Dec 22^nd, 2006 (Vendredi)

C’est notre deuxième jour à Vitré! We drove from Caen yesterday morning and spent about an hour and a half in Fougères on the way. Fougères is a cute little town with an old fortress in the northern part of it. We walked down a steep garden path to get to it. There was a little church at the base by the fortress which had gargoyles depicting the seven deadly sins – we had a hard time figuring out which was which. We were struck by the lovely floral scent of roses the moment we stepped into the church and enjoyed the stained glass in there. It was a sunny day, which was perfect for admiring them. It was probably good that we got to walk around Fougères because after we got into Vitré we basically did nothing but eat.

Mamie appears to be in good spirits despite moments of sadness when she thinks about Papy and reminisces about their time together. It is sweet to see that she loves Papy so much, but also painful to see her so sad. We spent much of yesterday chatting, getting a tour of the house that Dad grew up in and admiring the many souvenirs collected over the years. We showed Mamie the pictures from our wedding and explained some of the events to her. We were surprised that Marie-Francoise, Mamie & Antoine had all watched the CD Shuwen put together.

Today we got up at a decent hour and after a quick trip into town for some stamps and our train ticket back to Paris to catch our flight for Singapore. Unfortunately because we travel on Sunday we will have to leave Vitré on Saturday (30^th) night for CDG and rough it out for 12 hours at the airport before our flight to Singapore. C’est la vie.

We both ran later in the morning before meeting up with Jean Jeuland, his wife and his 4 siblings (Jeanne, Paul, Marcel, et Pierre – the fifth, Nicole is in Paris) for a 3-hour long lunch. It was extremely good (especially the oysters from Cancale!!) and we had to be rolled out of there (we were the last table to leave the restaurant!). Jean brought us to his office and we got to chat with Annie et Valery. They are a great family and we had a wonderful time together. Jean has invited us for dinner at his home next Wednesday as well. Shuwen’s French is having to improve fast in order to keep up with all the conversations floating around her.

We ended the day with a stroll around Vitré in hopes to help in digesting our huge lunch. We walked around the town walls / ramparts and went by the Chateau de Vitré, then down the old rue de Bauderarie before venturing to the Vilaine (river) for some nice views. On our way back we stopped by Antoine Jeuland’s wine shop <> and chatted with him for a while. We even got to check out the actual cellar of the store, which was filled with various types of wines, liquor and spirits. Business was buzzing along, so we let him attend to his customers and will return to buy a few nice bottles.

It is now dix-neuf heures vingt (19:20) and we are waiting for Marie-Francoise and Antoine to arrive from Rennes for dinner.

~ Shuwen & Marc