News from Josette

I got a nice happy b-day email today from Josette, my French friend who lives in Turkey. She congratulated all of us on the new pregnancy and sent some pix from her recent travels.

Here she is with her son Bora, who is about 7, I think.



This is Josette's mother, and my French "Maman," Janine, who took me in for a summer when I was 17. She lives in Commercy, a small town in the Lorraine region of France that makes Madeleines - the little lemon cakes that Marcel Proust made famous. They are delicious!

She's over 80 now and still writes me long letters in her scrawling, nearly illegible French. She is one of the sweetest women I have ever met - she keeps up with pen pals all over the world.


This is Sarah, whom I met when she was about 5, that summer I lived with Josette and Janine. I always think of her as "La Petite Sarah" as we all called her then. She was the first completely bilingual child I ever met, having grown up in the UK to that point with French parents. She corrected my French with infinite patience and amazed me every day.

She lives in a tiny town in Northeast France now and just had her first daughter Erika. We send each other letters and pix from time to time.



Josette added this one for a laugh, asking me to guess which country it was. She was an au pair for a fabulous family in Copenhagen many years ago and I visited her there when I was living in France again during college.

I guess she and Bora made it back there for a visit to the Hans Christian Anderson Little Mermaid statue, which I remember and recognized immediately!