Le Brunch

 

Le Brunch

 

The beautiful home of Marie France & Cristophe



Entertaining the Expats


10/03/24 – 16/03/24

 Sunday 10 March 2024

I had been invited to a brunch at the home of Marie France and Cristophe Hubert, a lovely expat couple from France. It was to be a pot luck, so everyone was going to bring a dish. Since cooking for normal people is not one of my strengths, I mentioned that I could bring my guitar and entertain “the troops,” and Marie France enthusiastically agreed. Martha, my facilitator/Spanish coach volunteered to drive me from the mall if I could meet her there, and I accepted. I took a couple of combi buses to the mall on Sunday morning, and we drove to Campo de Golf El Cristo, the gated community where Marie France and Cristophe live.

When we arrived and got through the heavily guarded gates, I was glad I had a ride there, because it would have been a half hour walk from the gate to their beautiful house. Their home is huge, airy and open, with a large backyard which includes a colorful garden and a lap pool.

Hecho en Milwaukee
Charlie, Taylor and Penelope

After meeting all of the guests and socializing for a bit, we brought our food to the outdoor patio to sit down and eat. A young Mexican couple joined us, Charlie, Taylor and baby Penelope. I noticed that they were wearing t-shirts that said, “Hecho in Milwaukee,” and I told them that I was made in Milwaukee, too. It turns out that they have lived in Milwaukee for many years and were just visiting relatives.

After about 20 minutes, Martha suggested that I start singing, so I got out the Martin and sang for about 45 minutes, starting with San Fransisco Bay Blues. I included a couple of my own tunes and everyone seemed to enjoy the music. As I get older, the quality my performance is not as consistent as it was in my younger days, and this wasn’t one of my better performances, but it was adequate.

After the music was over, the crowd started thinning out and I copped a ride with Anthony and Nancy Zermeno, a couple of expats who came from Washington state. Anthony also plays guitar and he is joining a Cubano band in Tlaxcala, which is about an hour North of Atlixco. It was a lovely way to spend a Sunday morning/afternoon and a great bunch of people to socialize with.

At the Chapel of St. Michael on Wednesday

Wednesday 10/13/24

Not much to report here other than I made my first weekly walk up the Cerro de San Miguel in the morning. According to my Fitbit, it is the equivalent of 33 flights of stairs, measured as: 10 feet in elevation = 1 flight of stairs. It is about 3,600 steps from my house to the top, which is about 1½ miles. The stairs are still a challenge and I have to rest part of the way up on most of them. It will be a while before I get over being wasted when I get back home, but I’m hoping that the more I do it, the stronger I will get.

That’s it for this week: ¡Hasta luego!

 

 

Location: Atlixco, Puebla, Mexico

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