Last Day of WEG & France

Last Day of WEG

Sunday was the last day of competition for WEG, which is both a bit of a relief but also bittersweet.  The final four of jumping didn’t start until the afternoon but we had to do a lot of packing and cleaning of the apartment in the morning.  We ate some delicious pastries for our last breakfast in France though.  Another kugelhopf, along with some of the fancy pastries I pictured a day or two ago.  Surprisingly the red one was nasty, but all the rest were fantastic. 

The final four of jumping was exciting to watch since each rider does a round on their own horse, before riding a round on each of the other three horses.  Unfortunately, the American rider Beezie Madden had a rail each round except with her own horse.  Luckily the Swedish rider had more faults than her so she still ended up with the bronze medal.  The Frenchman Patrice Devaleau ended up with silver, and the Dutch Jeroen Dubbledam won gold.  He was so funny to watch when he won, because he was so happy (rightfully so).  Shortly after his round ended he got on his cell phone and we joked that he was like “hallo mother, I won today.”  Beezie’s horse, Cortes C, was the only one to not knock down a rail through the four rounds, which was very impressive. 

The arena for the final four

Beezie & Cortes C

From the venue we jumped on a shuttle back to the apartment to gather our things before taking the train to Paris.  We did have one last moment with champagne and chocolate truffles at the kitchen table to enjoy our last bit of time there.

You know how sometimes you get really angry at someone, and then go back an hour or a day later to say you overreacted and are sorry? No?  Well, I have a tendency to do that a lot because I get caught up in the moment and I am a very emotional person (as opposed to being rational).  I felt that way on the train to Paris.  I ranted and raved about how irritated I was with the French people in Normandy, and how I’d never come back to Normandy because of the, but the countryside is really so stunning that I feel like I overreacted and might go back one day.  Even though I slept for the first hour of the trip (#dramamine) I saw some pretty spectacular sights:

• ·      A stag watching the train as we sped by, his ladies hanging out nearby
• ·      Leggy mares and foals grazing in emerald green fields
• ·      Charolaise cows running in their pastures
• ·      The moon rising over a creek
• ·      A sheep rising on its hind legs to eat leaves off a tree

So now Normandy, I am not as mad at you as I was yesterday. 

In Paris we had a great dinner at La Poule au Pot, which has been in business for 79 years and was super old school French and traditional.  I got bone marrow, steak tartare, and profiteroles.  The portions were HUGE! I was starving and only at half of each thing.  Their wine was to die for too.  I would definitely go back there!  At the hotel, we got upgraded to a killer suite, which was cool, except we were in there for all of 4 hours while we were asleep.  It had its own private garden, stationary bike, free minifridge, Nespresso coffee, and a backlit wall with Parisien landmarks silhouetted.  It would’ve been nice to see it in the daylight!

La Poule au Pot

In Heathrow now – about to board the plane to fly home.  Á bientot Europe!