Aicha at the cafe which, for an hour or so, let me do my blog. She's carefully editing it. I love this picture. 'Oh, Grandma, the word for whipped cream is chantilly".


Meanwhile Khaldia reads the sports pages. Djelloul, I know you'll smile at this. They had a thrilling time seeing the English cup together once.



Meanwhile, EN is affectionately stretching the limits of Dragon's tail. Sad to report he lost part of it yesterday, after 1000 slaps of swirling it on the sidewalk. Amazing creature. She tied it on. Good as new.




The beach scene at St. Georges. It's all family. All sweet fun.





Khaldia's photo of the view from our balcony.

We stopped at the cyber cafe before the zoo. EN wanted to check on the dollar/euro values. Better than Paris, but not by much. She's the keeper of the purse, and we depend on her for all transactions. She is incredibly responsible.

While waiting for them to finish, I took these shots of the streets of Royan. There's the cafe.

Here's a woman hanging clothes out on her balcony. No one has dryers except the rich and the laundramats.

This is the post man. He tried delivering a letter, it wouldn't go into the slot. He shrugged and biked off to the next house.

This family came out of the doorway across from me. I could see a hall and some bikes. The older boy had a unicef tee shirt! He took the stroller from his mom, fondled the hair of his little brother and waited for his mom before they took off. Vacation time is family time. I saw dads playing with their little girls on the beach, tossing a ball, moms playing with their teenage sons, an adolescent boy hanging his arm over his mom's shoulderand giving her an affectionate peck before running off to talk to his dad. There's commercialism, in all the sites for kids, the theme parks and all, but it all means the kids are cared for. I met an American in St George, after buying my bagettes, and he said "kids are king here.So taken care of." He was an art teacher in CA and fell in love when he was here as a soldier long ago. He said in his broken french, 'you are the most beautiful girl in the world, only the word he used for 'world' was 'trash can'. He says he looks over the wall of the cemetary each time he passes where she's buried, and his place is next to hers. A cheerful man and he's engaged in politics with his california children.

We've loved the sunsets. Aicha's carefully recording one.

With EN's suggestions.

Also needed by Khaldia.

Ah, the bike ride. So many wonderful trails by the beach. Here's where you peddle by the boats, on the way to the path on the side of the shoreline sidewalk, streching on for miles.

This is my favorite part of the path. I went a couple of times early in the morning, spotted an egret in the low tide, loved the light on the cliffs and the town.

Fleur de France. Aicha took these. I don't know half of them.

And the flowers spilling out of the town plaza in St. Georges. Also by Aicha.

Now I'm sitting in the cybercafe in Royan for the last time. Girls are intensely working on computers, Khaldia is her incredible patient self, reading a magazine. The train leaves for Paris in 30 minutes, so lets see what I can manage to get on. It's a lovely, sunny day, but misty this morning. Aicha had wanted to do a wondrous obstacle course at the pine woods at the edge of the beach this morning, and I got up early to do my study, then wake her up. She said she'd rather sleep, so to help out Khaldia I went to clean out the car. The mourning doves, or the french version, were singing away. Only they don't sing the poignant 'Oh, why why why?' the way ours do. It's a relentless bon JOUR you, bon JOUR you. bon JOUR you. bon JOUR you. The air is clean and sweet. I passed hollyhocks and so many other flowers in bloom, and said hellow to the pale blue ocean and pale sky. Unfortunately, I did a good sweeping out and locked the key in the car.

Made things a little tense, but we cleaned up the apartment, packed, the girls got dressed and ready and helped, then the tow truck pulled up with a tall arab and his two pre-teen son, who strode to the ford, expertly eased the window open with black balloons, and voila! No prob.

So here we are. The church bells at the protestant center just rang 2pm. Soon the big cathedral bells will follow. I don't know who's behind or who's ahead, but it always makes me smile.

Aicha will now edit my post, and we'll be off. Much love to all,

Aicha, Emma Nour, Diane and Khaldia.

Here's the photos from the day before the zoo trip, and some extra thoughts about France.