Rory has been home from his French exchange trip for a couple of weeks now and it dawned on me that I hadn’t told you all how he’d got on. Time to put that right.
As he left in the minibus which was taking them to St Pancras I was rather fragile. This wasn’t helped when one of the dads mentioned to the driver that the small ‘jockey’ wheel, on the trailer transporting their luggage, wasn’t properly hooked up and would have probably burst if our friend hadn’t spotted it. This put the wind up me, as you can imagine, as I now began to think other things hadn’t been fixed properly. Once I’d received the text saying they’d reached St Pancras I could breathe a little easier and let the train take the strain.
We had agreed that Rory should text us once a day to tell us his news. This daily text went something like this:
“Am at JP’s house. Family seem nice. Lots of cats.”
“In Avignon today. Really hot. Nice place.”
“Aix en Provence very pretty town. Bought some new drumsticks”
“Spent afternoon playing pool in Irish pub”
“Marseille today. Decided to wear my shorts. Turned cold :-P”
“Went to house of girlfriend of another French boy. Climbed really big hill”
“Slept all morning then had a nap in the afternoon. Going for meal out later”
“Great meal last nt in gastropub. V busy then realised it was St Patrick’s Day. LOL”
“Can you pick me up in ten minutes?”
I think those messages sum up his week quite succinctly.
He returned home happy, with a light tan and, thankfully, keen to tell us all about the trip. His case had been neatly packed, there were no hideous surprises and, as it was Mother’s Day, he handed me a bar of soap he’d bought at a local soap factory. ‘Yeah,’ he said, ‘our teacher gave us the nudge that we should all probably buy our mums something from the factory shop so here you are.’ Lavender. Not my favourite scent, if I’m honest, but hey it’s the thought that counts, or, at least, the thought of his French teacher. Merci beaucoup, Monsieur.
I wonder if French maman went through the same palpitations as you about food and what to do with him before he came.
I think she played fairly safe with pizza, sausages and omelettes which were apparently better than mine. JP's mum works very long hours so the boys usually sorted their own breakfasts out. As to activities, there was only one day which wasn't pre-organised by the school and that was the day he slept!
Great text, succinct and to the point although there does seem to be an Irish theme running. I love his sleeping day, oh to be a teenager again…
I think Rory would love every day to be a sleeping day. Easter holidays begin today so I suspect he won't emerge before noon each day.
Hey! That's way more texts than I ever get! Thats positively chatty in teen speak! Glad it all went well. I had given up hoping for the update, I'm pleased you go around to it đ
I had to be careful not to push it and ask too many questions in return!
Apologies for delay in post. I got carried away with going to London on my own little jaunt I totally forgot I hadn't written anything about the lad's trip to France!
Wow – those texts are long. I usually get "yup" and initials that I don't understand from the Man-Child!
He was under strict instructions not to just type 'k' for 'okay' as he knew I would just pester him for more info!
At least you heard from him Trish… my son went skiing in Italy in February and turned his phone off for the entire trip – I only managed to speak to him when I phoned another mum who phoned her daughter who traipsed down the mountainside to hand him her phone….feel exhausted and stressed just thinking about it…
Oh Lottie, I would have been beside myself. Well done you for working out a way to contact him.
Great to see him back I'll bet. Lavender is not for me either but at least you did get a gift.
I shall cherish the bar of soap…or, at least, I'll shove it in my knicker drawer!
It was fab to have him back. Just love him.
Drumsticks? I assume we're not talking along the lines of a Royale with cheese?
I'm sure he had one of those sometime that week but these were proper wooden ones for banging on drums (his hobby!) I thought he might have chosen a nice authentic souvenir from Provence but the sticks were made in Boston, USA.
His texts are great. At least he bought you something useful and not a hideous pierrot doll thing đ
Oh yes, I remember the story of your exchange girl haha!
Gosh that's positively garrulous for a teenage boy! When our son went camping in Wales with school (aged13) every text was about how much he hated a particular teacher – nothing about the activities! (oh and I love Lavender…)
You want some soap?
I like the idea of requiring one text per day. Son#2 has been on Spring Break for the past week and it's bad enough keeping track of him right here in town. He will be flying to London with a group from his school in late May and I'm going to institute the 1- text requirement. Glad Rory had a good time and -even if it was a suggestion from the French teacher – it must have been such a nice surprise to get a Mother's Day gift!
The one text a day rule certainly worked. It often needed a text from me first to put it into operation, but at least he replied!
Jean-pierre's mum had also wrapped up a bottle of local wine for us – that was most welcome too.
Did all you mums get identical bars of soap? They may have got a bulk order discount. In fact you may get another one next year… and the year after…. Tee hee. Best to learn to luv the lavender!! (Norfolk Lavender is my favourite hand cream don't you know…. it even used to reduce my fibre-glass rashes in the good old model-making days!!)
Will have to check with the other mums, maybe we can do swapsies. Have been to Norfolk Lavender near Heacham but still not keen. I'm sure it's lovely on you, missus!
I saw your comment in my emails but it's taken ages to appear.
Straight to the point, love the texts… and the bar soap story! Glad that he had such a great time. xx
PS: did his French improve?
Well he's not exactly parler vousing round the house but surely he must have learned a little bit?! I live in hope.