The Bois Guillaume Club

Bonjour! It is early Friday morning and I can’t sleep. It is about 2:30am……Whatever. OH…for the next two weeks I am only 5 hours ahead of time because the Europe doesn’t recognize daylight savings until another 3 weeks. Stupid Americans.
Alrighty then…hmm where was I….Oh, practice. Jean-Luc picked me up after I took about a three hour nap before we would go to practice at 730 pm. This time his eldest son, Charles, was in the car waiting for me. Charles is 21 years old and was very nice as soon as I sat in the car. So we drove about 2 blocks to the gym. There has been a light rain everyday so far. Nothing bad, but just a cool spit. So practice was to be held inside with the rest of the Woodchucks. When I walked in, there was about 8 other guys in there tossing around baseballs. I got the “There’s the American” look from every one of them as I stepped onto the gym floor. Everyone of them came up to me and shook my hand and introduced themselves. There is Josh (Quebec), Rafeal (Venezuela), Olivear (BG), Brolsh (BG), Ryan (BG, but speaks perfect English because he was born in Northern California), and a couple of other guys that I do not remember their names. I started warming up with Brolsh, 3B. So I started my warm up routine with some light arm exercises and soon noticed that the other team was mimicking me. Haha, it was pretty cool. Then we got into some long toss. I hummed several throws right into Brolsh’s chest and he was laughing with admiration because they were pretty damn hard. I am not afraid to say that I aired some out to send a message. When we got closer to cool down, I brought out the knuckle ball. Let’s just say I don’t think they have seen any pitch like it. Brolsh told everyone in French to watch me throw it. They all laughed with delight. Then Jean-Luc said he wanted to catch it and when he did, I got the same wail of laughter.
So after we warmed up, we set up a half-ass infield and took ground balls. I set up at SS and lined some throws into the 1B’s chest. Arther was not there because he is in Italy at an Amateur European Baseball camp.
Wouldn’t you know it….I already have my nickname for the next 7 months.
Socre Bleu Lewis. I whipped out the saying during practice and everyone was laughing almost to tears. Apparently, that phrase hasn’t been used in a good 35 years in France. Ryan, was laughing but confirmed the phrase because he remembers hearing that saying in American cartoons. Jean-Luc just gets a kick out of it and often exclaims SOCRE BLEU in my presence. So practice ended and everyone headed home. That night, I would have dinner at the Paturel’s house.
So on our way to Jean-Luc’s house, I mentioned that I wanted to buy a guitar. Charles and Jean-Luc were glad that I mentioned it because both of them have played drums for years. Wouldn’t you know it…they have an old acoustic guitar that they don’t use and they are going to lend it to me. It seems for the time being that things are falling nicely in place because it is pretty overwhelming being thrown into a completely different culture. When we arrived at their house, I gave Charles and Jean-Luc the hats and the stuff that I had brought for them. They were very grateful for the gifts and said they couldn’t be happier that I came. Jean-Luc even bought a bottle of wine for the occasion because he said he loves to have a glass of wine when he has a good day. Hell, maybe everyday is a good day to him, but the gesture spoke a thousand words. So we had a good turkey dinner and later Jean-Luc drove me home. I was to be ready at 200pm the next day because Jean-Luc wanted to show me Rouen.
The next day started with some hard knocks on my door. It was 215 and I was still in bed. I couldn’t believe that I had slept that long. My body must have needed the sleep though. Jean-Luc couldn’t believe it either, but he was not angry at all. So we headed down into town. The sights are unbelievable. Absolutely beautiful. I’m sure that these people don’t think anything of the beauty of the town because they seen it everyday but to a boy from Springfield, it is amazing. Well…wait a minute! We got Bass Pro, Pecker’s Beach, and the Hammons Tower…HA, Rouen is tiddly winks compared to that. So Jean-Luc first took me to his music studio. It was nice to see that we have music in common. I just hope that when he hears me play he won’t laugh and actually pull out the 35 year old phrase Socre Bleu on me.
After the studio, we went into the heart of downtown. We stopped in front of one of the cathedrals and walked around. Renaissance architecture was all around. We walked to the Joan of Arc cathedral, I really got learn the name, and I was blown away. Very, very beautiful. After we had a Kabob for lunch we headed back into Bois-Guillaume (BG) for Cadet/Softball practice.
BG has four levels of baseball related teams. N1, the best and my team, N2, a younger team, Softball team, a girls team, and a Cadet team, younger kids wanting to learn the game of baseball. I was informed that I would be the assistant coach to all teams with more responsibility with the three other teams besides N1. So this was a younger kid and softball practice that we were headed to. So Jean-Luc and I headed to the same gym that the practice was a night before. I was greeted with the same foreign stares and an abundance of greeting kisses from the female softball players. I am just glad there is only about 7 softball players at this practice because it seems greeting a larger number females with kisses could take a good thirty minutes. We started with throwing and other basic baseball exercises to begin. After that, we had a simulated scrimmage at the corner of the gym. It was a lot of fun. Laughs, Socre Bleu’s, and other jokes were shared by all.
After practice Jean-Luc drove me to a supermarket where I could get some basic items for the time being because Jean-Luc informed me that I would be paid in two days because he needed the city of BG to confirm my staying there as a baseball player/ coach. Apparently, BG helps him with the payments to me. So I got some ham, eggs, milk, a jug of fresh strawberry orange juice, and a fresh loaf of French bread. The food is just excellent here. Everything is so fresh. So I concluded my evening with making ham and eggs with a big piece of bread. The heel is even good. Dad, you would just love the bread. I love you guys and I will keep in touch as much as I can. Love you guys, au revoir.