After we arrived at the factory, we waited for the remainder of our 15-person group to arrive. Meanwhile there was a plate of chocolate truffles near the check in table, which we assumed were there for us to sample. Of course we decided to stand over the plate for a solid 5 minutes and try almost every variety of chocolate, which elicited a few dirty looks from the tour guide. Without fail, 90% of the chocolates were handed to Barbs with one bite taken out of them because they either had nuts, fruit, or marzipan (which even Barbs would eat). We finally decided to cut our losses, and waited for the tour to begin.
Something we learned from the chocolate tour is that Barbs does indeed have a French doppelganger. Now, to be fair, she was a much dumpier version of our lovely Barbs, but nevertheless she was a dead ringer for our mother at one’s first glance, and from the side. Now, a couple of times throughout the tour, this really tripped us up as we thought, “why is barbs over there?” “why is she speaking to that man in French?” “when did she learn to speak French so well?” “when did she change clothes?”. Once, Cedar went to whisper in Barbs’ ear, only to realize after she had spoken a few words into an ear that actually belonged to fake Barbs instead! This was getting out of hand.
As karma would have it, Cedar got really nauseous on the car ride to lunch, Hannah found herself right behind Cedar, and Chuck felt a little ill later on in the day. It is safe to say the contraband chocolates haven’t been touched since we hand-carried them home.
We enjoyed an Aix-en-Provence lunch, and browsed a few stores before heading back to our home in St. Remy. After a brief rest at the casa, we headed back out for a night artisan market where we picked up some trinkets and perused the many oddities that we found.
As a side note, we would love to thank our loyal fans for all their support for this blog. In particular we would like to give a shout out to our number one daily commenters: Ann Slovacek, and Donna Christenson. Donna: YES we did find sunscreen and we are OK! Also, that was eggplant last night! Thank you both for your undying support and love for this family and this blog!
Until then,
--Hannah and Cedar