May 10, 2015

I absolutely love having my brother here in France with me. I just get to be a goofball again with him. He arrived in Nantes and we took the time afterward to explore parts of Nantes that I had been wanting to see. The weather was gorgeous and we got plenty of walking in. I love hearing all of Stephan's observations about France; we're having plenty of fun adventures!

We saw the Island of Machines and the machine elephant was out walking about, using his trunk to spray onlookers. We checked out the old shipyards of Nantes and the rings that are often seen on Nantes' post cards. Afterward we took a navibus (water taxi) to Trentemoult to see all the colorful houses and relax with a Coca Cola (how very American of us).

 Stephan couldn't believe the size of this elephant

 Exploring the shipyards

 With Nantes naval ship in the background

Finally, for the evening we dined with the Bougie family whose children I had tutored English. They loved meeting Stephan and playing around him with him, even though it was a lot of non-verbal communication. If they would have had Stephan as a teacher, they would not have had a choice, but to try to speak English to communicate. Camila especially loved having him visit, even though she was very timid to try to speak even a little bit of English with him.

 Relaxing at Trentemoult

Stephan was funny noticing how my accent changes to a more British-like one while speaking French, switching back and forth with English. Plus it was funny when he used an American expression with Monsieur Bougie who drove us home afterward. He said, "Thank you for giving us a lift," and Monsieur Bougie thought he was talking about an elevator and I had no idea how to translate the expression. Fortunately Madame Patricia Bougie came to the rescue! The family loved the gifts we gave them and it was a wonderful time to pass my last evening with them before we leave. I'm so glad they had the chance to meet Stephan!