Carla&Friends Day 9: Off to Le Mans

Early in the morning, I got up and packed an overnight bag, and then headed over to Carla's apartment. She was waiting outside, and we promptly walked back to the métro and made our way to Gare Montparnasse. We were going down to Le Mans to visit some friends of the family while the rest of the girls went to Père Lachaise cemetary and some other stuff. Way back when, in my high school years, I had come to Le Mans to do an exchange for a trimester. After some "difficulties" with my exchange partner, I ended up spending the rest of my time there crashing with various friends that I had made at school. I stayed in contact with the last family that took me in; every time I've come to France, I've made the trip down to see them, and nearly every time that my sister been in France with me, we've gone down to Le Mans as well.

Anyway, I'm reluctant to blog in much detail about our time in Le Mans, partially because it's in Le Mans, and this blog is about Luis in Paris, but also because I like these visits to remain private; I don't want to reward their repeated hospitality with a tell-all exposé of their lives. That much being said, Carla and I were welcomed as warmly as always, they took us out to Sainte-Suzanne, a well-preserved medieval fortress city in La Mayenne, where Carla took many, many pictures of beautiful mill-houses and flower gardens, and we were continually fed fantastic, fantastic food. The mother of this family is a culinary hero of mine. She made a tartiflette with a white wine-cheese-cream base that was fantastic and rib-sticking. I have a big bag of potatoes sprouting in my kitchen, so I may give this a try sometime soon.