There is the sun and moon
They sing their own sweet tune…
Moonlighting strangers
Who just met on the way
–from the ‘Moonlighting’ theme, by Al Jarreau
Painting: Bridge and Two Houses by Tom Vieth
Once upon a time there was a school teacher and an engineer who lived in Pittsburgh. One day The Engineer’s boss said, we’re sending you to France for nine months to help our French division in Burgundy sort out a problem.
The Girl from Pittsburgh spoke no French and had no dreams of living in France. She went to the internet and she googled “Americans in Burgundy”, which took her to Southern Fried French, and an email address.
“Help!” she wrote. “They’re sending us to some place called Tournus, do you know it?”
And it happened that Tournus is the nearest big town to the château. So I spoke to Nicole and Pierre about them, then I wrote back and told her the best thing they could do was to come live at the château. And so they did.
Tears were shed by all when their year of adventures ended, but they left us with beaucoup des souvenirs. The Girl from Pittsburgh wowed us by making the world’s longest baguette sandwich (10 feet!) for our French class, along with her visiting friends. She taught me to make some mean chicken enchiladas. She made us laugh the day she became a sassy shepardess and herded a flock of sheep with a golf umbrella, after they escaped their field and took over the château driveway. The Engineer amused us with stories of the cultural criss-crosses he encountered in supervising his French colleagues.
They taught me that you could take a thing that wasn’t your dream and shape it into something that happily changes your life just the same, by sprinkling a little American spirit on it. And they reminded me of a lesson I learn again and again, that an unexpected pleasure of blogging and following blogs is that you connect with, and sometimes meet, folks from all over whose paths might never cross but for shared thoughts on a wide web of many bridges. So thank you all, dear readers, friends, and fellow travelers. Life is sweeter since we met on the way.
You can read more about Belinda and Mark’s experiences—she kept a blog while they were at the château–at Sixty Steps in the Turret.
Favorite Reads: In the intriguing category, spotted on a bookshelf down south: The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted: A Novel
In the COMMENTS: SO interesting to hear what our readers, expats and others, have to say about their definition of 'home'. And Patricia, the French word for 'cozy' is indeed douillet. Per my French teacher, Nicole, it means cozy in the sense of a warm fuzzy blanket, for example, but would not be used to describe a home. For that the French often just borrow our Anglo word 'cozy' for themselves.
Our Reader's Blogs: Head south with Mary James en Provence. This week she takes us on a trip to the lovely Carmargue. And do visit our guest artist's site to see more of Tom Vieth's lovely French paintings.
15 thoughts on “Moonlighting Strangers”
Merci Lynn for the mention….I will be posting the next leg of that trip over the week-end. Thought I would do it today but ended up at IKEA in Toulon!!!
What a great story – so sweet Makes me want to move to France in hopes of living in a Chateau! What a fab experience for them!
Oh what a great read to start my day! Thank you for sharing!
Hi Lynn, what a great “blob” today! And a great segue to tell you that my husband and I will be staying in the studio at the chateau in Sept!! I discovered you in the Furman alum mag, so look what that led to! I look fwd to meeting you in person. Hope you will be there at that time!
Thank you for sharing your life there in Burgundy. Reading your blog is a nice respite that I look forward to every Friday. It’s the next best thing to being there.
Today’s story and pictures were moving. What a wonderful surprise for the couple from Pittsburgh!
Another great post. What a lovely story. BTW I made your granola recipe, using dried cranberries, and everyone loved it. (And I’ll be making a lot more to use up that box of very bland Weetabix!) Thanks!
Thanks for sharing Belinda’s blog this week. I so enjoyed seeing her beautiful photos and seeing some of the sights that we visited as well. I was lucky enough to meet her and Mark on our trip and remembered that they were originally from Kansas where my dad lived as a young man. During our chat we discovered that they lived only 5 minutes from the town where he was born! What a small world!!!
We will be having our final dinner with Monty and Ali this Saturday and will miss them terribly. However, we’ll look forward to their return this fall.
What a wonderful post today,Lynn!
THANK YOU!
How fortunate we are to become part of your Southern Fried French extended family! So much fun to exchange not only recipes but also life experiences!
Bon journee!
Lynn,
I totally agree with you about blogs like yours; they truly stretch our horizons; Facebook too. Thanks to both, plus some horseracing chats and seminars that I do, I have met so MANY friends – wonderful people whom I would otherwise never have known.
By the way, is there still a vacancy in the chateau?
Hi,
Just recently subscribed to your newsletter. I am a Survive France Network member living in Nice originally from Texas, former restaurateur in Paris and Nice and now slowly sliding into the first phases of retirement.
Opened up the first successful Tex Mex restaurant in Paris in 1978, and been here in France ever since, so I do as well have my share of fun stories.
A pleasure finding and reading you,
Frank
Lynn….What a lovely story – you share your “unexpected pleasures” of France with such humor and feeling, that it brings a
tear to my eyes. I never, ever thought that I would be happy and
proud that you have moved to France…so far away. Mickey
Bonjour, Lynn! I very much enjoy your blog and have introduced my self to you once before (my husband and I have a small “dream-come-true” apartment in Pommard) and am writing to you this time for some advice. My French is reasonably good, but I am anxious to improve both my skills and my confidence. Do you know of a local program or tutor that would allow me to have a week-long, intensive learning experience, and that would also be close enough to allow me to stay in my own apartment? I am looking to do this as soon as May. Any advice and connections would be most helpful. And, one of these trips, I will look forward to meeting you in person!
With best regards,
Carolyn
Lynn,
Thanks for the lovely passage about making room in your lives for Belinda and Mark during their year in Burgundy. What a dream to live in a chateau–I would be in my absolute glory! I look forward to reading Belinda’s blog about her year there.
I haven’t been to your blog in a long time but I look forward to catching up. I’m a regular at French-Word-A-Day which is where I found out about you. I love your stories and can’t wait to read posts I have missed! Thanks for bringing joy to your readers and sharing your incredible life. My husband and I visited Burgundy 9 years ago-I can’t believe it’s that long ago!!- on our first trip to France together (I had studied in Tours as a college student) and we fell in love with it. We stayed in Beaune which is a dream of a town and drove to local vineyards. We can’t wait to go back someday. I’ll have to pick your brain when the time comes.
Have a beautiful day!
Lynn,
What a great story! We’ve had a similar experience, although from the ‘other end.’ We’ve been following the blog of a young, Australian couple who are traveling Europe in a motorhome, http://www.technomadics.net. We live part of each year on our canal barge, Après Ski, which is currently is Bourgogne. When we realized that the Technomads’ motorhome was going to be within a few hours drive of us, we proposed that we all meet up. They kindly diverted about 3 hours out of their route to take a cruise with us. What fun! We made new friends ‘in person’ and had a delightful afternoon cruise.
Blogging certains brings people of similar minds and interests together — a great combination!
Take care!
PS Apologies if this posted twice — I got an error the first time.
I haven’t heard Al Jarreau’s music in a while. I think he was at a recent jazz festival in my area ( and when I say recent, I mean in the last few years) but I was not able to attend. He has a nice style and I usually enjoy his songs.
Right now there are a lot of talented people who sing and play jazz, including Monty Alexander. It’s good that so many of the people who have made a significant contribution to this style of music are actively participating in bringing the music to a wider audience of both older and younger listeners.