Fred is muttering and homesick

My letters to Mom from Paris in 1987 share news of Shawni and Barry, our travels and sightseeing, my daily routines and the detail of living in France.

I notice my concern about Fred and that he has not settled easily into Telemecanique, neither at a culture level nor at a work level.

He was missing canoeing, my letter mentions that he was muttering about the good water levels on the Duzi Canoe Marathon.

Looking at this little photo of Fred that I have in my kitchen, I can see how thin and drawn he was, how he felt about himself at the office was already taking its toll.

His mentor had been artfully moved for political reasons, there were strong personalities involved and Fred has never wanted to navigate politics and could not be bothered to handle challenging egos with finesse.

So this was not an easy time for him, he did not adjust to working at TE and even though I assumed we would stay for a while, our sojourn in France would eventually be cut short.

I am chuckling at the two of us watching French TV for hours and not getting the plot or the detail of the movies.

But not before we explored!

Weekend family outings.

We did love the weekends, we travelled relentlessly, around France, into the UK, Holland and Germany and had many very social times with new and old friends.

We travelled through all weather conditions and having two small children did not hold us back.