Conversations

This afternoon I was invited to have coffee with a lady in the village. I arrived at 2.30 and soon after me, her three sisters arrived and her mother and then her sister in law. We settled around the huge wooden kitchen table and my friends' mother, a women well into her seventies began to make crepes with great gusto.

We ate the hot sugared crepes and drank strong black sweet coffee and I listened to the fast banter between this closely knit family.

In this part of rural France the extended family is very important and few people socialize outside the close and usually very large family network. I felt very privileged to be part of this gathering.

Had I heard, the eldest sister asked me, of the sixty year old twin sisters who had just got married to two brothers (in their seventies) in the next village. They are all going to live together, she continued, much laughter followed, as the mother added that she hoped the brothers kept their eyesight as they might get their wives mixed up !!!...