kind of do that awkward back-and-forth a few times until you figure it out. Well that's what happened to me today with a middle-aged man wearing cover-alls. We did our little awkward oh-I-need-to-move-to-the-other-side-of-the-sidewalk dance a couple times before I realized he was doing it on purpose just to mess with me. I managed to smile graciously and say, "Excusez-moi, monsieur," and get past him, but he was just laughing idiotically. Apparently deliberately blocking the path of a young woman was funny to him. Like I said, total jerk.

But the rest of my evening has been quite pleasant. I began reading the book Ender's Game, which was sent to me by my boyfriend, and so far I love it. Then I took a little nap until Corine called me down for dinner. Joining us for the meal were Corine's friend Marie and her tiny adorable dog, Kiki. Pretty calm night. But the highlights from dinner were ratatouille, which was absolutely delicious, and bananes flambes for dessert, which are basically very very very ripe bananas cooked in cognac with a little butter and sugar. The technique also involves caramelizing them with a lighter, but I was setting the table outside when she did it so I missed it. But they were excellent.

Now back to doing research on Franco-American relations during the Cold War for my history class...what fun!

Love,
Natalie