
Elizabeth, Perry and Philippe on the roof of the Metropolitan
Museum in New York City.
We met our French friends, Elizabeth and Philippe, in Bermuda and visited them many times at their elegant home in Croissy-sur-Seine about 40 minute outside of Paris. Over the years, two of their daughters lived with us for separate summers. We got them summer jobs which no doubt were eye opening for them.
Finally the time came when Philippe and Elizabeth announced they were coming to visit us! We were at the same time thrilled and horrified. The guest space in the basement wasn't too bad for teenagers, but the bathroom was a mess. We called our go-to man for renovations. When he arrived, Santos shook his head. At the time, you had to go through the laundry room to get to the nasty bathroom.
"So," he said with decision. "We will take down this wall and put a hallway here. We will make bigger the bathroom and cut the size of the laundry room."
"Okay," we said meekly.
Once Santos started unearthing the horrors hidden in the bathroom, he must have regretted taking the job.
"Kristine," he'd call from the bottom of basement stairs. "Come please."
When I arrived, he'd point out a new problem. This basement and bath were built by a previous not-so-handy homeowner. Santos had already shown me a pipe that stopped in the middle of the bathroom floor, which had apparently never been hooked up to anything. This time, Santos had discovered that the shower drain emptied directly into the dirt beneath the bathroom. It had never taken water out of the house as it should.
Santos gave me a silent look that encompassed a shrug and an unspoken: "You see what I must work with."
As usual we gave him a healthy tip at the end of the job.
The basement and bath were done and looked great. There was no reason to worry about housing elegant French friends.

They arrived early one afternoon at Dulles Airport, weary from their long trip. We drove them in to Arlington the scenic way on the G.W. Parkway. Their first glimpse of Washington was the towers of Georgetown University. Okay, not the Eiffel Tower but pretty nonetheless. As they came in the front door they were greeted by our Peke Nico and our polka dotted Boston Terrier, Elwood. Nico barked for his obligatory three minutes.
As good hosts we were forced to warn Elizabeth and Philippe that Elwood would try to stick his tongue in their mouths if they got too close. Four eyebrows rose in a Gaullic facial shrug. We quickly took them downstairs and showed them their handsome accommodations. They decided to rest for a while and we left them to do so.
Ten minutes later, Philippe was at the top of the basement stairs.
He cleared his throat. "Ze dog she has peed on ze pillow."
I imagine that my expression of horror mirrored Perry's. I began babbling and procured another pillow and pillowcase while Perry assured him it wouldn't happen again. The half door to the basement was shut and locked.
Who was the culprit? Only one of our two dogs had priors!

Who me?
How was the rest of the visit? Did you take them sight seeing? Are you still friends?