Our first 4th of July outside the US, we celebrated with 3 Italians and 1 French woman at our bungalow. Christiane and her husband Franco Mason are our landlords (couple on the left in the group picture). Christiane's family has run a famous pâtisserie and chocolaterie in town since 1913 which she manages 7 days a week. Franco is Italian, bien sur, and after a career in furniture manufacturing, now is renovating older buildings such as our house. The other couple are Luigi and Isabella , whom we met at the UM Euopean reunion. Despite owning several homes, unfortunately none are in France, so to meet again we will need to visit them in Italy at their 400 year old estate in Luca. Isabella is a descendant of the de Medici family, and she wasn't too pleased with the French guide's depiction of her ancestor, Catherine de Medici, as having a room with many small boxlike compartments for her "poisons" during the tour of the chateau at Blois. Luigi's father was an Italian ambassador for most of his life. So Luigi is fluent in English, French, Spanish, and of course, Italian. He started a firm that grew to 120 lawyers, quite large for Italy. Their son is now with Jones Day. And for the foodies who have written me, the first picture is typical of a French cocktail party with various seafood, oodles of olives, cheeses, boursin wrapped in ham, and pâtés. We leave you this time with Luigi's advice, "To health, wealth, and love - and the time to enjoy them !"
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