Get this, though! That rabbit managed to get through our heavily locked doors, past the dobermen, over the barbed wire, and to plunk a mama-load of fine chocolates on our table - along with a couple of brightly coloured eggs (for good measure, I suppose). We'd heard him come stealthily in around midnight, so we knew it was all there when a stirring in the boys' room roused us from our muddled dreams. Jean-Philippe said, "Uh-oh!" And I understood implicitly. There was a shuffling, a pause, another shuffling, another pause, and then a tiny, almost inaudible, "oh!" It was Tomi. Things went silent again, but for Leo's slight snoring in the other room. There was a rustling. We jumped up, and... there he was, looking over the table top in awe, having seemingly touched the packaging of their giant chocolate chickens to be sure they were (not) real, and thus satisfied one part of his curiosity, then retired his curious fingers for the moment. This is the thing I have to ask you (once again) to "get," though: he waited! He waited for Leo to get up, then brought his brother over with a tug on the pyjama sleeve, crying out with joy, "Look, Leo! Eesserr Bahnny wazz hee-err! Loo-ook!" And then (more "getting" I have to ask of you): when I asked them to wait until they'd had their milk... they agreed!
After gorging themselves and watching us eat the eggs that they'd peeled and discarded (thoughnot without trying them out, once again, and saying, "Blech!"), we all got ready and set out with Eric & Joël for a walk in the Vosges. The weather was fabulous, the grass was green, the skies were blue, the breeze was a breath of fresh air; we actually found an inn that wasn't full up and was wonderful; the walk was refreshing (regardless of two three-year-olds' insistent demands to be "OP!") until the path suddenly gave out, and we were forced to fend for ourselves and, being a bunch of city kids, we managed to break Eric's sunglasses and lose Jean-Philippe's jumper in the leaping to safety over a river... We made it back tot he train station at the VERY MOMENT that the train arrived, hopped in, sunk down and began our laughing and sighing and the digging out of bottles of water (refilled in the bathroom of the posh hotel we'd had a drink in along the way), gummy bears, apples and carrots. The beer we drank at Eric & Joël's afterwards was well earned. It was a Very Good Day.
