In the Spring of 1994, I taught for several weeks at the French IAE (Institut d'Administration des Entreprises) in Angers. While we were there, we rented a gîte rural near a small nearby village. The one we rented must have been over 100 years old but beautifully restored and surrounded by farmland. The owners were a M and Mme Sauleau. He was a commercial orchardist; he and his family lived in another nearby village. He had a small storage shed attached to the gîte where he stored some of his farming equipment so we saw him often. Mme Sauleau dropped by occasionally and we visited them in their home and had dinner with them a couple of times. When we left, Mme Sauleau gave us a lovely framed picture of a nearby small river.
In early 2000, we received a letter from Mme Sauleau. Shw wondered if we remembered them and said that their son, Emmanuel, would be coming to Minnesota in the Spring for a year long program in agriculture at the University here, MAST International. Would it be alright if he visited us to say hello? Of course we said yes and also, if he had any problems, we would be ready to help him.