We arrived in les Sables d’Olonne at about 1:30pm. The communication had been practically nonexistent between us and M. Gustin, who was setting up our arrangements, so we were relieved when we saw a lady in her 60s waving the Louisiana flag at us. Her name is Monique Chos. She scooped us up and brought us to where we were staying. I had a rough idea of where Sables d’Olonne was before we arrived, but I had no idea we would be on the beach!
The house I stayed in is beautiful and belongs to the Parrins who are neighbors of Mme Chos. The house smelled faintly like my great grandmother’s dollhouse. Unfortunately though, the room I am stayed in smelled a little like cat pee. Then we left and went to Mme Chos’s house where Hayley would be sleeping. After leaving our things, we were off for lunch. Apparently the signature dish in Bretagne is…crepes! Finally! Our first crepes in France. The place she took us to was next to the beach with a beautiful view! Hayley ordered a Popeye crepe that had spinach and ham and cream, and I ordered a crepe with salmon, chives, and cream. SO GOOD! It was the best crepe I’ve ever eaten! It was around this time though that we were starting to realize that the people here knew nothing about us, why we were in France, or where we will be living. People elsewhere have been really accommodating to our language limitations, but it seemed like the people we met there were not so keen to our limitations and tended to use words we were unfamiliar with and spoke quickly. Annabelle, my hostess in Valenciennes, is quite the opposite. She has a very kind nature and willingness and ability to slow down and make us understand. 
We had the afternoon to ourselves, and we explored a little and just soaked up the sun and watched the tide come in. Then we got ready and went to the congrès dinner. We all met by the port. We were waiting to board a ship when all of a sudden about 5 sailboats arrived adorned with American flags. They circled for about five minutes then sailed off to the applaud of the French who love America. Then the boat arrived and there were 5 men in suits playing some good ole jazz music! Hayley and I didn’t know what to think about all of this. So we just kinda laughed a little and hopped on. We boated over to the other side of the port (which was maybe a 5 minute ride), and during the trip one of the members took out his sax and started to play with the band! Once we docked we headed to a restaurant where everyone packed in to have dinner. We met several other people from Louisiana, but Hayley and I were definitely the youngest by far with most people in the organization over 50.That night was our first real experience dining out in France. A typical French meal consists of an aperatif and amuses bouches followed by the entrée, the plat, cheese, dessert, and coffee. This night we had the whole shabang minus the cheese course. We had an aperitif (before dinner drink), then an entrée (appetizer) of oysters (my first time trying them and I think they tasted the way the beach smells) and scallops in a red but creamy sauce with Parmesan. We drank red wine and had more seafood which was apparently part of the calamari family served with rice (not so good) and salad for dinner with an apple and honey mousse for dessert. The food was very interesting but a bit of a seafood overload (at least with seafood I don’t normally eat!). We sat at a table with a very nice woman named Nicole who had been to Louisiana in 1985. She spoke to us mainly in French, but occasionally in English. She also told us to contact the general secretary for France Louisiane if we ever want to visit other cities in France like Paris, Nice, or Marseilles and she would help find us a place to stay for free! How’s that for nice! The company was nice and as the night went on people started to talk to us more and more. Not only was there the jazz band, but we were also serenaded by a Cajun band! It felt good to be surrounded by music that reminded us of home.
I had the best night of sleep that night. It was nice finally having a bed to myself, but we had to arise early for a walking tour of the city. It was terribly cold and windy and we were slightly under-dressed but we got a good history lesson and went inside an old church that had a big ship hanging in the entryway. The ship was there as a symbol to protect the sailors. After that we were greeted by the mayor and introduced to the organization along with the other Louisianians. We were served amuses bouches and apperitifs before we went to a restaurant where we had another very French meal. We ate langustines which are like crawfish, but they are pink and not cooked in spices. Then we were served a white fish in lemon butter sauce which was the best plat I ate there and for dessert we had this puff pastry apple dish served with ice cream. Yum!
Saturday night was the Gala which started at 8:30pm. In case you haven't figured out the theme of this trip already, it's food, and of course at the Gala we had a ridiculous amount of food. We started the night with some delicious amuses bouches. There were two kinds. One was a type of miniature sandwich layered with cheese and salmon, and the other was a crab and curry mixture served in a little flat-bottomed spoon. For our apperatif we were served a strawberry blended drink. Dinner consisted of an entrée of a puff pastry with seafood and our plat was chicken with a gravy served with potatoes and veggies, but mine was kind cold and my least favorite part of dinner. Wine is customarily poured by men and the ladies wait for the men to offer. Unfortunately we were sitting at a table with "young" people (two couples in their 30s) who ignored us for the better part of the night. Not wanting to be rude, I waited for either of the gentlemen at the table to offer to pour me some wine. We drank some, but our wine glasses were not refilled. Oh well for getting tipsy! After the plat we were served cheese and salad. I ate the salad but was not too fond of the cheese. And finally for dessert we were served a spiced pear served with a scoop of cassis (black currant) sorbet and one of framboise (raspberry). OMG DELISH. I could have eaten that forever. In between all the eating there was cajun music and at the end of the night there was a lovely jazz singer who sang about 7 songs in English despite her being French. The night wrapped up with some line dancing to Cajun music and we finally left around 1:30am. What a long but interesting and food-filled night.
The next morning we packed our things and headed back to our respective cities. After lunch in Paris, Hayley and I parted for the first time since we had arrived and neither of us knew what to expect next. Now it's been over a month since we've parted and I'm finally posting this story.
