July 30, 1976
Dear Mom and Dad,
Hello. I’m taking advantage of our delayed train to Paris to write this letter. There seems to have been an accident and all the trains are tied up. It’s 11pm now and it promises to be a long night. The train takes over 12 hours to get to Paris so we’ll be tired by the time we get there.
We spent our last night here in Cannes with the friends we made at the course and we had a lovely dinner of seafood. We had a huge platter of oysters, mussles, clams (all raw) and crab, shrimp,snails, etc. (cooked). I’m convinced now that the only way to eat oysters is raw.
The night before there was an end of session spectacle and people from a number of the different countries represented here put on a show. It was very colourful. Jim played in a short scene from a French play called “Antigone”. His playing partner was a very nice Spanish girl who is a French teacher in Spain. She is also the grand-daughter of a very famous Spanish philosopher.
Today was a day of packing up and getting ready to leave. Always kind of sad but we’re looking forward to Paris. We received our visas for Poland and we’ll be spending a week in Poland with our friend and his family in September. We have learned a great deal already about Eastern Europe from our friend and it will be very interesting to see it for ourselves.
The problem with something like this is no one knows when the accident will be cleared up. I certainly hope there weren’t any injuries. Today is the day when almost all of France leaves for their holidays so you can get some idea of the problem. It is particularly difficult for the children. However, I suppose it could be worse. We could be on the train that had the accident.
In the waiting room a guinea pig from one of the passengers got loose and that provided some amusement for a while. I have a feeling this is going to be a very long night.
Jim, me, Evelyn (and I forget the name of the woman on the other side of the table)
Enjoying this wonderful seafood platter!
