A little more about my host family:

Monsieur Bel’s first name is Jean-Pierre, and he’s the editor of the local paper.

This is the newspaper, La Nouvelle République. His column is on the bottom left corner of the front page; Madame Bel saves it for me so that I can read it.

I’m really embarrassed to admit this, but I don’t know Madame Bel’s first name – I always call her Mme Bel! The only reason I know that M. Bel’s is Jean-Pierre is because I’ve heard her call him by his first name, but I've never heard him say hers! Obviously, I’ve let this go on for far too long to fess up and ask her name, and the other American staying with the Bels doesn't know it either!

Mme Bel used to work when they were newly married and lived in Paris, but she doesn’t work anymore. She is always the first one up in the morning, and she eats breakfast with us every day. I see her reading a lot, and I believe she works in her flower garden every day. She cooks every night and goes out for fresh bread every day. She’s promised to teach me to make Quiche Lorraine tonight!

She also loves Sudoku and Lost! She told me that she was a little behind on Lost and asked if I could tell her what happened after they opened the hatch (!) – I told her she’d missed way too much for me to explain! She said her son is going to California next week for a wedding (he lived there a few years ago), and he’s promised to bring her the next season on DVD! She let me borrow her box set of Season 1 of 24, so I've been watching that in French.

The Bels have lived in their house in Tours for 18 years. She told me that after their children were grown and had moved out, they started hosting foreign exchange students from the Institute. She said it was either sell the house and move into a smaller house, or find a way to fill the rooms. I thought it was interesting (and very French) that they never even considering living in the big house alone… as if that weren’t even an option!

Here I am at dinner with the Bels. The weather has been nice lately, so we’ve been having dinner outdoors. M. Bel usually works in the evening, but this picture was taken on his day off, so he had dinner with us. He's been working a lot lately because of the elections in France.

They have three grown children: Fredérique, Yvan, and Auriane, and two grandchildren, Simon who is 8 and Marguerite who turned 4 yesterday – Marguerite means “daisy” in French.

One son is married with two small children and lives in Bordeaux, and the other is married and works and lives in Paris.

Their daughter, Auriane, is my age and is in her 2^nd year of her masters in French in Paris. She isn’t married but she’s got a PACS, which isn't a marriage, it's a "civil union" in France. I met Auriane the first weekend I arrived because she was in town visiting her parents, but I haven’t seen her since then. She told me that she taught one year of high school and hated it – she said it was too much discipline and not enough of the subject. She currently has an assistantship while she's working on her Masters and hopes to become a professor at a university. The Tuesday that she left, the Nutella disappeared, and Mme Bel told me that every time Auriane visits, the Nutella leaves with her because she loves it so much – do you think she's my French twin!

I had a L-O-N-G day of French language class today because we had to make up the hours we missed yesterday. I'm heading home to prepare for my Quiche Lorraine lesson!