My Paris Pilgrimage #12

La Famille Cercley (& a little techno)

It's currently Monday, 24 September, and my rendezvous with my dear friends, the Cercleys, is in the past.

As I mentioned in Friday's post, I took the train that afternoon from Gare de Lyon here in Paris (only a couple kilometers from my house) to Boussy-Saint-Antoine, the train station near the little village of Tivery, where many of the Cercleys now live. In fact, Guy and his wife, Noelle, live only around the corner from Alain and his wife, Patricia.  Guy's children, Franck and Carole (with her three daughters) live just a few blocks away--Franck in one direction; Carole in another.

Claude and Jean-Marie (JM) don't live close at all.  Claude and his wife, Danielle, live in the south of France, perhaps a day''s drive from Guy, and JM lives with his wife, Vicky, in Sacramento, CA (a day's drive from me!).

So, my train trip to Tivery was a little challenging...Gare de Lyon is HUGE, and although signage is there, somehow I didn't quite figure it all out. The RER trains are lettered, A through M or N, and each uses a separate track on different levels. I needed to take the D2 train toward Melun, but the train I found going in that direction didn't show Boussy-Saint-Antoine on the route!  Naturally, no one was around for me to ask and the people getting on and off the trains were all in a hurry (it was 3:30-4 pm on a Friday--rush hour!) and not exactly worried about the confused American walking in circles going from platform to platform and up and down stairs and escalators trying to find her way.

After about 20 minutes of trying to figure it out myself, I finally left the track area and returned to where the ticket booths are and managed to find someone who spoke enough English to help me. Seems there are short trains (locals) and long trains (express). Both are D trains that go toward Melun. But only the short train stops at Boussy-Saint-Antoine. Of course, by leaving the track area, the electronic turnstiles thought my ticket had been used and wouldn't let me back in, so I had to buy a second ticket. Luckily, the ticket was only about $2.50!

On the train for only about 30 minutes, I disembarked onto the platform in a tranquil, sleepy area of the country that was extremely rural, despite being only a 30-minute train ride from the center of Paris!  Here's a pic of the Gare de Lyon (from the day I went to Disneyland) and a pic of the station in the country where Guy picked me up.

Sleepy village station

Gare de Lyon (first level only--it has 4!)

Guy took my small wheeled cart and we drove the 10-15 minutes from the station to his home in Tivery.

Turns out I was quite near the same area that Sylviane took me last Thursday! Tivery is too small to show on the map, but I've put a purple dot in the basic location of their village.  Guy says they have 3000 now; in 1983 when they moved there, it only had 300!

General area of Tivery

The next 24 hours were filled with wine, food, conversation, hugs, bissoux (kisses), laughter, and reminiscences of the past 65 years! I am overwhelmed by the love I felt from each one of these wonderful people. Truly felt like one of the family.

NOTE: I don't know if you all know the basic history of our families--from 1953 until 1956, the small Garland family (mine) lived next door to the Cercley family (who eventually had 5 sons!) in the town of Pt. Lyautey (now Kenitra), Morocco.  My father was stationed there at a French/American air base and we lived in the village rather than on base. The relationship that started between my parents and Maurice and Hughette (Guy's parents) continues through their children to this day--across miles, time, and language!

So, my visit began with a glass of port and olives, fresh cherry tomatoes, hummus, and tapenade appetizers. Soon thereafter, Franck Cercley arrived.  Franck is a flight attendant for Air France, and is Guy & Noelle's son. His older sister, Carole, has three daughters, Elina (17), Loane (15), and Ambre (13). Carole and the girls arrived in a flurry of activity--teenage girls the world over are alike! They were giggly, beautiful, chatty, and on their phones most of the time!  Two of the three spoke English, but they were too shy to speak it with me at first--later, they tentatively asked questions in English of me, and I told them I wouldn't judge their English if they didn't laugh at my French!

A bit later, Alain arrived.  Alain is the youngest of the remaining four brothers (the 5th son, Patrick Tom [named after my father, Thomas; and my brother Robert Maurice is named after their father] died about 12 years ago--but I'm not sure how). Alain is married to Patricia, but she could not join us Friday evening since she was babysitting her grandchild.

Well, it's difficult to share all that we spoke about, and most of it was family stuff, yet it was all wonderful. My comprehension and speaking ability improved with each glass of champagne! Or so it seemed to me!  With all those people, I still managed to keep up fairly well. I'm sure spending a couple of days with Sylviane before this trip helped!

So, the hours passed and we managed to get a couple of group photos...

Noelle, Elina, Ambre, Carole, Loane, and Guy

Elina, Carole, Ambre, Noelle, Me, Guy, Loane, Alain, Franck

One by one, the family left...first Carole and the girls, then Alain, then Franck. And, yet, the evening was not over! Noelle served dinner at 2230 (10:30 pm)!  With apologies that it wasn't much, she served an incredible potato/carrot soup, salad, cheese, salami, and bread. With more wine, of course! I passed on the dessert and coffee, and managed to only eat a few bites of the food offered. I did, however, eat the whole bowl of soup. It was delicious!

I fell into bed exhausted and slept like the dead until 0900 the next morning!  That's extremely late for me--but the room had blackout drapes and I was one exhausted, but extremely happy woman!

Saturday morning Noelle had to go out for a doctor appointment and do some shopping (for our dinner it turned out). Guy and I had a light breakfast and took a walk around a lake that was practically in his backyard! Afterwards, we stopped at the house for a brief drink of water then walked into the village to buy bread. Here are some various pictures of the lake, the village, and their home.

The Tivery Lake

Wooded path into the village

A street in the village

Gates to Le Cenacle, a Chemin Neuf Community

Street sign showing Community of Tigery

Lovely cobblestone streets

Noelle's living room

Noelle's kitchen

After strolling through the town (where we ran into the mayor and I was introduced), we stopped at Alain and Patricia's house so I could chat with her since she had missed the events of the evening past:

Patricia and Guy

Upon our return to Guy's, Noelle was home and fixing our midday meal. I was ordered out of the kitchen to the living room where we once again had snacks (delicious garbanzo beans in olive oil, garlic, and cumin) and port.

We sat down to eat in the kitchen (with apologies again from Noelle that we weren't in the dining room! I was much happier that she didn't go to the trouble of setting things up in the DR.)  The meal began with a lovely beet salad, main course of barely cooked (just as I like it) beef filet mignon, fresh haricots verts (green beans), cheese, and cooked pears in chocolate sauce for dessert!  OH MY.

Eating in France has certainly been a joy! We all sat around after dinner enjoying the coma-like trances we were in, but I knew that I needed to go back to the city...so at about 1630, Noelle and Guy brought me back to the little train station near Tivery.

I had my return trip all planned out. Easy peasy.  I was tired and knew that I could disembark at Gare de Lyon and grab a cab to my doorstep and make my way upstairs.  I'd be home by 1730 or 1800 at the latest.  Or so I thought.

Train trip was uneventful. It did take me a while to find the right exit where the cab stand was, but I finally did so, only to be told by the driver that he could not take me home!  Apparently, all the streets in my neighborhood were closed for a huge TECHNO PARADE!  I had no way to get home but to walk through thousands of youthful, crazy, dancing, happy, drunk, and loud people to the beat of the clamor of TECHNO music.  

It was a bit disarming at first, but I had no choice if I wanted to get home. So, I clutched my purse close to my body and pulled my little cart behind me and wended the 1.5 miles home without mishap, but with a few visions that I didn't need to see! Seems like relieving oneself in the streets is quite acceptable in Paris--I saw men and women peeing along walls, squatting (women) over curbs, etc., to relieve themselves.  Many folks were quite inebriated, and the array of scooters, bicycles, unicycles, in-line skates, and many other forms of non-car transport were everywhere!

Here's a video I took once I got to the side street that led to my house, so it's not quite as chaotic as it was along the Boulevard L'hopital where I had walked through to get there:

Good news: It was about 1900, but I made it safely. And in retrospect, I'm kinda glad I had the experience! It was certainly nothing that I would choose to do...and it probably wasn't much different than a huge street fair in San Diego or the crazy St. Patrick Day Parades I would join when I was much younger.  But, for me, at 70, a little trepidation did creep in; yet I just kept on walking and pushing through the crowds and navigating through the throngs of people. It seemed as if everyone in Paris between the ages of 15 and 30 was on that street. And, maybe they were.

And, that, dear friends, was my weekend.  I spent Sunday "en repose" as the French would say, and now I have nine days left in my journey.  Wonder what will come next?