Meet the Taylors

Now that the laundry is done and our house guest has moved on to her next destination, I can share with you the photographs and some details of our Friends of Cognac delegation's 8-day excursion to Cognac, France. Wednesday was a travel day. We were picked up by two small coaches. One coach came to Comrie at 5 a.m. and the other went to Perth to get us all to the Edinburgh Airport. The drive, which involved going from Comrie to Crieff to pick up others in our group, took about 2two hours. We had about an hour and a half in the Edinburgh Airport before boarding our one-hour flight to Gatwick Airport near London. We had a four-hour layover in Gatwick which allowed us to browse the shops, have a nice lunch with wine, and try to catch a bit of rest. From Gatwick we flew to Bordeaux in roughly two hours. There we were picked up by a large coach for the last leg, a two-hour drive to Cognac. We arrived in the centre of Cognac at about 7 pm to find all the hosts waiting eagerly for our arrival. (Allowing for the one-hour time change to a later hour, we had been traveling for 13 hours.)

Our hostess, Francoise Taylor, had phoned us the night before. Because of a fuzzy connection, her accent, our lack of French, and the inability for us to see one another for visual cues, it was a somewhat frustrating conversation but we were very touched by her contacting us to say they were looking forward to meeting us.

We had a terrific experience during our week in Cognac. It was a different experience from that of the other members of the delegation who stayed in Cognac proper. Our family lived 15 minutes away from the centre of Cognac so we were strictly en famille in the evenings, whereas most hosts planned social evenings as well as some weekend events with other hosts and their guests, which varied and enriched the experience for everyone. On the other hand, there were great compensations to our situation. There also were a few difficulties.

Our quarters were nice in that we had a suite connected to but not in the host family's home. The bed was hard, normally a very good thing. Because of my sciatica, however, I never got a full night's sleep. Don had come down with a head cold a few days before we left so he was sneezing and sniffling. Others in our delegation had the cold too, as did Francoise, our hostess. Under the circumstances, the head cold turned out to be the one item everyone on the trip shared! I came down with it a few days after we arrived. But it never held any of us down.

Only our hostess could speak much English but she worked 10-hour days, 3 days a week, which made for some slightly awkward times when she was working and her husband Dominique had to deliver us to or pick us up from Cognac. There were tremendous compensating factors, though, principally that the family was incredibly warm and welcoming and I was forced to work hard on my French. By the time we left, Dominique and Don had learned phrases in each other's languages, I had begun to think--and dream!--in French even if I couldn't always get it right, and Francoise's English was quite good.

Unlike the other hosts, many of whom were college-educated upper middle and upper class, ours were salt-of-the-earth hard-working folks. I think some of the other hosts got into the program for the interesting experience and opportunity for travel whereas our hostess most likely got her family into this because she has a burning desire to speak English herself, for them all to speak English, and for the whole family to broaden their horizons. She is incredibly earnest, energetic, positive, and thirsty for all sorts of knowledge.

The whole family is delightful, each in his or her own way. It was a marvelous experience to be in the heart of a family that treated one another with tremendous respect and affection. At no time did I feel that the rest of the family saw us as "Mom's little adventure that we all must tolerate" although I'm sure that they, like us, are relieved to have the intensive week over with. We really lived with this family all week, taking breakfast and dinner with them each day and having them take us to and from the centre of Cognac for 5 of the 8 days. At the weekend, when there were no organized activities for our delegation, we were on our own with the family.

You know that in France people kiss on the cheek in greeting one another, usually twice--once on each cheek. With our Bethesda/Cassis friends Claudine and Bernard, it was a total of three kisses, but with the Taylors and many others in Cognac, it is four. When we were introduced to the other hosts at the rendezvous place and when we met each family member for the first time, we got the kisses--and we got them every time thereafter (although men most often just shake hands). When Dominique or Francoise would drop us off or pick us up in Cognac, we'd exchange kisses. We'd be greeted with kisses by 14-year-old Alexandre upon our return at the end of the day's activities. One by one, as each family member entered the house, you'd hear Bon jour! sung out and everyone would rise. It would be four kisses all the way around, each session of kisses accompanied by smacky sounds and often, by the phrase "Ca va?" ("Okay?"). When I say "sung out" I mean that literally. Ca would be said approximately on an A below middle C on the musical scale and the va would go up to the C. To which you'd answer, musically, "Ca va" (your Ca on the higher note and the va on the lower one). French is delightfully musical. These greetings were typical of all comings and goings of anyone in the family.

"The family" consisted of Francoise and Dominique who, with Alexandre, are the full-time inhabitants of a 4-bedroom ranch-style modern house in the hamlet of Chez Guillen just on the outskirts of Louzac. Then there is 21-year-old son Jerome (a cabinet-maker) who, with his girlfriend, Alexandra (who doesn't work), lives in the small hundred-year-old maison (house) on the property (about the size of a studio flat even though they have two floors). Jerome is quite macho but also sweet with a wicked sense of humor. Alexandra seemed quite affectionate but neither of them behaved as though we were strangers. The oldest son, Laurent (24), is a fireman in Paris (where he has a girlfriend). He doesn't have a place to live in Paris but stays at the firehouse when he's on duty (4 days out of each week). He catches the fast train (2 hours) home for his 3 days off. Normally he stays in the suite we had but while we were there, Laurent slept in the computer room in the main house. Besides Francoise, who spoke English not fluently but very well, only Alexandre spoke more than a handful of words in English. He's taking it in school whereas the others never did.

Pere Dominique (early 50s), is a policeman who works the night shift just now. Despite his lack of English he was extremely warm and open with us. And then there is Mama Francoise (early 50s), a dental assistant who has aspired to greater things since she was in her teens. She wanted to go to college and did start but when she turned 21, her parents withdrew all support, told her she was no longer a minor and must take care of herself on her own, and she has worked since then. She has never stopped learning, however. She is the powerhouse of the family, always curious, always in motion, and always equanimous.

We felt welcomed, accepted, and were treated with great warmth and generosity. So this is the amazing cast of characters we lived with for a week.