Tout est bien qui finit bien.

        As a way of saying thank you, I sent flowers down to FWB's parents to be delivered Friday and a card to FWB that will hopefully get there today.

        I was bumming around in my studio working on papers when my phone rang. I picked up to FWB's voice.

        ¨We got your flowers,¨ I could hear his smile through the phone. ¨I was all alone in the house working on my thesis when the doorbell rang! I'm going to pass you to my mom, she wants to say thank you.¨

         So I ended up chatting with FWB's maman for a while who thanked me profusely and insisted that I shouldn't have sent anything and that they were really beautiful. Do I adore this woman? Why yes, yes I do. No one will ever replace my own mom, because let's be real, my mom is one insanely amazing woman (nooooot that I'm biased...) but if I had to pick a second to her, I'd be all for this Frenchwoman.

        FWB's maman then passed me back to FWB and we chatted for a bit. He has to write a Master's ¨thesis¨ of about 20 to 40 pages, due January 7th, and just started yesterday: already five pages in. I congratulated him and told him jokingly I hated him seeing as I have to do 100 pages this year. Damn. His is not straight academic research, however, but a study of Rhône valley wines in US and Canadian markets, which is essentially what he was paid to do in his internship. Lucky dog.

       ¨Do you remember me telling you about that old, eighty-year old woman who lives in my building and never remembers me?¨ I asked him. He said yes and I added, ¨Well, this will make you laugh then. She knocks on my door earlier tonight to say hello and we start chatting. She tells me this time that if I want to stay in France now would be a bad time to leave, though I told her all was up in the air. I added that I have a French boyfriend, and he works in the wine industry. She then exclaimed 'That's perfect! You Americans love to drink wine! You're big drinkers! He can go to California.'¨

        FWB and I laughed and then I told him to tiens-moi au courant for his arrival in Paris the evening of January 6th.

         All that is standing between me and two solid weeks of FWB in Paris is a week of nanny hell in the French countryside. Wish me luck.