Three Months in France March 31 – June 28, 2007

Today’s Photos

The weather was beautiful today so the kids and I went in the covered swimming pool in the back of our home in France. It was about 22°C in the pool and about 28°C outside. Fantastic! I could get used to that.

After our swim the family went out for a drive and a tour of Toulouse. When we told the kids of our plan to visit Toulouse, Emma innocently inquired “what are we going to lose?” Well, I thought it was cute.

Toulouse, a fabulous city with a very thick downtown. I mean everywhere you look there are plenty of shops, restaurants, cafes, museums, churchs, cyclists, cars, scooters and of course people! We parked and wandered around just for a taste of what Toulouse was like. We stopped in a few toy shops for Liam and Emma and a sandwich shop for Francois…I guess he was feeling much better today. The cook at the sandwich shop responded in English to Francois’ Canadian French – You need to work on your accent Francois!

We crossed the Pont-Neuf which is a bridge that crosses over the river Garonne, very picturesque. It is the second oldest bridge in Toulouse (finished around 1632). The city sidewalks were very clean but many of the scooters would pull up on to them and park for free. It is not legal but the law rarely does anything about it.

We went into Cathédrale Saint-Étienne which was refreshingly cool and refreshingly bright inside. There were a great number of windows, both stained glass and plain. The grand pipe organ was built 17 metres above the floor. Liam was quite impressed and so were the rest of us.

After some more walking around we then drove off to our favourite little mall in Toulouse. We had a lovely Chinese dinner with Diane’s sister Monique, her husband Bruno and his daughter Barbara. It was very pleasant and very filling. One interesting tidbit is that it is not common for people in France to bring home their leftovers. When we asked for ours at the end of our meal, the waiter said he would have to ask the chef if it was ok. Hmmm, well I guess we’ll have to start ordering a little less or start bringing our own doggy bags.

What a great day, I can’t wait to go back again and tour some more…and of course shop!

Today’s Photos       April 21st Photos

It’s been a couple glorious days of sunshine and fun here in France! Saturday was spent at a couple of parks while Diane spent the day with her sister Monique in Toulouse. They did some shopping and had a great dinner at a Thai restaurant.

So, Francois and I took the kids to the nearby town of Graulhet and found a really nice park for Liam and Emma to play in. It was close to 30 degrees celius outside! So we didn’t stay out too long before we needed a refreshment break. We motored on down to the town of Gaillac where we ate some lunch and stopped at another park under some nice shady trees. Very nice park – very crappy washrooms. Standing basins where you can pee in a hole with no toilet paper (lucky I always have tissue handy) and probably never been cleaned since it was built. It was difficult to hover Emma over while trying not to touch anything, I think I ended up with more pee on me than in the washroom. Ah well, c’est la vie. I think I’ll invest in a potty to keep in our car. 🙂

Today, Francois didn’t feel so well so he was stuck in bed for most of it. As for the rest of us, we were picked up by Jens, Diane’s brother-in-law. We went back to Diane’s sister Carole’s home and went for a refreshing dip in their fabulous pool. Even though it was hot outside, the water was still quite cool. But the kids really enjoyed swimming with Sean. Then Carole and Jens cooked a wonderful Thai meal for us. You can probably smell it just by looking at the photo! Merci, our bellies are still aching from the amount we ate.

Francois eventually felt better and came out to join us before we all headed home ready for bed.

Blog you tomorrow…hopefully!

Today’s Photos

Well, we had good intentions of doing lots of work at home today but the weather was way too gorgeous to stay inside. The kids spent some time outside today while we did a bit of cleaning. Francois, Diane and Emma went to Lavaur to do a bit of shopping and Liam and I worked on his video journals.

Liam made dinner tonight (which will be one of his next video journals) which consisted of soup, bread and wine…a real frenchman’s meal plus some extra chicken wings on the side. Mmmmmm, chicken wings. After dinner, we were all outside for some ping pong, flower picking and lounging.

Not too exciting to blog about but enjoyable nonetheless.

We’ll see what work we actually accomplish tomorrow.

Today’s Photos

Today we took a long hour and a half drive to the city of Carcassonne. The pictures can tell most of the story but it was a great day. The weather started off foggy and cool but it soon burned off and it was really sunny and warm by the time we got to the city. Liam and Emma were very excited to search for Knights and Princesses in the Giant Castle within the walled city. We did see some Knights and wenches about and a real Owl…very cool!

It was very busy with plenty of tourists and school tours as we first stopped for some lunch and ice cream before we went on to tour the castle. We were very happy to find no dog poop on the cobblestone roads as there were a few dogs around. Strange thing is that cars were even driving through this place…The roads are so narrow and full of people, I don’t know why they bother. Tonnes of shops, restaurants and even some haunted houses to go through.

I will gripe about one thing…public washrooms. Eeewwww! I have to say that France is not good with public washrooms. First of all, finding one in a city can be difficult. In the city of Carcasonne, a tourist attraction, there were a few to be found, however, they were horrible! No toilet paper, some of them with no seats and terribly dirty. They have washrooms that are supposedlly self sanitising (they spray themselves down in between customers)…but I wouldn’t touch anything in them. Really, really poorly maintained. I am shuddering as I reminisce for this blog.

Ah well, the day was great even still. After wandering around we stumbled across a small grassy courtyard where we rested and the kids ran around for awhile, burning off that extra energy just before the car ride home. All of us had a great day and topped it off with some pizza at home for dinner. Even the store bought, frozen pizza’s in France are way better than some restaurant pizzas I’ve had in Canada!

Tomorrow we stay at home and catch up on some work!

Today’s Photos

Today we returned to Toulouse to visit our favourite “spider web” park. We wanted to make the day all about doing what they (our kids) wanted. While we burned lots of energy at the park, Diane went to have lunch with her sister Monique at the mall. The kids had lots of fun climbing, running and teeter-tottering. The weather was fantastic. It was cloudy/hazy but it was nice and warm. After lunch the kids and I ran some laps around the park on a gravel trail. It was fun and at least I got a bit of exercise.

After that we went to the mall to pick up Diane and pick ourselves up some ice cream and a few new clothes for the kids. Emma picked out her own summer dress to go with our “summer” weather we’re having.

When we got home we sat outside for awhile and then visited the chickens and pigeons in the back of our house. We asked Jacques if we could see the chicks and take some pictures this time! Still as cute as the first time.

Before dinner Francois went for a bike ride while Liam had his scheduled web-cam chat with his class mates back in Vernon. Liam really enjoyed seeing and chatting with his buddies and I think its so cool that this is possible so a big thank you to Liam’s teacher, Madame Lea for helping to make this possible.

Tomorrow we venture off to the city of Carcasonne!

Today’s Photos

Today Francois and I headed off To Albi to do some more extensive touring…without the kids! Diane graciously offered to stay home with Liam and Emma in order for us to have the day off. Merci Diane! Once we arrived in Albi, around 11:30am, we decided to stop for lunch. Besides, all the stores, museums and churches were closed for lunch and we only had until 2:00pm to eat before all the restaurants closed.

We ate in this very tiny restaurant called Le Papillon (the Butterfly). As usual the waiter detected our anglosized french accent and started to speak in english to us. Francois ordered a Pork cutlet with rice and an Asian influenced salad and I ordered what turned out to be a greek wrap (with veggies, garlic/herbed boursin cheese in a pita or flat bread) with a greek salad. Both very tasty. The meal included dessert which was a piece of caramel cake with crème fraîche and real whip cream. Mmmmmm.

On the way out of the restaurant, I commented to the waiter/owner how well he spoke english. He looked at us and paused…”well i went to Berkley.” Turns out he lived there and moved to Albi, France area because he has family here and I guess wanted to run a restaurant. He explained to us the wonders of French tipping. It is not uncommon to leave absolutely nothing – they seem to be a non-tipping culture. This is because in earlier years ( I don’t know how early) the waiters weren’t paid anything and relied on the tips as their wages. Now it is the law for restaurant owners to pay their wait staff at least the minimum wage (8,27 EUR – around 12.67CAN) plus 6-7 weeks holidays plus medical – Nice! So, most of France believe that often “service” is included. However, most people tend to leave their change left from the bill. Très generous! Us North Americans tend to be a little uncomfortable with that so we tend to leave more. I say, let’s live as the French do! 🙂

After eating we toured the Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Museum, the St. Cecile Cathedral and the local shopping district. I love looking at all the window displays (especially the kids clothing – they are waaay tooo cute and waaay tooo expensive). Francois and I winded around most of the downtown of Albi looking at shops and pushing each other out of the path of dog poop – not liking that about France.

After a really relaxing day we went home for supper – bread, cheese and wine! Phew, I’m going to need some expandable pants.

Blog you tomorrow – and get a load of Francois’ sporty new look. Now, we just need to work on that green sweater he’s always wearing.

Today’s Photos

Hi all, its been awhile since our last post. Emma is doing really well now just a very noisy cough, but her temperature was normal the entire day.

Today started off really well too, we all awoke from a fairly good sleep. The kids went down to our kitchen with Diane in the morning and had a great treat! Monique and her husband Jacques from from our vacation home visted them with a box full of newly hatched chickens and pigeons. Both Liam and Emma were really excited. I’m sad to say we don’t have any photos as both Francois and I were on the computer. I’ll try and get pics soon before they grow too big.

Later in the day Monique invited us to the local train in Giroussens. It was a tourist steam train that did a small 30 minute loop around the outskirts of the town. It was cute and we had a good time on our first outing since Emma got sick. Merci Monique!

Diane’s sister Monique came over in the afternoon and took Diane for a tour of the nearby town of Gaillac.

Diane’s other sister, Carole with her husband Jens and son Sean came by in the afternoon to drop off a tonne of DVDs. I guess they heard that we had a little cabin fever while being at home so long. That was super nice and really, really appreciated!

So, it was not a very eventful weekend due to Emma’s illness but the weather was rainy and overcast anyway. I’m sure the week will get better.

Bonne nuit tout le monde!

Today’s Photos
Google Map of Cordes-sur-Ciel

8:00 am today – getting better! The day started well, the kids got up and sat down to do their schoolwork on their own. Hurray for Pavlov’s conditioning theory! Then, another great thing happened. IBM called and came within the hour. We actually finished our morning tasks/duties and were out the door by 11:00am (1100 hours). Our destination… The fortified town of Cordes Sur Ciel.

It took approx 45 minutes to get there through a lot of open country and small, crumbling towns. The weather this morning was overcast with bouts of rain.

Hopefully the photos will give you an indication of how interesting this place is….our whole family really enjoyed it.

Today’s Photos

We were actually able to get up around 8:30am this morning. Seems like we are starting to get back on track. Liam is the first to get over his jet lag as he has been frequently the first one up in the morning.

After a lively game of ping pong between Liam and Francois, we received a call on Francois’ cell. It seems…suprise, suprise IBM won’t be coming until tomorrow. The part they ordered had not come in yet. Arrrggghh! How frustrating is that, well Francois could tell you I’m sure. What can you do…it’s France!

After that bad news, we decided to spend the day at our home in Giroussens since Francois was pretty bummed about the whole thing. The kids and I spend the morning doing some schoolwork then we played outside for awhile before coming in for lunch.

By 2:00pm Francois and I went to Lavaur to go to the post office and buy some groceries. Oh yeah, I drove to Lavaur – Wahoo! I am still sweating from that drive, I was so nervous. I’m not used to my left foot having to do anything. After buying some stamps we tried to look for an open restaurant. No easy task. As the shops open up around 2pm, the restaurants close until 5pm. I can never get the times right. I just miss sitting in Starbucks at whatever time of day I want (spoiled Canadian right?).

After arriving home and having supper the kids and I walked down the road to a nearby farm to look at the sheep and donkeys they had. It was a nice walk and the weather was really warm, like summer. The kids talk a lot about their friends back home but I think they like it here.

We’ll see how much Francois likes it here if IBM doesn’t show up tomorrow!

Today’s Photos

Well, I won’t even bother mentioning the time we got up today. However, it was another gorgeous day and everyone was excited to get outside. After doing a bit of morning work on the computer the kids had a small Easter Egg hunt in the backyard of the Gites. I was worried the heat outside would melt the chocolate but it went pretty fast. Anyway, we had lots of chocolate and lots of fun to start the morning off.

Diane’s sister Monique arrived in the early afternoon and we took off to the nearby town of Bessiéres. This town reminded me of Lavaur with huge knotted trees lining their town centre and all the shops in old buildings, closely packed and all closed of course. We came here because of the fête Omelette Pascale (Easter Omelette Festival). Close to the centre of the town there was a small carnival with rides for the kids, games to win prizes and many people selling various food, clothing, jewellery and crafts. It was interesting for awhile but there were too many people and too much dog poop everywhere. After some playtime for the kids we decided to head out for a drink somewhere else, it was afterall 27 deg. Celcius!

Monique led us to another small town called Paulhac. It was again a very quaint town with a beautiful church in the centre, many old buildings and some areas with cobblestone streets. We stopped around the church and Monique asked a small group of people if there was a nearby place to have a drink. One person who lived across the church asked us what were we looking for because there was really nothing in the town. When we said we were hoping for a cafe that serves juice and water he invited us to have a drink on his front door step! His friends helped him roll out his front door awening and bring out a small table. He then proceeded to bring out orange juice, grenadine and several glasses. We were all flabbergasted! Who does this sort of thing! Just to be clear, it was a busy part of town right across from the church in open public on his front doorstep so there was clearly no safety issue.

We chatted with them while we had our drink and found out that he (his name is Lack) was born in Algeria and came to France when he was 4 or 5 years old. He is much older now of course. He now makes bread in his home for those who order the night before. His friend’s names were Dalphina and Sebastian. It was very pleasant and something we won’t forget and a great example of French hospitality. When French people aren’t behind the wheel of a vehicle they seem to be very warm, kind people.

After going home we scarfed down a bunch of wine, cheese, wonderful bread from the fair and the kids had a tasty pizza. Have I mentioned that I love the food here?

Tomorrow, let’s see if IBM France shows up.