Today the dogs visit a real French poodle groomer. I hope I have prepped them properly and that the groomer won’t look down on me with a French snear.
Marie comes to our place to help find the groomer and help explain what we want. While the dogs are being tortured, I mean, groomed, the three of us will go sight-seeing in Bezier. The GPS lady finds the way to the groomers but parking on the really busy street is another challenge. I find a small space across the street from the groomers in between a real parking space in front of me and the corner behind me to at least rest while we decide what to do. Marie says “Good enough!” and tells us all to get out. She ushers us across the street, stopping traffic as she goes. The couple who are at the groomers are very nice. Marie tries to convince us to have Lucien cut with “bracelets” around his legs. You know what that looks like! He would be like a silly poodle show dog. We say “No” and the lady shows us a picture of the perfect poodle cut and we say “Oui!”
We have about 3 1/2 hours to “kill” and Marie takes us to the Midi Canal locks. The canal system reaches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea.
The canal is mainly used for recreation–there are boat and barge rentals where you can sail your own boat; very expensive and, I’m sure, luxurious barge holidays in which you have a crew catering to your every need; and tourist day cruises. Much of the canal is shaded by beautiful plane trees which unfortunately are succumbing to a fungus and eventually will die out. There is hope that they have found a resistant variety of plane trees that will be planted in my places where the old trees have been removed.
To move all these boats and barges from the east coast to the west coast there is a country-wide lock system whereby the boats can gain or lose elevation as they make their way across France. Beziers has 9 locks and it is incredible to watch the boats travel through the locks. In Bezier the canal goes over the river and that is an amazing sight. Imagine a canal on a bridge over a river. It is a sight to see.
The canals are bordered by a path or sometimes a small road so it is a lovely promenade for anyone who would like to walk it or a bike path for passengers on the boats as the boat goes on while the biking passengers follow.
Howard is enjoying photographing the locks and the activity. There is a Frenchman taking pictures also and he shows Howard that he is using the next generation of Howard’s camera.
We spend a lot of time enjoying the activity at the locks and taking a nice walk along the canal. We decide to go to Marie’s home and have a sip of wine while we wait for the doggies to be done. Now all the driving directions are in French–Marie’s French. That takes a lot of concentration! I must be vigilant watching the other cars on the road AND translate directions in French in my head as I drive. She is a wonderful hostess at her lovely apartment. She and her mom rented the place together a year ago. Now that her mom is gone the rent is difficult for her to swing as a single person.
Marie serves us a lovely rose wine in beautiful wine glasses. I break my glass! I cannot believe it! Marie says I am channeling her mom because she’s the only other person who has broken a glass. I am incredibly apologetic and want to buy a replacement. Marie shows me she has 10 more glasses in the cupboard (in fact that woman has more glasses of every shape and size than anyone I know!). She says she will never have 10 people at her house at one time so stop fretting!
We find a parking space right in front of the poodle parlor. The dogs are BEAUTIFUL!! We drive back home together and invite Marie to stay for a scallop lunch. Getting everyone, including the dog, especially the dogs, out of the car is crazy.
Our lunch conversation is frequently punctuated with me saying “What?” “What did you say?” But I think we did pretty well. I am amazed to say that my brain did not burst during our afternoon together as it so often has threatened to do after having to speak French for a prolonged period of time. Maybe there’s hope for me and my French!
We schedule Marie twice a week for the next 3 weeks. That will guarantee that we get out of the house and do things. We also schedule a good-bye lunch for June 19th. Our idea is to have a quintessential American lunch–whatever that is!
About 7 pm we hear someone coming up our front steps and then knocking on our front window. Our nice neighbor tells us that the car door is open. (The car is parked on the street a little ways up the road from our house.) At once I remember I left it open when I quickly tried to help Marie with the dogs! Boy do I feel stupid! I thank our neighbor profusely and make sure the car is secure for the night.