Wednesday

Some things I will miss about France:

*The older couple who always says hello when we run into each other in Clamart. They always smile with such conviction that it's as if we know each other, when it reality we've never exchanged one word and don't even know each other. Plus, the man has a sea captain's beard. All he's missing is the uniform.

*The fact that as almost-perfect as their English is, the kids still hold onto some things that are really grammatically incorrect just because they feel like it. For instance, the three of them were using the word "style" wrong when I arrived, and no matter how many times I tell them they're mis-using it, they've just decided they like their way more. With some things, Lise will try and then point out proudly when she's finally used it right, but no such luck with this word, and I heard them using it wrong just last week. As in, "Thomas, remember how cool it was when we took the train to Nice? The tables on the train were so style!". But it's kind of endearing that they don't understand that all they need to do is add the suffix "-ish" to make it correct, because I like to pretend that they mean it literally, as in "Those tables that came down from the back of each seat were the definition of style!".

*Apparently there's a big Police & Firemen ball that's going on in Paris sometime soon, because for about a month there have been uniformed firefighters EVERYWHERE stopping people (probably mostly women, I'm guessing) on the street to see if they want to buy tickets. And I've seen a million of them and they're all in their 20s to 30s and each one is better looking than the last. A friend and I were joking the other day that they probably aren't firemen at all, probably just models hired to sell tickets, but either way, I approve.