Last night we were invited to the home of the Le Bihan family for dinner. André and Isabelle Le Bihan are friends of Dave's parents, and when they heard we were living in France they promptly called with a dinner invitation.
We knew nothing about André and Isabelle other than the fact they have 6 children who are always smiling and perfectly dressed in the family's annual Christmas photo. We were a little uncomfortable with the blind date nature of the situation, but hey, pourquoi pas.
Fifteen minutes before we were scheduled to the leave the apartment for dinner, I flipped through a book on French culture. There was an entire chapter on dinner parties, and the first thing I spotted was "Don't bring flowers". What?? I already had an armful of flowers and was halfway out the door.
Oh well, we piled into the car with the flowers anyway and drove half an hour to the cute little town of Le Mesnil Le Roi. Tom Tom didn't know exactly where the house was on their street, so we parked the car and began walking. Suddenly, from a house at the end of the road, we heard "yoo hoo!" and people began pouring into the street.
Almost the entire family met us in front of the house and introduced themselves. As we all walked closer to the house, two little boys ran up to greet us. The youngest ran right up to Dave and thrust his arms into the air. Dave looked down at him and said "hello!" The boy continued to hold his arms up and I said "Up, Dave! Up!" Dave obligingly picked him up, and the boy climbed onto him, arms and legs wrapped around his body, and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Then he said "Paul!" and climbed back down. It was the cutest thing in the world, I wish I had a picture.
The Le Bihan family was extremely kind and hospitable. André and Isabelle spoke near perfect English, and their oldest children were quite good as well. They have a beautiful house on a hill overlooking Paris and the Eiffel Tower. Crystal, chandeliers, complicated place settings...I was a little out of my element.
True to French form, we had pre-dinner drinks, then a soup starter, then a wonderful dinner followed by a cheese course, dessert, and coffee. The meal took about four hours.
During the course of the evening André mentioned that he and Isabelle were aged right between our parents and ourselves. This shocked both of us. We really considered them to be in the same generation as our parents, and considered ourselves to be in the same generation as their kids. I felt kind of uneasy (old) and wondered where all the kids were anyway? They were all off watching a movie or doing homework, leaving the adults to their peaceful dinner. Yikes.
Isabelle was the model of a modern French woman: she was stylishly dressed (great shoes), made an in intricate meal look effortless, and helped her oldest daughter with calculus homework in between courses. Amazing.
Eventually the oldest daughter, Anne-Cécile, brought her English homework out for me to read over. I was embarrassed to say that I didn't know some of the answers. It's a good thing she didn't bring me her calculus homework.
We left just past midnight and raved all the way home about the Le Bihan family. Such nice people, such a great meal and beautiful house, and what nice kids!
