Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Last night after we went shopping we pretty much just hung out in our room. Valeria, Joel, and I napped, and then in the evening we went downstairs and hung out and talked to people in the salon. There's another girl here named Flabiola, who's from Peru, and right before dinner Lucé returned from Belgium. Lucé is Canadian, but born in Mexico, and she'd already been staying here. Mathias did his puzzle that Valeria had brought, and we watched some of Charmed, which was really strange because it was dubbed into French.

Then we had dinner, which was interesting with everyone at the table. I'm not really sure how we're going to fit twelve people in that dining room, but I'm sure we'll manage. Xavier had made a chocolate cake for dessert, which was fantastic. Everyone was talking about the fact that it was supposed to snow last night, and they were all freaking out. It reminded me of Seattle, where the possibility of snow was the top headline on the news. We helped clean up, and went back upstairs. Mamie and Grant were supposed to come in last night, but their plane was delayed, so we didn't know when they would be here. I finally got to take a shower (yay, buying shampoo!), and even caught Gramma on the phone and talked to her briefly. Around midnight, Joel came to our room and we just kind of talked about internet fads and things.

I had a really hard time going to sleep, for some reason. I think it was because I'd napped longer than I intended. I finally got to sleep around 1:30 or 2:00 in the morning, but I woke up completely at 4:30, and then woke up a couple other times through the night. This morning I woke up around 9:00, but Valeria and I were both really tired. We were getting dressed and thinking about going downstairs, when the doorbell rang! Valeria and I both looked at each other in confusion for a second, and then she burst out with "Grant and Mamie!" and ran downstairs. I followed after, and sure enough it was them, arrived bright and early in the morning. With them had also come the snow; there was thin blanket of white over everything; maybe an inch, probably not even that much.

Poor Jacqueline and Mathias must have thought we were crazy; they came after us a bit later, still dressed in their pajamas. That was good, though, because neither of us knew where the new arrivals were supposed to go. Turns out Grant and Aaron are sleeping on the third floor as well, and Mamie is on the second. All of the bedrooms have specific names, which is adorable. Valeria and I are in Les Marguerites, Grant and Aaron are in Les Pigeonniers, and Mamie and Sierra are in La petite Marie. Joel's by himself, so his room doesn't have a name that I know of. Flabiola is also on the third floor, on the other side of the water closet. I have no idea where Lucé's room is.

After Grant and Mamie had gotten settled a little bit, and we had talked and shared stories, we all went downstairs for breakfast. Mathias didn't have school today (apparently French kids don't on Wednesdays) and Jacqueline was home from work, so she told us that she could take us on a little tour of Tours. We finished, cleared the table, got ready, and headed out into winter!

She took us a different way than we had gone yesterday, through the little streets and older parts of Tours. We went by the Musée des Beaux Arts, and the Cathédral de Tours, and then went through what is apparently the antiques district to get to the Théâtre Municipale, or the City Theatre. After that we headed more towards the Rue Nationale, which is full of stores and boutiques, and that led us straight to the Loire river. That whole part of the city was bombarded during WWII, so it's all been rebuilt and is fairly modern. Tours is apparently a city in three parts, divided by the Cher river and the Loire. Le Nonante and everything we've seen so far is in Tours-Centre, the middle part of the city. We took some pictures, and Jacqueline took a picture of the four of us, where I look pretty much translucent.

After the river, we turned and went through another older district, built in the 13th century (or something like that; I didn't quite catch what Jacqueline told me). It was amazing; I think I could spend entire days just taking pictures of the architecture in this city. We found a Monoprix, which is a supermarché where I was able to buy some slippers to wear inside the house. The staircase is old and kind of slippery; Joel fell down most of the bottom flight yesterday, so we've all been treading with trepidation since then. Hopefully with the slippers it won't be so treacherous.

We walked back to the house, and Jacqueline was helping me orient myself. I think I pretty much understand Tours-Centre, at least, and with a map I shouldn't have any problems at all. I might restrict more ranging to when it's not so wet out, though; my socks and the bottoms of my pants are soaked, and my feet were half-frozen by the time we got back to the house.

Since then, we've been hanging out still. We can hear Mathias playing in the house; he is so ridiculously adorable. Mamie gave him a little hamster toy that scoots around, and we can hear him playing with it. I really kind of want a nap, but I know it'll just make me tired again tomorrow. Such a conundrum. :P