Yes, November is here as our parents' Henri Matisse wall calendar in the entrance hall shows explicitly. (We pirates - like our Papy - enjoy girly pictures. We tape them over our hammocks in the hold. We might have to take this one down there in January, class the place up a bit...) Novembre est arrivé, en effet, comme on peut le voir très explicitemnt grâce au calendrier mural Henri Matisse que nos parents ont accroché dans le couloir d'entrée... (Nous autres pirates - comme notre Papy - nous aimons regarder les photos de belles filles en petite tenue. Nous les accrochons audessus de nos hamacs dans la cale du navire. Faudra peut-être qu'on pense à ajouter celle-ci à notre collection dès janvier, histoire de remonter un peu le niveau...)
But, let's get back on track here. It was very early Sunday morning when Papa and I - Henry that is - left for Haguenau on the 25th of October.
A ce moment-là, le calendrier mural nous donnait d'autres corps nus en spectacle mais je les trouve moins beaux que Miss Novembre. Et vous?
That was the day daylight savings time went into effect but, since Mom and Papa are pretty out of it sometimes, they forgot to put their clocks back and they got me up an hour too early. Papa likes arriving early at the station but this time even he was surprised! We had to wait till the clock said 6:30 before we could board the train...
C'était le jour où on gagnait une heure...oui, une heure d'attente pour moi à la Gare de l'Est... Papa - comme Papy - aime arriver à l'avance à la gare, mais cette fois-ci notre heure d'avance l'a surpris autant que moi!
Everybody on the train was pretty tired, except Papa.
Tous les passagers à part Papa étaient épuisés!
Quand même, l'arrivée à Haguenau m'a réveillé pour de bon!
Outre ses trains si pittoresques,l'Alsace peut aussi être fière de ses jolies petites maisons et de ses fleurs!
Papa and I went looking...
...Papa et moi sommes partis à la recherche d'autres trésors encore...
...and, among other jewels, we found some good occasions for trick photography...
...cette sculpture nous a inspiré.
Here's the church. Here's the steeple...
Voici l'église avec son clocher...
And we found a museum too!
...voici le musée...With a fabulous wrought iron gate! I snapped a photo for Mom who likes wrought iron!
...avec sa belle grille en fer forgé!
We spent twenty-five minutes there as you can tell if you look closely at these two clocks (that's plenty enough time for a museum in the provinces, don't you think?)...
Nous y avons passé vignt-cinq minutes comme vous pouvez le constater si vous regared de près ces deux horloges....
But what we like most about going to Haguenau is...Mais ce qu'on aime le plus à Haguenau, c'est...
Mamy! 
(And seeing Papy and our cousins, Alban and Simon too. ) This is Alban (with Mamy busy in the background).
(Et Papy aussi, bien sûr, et nos cousins Alban et Simon aussi! Avec eux, nous amusons toujours très bien!)
We do all sorts of fun stuff with our Papy and our cousins, like...
...play pool!Here's Alban again!
Head honcho at Mamy's Place, Haguenau's amazing shrinking pool hall.Voici Alban. Videur en chef de Chez Mamy, la meilleure salle de billard miniature de Haguenau!
Papy took Alban, Atlas and me to the forest of Haguenau (most square feet of woods available anywhere in France!).
Papy m'a amené en forêt avec Alban et Atlas. (nota bene : Parfois, quelques petites contre-verités se glissent dans nos récits afin de tenir le lecteur en éveil.)
Who's Atlas, you're wondering?
Katie the Beagle meet Atlas! He's another lab.Voici Atlas. Le chien d'Alban et Simon.
The fall forest was beautiful...
La forêt était très belle avec ses couleurs automnales. Et, savez-vous ce que nous y avons trouvé?
...and, guess what we found?
A yeti wearing a Malcolm mask and Malcolm shoes for Halloween!Un yeti déguisé en Malcolm pour Halloween!
But Halloween! That'll have to be another post!
Mais Halloween fera l'objet d'un deuxième récit!
Welcome back to Paris!
ReplyDeleteThe photos and story are, as always, wonderful. Thanks.
It's nice to see a picture of your Mamy and cousin Alban, and of another great black lab in the extended family, Atlas. Next time, try and get a shot of Papy and Simon too.
Ah the woods in the fall... Here too the trees were spectacular in October.
I'm looking forward to Part II, the story of your Halloween this year. Oh, and I'll send along a photo or two by e-mail of the pumpkins we carved. I must say though, Malcolm's pumpkin was awfully nice....
I go along with everything Monique said and want to add only a bit more pleasure at seeing the wonderful wrought iron gate and fence. But even more importantly, express my delight in still seeing Malcolm's blue shoes in such gleaming beauty worn by that yeti-masked impersonator...
ReplyDeleteI am a little puzzled by the Roman numbering on the first clock face; but I may not be seeing things quite right. For some time I've been quarreling with the way the numeral 4 is expressed on so many wristwatches as IIII instead of IV. You may well ask "what's the matter with her?"
But, yes, do tell about your Halloween doings.