Red sky at night, Pirates delight

The night before we left for music camp was one of the most beautiful summer evenings we'd seen thus far in France. Luckily, too, since I, Malcolm, spent much of it out in the streets of Paris with my father searching for my lost sister Stella who had decided to watch the sunset from a different roof...

My brother Henry stayed home to console our Mom as SHE watched the sunset behind the Eiffle tower from Stella's bedroom window. He wiped her teary eyes and held her shaking hand.

Despite Stella's absence, our road trip to Dijon the next day was a pleasure even if Henry had to push the rent-a-car to get us underway!


And music camp was great! I played volleyball and Henry played ping-pong and we went swimming in another lake! Oh, and of course, we also played a little trumpet and violin from time to time. But no photos of our concert on Saturday because Mom forgot the camera and battery. When it was all over - two hours of chamber music and orchestra! - we sped to the train station with much cussing and shouting done by Mom, the driver, but Papa missed his train back to Paris nonetheless and had to wait two hours for the next one! Well, he had all his books with him and he's a patient guy, so there was no real harm done.
We were super hungry and when we finally saw the Golden Arches floating over the suburban sprawl of Dijon, Henry shouted out "Rivendell! We're saved!" And here's a picture of our McDonald's fare!


And we ate it ALL, down to the last pit! (And washed our dishes and put them away neatly - for the pleasure of John's eyes!


It was a good beginning to our two-day vacation in Manas, village of Drôme. Stay tuned for more of our adventures after station identification!