what the ?!

yes, we are here in the north of France where there has been snow for 2 weeks ...the local city (Laon) has run out of salt for the roads. and, like all similar places I am sure, many of the locals have forgotten again this year how to drive in the snow. the first day here zhen we drove the route from Paris to Laon the road was littered with stranded or crashed cars. we are in a petite village where the snow is deeper and the roads unmaintained so it is truly driver beware.

It is lovely though; like being captured in an alpine postcard. everyday we have made our drive into a village or bigger town in search of baguettes, tobacco or just a glimpse of the outside world.

yesterday (christmas) we made our way into Laon in search of an epicerie who in a postal hub of sorts, in addition to being an amawing gourmet food and wine shope. we took our time admiring all of the delicacies and in fact chose a fez (delicious smoked bacon, oranges from spain - individually wrapped like the jewels that they were, one perfect melon, some pretty confiture (myrtilles) ... and we retrieved a package from orange.fr containing the awaited phone replacement for henry's son. laden with goodies for all, we carefully pieced our way back to the car and returned home to enjoy a magnificent brunch ... scrambled eggs, potato pancakes, freshly squeezed orange juice, croissants, bacon, pâté de compagne, cotes du rhone ... miam miam.

we have been making a daily promenade around the village, sometimes with one dog ... sometimes with two. Lou was worn out after his first, henry had to carry him home and the next day he walked like an old man so now we are taking it easier on him. bruno on the other hand is like a snow rabbit ... flying across the snow and scampering back and forth keeping tabs on us and then continuing the adventure.

yesterday we encountered a car with three terriers stuck in the car while bruno danced around outside, barking as if to tease and say, 'ha ha, too bad so sad for you'. the dogs barked like mad inside... not too much later when we were stopping to put bread out for the deer the same car pulled up and the man let his dogs out...they caught wind of bruno who still was feeling frisky and descended upon him en mass, barking, snapping, snarling. bruno snapped back some but the odds were too great and he began to cry. we had to kick off the dogs and he shook like a leaf in my arms, terrified. they looked at him as if to say, 'that will teach you to taunt us!';

once they were gone I let him down again but he seemed a bit more subdued and stayed closer to our heels...until we reached the cows and I coaxed him under the fence to go investigate. we laughed and it was all fun and games until we realized that the entire small herd had turned heel and were making their way towards us, en masse and at a brisk pace.

I cried out for bruno to hurry and he hightailed it back and scooted under the fence into my arms. I in turn hightailed it back down the road, escaping the hot cow breath on my neck... lol

just another day in the life of my ongoing adventure!