Forbidden?

Just when I have gotten the hang of parking on the curb on these narrow streets, I was told by one of my friends that the practice is actually forbidden in France. She also told me that the police are really starting to crack down and are beginning to ticket people for parking like this. Drat! I was enjoying it. It is also quite practical on many streets because they are really too narrow to park and drive on, so it becomes necessary to use the curb for one or the other.... I still see it done everywhere though so I'm not sure how strongly this is being enforced.
The kids had their tutoring session again for 2 hours after school where the tutor helps them with their homework and school work as well as working on teaching them all more French. She told me afterwards that their level of comprehension in French is absolutely incredible! She expected far less since we have been here just 5 months with 2 trips back to the US during that time and with speaking only English at home. Max and I often speak a mixture of French and English where I make up "French" words when I don't know the real one. Today, he told me that he really prefers to speak real French and wishes that I knew more. Quincy was so happy today because he finally understood the lesson in his grade's French class. This class is like our English class when we were in 7th grade so it is certainly not "learning to speak French". He could answer questions in class and follow the lesson. Hurray! He is also quite pleased with himself because he says that he can now understand much of what the kids say on the playground and they often don't know that he can understand. He finds that very amusing. Especially today, when a friend pulled Quincy in front of him and told the other kids that "Americans make good wind blockers". Unfortunately, Taba has realized that the French pronunciation of her name "Tabeesa" sounds suspiciously similar to a word for male genitalia so it often makes the kids snicker. She has to be firm about having others pronounce her name in the American way!

Batteries, Volkswagen and Peugeot

What a rough evening..... Everything was going quite well all day.... The little boys didn't have school and the older kids only had a half day so we had a relaxing day at home with one quick walk to the boulangerie for tarts to go with our lunch. I then took the little guys over to a friend's house to play for the afternoon. When I returned to the friends house to pick up the boys and to take Calvin to basketball practice, the mother asked me if I could just drop her off at the Renault dealership on my way to basketball because her car had been having problems and was in the shop. On our way to Renault, I was telling her how just yesterday, Josh's car wouldn't start at all. He had to go out in the morning in my car and buy a new battery to get to work. I dropped her off at Renault, took Calvin to the high school where he has practice and walked him inside. Max and I then walked right back out to my car in the parking lot only to have it be completely dead! Not one thing would work on the car, not even the door locks! So, Max told me to pop open the hood and he would have a look. He had helped Dad yesterday and might be able to see what needed to be done.... Needless to say, he couldn't help much but we did check to see if anything obvious was wrong. Not to our untrained eyes anyway. So, I got on my cell phone and called Josh. Together, we found the number for our Volkswagen dealership and for the 24 hour roadside VW assistance. Well, the roadside assistance was no help at all because the voicemail menu is all voice activated and would not recognize our poor French accents! So, Josh called the dealership and spoke to the salesman that sold us this brand new car only 5 months ago! He had a truck out within 45 minutes. Josh arrived from work at the same time and they discovered that the battery cable had completely come off the battery. By this time, basketball practice was over, Max and I were freezing from waiting in the parking lot for so long and Quincy and Taba were home alone with no dinner made. Once my cable was reconnected and my car was fine, I took off, planning to stop at McDonalds on the way home. Something we have done only a handful of times since we moved here and which is still quite difficult because of trying to communicate a foreign language over a microphone! But, I thought I could do it, I successfully ordered for everyone, only to then wait more than 15 minutes in the drive through line for my food! Ughhh! I could have made a pot of spaghetti faster than that! So, we are all tired, the kids got to bed late and Josh and I are cranky that anything should have gone wrong with my car!

All Better

Whatever was wrong with me yesterday was completely resolved today and I feel just fine. Nothing exciting was going on however so after having all of the kids home for lunch, I headed over to a friend's house for an afternoon walk. The temperature was in the 50's but the sun never made it out today so it was a bit dreary. Sabine took me to a new coastal spot though where we discovered some beautiful walking trails and areas of beach. We also saw some huge, beautiful old houses and even an old, old church that Sabine told me is still used for retreats. After school, the kids had another 2 hour session with their French teacher and tutor. She is really helping them to get a handle on all of their studies. I love it! Calvin says that his teacher at school no longer feels that he needs to leave the classroom for extra French during the day because he is doing so well. At the table tonight, Max dropped his fork and immediately said, "Pas moi, c'est Calvin" - "Not me, it is Calvin". He can even start a fight in French!

Not Feeling Well

I have not felt well all today - I'm fighting some stomach bug so there is really not much to blog about and not much energy to do it. Sorry! I'll just post some pictures of our new house now that we are fairly settled in to it.
The boys were supposed to have school on Saturday! One other boy missed school in Calvin's class and said that he also thought they were supposed to have Saturday off.

Wine and Monuments

We just returned home from a beautiful weekend in Bordeaux! What a gorgeous city and wonderful region of France. We drove the 4 hours to Bordeaux through rolling hills of French countryside. We arrived in Bordeaux to find that it is a quite large sprawling city of more than 700,000 people in the metropolitan area. The city center is beautifully maintained and obviously quite wealthy. The city sits on a wide river approximately 100 km from the ocean and was once the first and largest port in France. When we arrived, we grabbed a quick lunch before heading to the Office of Tourism where we met our bus for a tour of the Medoc wine region. On the 5 hour tour, we learned all sorts of good info about French wines and were able to tour two chateaux where grapes are grown and wine is produced and bottled. The kids were super and really enjoyed all the history and beautiful scenery. One of the castles where wine was produced was built in the 11th century and beautifully restored just recently. We picked up a few good bottles of wine before heading back to the city and checking into our hotel. Our hotel was on a fantastic, narrow little cobblestone street just off the main promenade of the city center. We were able to spend some time wandering around before we found a great little cafe for a delicious dinner. We noticed right away that the architecture in Bordeaux is much different than around here. It is much more Mediterranean in style with limestone and clay tiles. The food was also different with more Spanish influences and a complete absence of crepes. Josh and I had a great dinner of tuna steaks while the kids enjoyed salmon and steak hache (hamburgers sans bun to you and me). We tried hard to ignore the mounds of steak tartare that the people seated next to us were eating. This morning, we woke up to another gorgeous but cold day and immediately headed out to the Office of Tourism where we again met a prearranged tour group. This time, we went on a 2 hour walking tour of the city center where we learned all about the architecture, history and monuments of the city. Just amazing and beautiful! After the walking tour, we struck out on our own a bit to do a little exploring. We were approached by a homeless man at one point, asking for money. Josh tried to plead off by saying that he didn't speak French, only to have the man switch into beautiful English! After some window shopping, we were hard pressed to find any restaurants open on Sunday afternoon so we hit a little pub that only had one thing on the menu - croque-monsieur with a green salad. We discovered what a fantastic hot ham and cheese sandwich that is and enjoyed every bite! After a quick ride on the carousel in the city square (there is always a carousel in the city square around here), we headed home. Beautiful! Highly recommended as a place to visit.....

"I've Seen Enough Castles...."

Once again, I was put in my place with my pathetic attempts at speaking French. Everyone, I mean absolutely everyone, around here speaks better English than I speak French and they are so quick to jump in and help me out that I never get a chance to try my French! Today, we had two workmen come to the house, one to clean out the gutters and one to clean the chimney. They both started out with French for which I responded appropriately and could answer most of their questions. But, as soon as I faltered, they jumped in with English and then spoke only English from that point on. The chimney sweep was very good in English and when I complimented him, he told me that he has been practicing for years and loves to have the opportunity to use it. Our next door neighbor then came over to introduce herself and again started out in rapid fire French but as soon as I hesitated and asked for clarification, she jumped into English. Sigh.... I'll just keep trying.... Quincy returned to school today, apparently the strike was only scheduled for one day. Quincy was quite excited to tell me that they dissected mice in science class today. He thought that was pretty fun although a little gross. Quincy and Tabitha and I again practiced walking home from school so that they are ready to do it on their own come Monday. They also know to swing by the boulangerie and pick up a baguette for dinner. We planned a trip to Bordeaux for the weekend because it's one of those rare Saturdays when the little boys don't have school. While telling my friend about our trip, she gave me a funny look and suggested that maybe the boys do have school tomorrow but that we should just plan to go any way! I have looked at the school calendar on the internet 20 times and as far as I can tell, they do not have school! So, we planned our trip and booked a hotel, winery tour, etc.... I picked the boys up from school only to have them tell me that they both have homework that is due tomorrow and they are quite sure that they have school! Ughhh! I can't win. They are just going to have to miss.... call it a field trip. When I told Max that we were going to see a winery and some castles, he said, "I've seen enough castles, I think I'll pass." Today, I spent some more time walking around town from our house and discovering all the great things that we have close by. I found this little stream and green area that runs behind our neighborhood and leads right to our great local grocery store. I have also discovered this huge house just around the corner from us! Who lives in such a thing!? And finally, we have found seedless grapes! I bought a big bunch at the store and surprised Max with them. We all ate them up in minutes.

Teacher's Strike

Quincy brought a note home from school on Tuesday that several of the 7th grade classes would not be having school today due to a teacher's strike. His English teacher explained the note to him, making no bones about the fact that she completely disagreed with the strike but could do nothing about it. So, this morning, Quincy and I took the other kids to school and then he and I spent the day together. It was quite fun but hopefully not something that occurs on a regular basis! Our kids are in a private school and we were told at the beginning that private school teachers strike very infrequently but that public school teachers strike all the time. Quincy and I made a day of it by going to my favorite tea shop for some breakfast before doing some walking around the city center and then hitting the grocery store. We had a very nice and quiet afternoon with a nap and some reading for me and some XBox 360 for Q. I then had my private French lesson where I think I finally got the hang of the future simple tense! After picking the kids up from school, my French tutor returned to our house and spent 2 hours tutoring the kids in French and their school subjects. Their teachers are now expecting enough of them in class that we feel like we need to make sure that they get extra help so that they can keep up with their classmates. It worked out really well and Edith was able to get a much better handle on their school work than either Josh or I can get. She helped each of them with their homework and will continue to do so twice a week. She also spoke entirely in French to them and for one of the first times, I was able to hear them speak in French! Pretty cool! I received a phone call from an acquaintance yesterday asking if I would be willing to substitute as a high school English teacher for a month. Certainly a daunting prospect but a challenge that I thought I might enjoy. However, after speaking with our immigration consultant today, I discovered that I am unable to work for pay in France on my current VISA and am certainly not motivated enough to work full time on a volunteer basis! After looking at the weather forecast in West Lafayette today and seeing the temperatures with a high of 11 degrees, I am really, really enjoying our 55 degrees! I'm including some pictures of the various flowers that have begun to bloom in our yard already. I also received some cuttings of some pretty little yellow flowers from a friend yesterday that I think are really pretty and smell great. She called them "mimosas" but all I could think of when I heard that was champagne and orange juice!

Our Real European Home

Okay, now we feel like we are really living a European existence! We have the old, old house with the ability to walk to the local Tabac Press, boulangerie and charcuterie. I love it! The movers arrived bright and early on Friday morning, successfully packed up and loaded their trucks by lunch time at the old house and then after the requisite 2 hour lunch, spent the remainder of the day unloading at the new house. Their faces just fell when they saw the steep stairs and narrow doorways at the new house! It was not an easy job but thanks to their perseverance, brute strength and our nice wide, double window off the balcony into the master bedroom, they were able to get all of our furniture into the house and where it needed to be. We had all the beds and bedrooms basically assembled by Friday night and we all slept quite comfortably in our new digs. Josh and I spent the remainder of the weekend completely unpacking, putting up light fixtures, rigging showers, etc to make our lives the way we are accustomed to them being. Poor Josh, it is not easy being married to someone who likes things to be just so and who likes them to be just so RIGHT NOW! But, as usual, he held up beautifully and we had the house basically finished by Sunday night. We still have curtains and pictures to hang and one light fixture that is giving us fits but that's about it! On Monday morning, I enjoyed our new house by having a few friends over for coffee. I then spent the afternoon doing some shopping for a couple of much needed lamps. On Tuesday, I hit the streets. I walked everywhere that I would want to go, the grocery store, the post office, the bank, the market, the library, the restaurant area, etc and was home again in just over an hour! That was including some shopping time and a visit to the local lab for a blood draw for my thyroid issues. I couldn't believe it! I love our proximity to everything! One thing that I did discover with my walking however, is that we truly live on the top of the hill of the city. Returning home meant walking uphill for much of the way. At the end of the school day, I walked the 10 minutes to Quincy and Taba's school and we walked home together so that they could learn the route. They were surprised to learn that it only took them 13 minutes to get home at a relaxed pace and with a stop at the boulangerie for a baguette! Today, none of the kids had school so we all enjoyed a day at home of playing outside, playing in the basement and just relaxing. Max had soccer practice and a birthday party to go to today so he was a busy little guy. One interesting little note.... while getting my blood drawn on Tuesday, I was quite nervous because I went alone and had never done this here before. I didn't know how I would communicate if they needed much information. Needless to say, I did just fine with my fractured French and my lab order from my physician until.... the lab tech asked me if I wanted a cup of coffee or tea or a piece of chocolate! I understood her perfectly but had no idea why she would ask me such a thing!! I stared at her with a dumb look on my face until I realized that she was offering me a little sustenance in case I felt weak after the blood draw! Whew, I like this country! ---

Offline

Sorry to all my faithful readers! We have been completely without internet access for the past 5 days as France Telecom switched our service to our new house. We are now finally back up and running but I need to pick Max up from a birthday party and take Calvin to basketball so I will have to fill you all in a bit later.....

Just a lot of work....

Why do we do this so often? There has got to be something wrong with people who choose to move all the time! Today was a busy day of getting the new house ready to move in and getting the old house ready to move out! Finally, I think I have all of the boxes packed of things that I need to do. The movers will do our electronics and fragile items. We have Quincy's drum set loaded into my car so no harm comes to the precious drums. The movers will be here at 8 tomorrow morning! Josh and I did take some time out of moving this morning to go to the mayor's office and get our residence cards to go with our "long stay VISAs". We now feel so official! Today was another rainy day but a much lighter rain and a nice and warm temperature. I took some time to take some pictures of our new back yard. It's huge by French standards, especially in the city. Oh, Max and Calvin had me take the last picture and would like you all to decide whose feet are whose....

Architecture and Sunshine

Finally, we had a beautiful sunny day most of the day with only a few episodes of rain. While the big kids were at their half day of school, the little boys had a great time playing outside while I got serious about finishing up our packing in the current house. Max's soccer practice was cancelled due to the soaked field so while driving back home, the boys and I took note of some of the local architecture. I was trying to describe to someone while we were in the US about how often it seems that houses here actually share a wall. They are not a duplex or anything and often seem to be built in different eras but they share a main wall. How does this happen? Do you approach your neighbor and ask if they mind sharing their existing wall? I have also noticed that although all of the old and most of the not so old houses are stone or stucco, the new construction has started to use a sort of wood siding that appears to be teak or some other type of wood planks. I can't imagine how expensive this must be and how much maintenance it would require! Not sure what the mind set is there. I have even seen this on some commercial buildings. I hope this isn't going to lead to aluminum siding! I definitely prefer the older homes and love the all stone ones!
Tonight at dinner, Max asked if we could please end the meal with either cheese or yogurt. "That's what all the French people do and I really like that!"

Whew - - That's about all I can say!

Today was exhausting....Not only did we take possession of our new house with all that that entailed but it was the windiest, rainest day that we have had since we moved here! I don't know how many times I was drenched today from being out for only a few minutes.... Today certainly did not go perfectly smoothly.... We started the day getting the kids off to school as usual. Calvin was uncertain as to whether he and Max had school today because he swears that everyone said "Good Vacation" when he left school yesterday. They then said "something about a cow" in Calvin's words so he thought maybe today was some national cow kind of Holiday! I was quite certain that they did have school so I took them as usual. Low and behold, no cow holiday and no free day! After taking the boys to school, I headed to the new house to meet our house inspector and our relocation consultant who was to help me with the inspection. The appliance delivery men called me while I was in route and rattled off some rapid French. I was determined to understand and to respond in French so I told them I spoke a little French and could they please repeat what they said. They immediately launched into English and told me when to expect the arrival of my new kitchen appliances at the new house! Drat!! My usage of French is always cut short by someone who speaks much better English than my French! The house inspection took a couple of hours with several trips in and out of the rain. The appliances were delivered very politely and professionally and our morning was complete. After picking up Quincy and Taba for lunch, we joined my friend, Sabine, and her children at her house for lunch and a chance to get out of the rain and out of our cold house. I dropped the kids back at school before going back to the house to meet the water guy, electric guy and gas guy. Thankfully, as soon as the gas guy was done, the relocation consultant and I could fire up the boiler and get the house warm. Beautiful! I then had the house to myself for awhile and cleaned it from top to bottom. It is small and it is quite old but I think it will work well for us and the location is certainly great. The kids came back to the house with me after school and Josh joined us after work so we all got to explore and enjoy before we actually move in on Friday. Some of the doors don't close easily, there was some water in the garage with all of the rain today, the stove top doesn't have an electrical outlet close for the electric start for the gas burners, the oven doesn't fit exactly right in it's niche (because the niche was made 50 years ago when ovens were bigger), most of the rooms do not have light fixtures as the previous renters stripped it clean, and the showers are just a handheld thing with no where to hang the shower head!!! All fixes that we can easily make or adjust to but a bit overwhelming all at once. To top it off, Josh's muffler went out today on his car! One other mistake we made today.... we had received a letter from the pediatrician telling us that Calvin's EEG was normal and that we could meet them to discuss this at 5 p.m. today. Josh took off work early to go to this meeting only to find out that it was supposed to be an exam of Calvin and only if we felt it was necessary following his normal EEG. Oh well, Josh and the receptionist had a good chuckle over that. I'm going to bed....

BELLE ET HEUREUSE ANNEE 2008 A CHACUN D'ENTRE VOUS !!

'Tis the season to wish a "beautiful and happy" new year! We have been receiving New Years greeting cards for the past week and a half. While enjoying yet another "king cake" with my coffee drinkin' friends today, I discovered that the tradition around here is not to send Christmas cards but to send Happy New Year cards throughout the month of January. It's been very fun to receive the cards (I'm including a picture of one) and to see everyone's families all together. Now maybe, I can put the children with the right parents and finally, finally learn everyone's names by seeing them in writing! More prep work for the move today but I did get to take a picture of our little village from our side of the peninsula today and we all enjoyed a beautiful sunset over the water. Josh is working a rare, very late evening so it's 9:30 pm and he's stil not home from work.

Bonne Epiphanie

I know that Epiphany is actually on January 6 when the 3 kings came to visit baby Jesus. However, it is something that is celebrated throughout the month of January in France and today we were invited to attend a typical celebration at the home of one of our friends. We had a great time! There were 6 families present with 4-5 kids each. They had 6 galette des rois present to eaten during the celebration. This is a king cake typically made of frangipan (almond butter) and layers of cake that are similar to a croissant. There are other flavors as well such as apple, pear with chocolate, etc but the frangipan is the traditional. In each cake, a little ceramic favor is baked in. So, the youngest child of each family got under the table and then the person slicing the cakes would ask them which member of their family got the 1st piece, 2nd piece, etc so that all pieces were doled out fairly and no one had an unfair advantage of seeing the pieces before handing them out. The cake is then to be eaten all at the same time with your hands and with no peeking. You must therefore, bite carefully so that you don't end up biting the ceramic figure! If you get the favor in your piece, you get a crown and then get to choose your king or queen and you then give them a crown. You also get to keep your little favor and apparently there is quite a tradition of collecting these favors and saving them for years to come. My one friend had probably a hundred of them dating back to her mother and grandmother's times. Originally the favors were a baby Jesus but they have now evolved into becoming just about anything that is popular. Tabitha and I were each fortunate enough to get a favor in our pieces tonight so we each became a queen. I chose Max as my king but Taba chose to rule on her own, stating that "she did not want to have a king". My favor was Princess Leia while Taba's was Jean Charcot. After we were crowned and the other 4 kings/queens were discovered, the kids all ran off to play with the other children while the adults sat around a fire in the fireplace and visited and ate clementines. A very nice and relaxing Sunday afternoon....
The rest of the day was spent packing and preparing to move. With everyone home, the weather warm and the kids big enough to help..... we almost have the whole house packed and ready to go already.

Speedo's

Today was about 50 degrees and rainy for most of the day. The little boys had school this morning while Tabitha had her horseback riding lesson and Quincy had a basketball game. Josh and I spent the day packing, taking down light fixtures (that we just put up a few weeks ago) and taking down window treatments in preparation for our move. After school, Max went home with his friend, Simon. They had a great day of playing and snacks. Simon's mom and big sister took them to a big, local indoor pool. I had sent along Max's swimsuit and towel. When Max came home, he told me that he wasn't allowed to wear his "boxer-style" suit at the pool, he had to borrow one of Simon's "tight" ones. When I asked why, he told me that it was a rule of the pool. Taba chimed in with the fact that when they do swimming during gym class at school, all of the boys are required to wear Speedo's! I guess that's why we see those all over the beach in the summer, the French are trained at an early age!

Wind and Waves

Today was a really crazy windy, rainy day where not much could be done outside. I had coffee with my American friend in the morning so we could compare notes about our Christmas Holidays (hers were here in France with her French in-laws) and I could share some of my butter-flavored Crisco that I brought back with me for chocolate chip cookies. I then brought the little boys home for lunch with me before taking them back to school for the afternoon. While driving back home through the crazy wind... I decided to drive down to one of our local beaches to see the water in all this wind. I parked and walked down to the beach. Once I got on the beach, I could hardly stand upright because the wind was so strong. Tears were rolling down my cheeks from the wind stinging my eyes and I had to prop myself up against a tree to stand still but I managed to take a few pictures. It was amazing because as hard as the wind was blowing, the trees along the beach are so old and so solid that they appeared to be hardly moving. The water which is usually just perfectly calm because it is quite shallow in our little gulf, had whitecaps and small waves. Quite exciting! There was also no boat traffic as far as I could see - I think this is the first time since we moved here that I didn't see any boats at all on the water. After my battle with the elements, packing boxes at home didn't seem too appealing so I baked some chocolate chip cookies, curled up with a good book and a cup of tea, and whiled away the afternoon waiting for the time to pick up the kids from school. Ahhh..... probably won't have much time for that next week when we move into our new home.

"French" Fries

Calvin came home from school today telling me about the great lunch they had. He said that they got heaping servings of french fries (frites - around here). He thought it was very funny however because as much as they tasted like our American fries, there was no ketchup and they were actually not allowed to eat them with their fingers, they were instructed to use their forks!
As we prepare to move out of our little village and into the city, I have begun to notice all of the nautical paraphelia that people have around their homes. We live in what is basically a fishing village and the love of the sea is quite obvious. We have also noticed that 95% of our friends are very serious recreational sailors and most have chosen to live in this area due to the convenience to sailing. Josh worked hard to get me back to a place where he could sail regularly once we left Cleveland.... however, his sail boat is still in the US so he now needs to make some good friends and connections!