Tuesday.  We relaxed today.  We know when we get to Paris for the last few days of our trip we will not relax so we are taking advantage of our time here.

First off we went to the bakery (of course) and came home for breakfast.  Let me tell you how much we're going to miss doing that every day!!!

David has befriended the woman at the bakery, Marie, and the woman at the news stand, Carine, and they have been very helpful to him (and me) while we've been here.  Marie is always very patient with David speaking French and never tries to rush him.  Carine speaks very good English and we've both enjoyed talking to her.  She receives one copy of the International New York Times daily and for the last few weeks has saved it for David every day.  The kindness of the people in this town is unmatched!  Anyway, I tell you this because David decided he wanted to get bouquets of flowers for Marie and Carine to thank them.  After breakfast we walked over to one of the gorgeous flower shops here to order them.  The owner speaks no English so David really had to work hard to order the flowers but it worked out great!  

I'm sorry I do not know the names of flowers but the bouquets were gorgeous.  The one for Carine was ready first so we took it over to her when we went to buy the newspaper.  She was so surprised she was in tears!  That made David and me tear up so it was quite the scene.  We just wanted her to know that her extra efforts on our behalf made our stay here that much better!

The second bouquet was ready later in the afternoon so we picked it up and took it to Marie.  She, too, was very surprised and very pleased.  She displayed it on her counter and it looked very pretty.  She came out from behind the counter and gave us bisous.  Exchanging bisous (kisses) is such an important part of the French culture so we felt very French!

We wiled away the afternoon.  David took a nap and I watched a movie on Netflix.  I must say it's been fun watching some "girl movies" and resting on the days we stay home.  We had invited Claire and Douglas out for dinner at the Chinese restaurant so we waited to hear from them.  They had been in Italy for a few days so we weren't sure if they were going to join us for dinner or not.

Claire knocked on our door around 7:00 p.m. to let us know they were back in Saint Aignan and that they did want to have dinner with us.  David ran over to the restaurant to secure a table for us and we walked over together at 7:30 p.m.  One of the owners, Julie, has become very friendly with us and we enjoy going there for dinner.  They were quite busy (on a Tuesday night!) but she had a table set for us.

The food was delicious and the company even better.  Here are a few pictures of Claire and Douglas.  What fabulous people they are!!!  You can look at their faces and see how much fun they are!

When Julie delivered our bottle of wine, she gave us a present.  It was a wine bottle cover -- embroidered silk -- that she had brought back from Shanghai!  It is beautiful and we were really touched.

As usual, the Chef made David a vegetarian dish not on the menu.  It was beautiful and delicious.  He has really been spoiled there!

We had ice cream for dessert and called it a night.  Claire and Douglas were tired from traveling and David and I had one last adventure planned for Wednesday.