Today was by far, our favorite day so far. With all of the experiences we’ve had and places
we’ve been so far, our hearts were glad but not yet full. Today, our hearts were full.
A few days before we left for our trip we found out that a
friend from about 16 years ago was in France with his family. Interestingly enough, Sarah, Jerome’s wife
and I have been chatting on Facebook for a number of years but have never met
in person. Shawn and I met Jerome when
he briefly lived in San Jose and came to our church. Jerome was pretty cool and quickly became a
central part of our college church group.
Shawn swears that we spent a lot of time together during his
brief time in San Jose, and he still laughs about Jerome and I being very
similar people in male/female form, respectively. One of Shawn’s favorite stories is about
walking into Jerome’s room for the first time – it was nearly the exact same
room as mine at the time (same color on the walls, same central poster on the
wall, and same desk)…. What are the odds?
He also notes that our personalities were pretty similar………to be honest,
I don’t remember that our personalities were so similar, but I do remember that
our rooms were almost identical upon seeing it for the first time. I remember both Shawn and I getting along
really well with Jerome, but then again he’s a pretty easy guy to get along
with. ;)
Fast-forward until a couple of weeks ago when we found out
we would be in France at the same time.
We chatted for a bit on FB about meeting up, and we were able to make it
happen. It’s funny because we live
merely a few states away, but it took traveling halfway across the world to
meet up.
Jerome and Sarah’s cousin made reservations at a private
beach so we could meet up. They had to
drive an hour to get there, and Shawn and I had to navigate our way around Toulon
in order to meet up. It was soooo worth
it. Sarah, Jerome’s wife is awesome, and
so are their kids. And I can’t forget
his cousin Frederick – he’s amazingly patient, and has such a great spirit to
him. But enough gushing – you get the
point. They are all pretty cool.
Back to the start of our day………
We got off the boat having not booked any form of
transportation. The cruise ship wanted
around twenty euros per person to get from the place where we docked to the
city center area. I had talked to a
person on the cruise ship earlier in the week and asked if we *needed* to book
the cruise line’s private water taxi for a million dollars. The woman we spoke with said no, but in order
to get to the city center we would need some form of transportation. I wanted to wing it, and talked to Shawn
about taking a ground taxi if worse comes to worse.
As we exited the boat we talked to an information center
that gave us direction to a water taxi that costs merely two euros a piece –
score! So we walked about a mile to the
water taxi stop and boarded a boat. But
not before meeting a very nice gentleman who is a member of the military in
France (reserves) who was called back for a period of two years. It’s been about a year and a half so far and
he’s hoping he can move back to the United States where his 8 year old son is
located. He said that life in France is
great, but he missed the US like crazy (my words, not his). He worked along the Eastern Seaboard from New
York to near Florida doing various sea-worthy things, and trying to find work
in France was a bit difficult. We also
talked about the differences in our education systems and how he felt like the
US was a bit more behind – I agreed.
Shawn agreed more. But enough
about that.
We exited the taxi and used our GPS to guide us the 2
kilometers to the beach where we were meeting our friends. Since we hadn’t eaten that morning we stopped
at a local bakery and grabbed a croissant.
It was crispy on the outside, and buttery and soft on the inside. So perfect. We kept walking and passed by a supermarket,
and walked in to grab a bottle of water.
Again, we continued on our way.
If I haven’t mentioned it before, the climate here is hot
and humid. But more humid than hot. And guess what affects me more than anything
(making me feel sick, and quickly dehydrates me)? That’s right – humidity. It’s always affected me poorly, but this is
ridiculous. So dang hot, and you sweat
as soon as you walk outside.
After grabbing our water we arrived at the location where we
were meeting our friends. We checked in
and waited for a short time before our friends arrived. They lathered up the kiddos with sunscreen,
and off into the water they went. Sarah,
Jerome, Frederick, Shawn and I chatted for a while, trying to catch up after 16
years. It was a bit difficult,
especially since Shawn and I were a bit more reserved. We were in another country, and I’ve been
overly concerned with not offending anyone or being *that* loud American, so I’ve
been a little held back on our trip. I’m
trying to be sensitive. Perhaps overly
sensitive, I guess. But better to be
overly sensitive than to be considered another loud and rude American.
We had a lovely lunch after playing in the water, then Shawn
and I needed to find our way back to the water taxi so we could make it to the
ship before it left us. We parted ways,
said our goodbyes and walked off. Shawn
and I immediately decided that we needed to go out to Colorado and visit Sarah,
Jerome and kiddos because meeting in France for a few hours wasn’t nearly
enough time to catch up. So I sent Sarah
a message and let her know that we wanted to come out there soon to visit for a
long weekend. She suggested an Air BnB,
which we think is a fabulous idea. We
can’t wait to see them again.
By far, our favorite day so far on our trip. Meeting up with old friends, their super
awesome kids, and really cool cousin was a great experience. Getting together stateside where we can be
more of ourselves I think will be good…..and I can’t wait.
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