Famille/Family

English first, French after the line _____________________.
We just had a very short mid-week visit with the Northampton crew. They all seem fine. We're fine. Al.. had us over for an excellent lunch to set us off on the return, yesterday. There's absolutely no news to report, which is, as the saying goes, good news.
On our way there, on Tuesday, it was gray and foggy in northern France and pouring cats and dogs on the English side of the Channel. It poured until Luton and continued raining until Milton Keynes. The Northampton area was dry. It was a harrowing drive, though.

The sweater I had started knitting for Ch.. ended up like this. I stuck the frogged balls of yarn onto a circular needle just to keep them in order, so that when I start the project, again, I won't have to go looking for them. (to "frog" knitting means to "rip it" back. Say that fast enough and you'll get it.) I miscounted the number of stitches for the yoke pieces and didn't realize the mistake until the sleeves were all done and I was trying to mount the body stitches. Grr.
This weekend, I intend to call family in the US. Be forewarned. I will try to call at a good time, but we all know that the time zones make that difficult.
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Nous rentrons d'une petite visite à la famille à Northampton. Ils vont bien ; nous allons bien. Al.. nous a invité pour un excellent déjeuner, hier, avant notre départ. Il n'y a pas de nouvelles à rapporter, ce qui, d'après le dicton, est une bonne nouvelle.
La route aller, mardi dernier, était grise et dans le brouillard côté France, mais il pleuvait comme vache qui pisse en Angleterre. Il pleuvait fort jusqu'à Luton, moins fort jusqu'à Milton Keynes, et pas de tout, enfin, à l'approche de Northampton. C'était éreintant.
L'image de toute cette laine sur une aiguille est le résultât du pull que je faisait pour Ch.. J'ai du tout défaire suite à une erreur de montage. J'avais fini les manches et ce n'est qu'en montant les mailles du corps que j'ai vu qu'il me manquait une 20 de mailles de chaque côté. Grr.

Back from a Birthday Week

We got home, yesterday, from a short week in England. It was C's birthday and we arrived just in time for the big family celebration with everyone. This time we took the Eurostar. For the two of us, managing to reserve enough time in advance, we managed to get reasonably priced tickets that made the journey less expensive than going by car. When we go by car, we have to take into consideration not only the tunnel fee, but also the toll on the French autoroute and the gas. When we go by Eurostar, we have to consider not only the Eurostar fare, but also the fare up to Northampton. All in all, the Eurostar is more comfortable. We took a big suitcase this time because there were birthday gifts on the TO route and an accessory for one of the knitting machines on the RETURN route. Next time, if we take the train, we'll do everything possible to fit into our "overhead" cases to share the lugging. In any case, we got to Duston in time for lunch.
For a first birthday, a kid has no idea of what's going on. For a second birthday, they start getting the idea, but the ideal birthday, I think, is the third. C was so, so, so happy it was her birthday and was so excited to be the star of the day she couldn't keep still. She had helped her Mommy make the cake and it was the "Best Ever Chocolate Cake" from the AAWE recipe book that we all swear is absolutely the best ever. It was decorated with Smarties and raspberries and blueberries. (As usual, I only share photos with family and if I forgot to add you to the sharing, then email or phone me and I will.) It was very, very good. So was the whole lunch, but really for a birthday, it's all about the cake.
Cake was followed by opening presents, which took a bit of time as the cousins' gifts were very small in size and each individually wrapped. C is a very meticulous girl and tries very hard to open gifts carefully so as not to tear the paper. The London family had to leave almost immediately after the gifts were all opened and so did Daddy, who was off to a conference.
Monday, once everyone had gone to school, day care, and work, we got on a bus and went to the city center. Building around Northampton is booming; Duston seems to have a new housing estate under construction each time we go. This does not seem to affect downtown Northampton. The empty shops are still mostly empty or turned into charity shops; there are several pound shops. Paul needed a new sweater, which we found at the Edinburgh Woolen Mill shop, and I found what I needed at M&S, but nothing else caught our eye, not even for lunch, so we picked up some sandwiches and headed back. We got on a bus that I knew would get us back home, but I had no idea it would take us on such a long route. We discovered how big Duston, at least New Duston, is.
The next day, we ventured down the Main Road to a coffee and lunch place that features lots of "homemade" items on the menu. I wish I knew where "home" was. It was all microwave-reheated. The next couple of days, we were happy getting lunch from the Co-op. I could have fished around in the fridge and freezer at home for lunch, but really didn't feel like it.
So, that's it. Home in Nogent, now.

Happy New Year 2016

It's not a very original title for a blog post and I realize I ended 2015 with a sad note, since my last post of the year was after the terrorist attacks in November. For us, though, the year ended very well. We went to Claire's for Christmas and had a short family visit. Not everyone went this year. Louis and Gwen went to her folks this time and Emma and Gabriel stayed home, with a thought to going to his dad's, but that visit got put off a week.
I finished my knitting projects for the year and am ready to get started on this year's. Just waiting for some measurements to come in (you know who you are).
This month will be taken up with preparations for Overseas Americans Week, which will be in early February this time. There's only a month left to prepare!
My voter registration/ballot request is off -- that's my New Year's day tradition, now. We overseas voters have to do this every year!
Paul hasn't given any indication of big projects coming up. We hope to have Dan visit in February, after my return from the States. I know we want to get down to the south in the Spring, maybe late winter. There's been a request to return to England in late May, early June and that would be a great time to do some touring. We haven't made any summer plans, although I know we've been invited to join the UK bunch, so we just need to know when and where. If the Pierwige crew want to get together, they'd better set it up, now!
I think our plan is just to stay well, to babysit when asked, to see other family whenever possible. We'd like to have a nice, calm year, with no catastrophic news concerning us, our loved ones, or the world. We hope the same for everyone else. Exceptional good news is, of course, welcome!
There's no big family picture this year.

A non-birthday party

The kids cooked this up. Paul has a big birthday this year and has repeatedly said he doesn't want a big to-do. They organized a family lunch.
First most of the family from England arrived to spend the school holiday with us. That allowed the little cousins (Parisian and English) to get to know each other a bit, have a sleepover, watch movies, play on the trampoline, take a bateau mouche tour of Paris. Later in the week, the last two from England arrived and the ones from Tarn-et-Garonne drove up. So, we had all four of our kids on the weekend. Even if the Parisians went home to sleep, we still had a houseful. Fun and games. I had done most of the cooking the week before, so it was just a matter of defrosting....
One sad note during the week, though. A dear friend from the baseball crowd died. He was the one, the papa of the minimes team, who greeted L when he signed up, 11 years old. Later, I was one of the two moms that took over the team management and he went on to taking on more club responsabilities and scoring. He recruited me as a scorer and mentored me. Since I gave up scoring a few years ago, I hadn't seen him as much, but was also glad to see him when I could. Last June, he came to the European championships with his wife -- always happy to see them, but that's when he told me he was sick. I'll miss him. It was wonderful to see how much the baseball community loved him and turned out for the funeral -- all the "kids", now grown men, the scorers, the federation officials, the PUC (our club).
On Sunday, we went into Paris for lunch. And the surprise was finding P and G, who had come up from Six-Fours and their kids and grandkids.....
Sorry, no pictures of this on the blog -- family will get the link to the album, maybe not immediately as I have some sorting to do!

Went to England in July

Added: Looks as though I forgot to publish this short post once I got the pictures downloaded.

At the end of July, we went to spend a week in England. The formal reason was to babysit between the end of the school year and the beginning of a sort of day camp at a nearby school. It turned out that C. had decided to leave her job and was therefore free that week when she hadn't expected to be. Her new job started when we left. It was perfect timing.
We went to pick up Ch. after her last day at school, stopping to say hello and have lunch with G's mother. I love seeing her and we had a nice, but short visit. Then we off to pick up Ch. and face heavy traffic on the return trip, which ended up taking more than 2 hours.

 On the weekend, we visited Warwick Castle, which has been transformed into something between a really good cultural visit of a Norman-period castle that children could enjoy and an effort to be a Disney-like attraction. The girls tried their hands at archery and did very well. There was a birds of prey show, an archery show, fun and games and lots of little stands where one could spend more money. The weather was beautiful and we strolled around the grounds, had a picnic lunch, and a very nice day.

We also visited a petting farm, with pony rides for Ch. and A. It was a rainy day, though, and we went to a nice pub for lunch.
On our return trip, the traffic was horrendous as we drove down to Dover. The motorway was cut off and transformed into an immense parking lot for trucks waiting to board the ferries. We had to drive through towns; the detour signs were not always in view or very clear in their directions.

Tis the season

The weather people were gloating that 2014 was so warm that the temperature hadn't gone below zero all year in Paris. Well, too soon. It is below freezing at least once. I'm writing late in the morning and the frost is still on the ground and cars. It's beautiful out; the sun is shining. We haven't had snow in the Paris area, but the mountains finally did get some, which created massive traffic jams on the way to the ski resorts. Even the Auvergne resorts finally got snow.

We had a wonderful week in Duston celebrating with the entire Lebelle-Husaunndee families. It was a houseful of exited children, exhausted parents, and happy grandparents. We came home with colds; mine is just starting today with the scratchy throat. I'm going to stay warm in bed and sort out the photos.

While in England, Claire treated us to an evening of theater in London! It was a combination birthday/Christmas gift of "The Play that Goes Wrong" -- a good laugh! A friend from the American Library in Paris had recommended it to me months ago and I had sent on the recommendation to Claire. In fact, I thought it had already closed. Thank goodness it hadn't. It's not the kind of play that makes you think hard; it's just for fun, so it was perfect for a girls night out. (A review) We got to London early enough to have something to eat before the play, which was the right thing to do because we then managed to get the train back to Northampton that got us home before by midnight!

Monday, the contingent from Paris arrived. Wednesday, we celebrated Paul's birthday at the pub in Harlestone -- an excellent Christmas Eve luncheon -- before the Woking set arrived, while some of us attended the Christingle service at the St. Crispen's church near the house. We had a finger food buffet for dinner. Once the children were all in bed, we went off to the nearby pub/hotel while others went off to the midnight service at St. Luke's. 

The children were very patient the next morning playing with whatever was in the stockings and waiting for the go-ahead to open the presents under the tree. Once that got underway, though, it was a frenzy of unwrapping. They all seemed very happy with their gifts. The highlight was an especially big gift for all but the babies -- a big bike, an electric scooter, pedal cars, a digger/backhoe! The babies got stuffed toys, dolls, and more cuddly things. 

We had Cuban-style roast pork for lunch, using that wonderful recipe from the New York Times, that Louette saved many, many years ago. Even though I have found the link, I think I still have the original clipped article somewhere. Since there were 12 adults and 5 children (not counting the 2 babies), the roast was enormous and there was some question as to when we should start cooking and for how long. It had been marinating since Tuesday, noon! We ended up starting the night before in a very hot oven for about 20 minutes and then let it cook in a very slow oven. When Geoff got up in the morning, he checked the meat temperature and it was done, so he wrapped it in foil and kept it warm. He reheated it a bit before serving for lunch. It was perfect.

After lunch, Nigel presented the adults with their treat, a Christmas themed jigsaw puzzle! The difficulty was in figuring out what it should look like since the puzzle was the view of the room from the perspective of one of the people in the picture on the box -- not the picture itself. I worked at it at the beginning, but couldn't concentrate. Those who stuck to it managed to finish it just in time to watch the Downton Abbey Christmas program. After that, we went back to the hotel for a good night's sleep, except our door key was demagnitized and I set off the alarm when I went into the reception area. I ended up calling the emergency number on the card, waking up the manager, and waiting for her to come to reset the key. After that, we got a our well-merited sleep.

The Lebelles left after a light lunch of soup and sandwiches on Boxing Day, while the Husaunndees stayed on for a couple of days more. Claire drove the Parisians to the airport while we drove back. We got an earlier shuttle than we had reserved, so we got home quite a bit earlier. 

The next day, we all reunited in Paris to distribute the gifts Santa had left here! 

I believe we are going to have a very quiet New Year's Eve.

Les Gorges du Verdon

Les Gorges du Verdon

en français sous la ligne ___
Les Gorges du Verdon are sometimes referred to as the Grand Canyon du Verdon, but in no way can the area be confused with what Americans consider the Grand Canyon!
Here is the wikipedia article in English. The river cut the river bed through layers and layers of sedimentary ocean floor. While it was rushing down the hundreds of meters of rock, it carried boulders from higher up and carved out these smooth curves in the rock and sometimes that led to deeper caves. Even before Neanderthal came along, these caves were inhabited by humans. Neanderthals lived there. Cro-Magnon did not live there because the glaciers had come back and it was just too cold for Cro-Magnon, who found a better climate in the Ardeche and the Dordogne valleys.

Claire showing Aurelia the oil

The Verdon is in what they call the pre-Alps or Basses Alpes. It's the eastern edge of the Provence region, east of the Durance river. It's a fruit-tree region, especially apple trees. There is also wheat, the hard variety used in pasta. Most of all, there is lavender. The best time to visit the region is before the lavender is harvested, before the third weekend in July. There's lavender and lavendin, but let's just say lavender to make things easy. The lavendin season is a little later than the lavender season and it takes 6 times more lavender than lavendin to extract the same amount of essential oil, so most of the production is lavendin. Apparently, you can use lavender essential oil in food, but not lavendin. How do I know all this? Well, the Plateau de Valensole is part of the region and we visited a distillery just outside the town of Valensole and the distiller explained it. He took a sample of from the condensing vat to show us the oil floating on the water.
Until 40 years ago, the canyon was all canyon and only accessible to hikers and rafts, but in the 70s a series of dams was built at Esparron, Quinson, and Sainte Croix and they created three lakes. The highest, the Sainte Croix is the biggest. We were on the middle lake, at Montpezat. We (Paul and I, Claire, Aurelia and Constance) were at a vacation village run by Belambra. It was fine for what it is, but not really my dream place. I'm not much into organized quiz shows before meals, the after-dinner parties with music blasting 'til 11. I did go to the aquagym sessions, though. The pool was great. The rooms were fine. I'm just not a great camp participant.

View from the room

The kids show, first week

It was a great location! The tiny village of Montpezat sits just above this vacation complex and is a delightful

place to go for morning walks. We also did little excursions to Riez, Moustiers, Valensole, Quinson and along the corniches of rhte gorges. I took a boat excursion on the lake through the gorges to the Sainte Croix dam. That's where I got my geology and pre-historic information. Moustiers is well-known for its ceramics. The industry had died out completely in the nineteenth century and a sole ceramist revived the industry in the early 20th century. Now, the town is 100% pottery shops. Riez was the closest town and has a good deal of its old ramparts and city gates, with the old main street with 16th century Renaissance homes. It has an enormous market and you can tell that it's not just for tourists when you see the hardware store in a truck on the parking lot.

Papa Cancy and the kids

A one-ring family circus was in town one evening and we treated the family to an evening at the circus -- very small family. The youngest performer was the 4-year-old boy and just learning his clown and acrobatic acts. The 10-year-old is well on her way, but still has a way to go. The younger girl, about 7, didn't seem much interested in making this her profession. Aurelia was very impressed and that's all that counts.

Entrance to the Pre-history museum

We went to Bargème, a midieval village that still has a very authentic atmosphere. It's hard to get to and doesn't have the touristy shops one finds everywhere else. At Quinson, another village with its ramparts, gates, Renaissance homes and fountains everywhere, we took in the Pre-History museum. It's an excellent museum, but perhaps a little out of range for children. There were some scenic windows, but not enough. When you see boxes of flints from 500,000 BC followed by boxes of flints from 400,000 BC followed by boxes of flints from 350,000 it's a bit overwhelming. However, you do see that there is evolution from simple flints to two-facets, to triangular; it just took a long, long time. There is also evidence of trade during Neanderthal times. Obsidean came from more than 1000 km. away in Italy, flint from 80 km. away. We didn't have Aurelia with us for this visit and I think it was a good thing. The entrance to the museum leads you to think that they cater to kids, though, with the Mammouth and tiger and other animals displayed. Kids might think they are in "Ice Age". For fans of contemporary acrchitecture, the museum was designed by Norman Foster and represents a flint. Not far away there is a "prehistoric village" which, according to Claire and Paul, who walked to it, is more adapted to children.

The church at Ganagobie

Lunch at Bargème

Bargème

We ended the second week with a visit to Six-Fours to see the family. Aurelia got to swim with her big cousins and loved it. The two Maxes are her heros and the Lebelle and Dehaut girls cousins were perfect and I think they all were taken with her. Constance was a bit startled by everyone and hung to Mommy, but was still well-behaved. The meal was absolutely perfect. And more family came over in the afternoon, so everyone got to see Claire and meet the girls. We were very sorry to miss the cousins from Pau. Claire and the girls had to leave to pick up Geoff and Charlotte in Marseilles and we waited a little longer, but had to leave to get back to Montpezat.

At the Carrière des Lumières

A sarcophage at the Arles Museum

Saturday, we got to see Geoff and Charlotte and said good-bye to the Brits, who are staying on in the area before coming to us on their way back home. We headed west through Provence to Les-Baux-de-Provence so that Paul could see the sound & light show, Klimt and the Vienna School, that I wrote about not long ago. We also squeezed in a visit to the Arles Antiquities Museum before heading to Avignon for the night. At Arles, they dug up a Roman-period barge from the Rhone and it is in almost perfect condition. That and many, many urns and statues and sarcophages make it an interesting museum to visit, though not for kids who haven't studied the Roman Empire.

Street musician in Avignon

We ended the evening in Avignon, a short visit with Tania's mother and then dinner with Tania at a very nice little restaurant on the Place St. Pierre at the Coin Caché. A street musician serenaded the diners for a long time and played beautifully.
I have shared the full photo album with family -- if you didn't get the link, let me know.
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Je ne vais pas tout résumé. C'est trop. J'ai parlé de ce que nous avons fait pendant les deux semaines dans les Gorges du Verdon en explicant un peu ce que sont ces gorges. 
Ensuite, la distillation de la lavande. Le plateau de Valensole, les villes et sites que nous avons visités. Nous avons vu un petit cirque familiale -- vraiment tout petit, mais idéal pour Aurélia qui a pu voir des acrobates, à peine de son age...
Les photos évoquent ces vacances et comme nous avons eu la chance de vous voir et de vous raconter de vive voix, je ne vais pas tout recommencer. Je partage l'album avec la famille, si vous n'avez pas eu le lien, passe moi le mot.

Just got home

en français sous la ligne ___
Before I write the post about the two weeks in the Gorges du Verdon, I want to show you what we came home to: no shopping for dinner!

The two smaller zucchini were just over and just under 2 kg.; the largest was well over 2kg. and the kitchen scale couldn't register the weight. We NEVER allow our zucchini to grow that much, but in the two weeks we were away, this is what happened. There were as many cherry tomatoes rotting on the ground as in the bowl. Two very large tomatoes fell into my hands as I was picking the cherry tomatoes. They were so hidden in the foliage that they are still white; I'll let them get some light to color them before we eat them. I picked the small beet for salad. 

I peeled and gutted the zucchini and cut them into cubes that are now in the freezer: 4.5 kg. I saved some for the tomato sauce. I made a tomato sauce with the cherry tomatoes and grated a bit of the beet for the sauce, per Emma's instructions. The rest of the beet we had as beet leaf salad, a few cherry tomatoes, and the rest of the beet sliced thin. Dinner was spaghetti with tomato/zucchini sauce and salad. Oh, I picked a few plums for dessert. 

Today, I've got to prune some of the shrubs and other plants in the yard; one can hardly clear a passage into the yard. The trampoline cover is waterproof, which means that all the rain last week collected on top and we had to empty that. I don't know how many liters of rainwater wasted; it was like emptying a large kiddie pool on the lawn that was still soggy from the downpours. It seems the Paris region got hit with more than a month's rain in a single storm and there have been several storms.

Later today or tomorrow, I'll write about the vacation.

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On est rentré pour trouver le potager en plein production. Les trois courgettes pesaient entre 6,5 et 7 kg. ensemble! Je les ai débité en dés pour les mettre directement au congelateur, tout en gardant un peu pour une sauce tomate, faites avec les tomates cerises. Je laisserai murir les grosses tomates (blanches dans la photo, sur les courgettes) ; elles n'ont pas eu assez de lumière. Nous avons diné de spaghetti à la sauce tomate/courgette avec une salade de feuilles de betterave, tomates, et betterave en tranches fines. J'ai récolté quelques prunes pour le déssert.

Il va falloir tailler partout dans le jardin ; les accès en sont impossibles et il va falloir continuer à vider la piscine qui s'est créée sur la bâche de la trampoline ! Il a énormément plu la semaine dernière, parait-il.

Ca nous faisait plaisir de vous voir tous vendredi (vous savez qui vous êtes). Je tâcherai de vous faire ces résumés en français plus souvent.

Chloé

Chloé Lebelle-Thomas joined the family on June 27!
Sorry to be so tardy with this announcement. I've been delinquent in getting the photo.

 It was rather early in the morning and I wasn't around. I had gone down to Provence with the car to see the rest of the Pickar clan in Roussillon. That means that Paul, the babysitter, didn't have easy transportation in the middle of the night, so Louis came and picked him up and then took Gwen to the hospital. That was cutting it close and added a bit of stress to the whole thing, but everyone got to where he or she should be in plenty of time. I woke up early on Friday morning to a phone message with a picture. Not this one, but another. This one is the one Louis posted, so I feel I can share it.

What a weekend!

The reason we came to La Réunion now was for a wedding: Louis and Gwen. And now, that wedding has taken place -- on Saturday, October 26, 2013, at 13:30.
(This is my own shot. I was seated next to Louis and the camera was in my lap. No flash, no way to check that I was aiming at the couple. But this was the moment of saying "Oui". That's it for really personal shots in this post. Most of the other pictures have children in them and posting those is a parental decision. Family readers will get the link to my album, as usual.)
I'll post the rest of our tourist activities in another post. The wedding related activities started with a dinner for all in the wedding party, hosted and cooked by Louis, in the middle of the week. We are a fairly small party: Gwen's parents; sister; brother and his wife and two girls; an aunt and uncle; Sacha, of course; Gwen's friend, who was her witness and who lives here; Louis' witness, who is his good friend and who came with his wife and baby just a couple of weeks older than Sacha; and we three Lebelles. We ate well and all had a good time. We didn't linger because most of us intended on going up to the top of le Maïdo for the view into the Cirque de Mafate the next morning.
Thursday, Louis and Mikail spent the afternoon diving. That was the bachelor party and Louis loved it! Friday, all of the girls in the party, spend the day with Gwen. A morning at a lovely beach, with paddle boards and canoes. Just as it started to sprinkle, we headed off to another beach to the restaurant where Camille had reserved our lunch. It poured as we ate a delicious meal, but the storm was over by the time we left, so we didn't get wet. We spent the afternoon visiting a tropical garden right here in our neighborhood. The rain had stopped completely by the time we started our visit and it was a lovely, interesting walk. While we were having our day out, the men took care of the babies and prepared the house for Saturday's festivities. Gwen went off to spend the night at Camille's and Louis spent the evening with us and spent the night at Anne's hotel (she has a suite!). Anne had arranged for full sister time for Louis and he managed to speak to both Claire and Emma on the phone.

The Mairie de St. Denis

Saturday was the big day. Camille had made a hair appointment for me, so Paul and Anne spent an hour discovering St. Denis while I was at the hairdresser's. It's not a very big city, so they managed to cover most of the sites in that time and we continued afterwards, having lunch near the mairie (city hall). At about 1:00 we were all near the mairie and ready. We spent the time taking pictures with Louis. Gwen arrived, beautiful, radiant and we went up to the "salle des mariages" just before 1:30.
The couple sit facing the "maire" (or, in this case, the "maire adjoint") and the "secretaire". The parents sit on each side of the couple and the witnesses at the end. We formed an arc around the table. The secretaire read the civil code articles concerning marriage, to which they agreed, and then the full "état civil" of both Louis and Gwen (that's their full names, where they were born, their parents' full names, ...) and they signed the document, exchanged rings and were married. Simple and every bit as moving as a big ceremony.
As with most cities, Saturday weddings are in high demand, so we were quickly ushered out of the room to make way for the next party. There's a patio in the mairie with a fountain, so a few pictures were taken there, and then again on the steps at the front. We then went down the street (Ave. de la Victoire), all the way to the sea front, Le Barachois, for more photos, after which we went back to our cars to drive up to the Jardin d'Etat, (up the same street, but called Rue de Paris at this end) for more pictures. It started to drizzle but the French have a saying: "mariage pluvieux, mariage heureux" (rainy wedding, happy wedding), and it was only a little rain, in the tropics, so it did not prevent our meanderings. We left the city to head back to the house and stopped at Cap la Houssaye on the road between St. Paul and St. Gilles for some cliffside photos. L, who is nine and has very sharp eyes, saw a turtle in the water below. It even came to the surface for us. (Turtles are a sign of longevity in the Chinese tradition, so we decided that this sighting was a good sign for Louis and Gwen!) By this time, the sun had come back out. We returned to l'Ermitage.

A little goûter (snack) was waiting for us: fresh fruit and fruit drinks! After a little time to relax, we walked down to the beach for the sunset and champagne! And when the sun was down and it was completely dark, except for the stars, so bright, we lit lanterns and sent them off into the sky. Once back at the house, we settled down to a perfect dinner, good music, and a good time.

Louis finally told us what the Sunday surprise was going to be -- a day out on a catamaran!  (half day for some, full day for those who wanted to stay aboard) We set out from St. Gilles a little past nine. The sea was smooth; the dolphins came to play boatside. Later on, the sea got rough, so the afternoon shift was called short, but they still got to see dolphins, a bigger species than the ones we saw in the morning, so the day was a success, even for the few who were a little seasick. What we all remember is a good day.
And that was a wonderful weekend. Today is going to be a relaxed, no-planned-activity-or-sightseeing-day. Anne is leaving tonight.

Announcing Constance Victoria

Sorry, I haven't written in two months! I just couldn't bear to complain again about all the FATCA business. Victoria has been expresssing the frustration so well, there was no point in adding to it. And for anything else, well I was just lazy. There wasn't much to say, anyway... until now!

Constance Victoria Husaunndee was born on Oct. 3 at 11:28. 3k 150 gr. / 6lbs. 13 oz. Apparently they don't measure length any more.
This is the picture Claire took on her phone this morning. They will be coming home from the hospital later today. Can't wait! We've been to the hospital to visit, but it'll be great to have them home.
Paul and I have been here for almost two weeks, learning Aurelia's routine in order to help Claire out, but unfortunately we are leaving on Tuesday already. I'm leaving for the US at the end of the week, for a very short trip, and then we leave for La Réunion. I guess I'll be coming back here early in November. It's good that Geoff's mother will be able to come up to help out in the interim. Claire will not be allowed to drive for 6 weeks! It's the insurance company that dictates that rule for post c-section driving. Absolutely ridiculous!
Aurelia has settled in well at school. The cut-off date in the UK is Sept. 1. Since she turned 4 on Aug. 31, she is the youngest, but probably the tallest, in her class. This is rather like kindergarten or last year of Maternelle. It's all day. They do learn to read and write. She already knows her letters and their sounds, so the teacher is adding on phonics at a faster clip. Same can be said for numbers. After school, she's got gymnastics on Monday, swimming on Tuesday, music on Thursday. On Saturday, she goes to "French school" in the morning.
French school is in Milton Keynes. Last week, we went to Costco while she was at school and this week we went to the main shopping center. It made me think of my father and wondering what he would have thought of it. It's enormous, clean, with very large spaces for exhibits (this week was weddings with a several antique car limos for weddings, and other vendors) and walking. It seemed like a mile between the two end anchors. The stores are big, much bigger than the Northampton ones, much more stock and choice. And from one shopping center there are passageways to the next and the next. The one odd thing is that you do have to pay for parking -- not much, but still...
So, that's the latest.

Lots of visitors -- Pleins de gens !

French first, English below the line of dashes, photo credits: Emmanuelle & Louis:

Emmanuelle et ses filles avec Sacha
Emmanuelle and daughters with Sacha

Les courses chez Cake & Bake
Cake & Bake shopping

Oof, je prends un moment de repos. D'abord, j'ai fait mes ongles et maintenant que le vernis est sec, j'écris. Que des visites ces dernières semaines. Nous avons eu le plaisir de voir les Lebelles de Pau autour d'un petit voyage à Prague pendant les vacances scolaires à la fin du mois d'avril. Ils ont passé une nuit "d'hôtel" en arrivant le soir pour partir le lendemain à l'aéroport rejoindre le reste de la famille. Heureusement, au retour, ils ont passée une journée pleine avec nous. Dès leur arrivée de l'aéroport, les Lebelles parisiens (Louis, Gwen, et Sacha, et Anne) sont venus -- grande réunion de cousins, cousines et bain de foule pour Sacha.  Le lendemain, laissant Paul et Alexandre à la maison, nous, les filles, sommes allées dans Paris chez "Cake and Bake", un tout petit magasin de tout ce qu'il faut pour faire la patisserie américaine -- cupcakes, glaçages, moules, formes amusantes pour découper les biscuits. Lieu de perdition, mais je savais que ça plairait ! C'est près de la Place de la République et de là nous sommes allée à pied au marais, rue des Rosiers pour déjeuner. Découverte des falafels pour les paloises. Très appréciés. Suivi par des pâtisseries orientales que nous avons ramenées à la maison pour le goûter. Il faisait prèsque beau et prèsque chaud. Samedi ils sont repartis pour Pau. C'était une bonne visite -- à renouveler.

Le temps de voir un film avec Emma et Anne -- Le Prénom -- et se préparer pour l'arrivée des Husaunndees de Duston. Un mot sur le film; à voir. On rit bien. Il faisait très beau le 1er mai. Un vrai temps de saison. Un temps trop court parce que le reste de la semaine, il faisait de nouveau frais et pluvieux. J'ai quand même planté des tomates, du basilic et j'ai remplacé le thym.

Les anglais sont arrivées vendredi soir, entre deux pluies. Charlotte et Aurélia ont ramassé quelques radis pour le repas du soir. On s'est rendu compte que ça faisait plus d'un an depuis leur dernière visite -- le weekend anniversaire. Samedi, journée tranquil avec une visite à l'écurie à côte de l'école maternelle. Les filles ont adoré voir les chevaux et sont retournées à l'écurie encore dimanche et ce matin avant de partir. Aurelia a fait la connaissance d'Eric, notre coiffeur, mais elle n'a pas voulu se faire couper les cheveux, vraiment pas. Dimanche, c'était de nouveau maison pleine pour le déjeuner. Et une photo de famille! Les filles sont tres contentes d'avoir ce petit cousin et très, très affectueuses. Quelle plaisir de les avoir tous là!

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I haven't written in French on this blog in a long time, so I put the French version first. I'm not really going to translate for the English version. It's going to be more like an abridged version. The picture at the top is Emmanuelle, Alexandre's wife, with their daughters, holding Sacha. They were here for a visit after their little trip to Prague. The next day, we went to a shop specializing in American baking accessories, Cake & Bake, and then walked down to the Marais area for falafels and oriental pastry.

Emma, Anne and I went to see a movie on May 1, "Le Prénom" ("The Name"), a French movie based on a play with the same title. I'm sure it'll be remade in the States. It's perfectly adaptable, so I won't give it away. Let's just say that at a dinner party, the father-to-be is asked if they've decided on a name and that leads to quite a discussion. Lots of laughs, but some serious thoughts, too.

The Husaunndees just left after a weekend with us. Another big family reunion -- see the picture! More cooking and playing and just sitting admiring the kids. They got to see the horses at the stables next to the nursery school. They even got to see the school, where "Mummy" went when she was little because it was a polling station, therefore open. They also went to the aquarium and saw the crocodiles (among other animals and fish). They loved seeing Sacha. Aurelia is fascinated with babies and would have smothered him in kisses if we hadn't held her back.

Sacha Lebelle-Thomas

4:00 a.m. April 18, 2012. 3 kg.: 49.5 cm. (6 lb.,almost 10oz.; 19.5 in.)
Mother and baby doing fine.

Paul and I are going over later this afternoon when visiting hours start. It's the same hospital where all four of my kids were born, just a few minutes from where Louis and Gwen live, so it was a logical choice for them.
That's all for this post. Coming up in the next one some pictures of the paint job and new kitchen.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012 BONNE ANNEE

New Year's Greetings 2012

The Lebelles had a good year! If you click on the link to 2011, March, you'll find our trip to Cambodia and Vietnam and in April, our family birthday celeb­ration at Disneyland Paris. Back to March -- we linked two group trips to Cambodia and Vietnam in order to spend a full month traveling. It was a great, although we agree that we appreciated Cambodia more than Vietnam, probably due to the nature of the group tours more than the countries. We returned in April to celebrate a lot of birth­days together. Well, we all have a birthday every year, but for some of us, it was one of those spe­cial years: 10, 30, 40, 50, 60, and 75! We had a very warm and sunny spring, followed by a chilly summer and then a warm fall. Ellen got to babysit Aurelia in February when she had the chickenpox. We both visited in June and again in August for THE MOVE. The Hu­saunndees have moved to a big house just around the corner from where they lived before! Ellen re­turned in November for a short visit and we spent Christmas with them with Anne, in the new house. Emma, Louis and Gwen also visited in December. In November, Ellen also ventured up to Man­chester to catch high school friend, Beth Levin, in concert! What a treat! We also had nice visits here from the Pickars, Sleeths, Schallers, and Chaussemys. And now it's time to start a new year. We wish you the very best for 2012! _______________________________________________________________________ Les Lebelle ont eu une bonne année. Si vous cliquez sur le lien 2011, March, vous trouverez notre voyage au Cambodge et le Vietnam et, en April, notre fête d'anniversaire familiale à Disneyland Paris. Pour notre voyage en "Indochine", nous avons lié deux voyages en groupe. Magnifique. Nous avons mieux apprécié le Cambodge, mais c'est peut-être du à la nature des visites. Retour en Avril pour fêter beaucoup d'anniver­saires. Oui, nous fêtons tous chaque année une anniversaire, mais 2011 était spécial : 10, 30, 40, 50, 60, et 75 ans ! Nous avons eu un printemps chaud et ensoleillé, suivi d'un été frisqué, puis un automne doux. Ellen a pu garder Aurélia en février quand elle a eu la varicelle. Nous avons tous deux rendu visite en juin et encore en août pour le grand démé­nagement. Les Husaunndee se sont installés dans une grande maison tout près de l'ancienne. Ellen est allée encore en novembre et nous sommes re­tournés avec Anne pour fêter Noël dans la nou­velle maison. Emma, Louis et Gwen sont allés aussi en décembre. En novembre, Ellen est monté jusqu'à Manches­ter pour voir une copine de lycée, Beth Levin, en concert. Géniale ! Nous avons aussi reçu des visites des Pickar, Sleeth, Schaller, et Chaussemy. Et maintenant, une nouvelle année s'annonce. Nous vous souhaitons une très bonne année 2012 ! -------------- PS: Some of you may receive a hard copy of this in the next few days. Certains parmi vous vont recevoir une copie papier de ceci dans les jours qui viennent.

Une semaine tranquille

in English below the dashed line

Mardi soir les Lebelles de Nogent ont dîné avec les Lebelles de Verrières. C'est devenu une tradition annuelle, chaque été. Comme d'habitude, c'est agréable de voir tout ce monde ensemble. Rien de très important n'a été divulgué ; il n'y a rien à raconter que le plaisir de se revoir.

Avant de rejoindre le restaurant, j'ai passé la journée à la bibliothèque américaine, qui rouvrait après une fermeture de 6 semaines pour rénovations. Pratiquement tout le monde avait choisi de rapporter leurs livres et DVDs ce jour-là plutôt que de les déposer dans le collecteur pendant la fermeture. Cela nous a donné beaucoup de travail épuisant.

Pas de randonnée mercredi -- il faisait trop lourd et on avait prévu des orages. Il se trouve que le temps était tout à fait agréable, mais j'ai quand même bien apprécié faire la grasse matinée !

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Tuesday was re-opening day at the library. I went in at 10; the library opened at 12 and closed at 6pm. It was non-stop checking in returned books, and checking out the whole time. Most people had not taken advantage of the book-drop during the 6-week renovation and chose to bring the books and DVDs back on the 2nd, the due date. That, plus the fact that not all the collection has been fully restored to shelves made it a bit difficult and exhausting!

After the library closing, I walked over to the restaurant where the Nogent Lebelles were meeting with the Verrières Lebelles for our annual summer dinner. I treated myself to a mojito while I waited for the others to arrive. We had a very pleasant dinner together with no earth-shaking news.

I slept in on Wednesday -- no walk. Too muggy and they had predicted storms. In the end, the weather was ok, but I still appreciated having slept in and being lazy. 

Birthday weekend at Disneyland Paris!

 This was for the long-awaited birthday celebration at Disneyland Paris. I started thinking about this last year and we set the date last summer!

C'était notre weekend anniversaire à Disneyland Paris que j'avais mis en route l'été dernier.

Pierre - a new quarter century! un quart de siècle nouveau !

Me - 60, Anne-Valérie, Alexandre, Anne each another 10 years behind! No one at 20, but Valentine is celebrating her 10th this year.

Chacun 10 ans après l'autre avec un trou à 20 ans.
Valentine célèbre ses 10 ans bientôt.

Magic Kingdom weather -- sunny, warm -- perfect!

Un temps parfait, ensoleillé et doux !

Appreciated by all!
Apprécié par tous !

Happy New Year 2011 - Bonne Année, Bonne Santé

Facebook status updates - a fairly good reflection of the year.
Les mises à jours sur Facebook, un bon résumé de l'année.

Paul and I are fine. The kids are fine. We lost several (too many) friends in 2010 and hope not to have such a series next year. Paul's mother passed away a month shy of her 101st birthday. But, all in all, we had a good year and can only wish for the same for us and for you in 2011.

Paul et moi, nous allons bien. Les enfants aussi. Nous avons perdu plusieurs (trop) amis en 2010 et espérons ne pas renouveler la série l'an prochain. Le mère de Paul est décédée à un mois de son 101è anniversaire. Le tout pour le tout, nous avons eu quand même une bonne année et ne pouvons que souhaiter un semblable pour nous comme pour vous en 2011.
Our month:

The Husaunndees came down from England -- all four, so we got to see Geoff and Charlotte, too. We celebrated Paul's birthday, the 24th, all together: Louis, Gwen, and Anne came in from Paris. Emma is still in the south of France and was not able to come up to Nogent. Because of all the snow we had before Christmas, last minute train travel was not recommended. We had a nice birthday dinner, special to Paul's order: fois gras, lamb, sweet potato tsimis and carrot cake. The next morning, Aurelia got up at about 7:00 as usual and we had to wait patiently for everyone else to come down and discover all the presents. There wasn't enough room under the tree; the sofa was also occupied. Louis and Gwen left for lunch at Gwen's parents and the rest of us settled for a lunch of roast beef. The Pachters came over later in the afternoon. The idea was to recreate our Christmas get-togethers of the past, but Caroline and her family were stuck in the snow in Brussels and Steve and his family were stuck at home with sick children. We did manage to have a good time and hope that next year all the next generation will be able to come.
The Husaunndees left on Tuesday. Paul and I went to a funeral, Jean-Luc Moretti, another loss to cancer. He was a former neighbor from a couple of streets above ours and companion to Dominique, whom we've known since Emma and Maud met at Ecole Maternelle (nursery school!). He was a municipal councilman and two days after he died another councilman also died, again prostate cancer.
Paul and I spent a very quiet New Year's Eve together on Friday. We dined on fois gras and oysters with an endive (chicory) salad, cheese and fruit for dessert.

August 2010

July flew by. Lazy, rainy, chilly in Paris. The Pickars were supposed to come for a visit the first week in August, but Ken's back made them cancel their trip. Jacques came back from his holiday in the Alps and the Jura and last Wednesday we went with him to see the Marinot exhibit in Troyes. The first few photos from this slideshow are from Troyes. I don't know why there's one out of sync with the rest in the middle of the photos from Six-Fours.

We came down to Six-Fours last Thursday to celebrate Pierre and Gillette's 50th wedding anniversary. It was a wonderful occasion to see the whole family, albeit without our own kids. Anne-Valerie and family left yesterday after lunch and Alexandre left today with his bunch. Pierre-Fréderic and family are still here. We are leaving tomorrow. This is going to be a very short post as I am anxious to get changed and into the pool!

Bon.  Quelques mots en français quand même, pour la famille ! Si vous avez la possibilité d'aller à Troyes, allez au Musée de l'art moderne ; il vaut le détour. En ce moment il y a une exposition des tableaux et verreries de Marinot du début du 20è siècle.
Ensuite, il y la fête des 50 ans de mariâge de Pierre et Gillette, ce qui nous a donné l'occasion de voir beaucoup de la famille -- quoiqu'il manquait nos propres enfants.
J'arrête -- la piscine m'appelle !

We've had a couple of visitors!

Claire and Aurelia are headed home today after a very short visit with us.

New Year's Greeting