Stinky cheese

I bought some Oka cheese today (so good, if you've never tried it you should!) and it reminded me of a funny story that I hadn't written about. Oka cheese is stinky, there's no denying it. I happen to love stinky cheese but I can understand how some people might not be able to get around the whole scrunched up nose thing.


Anyhow... in Paris Jeff had bought a large chunk of stinky cheese. We didn't know what kind it was but it was delicious with red wine and a baguette. (Sigh.) We were packing up to leave Paris and (unbeknownst to me) Jeff was struggling in the little kitchenette with what to do with the remaining chunk of cheese - he was having a hard time throwing away a little piece of cheese heaven. On we went to the train station where we were to catch our train to Marseille. Jeff went off in search of les toilettes while the kids and I hung out with the bags. Every now and then I'd get a whiff of horribleness... I kept asking the kids if they needed to use the bathroom and they kept saying no. After 15 minutes of this I finally said, "Listen! Someone here obviously needs to use the bathroom really, really badly and I'd prefer to go before it becomes an emergency!" They still insisted they didn't need to go and tried to reverse it onto me. I opened our small carry-on bag to get a kleenex and out came the largest, smelliest burst of air I've ever experienced! And voila, there was the source of the stink - Jeff had wrapped the chunk of cheese in a piece of baguette and rolled it up in a paper towel. Paper towels do NOT do a very good job of sealing in smells. I was so relieved to have found the source of the problem yet completely irritated that everything in that small bag now spelled like the insides of a bean-eating monster! I apologized to the kids for assuming it was them and then up sidled Jeff... I told him of my discovery and he was very sad to know that his 'snack' was now in the bottom of a garbage can. I did not feel remotely bad for throwing it away. PeeeeeU!


I also forgot to relate the story of us driving back to the train station in Marseille to return our rental car and catch the train to Bruges. We had very rough maps (printed off of google) that we were planning on using to get there - they had worked for us on the way out so we were feeling pretty confident. Well, what were we thinking? A very, very old city with a population just under 2 million... with tiny windy roads that change name every block. Nope, we didn't find it - but I will give up props for getting close! We ended up buying a map at a gas station and even with the map we took a few wrong turns, but we did get a lovely backroad tour of Marseille and I saw a lot of colourful laundry!


As a final note for today I have to tell a story about Chloë. We have a restaurant in our neighbourhood called Van Gogh's. As we ate dinner there last week with my parents Chloë noticed all of the Van Gogh paintings on the walls. She excitedly pointed out the Night Cafe painting and told her grandparents how she had 'seen that place in real life!' Then she said, "You know what Mom? It was so funny, when we went to Arles and everyone kept talking about Van Gogh I thought, 'that's strange, why do they keep talking about the restaurant in our neighbourhood?' Now I know that the restaurant is named after the painter!"
We all just smiled...