December 21-22. Monsieur Gilbert
There is a neighbor. His name is Gilbert (pronounced Jeel-Behr). Fabi calls him the “concierge” of the neighborhood. That means he takes care of plants and animals when people go on vacation. He generally watches out for things, makes sure things work and sees that all is safe and secure. He really is a very nice man. He also makes sure that foreigners like me know how to properly stay in a French house. For example, I must turn out the outside (and inside) lights; make sure the gate is closed—slowly push the buttons on the keypad to lock it; close the shutters at night and open them in the morning….oh and latch the shutters which means going outside to do that after opening them. Well, he carefully explained all this to me on two occasions and he had Fabi explain it to me. The lights were left on one night so that’s probably why he let me know the way things work here. He spoke slowly and I did appreciate it. However, I knew that if I forgot something, he would let me know again. Yesterday, when we left for Fabi’s house, I tried very carefully to do everything. I opened the shutters, turned out the lights, turned down the heat, locked the door, checked that the outside light was off, opened the gate, shut the gate; made sure the gate was locked. Whew! We went to Fabi’s for petite déjeuner. After breakfast, I remembered that I hadn’t latched the shutters. I jumped up and put on my boots. Fabi said, “Don’t worry about it. We can do it when we leave.” I said, “But I don’t want Monsieur Gilbert to see that I didn’t latch the shutters.” So, I hurried out, latched the shutters, and returned. Whew! I got there before he did. Score!
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