Family & Food - Month 1

It's hard to believe it's already been over a month since we arrived in France; 6 weeks to be exact.  It probably took us almost an entire month but I think I can safely say that we're pretty settled in at this point.  The girls are making friends and getting used to school.  Although I still don't think they like it very much they're not complaining as much and thankfully no more melt-downs at the gate.  We've settled into our house, have a car, and Marc and I have a nice work-day routine set-up.  It's such a treat to not have to commute to work and to actually take a proper lunch break.  Except for the days I'm meeting with clients, it's also been nice to be able to go pick up the girls from school and actually spend the late afternoon / evening with them and have dinner at a normal hour.  Back in California, we have such a crazy schedule, it's not uncommon for Marc and I to both not be home until after 8pm.  Although there's still some challenges here and there I'm definitely not taking for granted the sanity of our schedule right now.  It's been a real treat so far.

We've also been able to spend quite a bit of time with Marc's family; generally eating as you'll see from the photos below. :)  Every Wednesday afternoon we pick the girls up from school and then head over to Marc's mom and dad's house for lunch.  The afternoons we get to spend together.  Most Sundays we gather with his parents and brother's family for Sunday lunch.  It's been such a treat to have so much time with all of them.  Here's a picture essay of some highlights from this last month; feels a little like a culinary essay.

A Wednesday afternoon walk along the lake.

Finally got the girls art cabinet outfitted with coloring books, pencils, markers, paints, and brushes.  

They were so happy to finally do art again!  

That was a sorely missed activity; especially since the art in school is really limited.

A pre Sunday lunch rose.

No meal is complete without a delicious cheese spread and some sort of delicious sweet treat.

My sister-in-law made this tart with fresh blueberries her parents had collected from the mountains!

 Celebrating Lola's half-birthday (7 1/2).  Mami surprised her after lunch one weekend.

Most weekends we get to Skype with friends back home.  The girls love this!

First dinner in our new house -- pizza and salad of course.

Sushi dinner with Marc's brother and family.

Visiting Tata Gisele (the inspiration for Lola's middle name) and celebrating her 82nd birthday!   

Playing with Tata Gisele's dog, Fleur.  She actually let them put a ponytail in!

Enjoying "American Pancakes" with everyone

Marc with his brother and Dad.

Lola helping me prepare an afternoon snack.

Marc's Dad caught us some delicious fish (Omble) from the lake.  

We enjoyed it on a salad with fresh walnuts that Marc's Mom gave us.

Sunday lunch at Mami and Papi's.

Some flan and cake to follow.

  

After lunch play time with Mami and Papi's Dog, Louki

I love these drinkable fountains dispersed throughout town. 

We're lucky that Thonon is fed by a spring, like Evian, so the water is really good.

A view of Thonon Harbor.

One of the large fountains in town

The girls are enjoying their new Thursday after-school tradition of chocolate croissants with Papa.

A Saturday afternoon in Evian.

Crepes for lunch.  Yummy!!

Looking forward to the changing season and seeing what October will bring us!  Happy Fall everyone!!

Fair Fun & New Pets

Thonon was hosting it's annual County Fair.  Of course we decided to check it out.  Was surprised to discover that basically a Fair is a Fair wherever you are in the world.  Of course the food choices were slightly different and the language was different but otherwise I could've been back home at my Marin County Fair; hot, dusty, farm animals, lots of people, rides, carnies, and beer gardens.  One other difference though is that it was not a "smoke-free" Fair.  Ugh!  I forgot what it's like to constantly be walking through second-hand smoke.  

Girls had fun at the carnival:

They had the typical animals to pet but I didn't take any pictures of all the chickens, rabbits, and ducks they had for sale!! Of course, the girls were begging us to get them some pet chickens or bunnies.

  

Trying their hand at some games.

Prizes!

There was a large showcase of foods produced in the region.  Lots of meat!

 

And bread. Cheese too of course, although I didn't get any pics of those booths.

We enjoyed some french fair food: rosti (grated potatoes formed into a patty and cooked in lots of butter; like a fritter), sausage sandwiches, and beer!

Teah didn't even bother with the baguette the sausage came in.

One of the games the girls played they had the option to pick a goldfish as their prize.  Although we were resistant at first.  I mean really, what are we going to do with goldfish?  We finally gave in hoping that maybe having some pets would help soften the intense transition they were experiencing.

Here they are excitedly displaying the fish they picked out.

That night the fish slept in small bowls we found in the kitchen.  We tried to explain to the girls that there was no way to know how healthy the fish were and there was a chance they wouldn't live very long.  Fingers crossed they would pull through.  I really didn't want to add "pet dying" to the list of un-pleasantries the girls were dealing with.  Thankfully the fish made it through the night and after dropping the girls off at school the next day we went straight to the garden/pet store to get some fish food and supplies.  As Marc and I wandered around the store wondering which of the 10 different goldfish foods we should choose a nice lady came over to help us.  We told her what we were looking for and she immediately guessed that we were the proud new owners of goldfish from the Fair!! Apparently we weren't the first ones to aimlessly wander the fish section wondering what to do with our new Fair pets.

Here they are in their happy new fish bowls. 

Teah's fish is the one on the right with the white belly.  Her name is Bubbles.

Lola's you can only see her back fin. Her name is Luna.

(Of course they're girls, right?)

Back to Work

This post is a bit late but after a couple weeks to "relax" and settle in here I got back to work. Although on one hand I would have liked the "vacation" to last longer I was surprised how happy it made me to get back into a work routine.  Although UCSF was gracious enough to grant me a year sabbatical I agreed up front to complete a research project that I've been working on with them for the last year and a half.  So for now my Mondays, Wednesday mornings, and Fridays have been spent wrapping up that project.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays I'm back to work with my online nutrition practice and "seeing" clients through Skype.  Even with the time difference this is working pretty well so far.  I have the mornings to work on admin tasks and blog posts and then the afternoons I get to work with clients.  Since we're 9 hours ahead of California, and for now most of my clients are in California, my "office hours" are 4-10pm my time, which is equivalent to 7am-1pm PST.  So far this has been working well and thankfully is still allowing me to earn some money while we're away.  I'm also hopeful that with the extra time I now have to devote to my business that I will be able to grow it and make it a more lucrative option for me.

Although Marc is not officially working while he's here, at least not yet, he has definitely been "working".  He's helping me with some of the business and technical side of my practice.  He's had to manage ALL the administrative stuff since our arrival (banking, insurance, phones, internet, school stuff, car, visas, etc).  He's also been essential in helping the girls transition to school, driving them around (twice a week for half the day they are going to another school for French classes with other non-French speaking students), and he's been the primary liaison with the teachers.  I can't imagine trying to do all that on my own with my little French language skills.  He's been amazing!  I hope that financially we will be able to continue this set-up throughout the year but if funds drop too low the plan would still be for Marc to find a temporary or part-time job.  Thankfully since he's a French citizen he can do this.  Although I hope he won't have to, I'm definitely grateful that we have the option.  And who knows, he might just want to get back to work at some point.  :)

We've Got Wheels

We finally did it.  After 3 weeks of borrowing our sister-in-law's car, taking the bus on occasion, and walking when there wasn't any other choice, we bought a car! A little 2005 French Renault Diesel Modus with 120K on the engine, for an awesome 2000 Euros. We call it a "Brian car" (after our dear friend Brian), because this would be his dream car: Upright seating, no blind spots, fold-able back seats for outdoor activities and an overall pretty funky look. Marc loves it!

Now of course this doesn't take into account fixes we will most likely have to incur during the year, like changing the clutch!  But overall Marc and I feel like we're 16 again with our first set of wheels. Freedom!!  It's amazing how much you take it for granted after having had a car for the last 20+ years.  Even the girls were excited that we didn't have to borrow Tata's car anymore.

We would have bought something sooner but yet again we were not prepared for the multitude of steps involved.  Once we established our banking account, we had to wait 10 days for the account to be activated, weirdly tied to our new phone set-up and the ability to receive text messages. Of course the French bank wants to be able to send texts to a french cell number, and Bank of America wants to send texts to an american number. Actually impossible to make this happen, but we did find a work-around thanks to my mom. We then had to transfer funds from our bank in America to our account here, then go back into the bank to have them write a certified check to the owner of the car.

As a side note, buying a used car here requires 4 different documents, a "CT" (Technical Control, showing the car is safe enough to drive on the road - something the US might want to do), a "Certificat de non-gage" (showing the car was not stolen and no tickets are outstanding), a "Certificat de Session" (essentially showing the seller is willingly parting with the car) and the title of the car of course. All this needs to be signed and counter signed, quite a process! Once we bought the car then we had to take the paperwork to the insurance office to purchase car insurance and then wait in line at the Sous-Prefecture (think yet another government entity).  They then mailed us the "carte grise" (the car title), which we then had to send a copy of back to the insurer.  Wow!! As I'm learning nothing is a simple phone call here.  Back home, you'd pay the owner of the car, get the pink slip right then and there, give a call to your insurer, add the car to your plan and that would be that.

We're still getting used to the "tininess" of the car; although the big windows help it to feel bigger than it actually is.  It's interesting how all the cars here tend to be small (actually, everything here is smaller, and that will be the subject of its own blog post).  I have yet to see a big truck, even the delivery trucks are small.  And SUVs are rare; although in the wealthier areas that seems to be changing. Even the station wagons seem big compared to the other cars on the road.  The other thing is that the roads are pretty narrow.  Even in a small car you feel like you're either about to hit the car coming the other way or run over the poor pedestrian who has like 2 feet of a "sidewalk" to walk on. Marc was talking to his family about this one day and apparently as more and more people have moved into the villages on the outskirts of town they've made the roads "wider" (I think that's totally relative coming from the U.S.) and have essentially taken up any sort of sidewalk and replaced it with road.  So now what you're left with are roads butting right up to the front door of houses and pedestrians walking within inches of the cars going by them.  It's an adventure every time we decide to walk to school.  I still have about a month before my International Driving Permit should arrive in the mail, so for now Marc is my chauffeur.  But eventually I'm going to get to navigate these tiny streets myself.

Moving Day

This last week we were finally able to move into our home for the next year.  Marc’s brother and his family have graciously been hosting us the last 3 weeks and although it is definitely fun to vacation at their house and enjoy the beautiful amenities it was hard to get into a routine with the girls.  Living out of suitcases and not really being able to settle in has made the transition more challenging for the girls.  They have been sharing their cousin’s room and sort of taking over the space, which I’m sure has also been hard on my nieces.

So on Wednesday we finally got to pack up this mess of suitcases (plus 2 more not pictured here) and drive everything a whole 200 meters down the road to our new house!

I thought I'd do a mostly photo blog to give you a sense of what our space will look like this next year.  That way you can better picture us here.  :)

The view from the front door -- living room and dining table

The kitchen 

The other side of the living room and a little office cubby.

Our bedroom 

The girls room is upstairs -- one side has the beds

The other side has some play space and an extra bed for sleep-overs 

(the girls are hoping their friends from home will come and visit - hint, hint)

  

The view from the girls window

The view from the 2nd floor

The back deck

The back yard

First thing the girls did was jump on the play structure.  

Behind them is a Petanque (French Bocce Ball) court.

There's a sweet little trail right next to the house that leads to a forest.  

The girls and Marc are collecting nuts from a tree at the edge of the forest.

We are very lucky to get to live in such a beautiful place. Thursday (the day after we moved in) we had our first rainy day.  Although we welcomed the cooler temperature and the first rains of the year, Marc has already warned me that this part of France can be very wet and dark and cold.  Being a California girl I'm a bit anxious to see what winter will bring.  But for now I can enjoy the changing seasons.

Of course we can't have a post without some sort of crazy story to go along with it.  Thursday morning we woke up to the rain; as mentioned above.  No big deal except we still don't have a car and have been borrowing my sister-in-law's car to get the girls to school, do errands, etc.  We also don't have any food in the house.  So we get the girls dressed, bags packed, and head over to Marc's brother's house for some breakfast.  We don't have any umbrellas (couldn't fit those in the suitcases from the US) so we get our jackets on and quickly walk over (it's only a 2-3 minute walk).  BUT when we get to their gate and ring the bell nobody answers.  All the windows are dark in the house. Oh no! They've already left to take the girls to school (later we learn that my sister-in-law forgot we needed to come over to eat breakfast).  So we jump the fence (literally) and run under the eaves of the front door to escape the rain and wait for her return. 

She gets back and we have about 20 minutes until school starts.  OK.  Pas de problem.  We have a quick breakfast and rush the girls to school getting them to the gate right as they are closing it to start the day......except, Lola rushes in without her sister (because she hates being late) and Teah decides there's no way she's going in without her.  So.....I'm standing in the rain with Teah, pleading for her to cross the gate and go with her teacher to class and she's basically freaking out and saying no way. The teacher has now called to an older student who knows English to find Lola.  Ugh!!  Eventually we get her in there.  Happy rainy day.

The next day the girls are happier in the rain with their new umbrellas and Lola promises to never abandon her sister at the gate again!!

French School

Day 9 - They actually posed for me!!  Maybe we've finally turned a corner....

I thought I’d talk a little more about what school is like here plus some perspectives straight from the girls.  In my previous post I mentioned how parents are not allowed on the school grounds or in the class rooms.  The day starts at 8:30 and they have a 2-hour lunch break from 11:30-1:30.  Some children go home for lunch and others stay at school, where they have plenty of time to eat and play.  Unlike our US system where unfortunately most kids scarf down their lunch or don’t finish it so they can get outside and play before the bell rings.  No rushing here, which I am very grateful for.  Of course, being a Dietitian, I feel like it’s really important for kids to have adequate time to eat a solid lunch.

They resume school at 1:30 and the length of the afternoon then varies between the following:

              Monday – 1:30-3:00

              Tuesday – 1:30-4:30

              Thursday – 1:30-3:00

              Friday – 1:30-4:30

Wednesdays they’re actually done at 11:30 for a minimum day.  I like that schedule.  2 long days, a half day, 2 long days, and then the weekend.  That seems like a nice balance.  The other thing about their schedule is the school year.  They year starts on Sept 1^st and goes through the first week of July.  But every 6 weeks they get 2 weeks off.  So that gives four 2-week holidays over the school year.  I like that too.  Not just to give the kids a break but hopefully it will allow us some opportunity to travel and not have to take the girls out of school.

After School Options

The school district also offers after-school and Wednesday afternoon activities, should you wish to participate.  They are both for an extra fee but compared to how much we pay for kids activities in California, the cost is really inexpensive (depending on how much you make the price ranges between 60 to 190 Euros per child for the whole year for 2 days of after-school programs; 7 to 14 Euros per child per Wednesday).  We decide to sign them up for twice-a-week after school activities (periscolaire) on the days they get out at 3:00 (Mondays and Thursdays).  We hope it will be fun and will allow them more time to connect with the other children.  The activities rotate through different programs; sports, art, music, etc.

Here's a little sample of the work the girls have done at school so far.  I like that on Fridays all the work from the week comes home and we have to sign off that we've reviewed it.  At least this way we feel like we know what's going on at school.  I so miss getting to co-op in the classroom and see first hand what the girls do all day at school.

Lola's Thoughts:
   

Q. What do you do in class in the morning?

A. I get to my desk, I get a piece of paper that has the number of the day on it (ex. 11th day of school) and I have to fill it out.  After that I sit, I listen to my teacher talk, I get a headache because it's too much French, and I fill out more papers. 

Q. What do you do at recess?

A. During the morning I get 2 different play times. I play with my new friends until the little bell rings and I have to go back to work.

Q. What do you think about the lunch at school?

A. There is a different thing every day, always bread and cheese, always a dessert, and it's usually really yummy. And I get a lot more time to eat my lunch plus more play time.

Q. What do you do in class in the afternoon?

A. Once the bell rings I get in line again, 2 x 2, and I go back to my classroom and do more work; more papers.

Q. What do you like about French school?

A. I like having my own desk, I like all my school supplies, and I like sitting in the front. 

Q. What do you not like about French school?

A. I don't like getting a headache because there's so much French, I don't like some of the kids because they're not very nice to me, I don't like that I don't get any free-time to choose what I want to do, and I don't like how long it is.

Q. What do you miss about Open Classroom (school back in California)?

A. I miss all my friends a lot, I miss having free time and getting to play outside, I miss the play structure (they only have a black top to play on at her French school), all the Open kids are nicer, and I miss being with my sister more during the day.

Teah’s Thoughts:

Q. What do you do in class in the morning:

A. I bring everything out of my backpack, go sit at my desk, I glue a number in my blue book (the # of day of school), then my teacher talks, I do more paperwork, play games, read books, and put paper in my folder.

Q. What do you do at recess?

A. I walk around, play on things that make my feet higher, and I play with my sister.

Q. What do you think about the lunch at school?

A. It's good. Sometimes I like the healthy food and I don't like dessert, sometimes I like dessert and I don't like the healthy food.

Q. What do you do in class in the afternoon?

A. I do some more work; filling out papers, writing with my white board, then we put all our stuff in the back pack and then you pick me up.

Q. What do you like about French school?

A. I like play time, I like lunch time, I like my desk.

Q. What do you not like about French school?

A. I miss you guys all day, I don't like that you can't walk into the class room with me.

Q. What do you miss about Open Classroom?

A. Open Classroom is way better than French school because the teachers are nicer, and I miss all my friends.