Madame

Life Lessons from Madame

-       Don’t use make-up, just wash your face with water & marseillaise soap

-       Exercise! She still rides her bike every morning in the summer!

-       Be curious in life

-       Watch your spending & budgeting

-       To cure a sore throat: 1) get a handkerchief or towel 2) pour some alcohol on it 3) sprinkle some pepper on that 4) tie it around your neck & sleep with it on. Sore throat should be gone in the morning!!

-       …more to come over the next few months!

* Madame is my landlady, or “propriétaire”. There are four floors in our apartment building; the first is a Lebanese Restaurant, the second two are Madame’s apartment, and the top is our little home! She’s lived in Nîmes for about 60 years, and grew up about 50 or 60 kilometers outside of the city. She’s got the full southern accent, and even knows a bit of langue d’oc (the old regional language down here that very few people speak now: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langue_d%27oc). She’s super sweet, and says that she’s our “grand-mère française” for the year. She loves telling us stories about her travels, family, food & past rent-ers. She can’t speak any English, can understand (but not speak) German, and speaks a bit of Spanish. We’ve had two fabulous, long dinners with her & been down a few times for tea or dessert. I think at some point we’re going to surprise her with a dinner, maybe cook some semi-American dishes.