Diane gets to speak a few words!

Diane reporting: I would just like to say first of all Jaime has done a wonderful job selecting the three hotels we have stayed in from Aix, to Toulouse to Paris. Each hotel was a unique, boutique hotel with amenities and plenty of closet space. We always had a mini bar, some had incredible river views, and one even had a shower curtain!! The French have a lot to learn from our showers- they do have excellent flushing toilets. Seriously though, except in Aix where the mini bar was free because the hot water was NOT, Jaime gets an A+ for her efforts. We were fortunate to stay in both Jonathan's apartment in Geneva and the Le Bras home in Tours. Now, that was a most interesting home and they were so generous to have us stay there. Alain, Dany's long time live in boyfriend, built many parts of the house, including a staircase that came from Paris. He also built counters in the pharmacy that Dany owns with her ex-husband, Bernard. They had a delightful dinner the first night in their home and then took us to lunch in Tours today. I especially enjoyed getting to know Margaux, the bubbly 17 year old daughter. Today as we arrived in Paris we were greeted by their two older daughter's Marie and Pauline. We will spend the afternoon tomorrow with all of them. As Jaime said tonight we enjoyed the Jewish quarter and tomorrow we are visiting the Rodin Museum, a favorite to our late cousin Irene Nemirovsky. I would also like to say that this trip has been exhausting for Jaime as she had to think and speak in French and English. I am so impressed by her expertise, she spoke with strangers on the train (ok, I did teach her NOT to speak with strangers) but her French was so good, we arrived everywhere and she was successful buying all of the train tickets, making phone calls, exchanging money, ordering in restaurants. My gosh, I hardly spoke this entire trip. Ok, it almost midnight in Paris and I must get my beauty sleep. Every night we go to bed watching Law and Order in French! Porquoi? I don't know why-I can't understand anything! Au revoir. Tomorrow it is going to duplee (rain) c'est la vie! We have schlepped a big umbrella all over France, at least we won't get wet! To be continued a demain...