Thank you Gabriel and Irène

Where do you end up when you  when you walk down an alley \

then down another, walled alley,

meet a black door with a white chalked 

arrow pointing right,

follow the trail to the corner of 

and 

and finally arrive here, at Gaby and Irène's home?

Irène and Gaby's Home

You end up walking into the heart

of hospitality and adventure.

Gaby and Irène, who speak no English,

 opened their home to my friends 

Steve and Mary, visiting here from Morocco,

 who speak no French.

Mary, Steve,Jude,Gaby and
 Irène behind the camera

Each morning around 8 a.m. Irène or Gaby would

call me to say their guests were up and

ready for breakfast. (doesn't anyone sleep

in?)    Down I would

walk, through the alleyways to arrive

at their home for fresh, chocolate

croissants and baguettes from the local

boulangerie served with several homemade

jams of Irène's and coffee.  Oh, and of 

course, translation.  I never thought I would

become the one to translate.  When the 

right words couldn't be found, charades 

saved the day.  I  often felt  like a ping pong

ball going back and forth across the table,

translating English to French and back again

to English.  One time, looking at Mary and speaking

in French, Mary said, "Jude, I speak English!"

Not only did our new friends generously welcome

us into their home, they also took us on a personally

guided tour of Metz.

Here are Mary and Steve standing in an archway

of the oldest Church's in France," St Pierre-aux-Nonnains, 

built between  380 and 395 CE as a Roman gymnasium and

converted into a Christian church in the 7th century."

http://www.eupedia.com/france/metz.shtml 

 

We ventured into crypt of the cathedral

in Metz where we met the Graouilly,

the fearsome dragon vanquished by

the sacred powers of Metz's first bishop,

Saint Clement

  .

We continued our walking tour of Metz

with our wonderful guides and finally,

after a lovely lunch in a restaurant

on Taison Street, where another

Graoully greeted us,

we made our way back to Lessy.

Driving back home Mary turned

to me and said, "Jude, we're in France."

Neither of us could have predicted that

when we met each other in Vermont a few

years ago we would have been visiting each other

in France just a few years later.

You never know what will happen

when you reach out your hand and

say, "Hi, I'm......"