A day in France - another very memorable first!

On Thursday, June 2nd, we took a day trip to France, partly to get to experience France, but most of all, we wanted to give Tiffany an opportunity to try speaking in French since she has taken 3 years of it so far in high school. We set out early morning, after taking the children to school, and drove to the quaint little towns of Ainhoa, Sare, and finished the day in the largest of the three, St. Jean du Luz. We strolled the unique streets. Many of the shops were closed when we arrived....schedules are very different here....most stores close for several hours in the afternoon, except restaurants. They have long lunch "hours"....... I don't even think that term is in their vocabulary because it is way longer than an hour! (We are enjoying this culture, though. Much slower pace than the USA.) To curb our appetites and hold us over to the larger midday meal, we stopped for coffee and Basque pastries in the second little town before venturing to St. Jean du Luz where we spent the remainder of the day. Most stores were closed when we got there, but we enjoyed window shopping and strolling the quaint streets, enjoying the ambience! Tiffany wasn't afraid to speak with the people in the shops where we made purchases. She also helped us navigate the menu at a very French outdoor restaurant where we ate our big meal for the day. I even tried out a phrase that I learned from a restaurant we went to often while in London. It is called 'Pret A Manger' which means "ready to eat", so when our waiter served us our food I said that phrase and he smiled and replied, "Oui!" I guess he understood me! 😊 With trying to learn words from four different languages, sometimes the language we know best gets all jumbled up. Today, when I asked Darrel a question about something, his reply was "Go,.....(pause) ....do." 😄 It has given us a greater appreciation for what Jason, Emily, and their kids experience on a daily basis. They are navigating the three languages amazingly well, just within a year's time. (English, Basque, & Spanish) It has been good to experience that firsthand and motivates me to learn another language..but it would take moving to another country....hmmmmmmmmm!!! 😉 Agur!