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22 Madeleine After a generous lunch of couscous, beef, chicken, mutton and veggies I was nearly too full to pedal. Before departing, Hélène gave us bright new Canadian and Quebec flags. With a wave we were off, climbing towards Draguignan where Madeleine lived. We had tried to phone her from Hélène and Paul's, but there had been no answer. Paul had told us the American War cemetery we would be passing was excellent, so we stopped to visit. The flaming purple Judas tree bloomed for one month. A spectacular specimen flowered in one area overlooking the white crosses of eight hundred and sixty-one soldiers. The dead Americans took up a large area, but it was nowhere near the largest--Manila had that distinction with14000. On the way to Madeleine's to leave a postcard in her mailbox we noticed people named their houses. One good one was Les Misérable; another: Dragon's Lair. "Draguignan" meant dragon and there were several interesting statues of dragons in the town. We climbed a mother of a steep hill to Madeleine's. Damn those French postal workers for being on strike. The electric workers were on strike. The train, plane and banks were on strike. The telephone company was talking about going on strike. Why was the franc so high? To our delight Madeleine was home. She came to the door, took one look, and said, "How long do you want to stay? A month?" Our names were foreign to Madeleine. She had never met anyone before named Neil or Sharon. They were so foreign to her that she didn't know which name was male or female. We wrote our names on a sheet of paper when we arrived so she could see how they were written. Then she got them mixed up and thought my name was Sharon, and Sharon was Neil. I could tell already that this was going to be an interesting visit. Madeleine was having her bathroom remodelled. I went to use the washroom and Madeleine presented me with all the bathing accouterments. I stood staring at the tub for a few seconds, then decided why not? I was the very first person to leave a ring in her brand new tub. Madeleine introduced us to her family through photos. She had a son Jean-Jac, a daughter Sylvie, and assorted grand children. After a few family stories Madeleine decided to take us to a downtown restaurant for pizza. As we were leaving her house she handed me the key with the instruction: "Fermé le clé." Lock the door in French translated literally to "close the key." They had some weird expressions. Madeleine had a small two-seater car with a hatchback. I rode in the hatchback when all three of us went downtown and barked and panted like a dog when they let me out. I didn't bark at cyclists though. Good dog! It was the first time Sharon and I had been in a restaurant in France. The prices on the signs outside the doors had always scared me away before. I had a great dessert--whipped cream over sliced pears, ice cream and melted chocolate. Those French knew how to live. Madeleine lived on a one lane road. The person coming up the hill had right of way. On our way back from town we met an old batty woman who wouldn't back up. Madeleine finally gave in and backed up. She told us a young woman had been coming up one time when the old woman was going down. The old woman wouldn't back up. The young woman wouldn't back up. Kind of a stalemate with cars. The young woman finally got out of her car, leaving it blocking the one lane road, and walked to her home. (Later she backed down.) |
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