Half-Man, Half-Balloon

Got back from LaBaule late last night. Christmas at the Pecqueurs was lovely as usual, with no shortage of French culinary delights. It seems that every time I visit, we always get to eat "huitres" (oysters) for lunch at least once. As I've mentioned before, I was a very picky eater up until my early 20s, and it is still rather shocking to me and my family that I am willing to swallow whole creatures which live in the sea straight out of their shell and are not only raw, but also still living. Anyways, I learned a new rule this visit regarding the best time to eat oysters, which are seasonal: Oysters are traditionally best served in months which contain the letter "r" in them. Fortunately, the months in French are approximately similar in spelling to those in English, so the same rule applies: you should eat oysters in janvier, fevrier, mars, avril, septembre, octobre, novembre, or dicembre. If you want to eat your huitres during the months of may, juin, juillet, or aout, you will have fatty oysters which are apparently not as good.

Here are some pictures of me playing with Claire's nieces, Maeve and Auxanne. There were a lot of balloons around as Christmas decorations and of course no child can resist playing with balloons, myself included. We spent one morning seeing how many balloons we could cram into my shirt at the same time.