Every day is a delight and a fun experience when Estelle is here. It has been great fun having her stay with us. We have learned a lot from each other!
If anyone is interested in renting her Paris apartment, email me at [email protected], and I will pass the info on to her. If you want a real French experience, her parents have gites for rent in the countryside of the Loire. We stayed with there last summer.
website: http://www.guincheliere.fr

Hi Julie, thanks for the pics! What a fun day :-D Is that you Judi aka peachpit? Miss you girl...drop me a line and let me know what's happening in ATL. Have you guys had another Fodors meeting? Kay, Estelle was a hoot, and what a beautiful young lady she was. She was very honest about our neighbors to the north, eh?! Thanks for the memories all:-).

I just spoke with Estelle on the phone and the WORD is "berck". (sounds like Birk) She said you will not find it in the dictionary...French slang, I suppose. Anyway, it means tacky!

wren, there is a slang word BERK that means yucky.

http://french.about.com/library/voca...bl-argot-b.htm

Thanks for the clarification Kay...she was a "pickle"!

Thanks, Cigale. I guess it is a word after all...especially now that we know the correct spelling. Good investigating!

It sounds as though you all had a wonderful time. Many thanks Julie for sending the pictures to someone you don't know. Just wish there were enough fodorites to have a GTG in Maryland.

Patrick--I must say to you how I have enjoyed all of your posts. You are indeed a well seasoned traveler. Hubbie and I are as well even though I don't post much. I have often tried to picture you and after seeing Julie's pictures today, I looked for a distinguished looking gentleman and there you were! I wasn't surprised.

Thanks, but Julie's camera must be broken. I swear I'm not that heavy! Am I? Or were those pictures taken AFTER we ate all that food?

Patrick everyone knows that the camera adds 5 pounds.

My problem is there are always 3 or 4 cameras pointed at me!

:-)

The camera doesn't always do one justice. Pictures must have been taken after much wine and food were consumed. LOL!

You all looked good and like you were having fun!

Katie2, monicapileggi, who posts here often, has GTG's -- she lives, I believe, in Silver Spring. ((b))

EEEErrrm...
I do have the SoFla pics -- need names.

I don't have any Boston pics yet :(

[email protected] will do it.
If you have a crustacean phobia try [email protected]

You are right Patrick, must have been all the food and wine for me too. IMO, the camera was lying...we are ALL really 20 years younger and twenty pounds thinner:-D

OOps forgot about Estelle,,,she will be forever 29!

How berck of me to think it breque. I guess I'll just never conquer the French language.

Thanks everyone for your kind comments about the GTG and the pix of it. We had a wonderful time. As you can see from the photos I'm not much of a Nike girl, but to any of you who may be thinking of putting together a GTG, I say "Just do it." Nobody really cares if the venue is perfect or the food is great or even if the wine is top drawer (though none of that hurts). What's most fun is just getting together, meeting the people whose screen names you've seen so often and really talking travel with them up close and personal. Recognize that you'll never pick a date that everyone can make. Just settle on one that several early respondents seem to be able to attend on and keep going. It's worth the small amount of effort it takes. Be sure to take pictures and find any easy way for interested Fodorites to access them. Enjoy the fun.

IndyTravel, could you please e-mail the kind and benevolent Sally Fowler with the Boston pics? Thanks in advance.

BC
(Fodors GTG diva!)