well, i am feeling adequately recovered from Girls’ Weekend in Lyon to write a little today.  it might have been a little insane to take a weekend away immediately after returning from the US.  i am exhausted.  yesterday i came home from work and fell asleep in my work clothes while petting my cat.  i woke up a short while later, changed into sweat pants & tshirt, and fell asleep again.  i woke up again around 10:30, was up reading for around an hour, then fell asleep again.  i still LOOK tired, but am slightly less comatose today.

the weekend was great.  i rushed from work on thursday to my flamenco class, left class a few minutes early to run home all sweaty and grab my suitcase, then caught the bus.  i got to schiphol just in time to buy a sandwich before boarding the plane.  got off the plane just in time to catch the bus into lyon.  called annemette.  she met me at the bus stop and we were at her place by around midnight.  She had just baked some delicious heavy danish bread, and we sat around eating that with delicious French butter and talking until 3 am or so, when i couldn’t stop yawning enough to finish a sentence.

friday morning i woke up around 11am to find that annemette had already been out to the market.  when i got out of the shower, i was greeted by fresh croissants & baguettes, fresh pressed fruit juice, and a cafe au lait.  mmmmmmm……

eventually we stopped eating and made a foray to the supermarket, where i bought interesting food items to mail to my brother in law, whose name i drew in the feigal sibling’s xmas exchange.  then we went back to the apartment to drop them off.  out again for lunch:  a delicious salad with smoked duck and excellent cheeses and nuts.  a little more wandering and food shopping until it was time to go back to the apartment to prepare for the Ladies’ Night.  Annemette had invited 4 americans and 1 frenchwoman over for hor d’ouvres and champagne cocktails, danish main dishes, cheeses & desserts, and more drinking.

7 ladies in total.  the first went home around 11ish – she has teenage daughters.  the 2nd went home a little bit later – she has 2 jobs and has to work through the fete lumiere all weekend.  one more left around 3ish.  one of the husbands showed up around then, also smashed.  he, his wife, and the other one went home around 4:30.  we were not sure they’d make it down the stairs safely.  🙂  annemette and i cleaned up and got to bed around 5:30.

we didn’t make it up in time for the market on saturday.  so when we finally did get up, we wandered over to the christmas market, which was actually wonderful.  lots of artisanal foods and professional quality crafts.  we bought a few food items, did some more grocery shopping, wandered the town a while, checked out a bit of the fete lumiere exhibits, then went back to the apartment for a night of movies and gluttony.  yum.

gluttony items:  leftovers from night before (sausages, shrimp/crawdad appetizer, olives), breads with fois gras, fig compote & butter, chocolate gooey-centered cakes, ice cream with creme du marron, and i must be missing something.  the little table between the sofas was overflowing.  movies:  the illusionist, zwarteboek, the first wives’ club.

went to bed around 2:30ish.  woke up the next morning just in time to head off to the airport.  altogether, a really nice weekend!!!