Dimanche 12 Mai

Happy Mother's Day! An older woman who also came into the store for pastries when we were there was my first wish of the day. They acknowledge Mother's Day here since they have so many American visitors. We will check in Grand Case after Mass to see if any of their excellent restaurants are offering a brunch. Last night we returned to Le Piment in Orient Village for another excellent dinner. We skipped the appetizer salads and each ordered an entree instead. I had a lovely duck leg confit with tien (that was slightly too salty today), and Dad had a seafood spaghetti with all manner of mussels, clams, shrimp, etc. in a homemade tomato sauce. We shared a red fruit tiramisu for dessert. This morning I made a blend of mango, guava, and orange juices with a hit of Pom to go with coffee, fresh chocolate croissants from our walk down the hill to the store, yogurt, coffee, and bits of the excellent cheeses from the French market. Very satisfying. Believe it or not, all through Mass I kept thinking, "Laura would really like this!" The service was a melange of French and English which made it last over an hour and a half, but the priest was a hoot. He had a bum foot so that he needed someone to walk with him to hold on when he processed in and out and whenever he had to move, but he had a chair behind the center of the altar and presided over most of the Mass from a seated position. He had a beautiful voice and a great sense of humor. There was a gospel choir of mostly kids who were quite good. The Kyrie was sung in French, then English, then Spanish to the tune of Kumbaya. When the priest asked the kids if they knew that was the tune to an African song, they obliged with a final chorus of Kumbaya. Songs and responses were sometimes in French, sometimes in English and he did the sermon once in each language but threw in a little of the other language to make sure people didn't tune out. He even asked the kids during the sermon if they were listening or sleeping. Several kids took turns doing readings or intentions, and he stopped after the first boy to let him know he needed to put more feeling into his readings. He proceeded to tell him that his dad fixed the priest's car, and the first time he fixed it, he broke the car. After church, we came back and changed clothes, then went to the creperie for lunch. We checked out a closer creperie first, but it was not open on Sundays. After lunch, we decided to go back to Orient Beach since it was around 2:00 pm and really too late to take the ferry to Pinel Island and still have time to do anything there. We sunned and Dad snorkeled and I played in the waves a bit, then returned to process our checkout since we have to leave very early tomorrow. This evening we will go back to Grand Case and choose a restaurant for our final dinner here. It has been a great run.