Move to the Right

Moving over to the right when you meet someone head on seems like such a natural thing, but apparently, it is an American thing! Even though the French also drive on the right side of the road, they do not incorporate the same principles when walking, biking, etc. I have run into this time and time again and you can not imagine how frustrating it is when you are trying to pass someone on a hiking trail or come head to head with someone on a bike. The worst place is in the grocery store however! Today was a terrible day for grocery shopping as tomorrow is "Labor Day" here and everyone (and I do mean EVERYONE) has the day off. But, I needed to get my shopping done as we have another guest coming to visit tomorrow so I braved the super store in the hopes that it wasn't as bad as I suspected it would be. It was actually worse. The aisles were absolutely packed and because no one feels the need to stay to the right or move to the right, it took me forever to make it down a single row. I so wished I had my camera with me when I was stopped by the fact that there were 4 unattended carts in the middle of one aisle making it absolutely impossible to pass. Just when I decided to start moving the carts one by one, their owners returned and without an apology, went on their merry way.

This afternoon, Max's class put on a little Giuseppe Arcimboldo art exhibition with their own works based on his paintings and numerous games and facts about his life. They served this all up with a beautiful fruit salad, which we all felt was very appropriate. We were very proud to see that the teacher had Max do the writing for the main poster as his handwriting is the "neatest". Wow! That is one thing that no one else in this family has ever accomplished.
We continue to have frequent daily rain showers which it makes it difficult to do much outside. Each time I think the sky is clearing up, more clouds roll in and the rain starts to fall.

I was able to catch a glimpse of blue sky in one picture of our house this afternoon.

Celebrating the Saints

We have been told that France is 90% Catholic. This certainly seems to be the case, as all private schools are Catholic and almost every church we see is a Catholic one. In some ways, the French seem to be much more old-fashioned or avid Catholics than the American Catholics that we know but in other ways, the opposite is true. We always think it's funny that our kids go to a Catholic school but can count on one hand the number of "religion" classes that they have actually had or the number of times they have gone to Mass at school. People are often surprised when we tell them that we are also Catholic. Their idea of America is that only a very small percentage of people are Catholic. One Catholic thing that we observe here is that the Saint's feast days are always listed in the paper. People actually know when their Saint's feast day is and they acknowledge it either with some good wishes or a small gift from their parents or god-parents. Tabitha and I will now be expecting to be noticed on July 26th for St. Anne! Another very Catholic custom in France is to give each boy (maybe the girls too, it might just be less noticeable), the name "Mary" somewhere in their long string of names, usually after their middle name.
Long, rainy day today filled with running kids to basketball, piano, drums, swim team, and music theory lessons....

Giuseppe Arcimboldo

Max has been talking about Giuseppe Arcimboldo for the past several weeks but with his French pronunciation, I had no idea who he was talking about.

They have been studying him in school and have invited the parents to a small exhibition of their own work based on Arcimboldo's for Thursday afternoon. Finally, this evening, Max asked if we could google him so that he could show me some pictures. Seeing his name in print allowed me to finally understand what he was saying! Max is quite enamored with his works and only wishes that he had known who he was when we visited the Louvre and could have seen some of his original paintings.


He then asked if he could google Vivaldi...
The three boys were trying to pool their money for something or another this evening so they all dug out their wallets. Between the three of them, they had British pounds, American dollars, Croatian kunas, and some Euros...
Today was one of those very typical Brittany weather kind of days where it goes from bright sunny, blue skies to a downpour of rain in a split second and then right back to sunny skies. I got caught in the rain on 5 different occasions while running my errands, picking up the kids from school and visiting with friends. I finally decided to give up on it and stay inside for the evening, it hasn't rained a drop since!

Tabitha in the News

I was never able to get my pictures to post last night or this morning for yesterday's post... We'll see if it works today.
All four kids were finally in school today! It's been three weeks since Quincy and Tabitha had a day of school but they apparently remembered how to at least get there. The school schedule around here is certainly a beautiful thing.... 2 weeks off for every 7 weeks of school. Then, this crazy extra week in April for the older kids. And then, there are 5 holidays in May that the kids will get a day off for! They will only have one full week of school for the whole month of May and only one week of school at all in April! The kids are certainly not complaining.

After hearing through the grapevine that Tabitha's picture was in the paper today, Taba and I struck out on foot in the rain to buy a paper at the local tabac presse. Only to discover that all copies of Ouest- France were sold out. Fortunately, Josh was able to locate one on his way home from work. Tabitha and the 18 other kids from her scuba diving class on Friday were featured in a picture and a short article. Tabitha is at the left side of the group of kids. Very exciting! She can't wait to show her friends at school tomorrow.
In speaking today to my American friend, Suzanne, who moved to the south of France in January, I discovered some more idiosyncrasies of France. Even though all healthcare is controlled by the government, healthcare cards and policies are issued by individual city branches and have to be reapplied for with each intra-France move. Even though Suzanne banks through one of the largest French banks around, her account is only through a local branch so when she moved, she had to physically close her account in Vannes before she could open another account at her new location. And even though she has been receiving a federally funded monthly maternity leave stipend since her youngest son was born two years ago and she qualifies to receive it for another year, it is also controlled locally and she had to reapply at her new local branch to get the same stipend.... Why can't this all be centralized in such a small country?

Pictures from Sunday

I am FINALLY able to get my pictures to post from Sunday! There are various shots that I took around our yard.

Our Own "Wisteria Lane"

We might not be "Desperate Housewives" around here, but we do have wisteria growing everywhere! I just love it! Today, Max and I had a great time just checking out all of the many flowers growing and blooming in our yard. He decided to offer me a lesson in everything that his grandma had taught him about the variety of plants and trees that grow in our yard. The weather has gotten cooler in the past couple of days with highs only at about 60, and we have been waking up to a steady rain shower which seems to burn itself out by lunch time, but the majority of our days have still be beautiful.
I finally found out what those fields of yellow are that we find growing all over France... They are fields of canola and are just gorgeous!
Josh and I filled out all of the registration paperwork for the 3 younger kids for school in the fall.... Hard to believe that that time is so quickly approaching! We still don't have an official address to put on the registration forms but we are now fairly confident that we should be closing on our "ugly" house in Batesville fairly soon. Keep your fingers crossed that the sellers bank can get all their t's crossed and i's dotted this time around.
Unfortunately, the Vannes soccer team got "crushed" by Bordeaux in last night's game. Too bad!

Excitement is in the Air!

After an enjoying a lazy day around the house, just getting household chores done while the kids played outside, Josh and I decided to take Coco for a long walk down to the port. We were immediately reminded of the big event that is occurring tonight. The Vannes Olympique Club, our local professional soccer team, is playing in the league cup final against Bordeaux tonight in Paris. This is apparently big, big news, as Vannes is notoriously much more of a rugby town than soccer town and the professional soccer team has never done well since they were founded in 1998. The local stadium holds 8000 spectators but the average crowd at a game is less than 3000. So, as we were walking into town, we were amazed at the snarled traffic, hordes of people, giant screen t.v. set up on the port, and every outdoor cafe and bar filled to the brim with people ready to watch the game. 25,000 are expected to watch the game in Paris while apparently every other resident in Vannes is watching it here, at the port. Maybe we will have to turn on the game as well?

The World is a Book

"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page". - St. Augustine of Hippo
Wow! Quincy came home from London at about 11 a.m. They had taken the 10 hour overnight ferry from Portsmouth, England to St. Malo, France and then a 2 1/2 hour bus ride from St. Malo to Vannes. They were dirty and worn out but apparently had a wonderful time. I will post a few of the more than 250 pictures that he took during his trip.


I think Quincy really had an exceptionally good time as the translator and helper for so many of his friends.

He loved the visit to Oxford (he even bought himself an Oxford sweatshirt which just might join the rotation of his many Notre Dame sweatshirts!) and the guided tour of the Globe Theater was the high point of the whole trip.

He loved the views from the London Eye and took some great pictures from the top.

While he was regaling me with London stories all afternoon, Tabitha was learning all about and getting certified in scuba diving! She dove more than 15 feet today, down to the ocean floor where they saw all sorts of sea life. She loved every minute of it and got over all fears within the "first 30 seconds". She thought this was fantastic and can't wait for the opportunity to go again. While waiting their turn to dive, the kids did some coastal "fishing" where they walked out at low tide and gathered all the shellfish that they could. She came home with a big bag of mussels and clams. Yesterday, they gathered oysters and snails but she dropped her whole bag in deep water and was only able to bring home one oyster that she salvaged. So, tonight, I had to pull out my cookbooks and a bunch of pots and cook up a big "mess of seafood". It was fun and only a little sandy as we munched our way through the whole lot. It was hilarious to hear her tell about the French kids who if they accidentally opened an oyster while prying it off of a rock, just picked it up and slurped it out of the shell! Taba wasn't quite brave enough to do that but she did try everything else. While Taba was out on the ocean in a boat, Calvin was out on a boat in the port. His class began a 6 week gym class session in rowing! I would love to learn to row but apparently my 9 year old gets to instead.... Anyway, they will go once a week for 2 hours to learn all the techniques. He thought it was great fun and of course, loved being the "brain" as much as being the "brawn". Max just had a normal day...

Feeling Blue...

The fact that we will be leaving this beautiful place in just a few months hit me hard today. We had to have the movers come in and assess the content and the volume of what we will be moving back with us this morning. They then pass this information along to the relocation company who helps us to prepare. There are so many things that we love about France.... of course, there are so many things that we love about the US too. We have such mixed feelings about this move.... Today, though, it was in the 70's (almost HOT by French standards), gorgeous and sunny. I met up with 5 of my very good French friends and we went for a 2 hour hike along the River of Etel. The scenery was so beautiful, the conversation was flowing (in French and English), and the friendship so comfortable.... I sure hate the thought of leaving it...

Just Missing One

We are almost back to normal today.... Josh took his mom to the train station this morning at an ungodly hour so that she could catch her flight back to the States. So, with all of our guests gone, the only disruption to our norm is that Quincy is still in England. The kids had all of their normal Wednesday activities today so I ran them hither and yon while enjoying brief bits of our gorgeous, 69 degree day.
Josh is working late tonight as "the whole world" is in town. All key members of his project have come here this week to get some important things done. That includes people from France, Mexico, the US, and Singapore. Think of how incongruous their sleep schedules are right now!

Fishing is Much More Fun if you Catch Something!

During this "week of activities" for Quincy and Tabitha's levels at school, Tabitha had many activities that she could have chosen to do. They ranged from a week long trip to see castles in the Loire Valley, calligraphy classes, kayaking, sailing, to arts and crafts. She chose to do fishing and scuba-diving for whatever the reason she thought of at the time. After her first day of fishing yesterday, she came home, hot, sunburnt, bored and with a giant headache. She is NOT a complainer at all so it was almost comical to hear her description of her day of fishing. She could not believe that all you did was cast your line into the water and then reel it back in. She said that they did this for HOURS - never catching anything ("It doesn't even make sense that you would catch something with as quickly as you are pulling your line back in!") The class then moved on to cane pole fishing which was "incredibly boring when you all did was sit there and stare at your bobber, waiting for it to do SOMETHING! We weren't even allowed to read!!" To top it off, of the 4 girls and 24 boys in the class, Taba was the only one to not catch anything. So.... it was with some hesitation that Taba trooped off to fishing class again today, knowing that the fishing techniques that they were going to employ today where to be the same as yesterday.... She came home without a headache, only a slight sunburn from having forgotten to reapply her sunscreen at lunch time, and talking about the fun they had today. She caught 2 fish with her cane pole today, lost the hook on her rod and reel once and, caused the tip of her rod to fly off once - making her and the rest of the class laugh hysterically. Much better!
Still no word from Quincy in London - we can only assume that no news is good news.

Janis and I headed out for another long walk this morning. Today, we followed an 8 km trail around the huge grounds of the Château de Largoët just outside of the town of Elven. This hike was quite a bit more difficult than yesterday's as we were walking through hilly farm land, mud, dense forests, and seldom used trails. We were suppose to see the 17th century home of the philosopher Descartes but we were never sure if we saw it or not. We did enjoy catching glimpses of the gatehouse and the tallest castle keep in all of France, both of which are on the grounds of the Château de Largoët.
We spent the afternoon shopping for the last bits of French souvenirs that Janis wanted to take home when she leaves tomorrow.

Walks in Morbihan

I had gotten a book quite some time ago that details various circular walking routes through our "county" of Morbihan. The book very nicely describes the sights that will be seen along the way and gives very specific instructions on how to get back to your car after walking. This morning, Janis and I decided to try out one of the easier walks, an 8 kilometer long hike leaving from the little town of St-Pierre-Quiberon.

We saw some great little villages, an 11th century chapel, a dolmen, a fountain where St. David refreshed himself, a Memorial to the American mothers of soldiers in WWI and WWII, and beautiful rocky scenery all along la Côte Sauvage - the wild coast, on the Quiberon Peninsula.

Gorgeous! We even watched quite a few surfers do their thing on the big waves that were rolling in.

After our walk, we found a cute little creperie where we sat on the terrace and enjoyed crepes and mussels.

Big Ben, Parliament, London Tower, etc...

Quincy left for his adventure this morning. After taking a bus up to St. Malo, they hopped on a ferry to cross the English channel where they then met another bus which took them to the homes of their host families. This week, they will see Oxford, all of the main sights in the city of London and the Globe Theater. They will also spend one day in an English junior high school, practicing their English. Pretty exciting! We can't wait to hear his stories when he returns on Friday.
It was a rainy, cool day today so we were all just lazy and enjoying being home... Believe it or not, Calvin and Max actually have to go to school tomorrow while Josh goes to work. The April vacation is over. Tabitha begins her "week of activities" that occurs each year in junior high. This is like a week of enrichment classes where the kids get to explore something that they wouldn't normally do. Tabitha has chosen to learn to fish, dig for clams and even scuba dive. I wonder if I have to cook what she brings home each day?

Settling In

The beauty of ending a vacation on a Friday is that you then have the next two days to relax and get back into the swing of things before the routine begins again. We took full advantage of that today and just relaxed, did laundry, and restocked our food supplies. Josh's mom and Quincy cruised the open air market for hours this morning, stocking up on fruits, scarves, and cheeses. Great day! We are now preparing for Quincy to leave at the crack of dawn tomorrow for a week in England with his class. They are going to work on their English and to stay with a host English family. We are hoping that Quincy comes home sounding like Harry Potter. Hope his host family already knows that he is an American! Anyway, no new pictures today so I will show you some more from our river trip.

Up a Lazy River...

Wow. Did we ever have a great time this week! Josh and I have always been a bit adventurous but, since our move to France, we have been willing and able to try all sorts of new things. This week certainly represents one of them. On Monday morning, we drove the 2 hours to the little village of Grez-Neuville on the Mayenne River in the Loire Valley with Josh's mom, the dog and the four kids. We then rented a 38 foot houseboat and took off for 5 days.

We did a route of two rivers, 82 miles, and 44 locks studded with gorgeous countryside, beautiful castles, and wonderful little villages.

We stopped when we wanted and explored when we felt like it. We relaxed and floated along the rest of the time.

We had some sunny warm weather, some rain, some fog, and some cold mornings but we loved it all. Now, I usually consider myself to be a 4 star hotel kind of gal who really doesn't enjoy roughin' it, but I will have to admit that I enjoyed this cruise just as much as our Mediterranean luxury cruise that we took last summer, albeit, in a different sort of way. Despite the low ceilings, crowded conditions, sporadic showers (dependent on how much water we had in our tanks and how long the boat motor had been running to heat the water), and cooking our own food on a small propane stovetop (we only ate in restaurants for 3 meals), we had a fantastic time! The kids certainly pulled their weight with being deckhands at the many locks, helping to keep our boat organized and clean, and even driving once in awhile to give Josh a break.

The dog was also a natural and could be trusted to stay on board even without a leash and to do her "business" only when given the opportunity.
I know that many of you think that we are all nuts, doing things that you would never consider doing. But, I just read an article in my latest issue of Redbook about how living outside of your comfort zone can help you to "thrive". I will have to agree since our marriage is strong, our health is good, our kids are confident, and we are loving life!

Joyeuse pâques/Happy Easter!

We definitely celebrated Easter American-style today. The Easter bunny instead of the French Easter bells brought the kids lots of candy and hid Easter eggs all over the house. The Easter eggs were even filled with good ole' American jelly beans which are nearly impossible to find in France. The twelve of us did attend a French Easter mass before walking home for a big Easter lunch and then an afternoon of snacking on candy and playing in the yard. We had a gorgeous, warm and sunny day so the kids pulled out the water guns and ran around all afternoon. Some of the adults enjoyed a long walk along the port with about 10,000 other Easter strollers. Beautiful and peaceful day.
We are now all packed up and ready for tomorrow. Sarah and Cliff and the kids will head to Paris tomorrow for their flight back home on Tuesday while Josh, his mom, our kids and I head to Grez Neuville to pick up our rented houseboat for a 5 day adventure on the Loire River.
See you all on Friday!