An American in Provence

Mom and Dad have now been here for a week. They arrived Wednesday, Oct. 24th. I went to pick them up at the airport, and had bought a bouquet of flowers. It seemed that everyone who walked past said "Oh, are they for me? Thank you." Their flight finally arrived, about an hour late and sans one piece of luggage. They promised it would be delivered the next morning (Thursday). After a day and a half of them waiting in the apartment for it to arrive, it finally did on Friday afternoon. The weekend we spent doing some work on the apartment, such as removing the large ugle glass/metal hood over the stove, sanding the walls, and applying a base coat to make the walls smoother. We also bought the mirror for over our sink, which Alain and I had been searching for for ages. We had found one we liked at Maisons du Monde, but the one that they had was damaged. They were having a "rupture du stock" and weren't sure if or when they would get another one. I called last Friday, just to see if they had received one, and they said yes, so mom, dad, and I braved Friday afternoon traffic going towards the Centre Ville. We parked in a parking garage, went and bought it (119€) and brought it back.
On Sunday we went to visit with Alain's family, to celebrate Pepe's birthday last week. Today, All Saint's Day, I have off from work, and I took tomorrow off as well. We are going to go visit different places in this area, such as perhaps the Camargue, Aigues Mortes, etc.
A year ago yesterday, we bought our apartment. It is finally starting to resemble something livable. But if I had known what I was in for (such as months of sponge baths in winter) I might have thought twice about it.
Happy All Saint's Day!