girl at large

Mom's purse was stolen last night while she and Bert were eating at DeCito. money, credit cards, French bank card—gone. (and i'm really bumming–she had our only pot of Carmex in there). that's what she gets for going to our local without me. the staff was just as upset as she was, Cute Waiter said he knew they'd be back to pay another time—they're there like clockwork often more than once a week.
the form at the Gendarmerie was in French, German, Italian and English–no trouble really there, they see this kind of thing quite regularly. Bert has a set of housekeys so they were able to get in the house, though he had to add a dark comment before going to bed : "I hope no one comes in and murders us in the night." nice.
i got a call this morning on my cell phone–a message from a Monsieur Bernard who found mom's "petite porte-monnaie" in the lane behind the restaurant where he works in Villeneuve-Loubet. he was so excited when i called him back–thrilled to bits that he was able to reach me, especially when he found out the wallet he found belongs to "Maman". he went on and on about how he had to try to figure out who this unfortunate dame was by sorting through the strange bits in her bag. and then he found my "girl at large" card with an obviously french phone number on it. formidable! and he's even kind enough to come to Antibes tomorrow morning to drop it off though it has to be early, as he says, because he has to have Sunday lunch with his Papa at Maman, "C'est tres important" you know. yes, i know.
p.s. oh, and we did the whole thing in french! i understood every word! proves my theory–when you HAVE to understand and speak another language, you CAN.