Tu me donnes ta boue, et j'en fais de l'or

Believe me, he deserves a beer... the house trolley snapped at the axle and our friend here managed to have it fixed by the end of the day. Muchos Gracias!

Violette drew me a picture of my house, which I have since coloured in a bit, I think she may have a case for complaint if I have violated her artistic intentions but I promise not to sell it and have a record of the original here for legal purposes.

There were several borrowed quotations today but I think this one was entirely original.

And from the writers of yesteryear, a few words of advise or perhaps warning?

And a trip around the world with Petit Beurre took me to China, the North Pole, Paris, the Taj Mahal and here to Russia where the wild animals perform tricks of their own volition and children are held by kindly one-legged men who appreciate architecture. Merci et bravo Petit Beurre pour mon education geographique.

And speaking of Russia, today I met Aurelien who dropped by with food and drink and a mind full of good ideas. In fact he is a photographer and last night sent me a link to a bunch of photos of his visit to my house. You can click HERE to see some of them. It's impressive what a real photographer can do with a small space, the place looks huge, I wouldn't mind living there myself. This is a picture of him with his wife Elena (who is from Russia - you see finally the tenuous connection I am making). Aurelien has also made a documentary film about shadow puppetry in China, I was very pleased for their visit and hope to catch up with them again.

(The photographer revealed)

And here a remarkable feat of amateur photography to take my own photo and manage to get myself in it as well as the two girls from a nearby town. The girl on the left (you would think my memory for names would slowly get better but clearly this is not the case) is an exchange student from America and her friend is from the host family, they were in Rennes for the day before traveling back to America.

Jesse came back as promised with tales of performances and dramas which I hope to check out today.