Three Months in France March 31 – June 28, 2007

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.

Today’s Photos

Ok, its the same start as every other day went to bed late, got up late (10am). The sun was out and it was a glorious morning. However, we didn’t get on the road until about 2pm/1400 hours. We were joined by Diane’s sister Monique and we were off to the city of Albi, about 1/2 hour away from where we are.

In Albi we were joined by Diane’s other sister Carole and her husband Jens and her son Sean. What can I say about Albi except that it is gorgeous! Many cobblestone streets with cute shops at every doorway and all the children’s clothes looks like something out of a Haute Couture Magazine.

We briefly walked around the city to meerly get a taste of its greatness. Francois and I would have to come back “sans” children in order to spend more time visiting it. However, what we did see was spectacular. The Catholic Cathedral, Sainte-Cécile was enormous, the pictures don’t do it justice. Apparently, it is the largest brick building in the world! It took two centuries to construct and was built around 1282 to 1480. The outside looks like a fortress and the inside looks like a museum of art – very grand and very ornate.

The surrounding area was full of eye candy as well. We saw one of the oldest bridges around still in use. It was called the Old Bridge it was built in 1035 out of stone and reinforced with brick later on. Really great pictures of that one. We wandered around through the downtown passing the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum had some ice cream and then proceeded to Carole’s home.

While waiting for dinner, Monique graciously invited me for a driving lesson. Hurray – somebody not afraid to drive with me! Well, after a few moments practicing gear shifting with the engine off, she took me on the road. I could see from the corner of my eye, her hand was tightly gripping the emergency break. Anyway, aside from stalling in the middle of an intersection and having old, French people honk at me, it went rather well. I can now shift from neutral to 1st, 2nd and 3rd gear. Merci Monique!! I don’t think i’m ready for the highway yet.

For dinner we had Diane’s spaghetti and a wonderful salad and plenty of wine. Not a typical Easter dinner mind you but its what we wanted to eat.

Blog you tomorrow!

Today’s Photos

We had a slow day getting up…again. I think I’m going to buy an alarm clock. However, when we did eventually get up, the kids and I spent some time in the backyard of the Gites before heading out to Lavaur. On the way there we stopped in on the small and somewhat deserted town of Ambres It was a wee town located on top of a hill and had absolutely nobody there, except us of course taking pictures here and there especially of the French Flag. It had a wonderful panoramic view of neighbouring areas. Can’t wait to visit them all.

After that we went on to Lavaur to pick up another cell phone for Diane, stop to have some ice cream, avoid the doggy poop on the sidewalk and then do some grocery shopping. Super day! Then we topped it off with an attempted swim in our pool. We attempted and found it to be too cold (18 deg. C) so we abandonded shortly after. The kids managed to amuse themselves around the pool for a bit before we headed off for a home cooked meal á la Diane.

Can’t wait for tomorrow’s Easter trip to Albi.

Today’s Photos

Hello all,

Today we decided to journey off to the city of Toulouse for the day. And our big adventure started off at the local big mall! Yippee…well, it wasn’t that big and they had quite a few stores I recognized – Fruits & Passion, Mexx, Sephora and a few I didn’t of course – petite boys, carfour, h & m (some store for Madonna’s clothes, I didn’t even know she was doing that). After spending 10 Euros on soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce and extra for a bit of pizza we took off to the nearest Office Depot. Yep, that’s right we’re really immersed in the French culture now. And it gets better because after that we went to McDonalds! Vive le France! Actually, we went to McDonalds to use the washroom and meet up with Monique (Diane’s sister). The good thing about being there was that the kids were trying to communicate in French to the other children in the play area so hooray for McDonald’s play area, it’s helping my kiddies speak more French.

Monique had the brilliant idea of going to an outdoor park that was not too far from her house and you can see from the photos that it was a really nice day and the park was fantastic. It had a skate park a dirt bike track, which all the kids actually ran up and down on and of course some play equipment. Liam and Emma burned off a lot of energy and we all had some fun.

After stopping for a drink at Monique’s house we then went back to our home for a quick bite to eat and then bed (for some of us). By that time it was actually 2030 hours (8:30pm) which I can’t believe we are eating this late but apparently that is the norm over here.

Anyway, great day today and I hope everyone reading this had a great day too.

Today’s photos

Well, we don’t really wish that, we just had a really bad day and night. Last night we were all pretty wired and couldn’t fall asleep until 3:00am or 0300 hours France time. The kids decided they didn’t like sleeping in their own beds and so in they came to our room and Diane’s. Liam, Francois and I were crowded into a bed that is smaller than a Queen bed, it was not very comfortable and not very restful. Yes, I know I should expect this with kids.

The morning started off with a humdinger as we got up around 9:30am 0930 hours. Francois’ laptop hard drive decided to not work anymore. So we went to Lavaur to find a computer store but of course by the time we get to the town its their lunch break…or should I say two to three hour siesta (I don’t think I’ll ever get used to shops closing down for a few hours in the afternoon). We did manage to find a mobile phone store that was open. Hurray for them! So we picked up a cell phone so Francois could spend a lovely afternoon talking to IBM France. They are coming on Friday to hopefully fix the problem.

I must add that we discovered a great shopping area while walking around different parts of Lavaur. One particular street, which was quite narrow, had shops (all closed of course) that looked really nice inside…I’m sure I would have bought something if they were open. I guess I’ll have to go back when they are open to give them my money.

We found another Catholic church along the way too. Gothic in design and smack dab in the middle of the commerce section. We also passed some very cool looking courtyard gardens behind some of the dwellings there. I’ve heard there are a lot of these around so I’ll have to venture inside one of them someday.

Ah yes, pictures! Well, we didn’t take much today and we are sad to say that the original photos of all our days past are now lost with his hard drive failure.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better.