Day 225: Painting Frontenay: A Stranger's Kiss

I have arrived...

I am sitting at a long, wooden table in the middle of a house that looks like it could be out of a movie titled: Painting Frontenay

Time: 10:30 AM (France Time) September; year 2010

Place: Frontenay Sur Dive (4 hours out of Paris) 6 Rue de Bouige

Setting: A French, quiet, green village; cloudy; a bit cold, but no rain

Characters: 14 middle-aged, women artists; a bit weird at times (well expected); white-American women; 2 of which are Scottish; speak broken French; and, 1 of 14 is Armenian (and the youngest one in the group)

Plot: Women setting out on an adventurous drawing and painting trip to Fontenauy Sur Dive; Staying in two houses; living the creative lifestyle of waking up in the middle of nowhere, in France, and painting all day.

It took me a while to get myself on the internet, alone in a quiet area to do this. We arrived here last night after a long day of being in the airports and train stations.

I just saw a mouse run from one room to another... I guess it's really the village life here for the next 10 days. I can deal with mice, as long as they don't crawl into my bed... Atleast, they give me something to write about.

Anyway, all I've had since I've been here is wine, cheese, bread, sleep, and some more wine. If I drink, the conversations sound a bit less weirder, or, they make more sense, I think...

The trip to the house was long... I spent 36 hours traveling from one seat to another with all my heavy luggage and, this laptop, of course. I spent 11 hours sitting next to a French guy who thought he'd catch cooties if his elbow touched mine, which made me tense and stiff. I watched four movies, one of which was in French, ate dinner and breakfast, went to the bathroom twice, (since I'm telling you everything about the plane ride) and fell asleep for about 3 minutes before the pilot announced that he was landing. I'm going to skip the part where I waited 5 hours for the train ride... But... the train ride was when my trip got better...

Like I mentioned, my bags were heavy, considering that I had to bring all my art supplies, have, at least, a few outfits for Paris, bring, atleast, 3 pairs of different colored shoes, and, of course, have my camera handy... and, use my less functional, more fashionable luggage... my bags were heavy...

So, I stood by the train, waiting in line, to get on... a couple of men stood in back of me, Russian men, they were. They spoke loudly, in Russian, and laughed uncontrollably. It was the kind of laughter that made you think you had something stuck to your ass or back. So, I tried ignoring their laughter as my turn came up to get on the train. There being a foot of space between the platform and the train step, I stared at the space thinking, "SHIT..." So, I tried to pick up my stuff and carry it on my shoulder as one of the men offered to help. He picked up both bags together and just put it up on the train steps for me as I said, "Thank you so much..." many times, with a smile. They just went on speaking Russian and laughing... I got up on the train and pulled my stuff to the side as I kept smiling. I walked over to my seat and sat down only to find out that they were all seated in front of me. There was an older man, apart of the group, that was seated next to me, and the two younger ones in front. As I sat there, I prepared myself for the loudest two hour train ride... Both men got to their seats, but didn't sit down. They sat on their knees and turned around, facing the man sitting next to me. (like little children do...) Right then, I thought, "OK... seriously..." So, I just looked out the window at France... I was finally here and I couldn't enjoy it because of two men who thought they were still 12. I tried to make the best of it as I smiled. They just stayed there, in that position, talking and laughing as they stared at me thinking I would respond to them somehow, but I kept a grin on my face and kept my eyes on the window. So, they finally got up and left to walk around on the train. I fell asleep for a few minutes with my shawl over my head to keep the sun from hitting my face. I woke up to their noise as I heard them coming back to their seats. Then, I really woke up because one of the men pulled my window shade down, trying to be considerate. (like when I was trying to be considerate turning that girl's CD player off while she was asleep...) So, I understood his actions, and sat up, smiled, and said, "Thank you."

To make my experience not drag on... they began talking to me, in Russian, as I tried my best to understand what they were saying. They showed me pictures of their families and wanted to see pictures of mine... I had enough of a conversation with them as two people that don't understand each other could. It turned out that the older man sitting next to me was Armenian. His name was Souren... he was delighted to find out I was Armenian, but couldn't believe that I didn't know any Russian. He brought over two bottles of wine... and, as we drank wine out of plastic cups, I realized that my trip had just begun... I was in France... with Russian men... and, as I took my last sip of Rose wine, my stop was here...

I stood up from my seat to gather my stuff and get my luggage... they all followed me to the exit... Souren carried my bags down the steps as he got off with me... his stop was the next one. He handed me my luggage, smiled and said, "I hope you have a good trip... it was very nice to meet you..." I looked up at him, as I smiled, and said, "Thank you so much... I hope you have a good trip too..." as he smiled and took my face in his hands, he said, "Let me give you a kiss..." he kissed both of my cheeks and got back on the train... It was less of a perverted kiss and more of a father's kiss... Actually, it was a stranger's kiss...

Tip of the Day: When it comes to experiencing things, be open to all kinds of possibilities. You never know who you'll meet.