Chez Grayson Again after the Vide Grenier, Sunday, October 7

The day started at 6:22 AM.  But our landlord had warned us.  Today was the town of Broze’s (population of 100) annual Vide Grenier, or town-wide garage sale.  The day before we’d seen ‘stalls’ marked out along the roadside.  The one in front of our landlord’s house was number 27, which seemed like a lot!  But we’d walked up the hill and found that there were at least 58 planned stalls.  And our landlord had warned us that the sellers would, in their cars or trucks, be lined up at a restraining gate that happened to be just outside our bedroom window, from early in the morning.

So, 6:22 meant earplugs.  And back to bed till 8 am when we’d been told that customers were allowed to wander about.  So, we did.  At the edge of the selling streets, our landlord has set up an exhibit (for sale) of the paintings she does, along with items that friends of hers have asked her to try to sell.  And at first all of it (except the paintings) just looked like junk.  And a lot of it was.  Old cell phones.  Cuisinarts.  Used clothing and shoes.  Lamps.  Tables and other furniture.  Books.  Record albums (!).  Seriously, a lot of junk.  But, our landlord was right.  In all of it were also some interesting pieces that you could use to accent your house, that we could envision using to accent our house if we had one here.  Plus wine glasses and plates and lamps and other things to outfit a second home in the area.  So, we “got it”.  But, all we bought were croissants at the town hall.  I resisted a beer even though the keg was tapped at 9 am.

I can't help mentioning but one of the vendors has his dog pacing by his table.  We're tempted, sorely tempted, to ask if the dog is for sale...

Knowing we were heading back past Blagnac airport and hating/worrying about the mechanical condition of our rental car, we’d enlisted our landlord and her friends to help.  They’d had no success calling Hertz to tell them we’d wanted to swap cars.  But, they did translate our complaints about the car into French.  And, armed with both Bill’s and his wife Isabelle’s cell phone numbers, we stopped at Hertz on the way to their house. 

I over worried this one!  Even packed both Bill's and Isabelle's cell phone numbers in case I needed someone to lecture the Hertz agent in French.  I’d figured that at best we’d be out of there with a different car after demanding to speak to a manager and waiting through an hour of paper work.  And at worst they’d blame us for the mechanical problems and I’d be planning for a fight when we returned the car in a month.  BUT(!!!!!), we were in and out in 10 minutes.  They checked the car for scratches and handed us the keys to a new one.  Which I love. 

On to Chez Grayson for the remainder of the day. 

We get into a discussion with Robin about pastries.  I like chocolate.  And I'd learned that croissantes with chocolate inside (usually 2 narrow chocolate bars that run the length of the interior) were called "pain au chocolat" (bread with chocolate).  And down here in the south, I order them and receive them.  But, the preferred name is "chocolatine".  At the Graysons Robin explains to us that at his school there's a nearly daily debate amoung the students as to whether they're called pain au chocolate or chocolatine.

Oh, one other thing.  Bill & Isabelle served more cheese (recall, one of my very favorite things about France) with dinner.  And at the end of the evening packed it up for us to take with us – turned out that they’d gotten all the cheeses for me, knowing how much I’d appreciate it!!!  So, now we have a total of 9 different (9!), (different!) cheeses in our fridge here in Broze – enough to be the cheese tray of a reputable restaurant!  Bread and cheese and wine.  Our trip to France is complete…