tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10757576854276380552024-02-18T19:54:19.240-08:00French AdventureUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1075757685427638055.post-42773717107237640702010-07-15T04:38:00.000-07:002010-07-15T05:45:03.530-07:00Sunday 27th June, 2010 to Sunday 4th July, 2010<strong>Saturday, 3rd July, 2010 </strong><br />The end is nigh. Planes were coming in most of the night, but it was very cloudy. We ate our breakfast and packed all the extra things up. I made the bed back into its soft yellow sheets and covers and packed ours into the last bit of space in the bag. Loretta rang to say goodbye, but reception wasn’t too good so she would ring back later when we were at the airport. I locked everything up and Gray carried them downstairs as it looked like it was going to pour any minute. We got them all into the car, which still didn’t have a scratch on it!) and went back to carry stuff to Martine and to give Suzann her rose. As I made one trip, suddenly a whole load of water came splashing down. Gray had tipped one of the plant containers down the verandah drain and we found out where the pipe went. Into the air above the path.<br />Martine came out, but she looked awful and said she had had a crash on one of the motorways in her car yesterday. Someone had crashed into the back of her as she was slowing for the toll booth and she had spun out and crashed badly. The pompiers had come and the gendarmes and she had been in hospital. This was dreadful as now she didn’t have a car and was so far from Chantilly. She took all the food and plants and was very sad to see us go. We hung the wet towels on her drying rack under the eaves as it was now raining again. We said Avilly was crying because we were leaving! We gave Suzan a rose in a pot and the garbage. She didn’t seem to know we were leaving and was sad as well.<br />We locked up and gave the keys to Martine and she gave us a special horse racing keyring which had special significance for her. I took the Famille Doherty d’Australie off the door and we drove out of the yard and on our way.<br />It wasn’t pleasant weather at all. Being a Saturday, there weren’t all the big trucks on the road and the Tomtom led us to Charles de Gaulle. We turned it off as it was going to Teminal 1 and we needed Terminal 2D. It is an incredibly huge place and we eventually found our way round and down to the Europa terminal. I went to go in a closer entrance, not realising there wasn’t a hole in the fence. So… typically for my driving in France, I went around and down again and we parked. Gray found two trolleys while I went to the Office. It was closed. What to do now? I didn’t want to leave the keys in the box. We took copious photos of “no damage” in the rain then and saw a sign that showed us to a different office in a terminal. So we set off….two fully laden trolleys with 4 huge suitcases, 4 smaller bags and the rolled up air mattress to post somewhere in a Post Office. Through the puddles and rain, dodging cars and uneven pavements we went hopefully heading towards a Europa Car office. Eventually in the distance we saw the colours and followed on. I stood in a line for quite a while, until a lady behind a counter said what did I want, oh I just had to hand the keys in and she took them. I hastened to say well there was no damage and I had photos to prove it. Nobody checked anything at all. Bit of a worry! I asked a security man where there was a post Office and he pointed and said I had better hurry as it would shut in 5 minutes. Everything shuts at 12 o’clock in Paris! I left Gray with the trolleys and ran inside to just join a queue. One slow fellow dealing with all sorts of International requests! Finally it was my turn and I explained I wanted very cheap and slow postage. 67euros to post a mattress that cost 20 euros! It took me a while to realise that this was ridiculous, but what else was I going to do with it at this stage!! He obviously missed all my French for very cheap and as slow as he liked. Oh well, had no euros left now, that was one thing! Back I went to Gray and we went to find the Terminal 2C. We went round a corner , up in a lift and we were there! We weren’t expecting that. Hopefully now we could get rid of some of this luggage at the Emirates terminal. We sure did! We were 7 kilos overweight!!! I must have packed heaps more in, or Loretta’s scales weren’t accurate. I figured it was probably the former. We gulped and went to hand over the 50euros a kilo across the way and then back to get our tickets. After that we went through to customs through another barrier of x-ray machines. We had decided that Gray would empty his pockets into a plastic bag and put it in my handbag before he went through as that would be one less thing for him to do. Bags on the conveyor belt and I realised that I still had the broken corkscrew to dig the shoes clean. Oops, handed it to an officer and through I went. Gray’s bags came through and I told the man he had new knees and would light the lights! The man grinned, groaned and frisked him. Meanwhile our bags were causing some interest. One lot went back and through again and I was desperately trying to remember what was in there as we had stuffed many last minute things in. We went aside and the man had a good dig around in my handbag….brave man! And then into Gray’s sleep machine bag. He came out with my jewellery case from the sleep bag and opened it up to see all my metal necklaces. He laughed and said they just had to check, all was well.<br />We continued on our way and went to buy lots of chocolates with Gray’s left over Euros and then down to the lounge to relax. We dumped our bags and found loos and food and wine! And there we sat! Text messages went back and forward around Australia and France and goodbyes were said. I managed to hear from Margot. Eventually we boarded and began our long journey back home. We were in good safe hands as the pilot’s name was Stephen Root. We had a steward who had spent 3 years at Uni in Bathurst we discovered when we asked him which part of Australia the pilot came from. He said he would ask and came later to say he was from Sydney and it was such an unusual name that he knew there was another family of the same name in Orange. We ate well and as we were leaving the plane the steward came down and said the Captain would like to meet us. The cockpits on these huge planes are very small and the Pilot and Copilot were in the middle of masses of lights. I had an extremely swollen foot during this flight and the steward told me I should get a wheelchair, but I said I would be right. It was now Sunday. We went into the terminal and the crowd in the customs hall was absolutely awful. I should have had a chair! It was so hot I was raining the whole way through. This time we both lit the lights and rang the bells. I think mine was my jewellery. I collected all the bags, something was said to me, but I didn’t hear properly. I waited for Gray and our time for the next plane was very short. As I set off to start walking slowly I was called in to a cubicle and frisked by a woman in a burka. Gray came along looking for me as I came out. I wanted to ask her how else she got her thrills, but thought I probably shouldn’t. We set off to walk to the boarding gate as we saw on the board that it was open. My foot was causing me extreme pain. We found the boarding gate and had to wait a few minutes before we could get on. Once on the plane, I sat with ice on my foot most of the way home and it was still very swollen, but the pain went out of it after many hours. Once again, good champagne and lots of food! This was a good flight as we didn’t go through Bangkok and that cut two hours off the journey. We organised a wheelchair this time in Sydney and moved rapidly through the gangways to the luggage area. It was a bit too fast for poor Gray with his heavy bags. At the luggage console I climbed out of the chair and helped Gray with the bags as they started coming through all at once. As long as I didn’t put the foot down it was all right. I had a strong trolley to lean on and we limped off to customs and quarantine. No worries at customs as we had declared things and they sent us straight through to quarantine. That was way down the end of the huge area and on we limped. There were three of them watching my slow progress and showed me where to go. She asked what we had and was happy with chocolates from Duty Free and the picture frames from Montmartre were fine. I explained about living on the horse area and what I had done to the shoes. She was amazed and waved us through. They hadn’t x-rayed the bags so didn’t see the plaques.The car was waiting and we were whisked off to the hotel at Brighton. <br /><br /><strong>Friday, 2nd July, 2010 </strong><br />I had an incredible feeling of the end of our adventure coming closer this morning. I was up early with everything opened up to enjoy the cool and to watch the horses going out.<br />Today was the day to clean and clean and clean. Towels had to be washed and given to Martine the next day as we left. I packed all the food and household items into two boxes for Rochelle and Martine. Suzanne would have a rose and Martine would have the rest of the plants. The herbs were really thriving well, but the fuschia looked a little deader by the hour. We swept and cleaned and dusted and cleaned the shoes. I had cleaned all the soles of 6 pairs of shoes and washed them and disinfected them and sealed them in individual plastic bags so that we could assure customs we had cleaned them thoroughly because we had been living in a horse area. I left Gray his joggers and he battled away an almost lost his cool for the first time as he said anyone but me wouldn’t have said they were in a country area. Told him I didn’t want to be responsible for bringing disease to Canobolas thank you. After a long time I finished them off for him, but couldn’t pack them as he was going to wear them home. We decided we would take one broken corkscrew to the airport to get out the last bits of dirt picked up in the next day or so.<br />I washed the towels, leaving one for the next day and we really did need one to use and had them out to dry. Loretta texted to see how we were going.<br />We packed and locked everything except for one case that we would have to put the sheets in and our clothes from that day. We had out warmish clothes as everyone kept telling us how cold it was in Sydney.<br />We washed all the floors and as they were drying we were listening to the thunder rumbling around in the distance. All the cases were in the entry hall and down came the rain. It absolutely streamed down in torrents and started to pour in through the bottom of the doors on to our beautifully washed floor. We grabbed all the towels and mopped up as best we could. So much for dry towels for Martine the next day. We left them in rolls under the door and headed of to Rochelle’s. We parked up in the square and walked down, but when we arrived her car wasn’t home. I remembered the gate code and it opened to let us in. We looked and gray said there was a light on in the kitchen so we knocked. Harry came to the door and we met the Phantom Harry at last. The boys were both at home and they were watching sport much to Gray’s delight. We had some red wine and eventually Rochelle, Gigi and friends from Houston came back from Pierrefonds. We had a couple of drinks and stood to go. We were going to eat out as we had cleared all the food, but Rochelle said she would put some curry on and why didn’t we stay. She is such a generous, welcoming soul so it didn’t take much to convince us to spend our last night in France amongst convivial company, even if it was all in English. <br />We had a delicious curry and dinner and suddenly realised how late it was. <br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFRS5DIPhcAk8Mu9I7AHmMeHuOrHpJXDbfc6TjomxdfwzlqEvWhg9XA-GHv0dGV0hYhyjfWwhyphenhyphenQzjT_Bc_UgH5s0WVaTpxD5k7oaK5-Z3k_xZSW7zQoUYVxkcJOqPDy3JbwardwqZEMR0/s1600/DSCN0002.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFRS5DIPhcAk8Mu9I7AHmMeHuOrHpJXDbfc6TjomxdfwzlqEvWhg9XA-GHv0dGV0hYhyjfWwhyphenhyphenQzjT_Bc_UgH5s0WVaTpxD5k7oaK5-Z3k_xZSW7zQoUYVxkcJOqPDy3JbwardwqZEMR0/s400/DSCN0002.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494104275066185058" /></a><br />We drove off home, hoping to see a last deer, but no such luck.<br />No more rain had come in thankfully so we wrung the towels out and put them back down just in case.<br />We decided to go early in the morning so that we could get there comfortably and find our way to the lounge when we had done everything. Good night Avilly.<br /><br /><strong>Thursday, 1st July, 2010 </strong><br />It was a strange feeling to know it was a weekday and not have to go to school, especially since the others were there. I spent time on the internet trying to find out about the Europa car return and the terminal we needed to be in. There isn’t much information around, but I found some maps and sent an email. <br />Today we would finally visit Château Chantilly! As usual with the closest things, they are often the last to be visited. It was going to be warm so we set off to be there close to the time it opened. We decided to take the train around the gardens as it was a huge walk, something like 7800 hectares. One of the walls around it goes all the way out to Avilly as Gray discovered when he walked the forest path into Chantilly. We parked the car, once again very cheap parking, in under the trees and I went back up to the cobblestoned roundabout to take the photo of the scene that I saw every morning driving to school. It still amazes me each time it suddenly appears. <br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ8XoRIxeBQQO7di1hnU6A6joSgaK0uWgYWVicqxyXJCq5HA84zJBr68PNPtG835ScoSwb7j06s-WNeYsA7tNSKr5kgsuyL8UZlIsKckQmqtf69D_KLy_dZrso61iSm-6QDSCWFmZrPTg/s1600/DSCN0047.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ8XoRIxeBQQO7di1hnU6A6joSgaK0uWgYWVicqxyXJCq5HA84zJBr68PNPtG835ScoSwb7j06s-WNeYsA7tNSKr5kgsuyL8UZlIsKckQmqtf69D_KLy_dZrso61iSm-6QDSCWFmZrPTg/s400/DSCN0047.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494099034841311858" /></a><br />We then walked down to the castle and saw several groups of school children, some Maternelle and some Primaire all converging from different areas. We walked in through the gates and bought our tickets for the castle and the train and then walked back out and up to the main forecourt where an imposing statue of Anne de Montmorency astride his horse was facing the castle entrance. Small children with many adults were everywhere. We took some photos of the cultivated tapestry of gardens and went back down to wait for the train. A group of children was heading that way too, but they fortunately stopped and listened to their teacher expounding on the various parts of the area. <br />The train arrived, we climbed in and the driver went off the other way. We found a compartment that had both windows open so it wasn’t too bad and there we sat. Another group of people arrived and then the driver returned and we were off. An interesting beginning to the journey, was the rattling of this train on the cobblestone roadway with us on very hard seats. However, once on the dirt tracks it was a lot better. They are certainly amazing gardens and you could imagine them on horseback during a chase through the forest, or wandering in groups with parasols through the ordered sections. <br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxbe541cvRwQXtkfKZ6whpKX4mxSvUr6dw_aKSaOy3Cx26traiIeGZiJmSm-YapgnYDu9zIRXdhB5JVZJCYmugUvEGRmGqJXYuNG5CXwq2PDsA6dMZKyE0FYmoFkWxorNbKVNxdbWwTNQ/s1600/ChantillyCastle+(25).JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxbe541cvRwQXtkfKZ6whpKX4mxSvUr6dw_aKSaOy3Cx26traiIeGZiJmSm-YapgnYDu9zIRXdhB5JVZJCYmugUvEGRmGqJXYuNG5CXwq2PDsA6dMZKyE0FYmoFkWxorNbKVNxdbWwTNQ/s400/ChantillyCastle+(25).JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494111134306488898" /></a><br />It seemed to go on forever. The commentary was in French and was followed by one in English which was good for us to know that we had heard right the first time. We passed statues in various places and a hunting lodge and a shooting range. Sylvie’s house is having massive renovations with scaffolding and fencing all around. The small cottages we read about in the novels are actually small castles on their own, just like Le Petit Trianon at Versailles which Marie Antoinette had built after seeing Maison de Sylvie. You could get off and on the train if you wanted to, but we decided to stay on. We passed the Jardin de Kangourous which was an enclosure of red wallabies which were descendents of a pair brought from Australia many years ago. Claire had told me about an eating place where you eat the most delicious “aux gouter champetre” and as we passed a fascinating collection of very old buildings we saw De Hameau and the restaurant. We remained on the train till it returned to the château and then went to visit the interior of the castle. It was quite fascinating, as they always are, to see the grandeur in which these people lived. This particular one had been started round the 1300s, but was destroyed by the Chantilly peasants during the Revolution and then later rebuilt. It houses a collection of thousands of books including a facsimile of “The Book of Hours” by Duc de Bery. It supposedly has the best collection of paintings outside the Louvre and they are certainly very impressive. Incredible to see all these famous works I learned about in art so many years ago, just hanging on the walls.<br />Once we had wandered through the various rooms and chose not to take a tour through the apartments, we were feeling peckish and decided to walk back to De Hameau and find the good tastings. It was very warm by this stage, but quite pleasant in the shade of the huge trees lining each roadway. There was a canal alongside the road and very huge, sleepy carp would drift to the surface and then swim lazily off a little way. All the water was very green and some had areas of algae. We came to a bridge and wandered in along the paths to see very old buildings built for Prince Louis Joseph de Bourbon Condé in the 1700s. <br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUxx9AsMt3SuNp1gbfsVPbriLh4Y8FGJMnXJ7aO3YgBmCKvWkkVj3dF_z0oJx4DMU3iyUWbZqBENiZZQEFkFuKtZ4KpQnC7x7S2I-BVHRNpzjTg1J9QFQrZPx0Kp9ZP3iCsTsGKJqO5Ek/s1600/ChantillyCastle+(39).JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUxx9AsMt3SuNp1gbfsVPbriLh4Y8FGJMnXJ7aO3YgBmCKvWkkVj3dF_z0oJx4DMU3iyUWbZqBENiZZQEFkFuKtZ4KpQnC7x7S2I-BVHRNpzjTg1J9QFQrZPx0Kp9ZP3iCsTsGKJqO5Ek/s400/ChantillyCastle+(39).JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494111143921500258" /></a><br />There was an old mill building in the collection which today is a restaurant and many tables with umbrellas outside in the gardens. It was very hot, but there was a breeze under the umbrellas. We drank our usual bier pression and vin rouge. We ordered an Assiette Gourmande each which was a plate of food from the local area containing pâtés and terrines of duck, stag and pork. Hadn’t wanted to eat stag, but had forgotten by the time it arrived. It certainly was too salty for my taste and would be better running around in the forest. We followed up with dessert, me with sorbet and Gray with his usual chocolat. The tablecloth was just beautiful and I asked where you could buy them. The answer was the Marché des Tissus de St Pierre. Oh dear, we didn’t have time to go to Paris again. One of the waitresses was very easy to understand and she could understand me so I told her in my best French that I had “un grand problem” because I liked the tablecloths so much and would like to buy one, but I was going home to Australia the next day and didn’t have time to go back to St Pierre so was it please possible to buy one. She went off to the other girl and I heard her say I’ll have to ask my father. Next thing I knew, I had a new tablecloth.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin5e1VVSdHhkjfCX5c-miRLJ9lP4vjvt_7z8eFidTmNuyjXXqoU0-w_QzdSc30fn0qrQT3MiY_ACrMQmyTtNDLmJrRxHPjkAjhpeu65tSCCgcbNGE1tqqzpq4mMSZFHJMGhzz16RQABbU/s1600/ChantillyCastle+(51).JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin5e1VVSdHhkjfCX5c-miRLJ9lP4vjvt_7z8eFidTmNuyjXXqoU0-w_QzdSc30fn0qrQT3MiY_ACrMQmyTtNDLmJrRxHPjkAjhpeu65tSCCgcbNGE1tqqzpq4mMSZFHJMGhzz16RQABbU/s400/ChantillyCastle+(51).JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494111122190913554" /></a><br />We wandered slowly back to the chateau along the shaded road and back to the car. It was a great experience and we were very glad that we had finally got there.<br />We drove home to Avilly feeling a little sad that we wouldn’t make this trip many more times. Back to the packing. I was determined to have everything packed and many of the cases locked by bedtime.. It was hot in the house, but we did manage to get a breeze with the downstairs door open as well. The only reason to close the doors being the white dust when a car went past.<br />Rochelle texted to tell us to come and have a drink the next evening as Harry had arrived from America that morning.<br />Quite late to bed.<br /><br /><strong>Wednesday 30th June, 2010 </strong><br />Off to school by 9am, nice to be late. Took the scales back to school for Loretta. I think we should be OK. Everyone meandered around for a long time. Gave out my gifts and was feeling sad to say goodbye to Sharon, Margot and Claire. Loretta wasn’t coming till after lunch as she had a meeting in Paris. I had brought a sad cake as I called it, because it had been tipped while being carried around the afternoon before and some had fallen off. I gave it to Sharon and she fixed it and put all her raspberries around it so it looked very good.<br />We cleaned and tidied up and then had Break in my room. Anne Laure came too and a lot of French conversation happened.<br />Claire, Margot, Sharon, Catriona and I went out to lunch at Bar Sylvie. I rode with Margot and Sharon and we arrived first. We had a drink and ordered good food. Catriona wouldn’t order anything as she didn’t know if she had been paid. She wouldn’t let anyone buy her anything so it was all a bit strange and uncomfortable for us to be eating in front of her. When the bill came it wasn’t very much so I picked it up because I had to get rid of some of the euros we had. <br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3vAPji-Bht7t4U6y5gvCHY1ZUbyGnXVeQtQzAIzzrmw7hkuk-kJ9ANsDwyd9nM0xb3wOm62hmIOdaJc4tfgxWn4XMT2G12zzX1w21gRf-mRg0oQKirh8VDBHT2wMYs1jcEyueupvG-oY/s1600/Last+lunch.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3vAPji-Bht7t4U6y5gvCHY1ZUbyGnXVeQtQzAIzzrmw7hkuk-kJ9ANsDwyd9nM0xb3wOm62hmIOdaJc4tfgxWn4XMT2G12zzX1w21gRf-mRg0oQKirh8VDBHT2wMYs1jcEyueupvG-oY/s400/Last+lunch.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494105718753207170" /></a><br />When we got back to school Loretta was there and Coralie was arriving to talk to people who had questions and to interview someone. I had virtually finished everything so I packed up and went home. Loretta had asked if we would see her again, but I didn’t know. I went home to Gray. He had been to the Horse Museum, but it wasn’t all open as they were renovating in a big way. He did see a show though and bought a couple of things home.<br />It was so hot when I got home that I fell asleep. I missed a message from Loretta saying would she see us that night as she was at work in Paris on the Thursday. I eventually messaged back and said that I was sorry, but I had been asleep. She was then on the train going home to Paris.<br />I packed some more and cleaned a bit and went to bed to read a book.<br /><br /><strong>Tuesday 29th June, 2010</strong><br />Concert and Picnic Day. We set everything up in the playground and had a practice. It wasn’t very good which I was happy about. I have been telling all the teachers that a bad last rehearsal means a good performance.<br />My children spent time in the room making small words from larger ones. I helped Sharon to paint the faces. I did the dirty ones, much easier for me than the whole world. <br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6pFmvrvDUZqyRFQu2d-V7tARqnghEo0lAJnYC-R7XvsdmBG5Q4zF7rzsqpzmHDf9UPfxYa6I9zEOiLRA9jdAUsQnYmDUNZWbiDRPMUtaGOxFIKSczqtTk6THf86WTmYH1HFGBdUOzM-M/s1600/DSCN0012.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6pFmvrvDUZqyRFQu2d-V7tARqnghEo0lAJnYC-R7XvsdmBG5Q4zF7rzsqpzmHDf9UPfxYa6I9zEOiLRA9jdAUsQnYmDUNZWbiDRPMUtaGOxFIKSczqtTk6THf86WTmYH1HFGBdUOzM-M/s400/DSCN0012.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494108144643172466" /></a><br />The Concert was ready to run at 12 o’clock. The sun had come out an all looked good. Don’t forget it is France Loretta said, where people never come on time. This was true, but we started about 12.15 or 12.20. All went well, the music worked and the children performed beautifully. This is quite a feat when the youngest is just 3 and the oldest 11.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSGPltfldE2V609gfari1CzLXOIZA4PWzEOsdrRtAQa5VMqGBj8Bv2hVK28SYLVT6DTX3lCHq2rUquB6VRqjWuNoW-3m6HflodgTKgKbGn9c6U822fG0GoRn1kWESjBh_ryh9SJljI42U/s1600/DSCN0010.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSGPltfldE2V609gfari1CzLXOIZA4PWzEOsdrRtAQa5VMqGBj8Bv2hVK28SYLVT6DTX3lCHq2rUquB6VRqjWuNoW-3m6HflodgTKgKbGn9c6U822fG0GoRn1kWESjBh_ryh9SJljI42U/s400/DSCN0010.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494108164847341858" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuq75lzD1ZmZZhTZ8cRY8dfzVCT-o6ShwhfmW6_DtaUy9HJNiGbJlBfdT_PvDjQr_ly5DJdNiaHqzW9FJDF5wvlDtNXoRO5hr42y7AYnrhIspxf5COyimP1t-kv4h7f4BdUTkfv3Ibb9s/s1600/DSCN0017.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuq75lzD1ZmZZhTZ8cRY8dfzVCT-o6ShwhfmW6_DtaUy9HJNiGbJlBfdT_PvDjQr_ly5DJdNiaHqzW9FJDF5wvlDtNXoRO5hr42y7AYnrhIspxf5COyimP1t-kv4h7f4BdUTkfv3Ibb9s/s400/DSCN0017.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494108154782090946" /></a><br />There was a presentation of flowers for the teachers handed out by a strange collection of children, not all from the school. The only person who spoke was Loretta. Not one of the Board spoke to thank her and Claire for their years there or anyone else. I had a nice box of macarons instead of flowers thank goodness. I remember saying exactly the same thing to Nic last year when I had no part in it, strange that no one thanked the head or teachers or said anything about the holidays etc. <br />We all moved to Picnic in the castle grounds. There was a trampoline and groups of people sitting around in the shade. The grass had only been mown in a few patches so was quite long. Gray had bought some extra bits for our lunch and we had a nice lunch. He had also been back to La Maison de la Porcelaine to get something for Margot as she wasn’t coming the following day.<br />When I took her back into school to give her her small present she let fly with a long speech in French, leaving me on about the second sentence. She dragged me off to Sharon to translate and said it all again. She was lovely and almost made me cry. She cried as she had had so much time off she felt cheated of the time that I was there. You would think I had given her the earth instead of a small present. She and Sharon have been very good friends and helped me with my French so much. It turned out that she was coming the next day so I could have waited.<br />The two “poneys” arrived and children had rides around the grounds. We went for a walk to see them and wandered down to look at what I think was a Dower house years ago. It is falling to pieces, but is another magnificent bit of history just where I happen to go in a day.<br />We, Sharon, Margot, Claire, Gray and I cleared up everything and put all the chairs back inside and then sat around in the shade until we could go home. Micheline, Victoria and Mrs Pretzel thanked me and I had a long talk with Julia as well. Loretta had an interview so we said goodbye and went on into Chantilly. One last visit to La Maison de la Porcelaine to get teachers gifts for the morrow. We walked around Chantilly looking for a couple of very little things. Bought something nice for Sharon and Claire and had them gift wrapped. <br />We went home to make dinner and pack some more.<br /><br /><strong>Monday 28th June, 2010</strong> <br />Well, last real day of school! I took in Loretta’s mobile wardrobe and hangers and light etc. She has lent us so much to make our stay more comfortable and she has bought it all in by Metro and SNCF trains in bags. Hopefully Laurent will bring the car to take it all back to Paris.<br />I had packed up some small things for the children and they were very happy with them. We had a couple of concert practices and they are doing so very much better. The music is much better, but still not quite right. I have the fear that when I go to turn it on it will start before I am ready. There must be a way. Half way through the second rehearsal I realised that the ones I had playing in Audacity never went wrong. Resolution…!?! Put them all into Audacity! My job for the night tonight. The children took all their books home. The room is empty and no-one likes bare walls. We didn’t have much food for lunch as we are winding our provisions down. We have meat, but not many vegetables. Plenty of cheese and wine though. <br />We made sure all was well for the next day and went home taking lots of bits and pieces of left over stuff. <br />I spent the night redoing the music and was happy with the result. It rained overnight, but will hopefully be fine in the morning.<br /><br /><strong>Sunday 27th June.2010 </strong><br />Hard to believe that this time next week we will be on a plane!<br />I was up early today as I had to organise and pack. It is a bit difficult as we still need so many things in the way of clothes, books etc. I put all the suitcases around the walls and worked out how to get the plaques in. They could sit in the middle of our clothes with lot of soft stuff packed around them. I found that Nic’s basket was going to be a nuisance as it didn’t fit easily into any of the cases. On its side it did and so was filled with pants and socks and had soft things filling all the hollows around it. I weighed each case when we thought they were nearly ready. We had lots of weight to play with …104kgs… as I was a Silver skywards member as well now. There was still a lot of stuff to go in, but this just couldn’t be done etc. I put everything in and weighed them and then took stuff out that we still needed. I did lots of hand washing. I will be quite happy to return to a washing machine. I am taking a sheet and some towels to Rochelle tonight to do while we are at dinner. We have boxes on the floor to start sorting food for Martine and Rochelle. I will miss the beautiful horses going in and out of the trucks or up the lane to the paddock though.<br />We showered and dressed and went to Rochelle’s about 7pm Gigi was there with Sam and Harrison. Lovely boys, so very polite and able to have a good conversation with an adult. They are moving to Cires les Mello, a Maison Bourgoise and are very excited about it. We met Joe who comes from Cairns. Joe is partially blind, but gets around very well. Rochelle put the washing on and got ready to go. I also brought back some books.<br />I parked in the garden, but there were so many cars in there I decided it would be better if I backed out to park in the square in the centre. We left the house very quietly as we were going to the Local in Restaurant de la Fôret. The locals do not patronise them as the current owner is the son of the wartime owner. A collabarateur!!! Rochelle does like to eat there and the food is superb. We walked carefully with Joe and waited for Rochelle to come and then set off carefully down the lane, across the square and around the corner to the inn. Joe had a cane to walk with as he can only see out of the top of one eye. We sat outside on the terrace and drank good wine. Rochelle and I ate lobster and it was nicest lobster ever as it had been taken out of its shell and there were scallops too. Gray had Coquille Saint Jacques. For main course we both had duck and it was tender and tasty. Gray and I left the set menu at this time and had flambé crêpe, that didn’t flambé. The wine was good and the company great and we had a good night. We walked back across the square and said goodnight to them as we went off in the car. It was something to 11 when we left and I have school tomorrow.<br />When we reached home, I realised I didn’t have the washing with me so I texted Rochelle and she said she would bring it to school the next day.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1075757685427638055.post-35522851293082748522010-07-10T23:57:00.000-07:002010-07-11T00:04:43.557-07:00Saturday, 19th June till Saturday 26th June, 2010<strong>Saturday 26th June, 2010 </strong><br />We were up reasonably early to catch the train to Paris to have lunch with Loretta, Laurent and Maeve. Finally we were going to be able to give Maeve her picture birthday present from Nic. We arrived at the station very early as I wanted to park and get ticket without any stress. There was a very pleasant young man at the ticket office instead of the witch I usually encounter. I understood his French and he understood mine. He asked did I have a card and then asked was I over 60 and was my man as well and we got our ticket for 9 euros cheaper than ever before. Bit late to find this out now.<br />We went for a walk along the street next to the station which was an area I hadn’t been to this time. We bought some magazines and newspapers in the shop and then didn’t have too long before the train was due. I read in the paper that it was the Gay March through Montparnasse today. That was just where we were heading for!<br />Once we arrived at Gare du Nord we took the metro train to Montparnasse Bienvenu. Once again we were on Nic’s line. We found our way to the surface and discovered we were near The Tower. I hadn’t seen it up close before. It really is as ugly as they say.<br />I also discovered a Gallery Lafayette and a C and A so we were off shopping. I had no thought of buying anything in Gallery Lafayette as the one at Les Halles is so expensive. I just wanted Gray to see it because he hadn’t been to the other one. When we went in it was just like an ordinary department store, none of the fascinating architecture that the main one has, but the prices weren’t as bad either. We found some nice jewellery for our mums and I received a nice black velvet complimentary jewellery travel bag. This was good as my other one has worn out.<br />We walked on through to C and A and found ourselves in the menswear. There were thousands of suits and coats and as we had been talking about getting Gray a new coat, we started looking. We found a very nice lightweight suede one and bought it quickly as we were nearing time to meet the others. <br />The streets were closed in some parts and there were lots of gendarmes around. It was a warm day and we made our way up Rue de Montparnasse to La Coupole Restaurant. Many famous people have dined and danced there over the years. We were shown to Loretta’s table, but we were the first. It was much cooler inside. I sent a text after quite a while saying Well we are here, where are you? After half an hour we decided to order a drink. We were so hot and had been hanging out, but gave in. Just as our drinks arrived Maeve came. It was so good to see her and she looked well; much better than I had expected. She loved Nic’s present, a painting of where they used to sit in The Tuileries. Loretta and Laurent arrived and it turned out I had got the time wrong, 12.30 was what she could change it to if we needed to. We had had a nice time to sit and relax and look at the décor so all was well.<br />We had a delicious meal once again and I could feel the extra kilos going on. Three meals out in a row and Sunday night to come as well yet! While we were inside eating, the Gay Parade was rolling past the door. It is nothing like Sydney’s Mardi Gras. There were trucks as floats just carrying people and people walking, but no-one really dressed up in costume. There were, however, thousands of people. I took a couple of photos and returned to the table.<br />After we left the restaurant we walked up to a market which had finished. It was too hot for me and I was very tired so we parted there and walked back down to the station with Maeve. We caught the train together and she got off along the way to catch another one. We were one minute too late at Gare du Nord. We climbed on to the train that it said on the board, but when Gray looked at the stations it was going to stop at, decided we were on the wrong train. We hurriedly hopped off and went to have a cool drink in a Brasserie across the road until the next train came in an hour or so. It was so hot! Strange toilets in that place.<br />We wandered back across the road to the station and sat on some pipes for a while. The board had been a mystery to us and we still couldn’t work out what had gone wrong. We climbed the stairs to a café outside and had another cool drink where we could see the board. There we sat till the platform number appeared on the board, but when we went down and along the platform to the train; it was just so hot and worse inside! Eventually, it went off on time and there was a tiny breeze once we were travelling at speed. We arrived back in Chantilly much earlier than usual and drove home. The house was warm, but once the doors were all open we got some bits of breeze. The only trouble is each time a car went up or down the road we had to rush to shut the doors to keep the fine, white, chalky dust out of the house. This happened quite often. Each time our car stopped at the end of the lane, all our dust would catch up to us.<br />We had a text from Rochelle saying that she had a close family friend with her and was it all right if he came to dinner too the following night.<br />We were really tired and had a light dinner and an early bed. Loretta had brought her scales in to weigh the suitcases when I pack tomorrow.<br /><br /><strong>Friday 25th June, 2010 </strong><br />Loretta and I left for school at the usual time. The house really isn’t set up for non-family visitors so Gray was up early too. It was the last Friday that we would be in France and so Gray’s last sport!<br />We did a big concert practice. The children are doing well and although it is still a bit messy, it will be fine on the day. Arthur and Hector sit either side of me and sing the songs and do some actions. They are more secure there and don’t run around.<br />Music is coming but still has problems.<br />We skipped a bit at lunch, but the weather is too warm to do it for long. I had the Grande Section girls for the last time. Gabin was away in England so I won’t have him again. The girls have made some good progress and Paolina is the most surprising as her reading is really coming on well. She and Alex are going to French schools next year which will be hard for Alex as she has very little French. Hopefully Paolina’s Dad will keep her English going as well.<br />After school we packed up and went home to Avilly for a couple of hours. We went back into Chantilly for dinner at Giorgio’s. The food is so good and the service is friendly and the wine is costeau. The grumpy waitress hasn’t been there the last couple of times and the others are all friendly.<br />Bruce, Coralie’s American Airlines Pilot husband came in with Cole and another Dad and son. Well what a dreadfully behaved little brat the other child was. Poor Cole kept being blamed and was very good considering.<br />The food was delicious as usual and we made our last Friday night drive home from Chantilly. It all seems very strange that it is coming to an end.<br /><br /><strong>Thursday 24th June, 2010</strong> <br />Up very early this morning to get Shell to Chantilly station to catch the train about 7.30am. She is off to Patti’s and then to JA in York and after that Ingrid in the Canary Islands.<br />She went across to the Station and I went in to school. When I turned the computer on the first message was from Sammi saying Australia had a new Prime Minister and it was Julia Gillard!!! What is happening to our country whilst we are away? I texted Shell and Gray to tell them the news and had one straight back from Shell saying Goodness she had caught a train so that was good. I had one from Gray too. This was good too as it shows he can do it when he needs to. Lots of concert practice. It is getting better and should be good.<br />We worked our day as usual and then we were in for a big treat. Sharon had prepared a Tunisian Feast for everyone. Catriona hadn’t been sure if she could stay, but she did and Sharon cooked her a special vegetarian one.<br />What a delicious feast we had! Sharon had brought in all her hand painted Tunisian bowls and serving bowls and they were just beautiful. The tables were set up in the playground and we sat down to wine and pretzels in the cool evening weather. Broad daylight of course, as it is till light at 11pm. It was Yann’s birthday ( Margot’s husband) and she had made a special Polish cake and I gave him one of our Australian Map Merit Awards. He is a lovely person, but very quiet these days as he has recently had a stroke at 32! A big scare for them. Nolan, their 3 year old son, is a delight and sat up at the table with everyone and then drew each person a picture. Sharon had made Couscous and meat and vegetables. <br />Coralie had been at school with Loretta interviewing someone and she stayed for the first course of the meal. I was working on her computer and we took it home to finish in the night.<br />We then had a delicious entrée of, followed by lots of couscous and chicken and vegetables and meat. Oh dear I ate a lot of food, but only had a peche plat for dessert. I love these and I am going to ask Tim and Jane if they could grow them. I am sure they would go well in markets here as they are always so juicy and yum! They come from Tunisia evidently. Dessert was melon, peche plat and Green mint tea. I had a coffee later on. It was a very pleasant evening and everyone seemed relaxed and happy. In the middle of dinner Loretta asked was shell with us or could she come back to sleep the night. Catriona looked a bit miffed when I said no and Loretta could stay the night. We all helped pack up and then the three of us drove home to Avilly. It was a great night, but the weight is starting to creep on. <br />Wednesday 23rd June, 2010 <br />Early to school to set up projector for slide show and Loretta’s room with chairs for all the parents of the regular kids and the Wednesday kids. Loretta busy fighting political battle with you know who, so we organised all the room.<br />We were down a few Wednesday children, but all mine were there and they had all bought food. There were lots of parents and they all enjoyed the songs with many chuckles heard at times. The Maternelle sang Kookaburra sits on the Old Gumtree (Just as well it was then and not now or they might have had to pay royalties!) and a couple of other songs. Then it was food time. Goodness me! Doesn’t matter how often I said “Parents first please”, nothing happened as it was only me! What a schmozzle! Fortunately there was enough food so parents had some as well. It was an interesting table, one like we used to have several years ago, mostly rubbish and no healthy stuff! The children had all gone by 12 o’clock and we were free to go after that. Shell was on a train from Paris and had messaged to say she had missed one because the ticket queue was too long and would be late, but that was fine with me I had plenty to do. <br />When she arrived we went off home and collected Gray and went to Cora for lunch. As we were eating I spotted Coralie in a bunch of loudly English speaking people with lots of children. We had a chat about what she was in for, but I don’t think she will have big problems; she is strong and capable.<br />We did our shopping and went home via Chantilly as we needed some more presents. This time Shell had her gift specially gift-wrapped for Patti and Alehandro so we were there for a while. We decided not to go to Château Chantilly as I was too tired. I was a bit concerned that Shell had come back for that, but she was quite happy to spend time with us. <br />Oh dear! Shell is needing to go to Paris by train early in the morning, but Guess what!!! There was a strike! Each time she travels in this country, poor thing. We looked it up on the internet and there seemed to be quite a few early morning trains for people to get to work. The constant strikes at the moment are all about the Retrait in other words Retirement. The government has said people will have to work a lot longer to get their money, but there is a lot of fraudulent things going on with the unions as well. <br />We had a pleasant night together and dinner and wine at home.<br /><br /><strong>Tuesday 22nd June, 2010</strong> <br />Drove to school rather early, passed the little man with a motorbike getting ready to leave. We are at smiling stage now. Avilly is always fairly deserted in the mornings, but occasionally there are one or two people setting off to somewhere. The gates were open at school thank goodness. There was only the once in the morning when they were shut and when we came back from Provence. WE had a singing practice for the French children’s concert tomorrow and a run through of the slide show I had created so that they wouldn’t be turning around to look behind them in the concert.<br />Got a lot of work done in my time off, but still struggling with Music for Climate Concert. Also tidied and cleaned classroom thoroughly as the party food was to be in my room the next day. The scene through my windows is amazing as it is so green and lush. If I stand on the tables and peer over the wall I can see a beautifully laid out stables.<br />Home reasonably early in the afternoon which was a change from the previous day. Gray had had success with Post Office today and had brought some afternoon tea back with him.<br /><br /><strong>Monday 21st June, 2010</strong><br />Happy birthday Shaun. <br />Up at the usual time and full of life because of our amazing purchase the day before. Today was going to be a long day. Had an email from Loretta last evening saying there were two meetings after school and we needed to be there.<br />My friend was his usual self. We are working hard to try and finish all electronic things up, but they are slow and only three computers makes it even slower. They absolutely love BTN and it is an interesting process as it has to be watched several times to know that they all have the meaning. Report writing is interesting and by now a couple of them can write good notes, but all have difficulty writing a report out of points. I worry about my English sometimes as I try to sort out another French construction sentence written in English. We have large grammar charts around the room of I am she is etc and with French children they always leave off an “s” for a plural because you don’t say it in French and they always put an “e” on any consonant which needs pronouncing because in French, if it doesn’t have an “e” after it, you don’t say it. It took some weeks to realise these things, but many more to get some sort of message across and only a couple remember it sometimes. Mind you only 4 hours of English a week for 9 weeks isn’t very much to get things like that into heads after a life time of their own language. Their English cracks me up sometimes as I am sure my French does for them. However, they are very helpful and explain things well to me.<br />We practise our songs a lot and I am still struggling to get all the music happening at the right time. Thanks to Shaun and Sian, I am getting there slowly.<br />The first meeting due to start at 5 didn’t get underway until about 5.15 as the board members hadn’t all arrived. They explained what would happen next year with Loretta, Claire and me all leaving. Coralie, the new principal is Canadian and enthusiastic and I think will be very good. Her biggest problem is her French, but it will come. It was a very open meeting for once and all talked about their problems with Admin. They even asked me! Loretta said I could speak in English, but I did most in French and told them it was “incroyable”, in my 40+ years of being in schools I had never experienced anything like it. After about an hour and a half, Coralie and Kate, the new upper class teacher, arrived to be introduced and to answer questions. Poor Margot wasn’t so very happy because she has no English. This meeting lasted a long time and I set off for home and arrived after 8. I was happy that I had lasted through meetings all in French for about three hours and had understood most of it. I only had 12 words written down that I didn’t know. I just wish the speaking was as good as the listening. I was hopeful at this late hour, that there might be some dinner cooking away, but didn’t really expect it as the cooking conditions are a little difficult. There wasn’t! Gray had been having Post Office troubles and hadn’t got what he wanted at all. We had a glass of wine and a late dinner.<br /><br /><strong>Sunday 20th June, 2010</strong><br />Up reasonably early so that we could catch an earlier train than usual to Paris. Gave Gray his presents for Bonne Fête de Père’s Day and he was most surprised. We caught the 10.45am train and being a Saturday, it was very crowded. Shell and Gray scrambled into seats and I was on an aisle with all the bags. When we reached Gare du Nord, Shell and I went off to find a locker for her bags. Well we went along, and down and round in circles and up again and off down the other way. I had seen a sign, but the arrow wasn’t very clear. In the end, having left Gray by the top of the stairs and passed him again and again, we asked someone and walked back the whole length of the station and down again in a different place. It was very cheap and there didn’t seem to be any time limit for how long it could be there. They did x-ray everything that went through.<br />At last we returned to Gray who was beginning to think we had been swallowed in a Metro tunnel and caught a train to Port Clignancourt. We walked along the street towards the market, being accosted by men selling watches…”Genuine Rollexes you know” and into the tourist market where I found more gifts to take home. As we came out through there to go into Marché aux Puces, Shell was surprised as she thought that was the Flea Market we had been in. We walked along the street, looking at all the old thongs and then went down into one of the alleyways. It is a fascinating place and you can find almost anything you want there. I looked for the place where I had bought my blue and white egg holder last year and bought a small tin urn for 1 euro. Alleyway leads to alleyway and it was beginning to rain. We had umbrellas, but shop keepers scrambled to cover up their good with materials. We were heading down the back towards where Gray thought he had bought some stamps last year. I thought I saw some blue Deft on a chair and Gray was standing there. All I could say was “Oh wow! Aren’t they beautiful!” I love the plaques Mum has and they are a part of my childhood. There were two of these rather large blue Delft plaques on 2cm thick stone in wooden frames, each standing on the seats of two antique chairs. They spoke to me! I very rarely want to buy anything that isn’t useful for us or the house. I peered around the back of the large antique cupboards to find the seller sitting in the shop next door. He was talking to someone, but left him and came straight to me. The price was enormous, out of the question until we discovered that that was for both of them not just one. He said that they had been bought in the market around 1913 and that they had recently just been resubmitted for sale. Oh boy, what to do? We had a long discussion with the man about them and the weight, which was awful and how to get them home. They were still telling me they belonged to me! We said we would think about it and walked on where we found a stamp collection for Gray. He said we should get them and I knew we would regret it forever if we didn’t. Shell and I wandered back and in French in my best sad voice, I said my husband said I could only have x amount to spend!!! He said “No!” straight away. I came up a bit and he said “Yes!” Shell was very bemused as Gray had said no and then had agreed we should get them. She couldn’t understand why he had capitulated so quickly. She asked him and he said that I never really wanted or asked for anything and I was so sure we should have these. It was cash only! Gray found some really good stamps and Shell and I fled down to the nearest ATM where I took some from both bank accounts. There was quite a crowd behind us as I was surreptitiously filled my bag with cash. Back we went and he packed them carefully and put them in big carry bag. We had estimated them at about 3 to 4kg each! They were very heavy and we set off then to have lunch in the nice area Shell had been talking about.<br />I said we should still go, despite our heavy load as she had made it sound so good. We caught a train and had to change at Chatelet for Place Monge. This was difficult as the bag was so heavy and the trains rather crowded as usual. Gray had the other bag with coats umbrellas and bits and kept saying he should have a go. He was having enough difficulty keeping up speed with us already, but in the end we gave in and it was delightful not to feel the weight for a while. We took it back at the end of the street as it was far too heavy for one. By this time we were in La Mouffetard and we chose a restaurant nearby. It wasn’t quite in the main area, but meant we could sit and rest! It was a grand choice as the food was out of this world. If there is one thing the French do very well it is food!<br />We headed back on the train to Gare du Nord and to catch a train back to Chantilly. Shell came to the train with us and then went to collect her luggage and go to Patti’s after 6.<br />We drove home from Chantilly still a bit shell-shocked because of our purchase, but at the same time, very happy. We unpacked them and left them propped up on the floor to look at all the time. Today’s activity was one of those called “spending the kid’s inheritance”!<br />Spoke to Shell later and they were having a picnic on the riverbank. Alehandro had proposed to Patti the night before and she had accepted.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Saturday 19th June, 2010</strong><br />A slower kind of morning thank heavens and it was nice not to have to leap out of bed at 6.30am. Eventually climbed out of bed and had breakfast; the horses from the stables across the road were late that morning too. I did some hand washing. That is one thing I won’t miss at all and I am very glad I was born in the age of washing machines. Shell packed up all her bags as she was going to Patti’s in Paris on the Sunday evening. She had lots of stuff and had a small pile for us to take home and two bags. She eventually heard from Patti that she would need a sleeping bag so it had to be added to it as well. After much discussion she decided to take both her bags of luggage and book them in. <br />We made and ate lunch and headed in to Chantilly to get some more presents and a couple of items of shopping. Claire had told me about “La Maison de la Porcelaine” and that it had nice smaller gifts. There were lots of people at the chateau as usual on a weekend. It had been market day in Chantilly and as one car park was still closed off; we had some difficulty finding a park, especially since I still can’t back into a car parking space. I don’t know whether it is because I can’t turn my head far enough, but I think that the back view is very limited with seat headrests and narrow rear interior. Whatever it is, I don’t even try! No scratches remember! <br />We followed some signs and found a free parking area down on the river flats so were quite happy to leave the car there and walk back up the steep hill to Patrick Noppe. We looked there and decided to return after we had visited “La Maison de la Porcelaine”. We found it and entered through old fashioned wooden shop front portal to a magnificent collection of porcelain, big and small and many other things as well in a small 3 roomed cave-like shop. There were people at the counter and the shop madame was packing beautiful gifts which seemed to take forever. When you enter a shop in France you are always greeted with Bonjour and when you reply, all the other customers in the shop say Bonjour as well. We found some very nice things to bring home, both for us and as gifts. I just kept taking more and more to the counter, trying to find room to leave them as she was still packing up the special gift. She finally finished packing up a thing of beauty and dealt with the other customers and it was our turn. She looked, and looked again and asked, “C’est tout?” I think she was quite relieve to know I didn’t want them all gift wrapped. I kept finding things to add to the collection and then Shell started collecting too. The madame was very friendly by this time and had a magnificent day’s takings. I farewelled her in French with “I am sure we will see you again!” and she shook her head and smiled. <br />As we left there, Shell went back down to the car with all the parcels and we went up and around the corner to the Papietrie for Gray to get some postcards and me to sneak a card for him. Instead I found small travelling clock and had a great secret laugh with the woman behind the counter as I went quietly towards her with my finger on my lips and said “Mon marie” as I handed over the clock and pointed backwards. She called someone else who came and sat on the floor to pack it. Gray at this time a still looking at cards, oblivious to all and Shell was somewhere down the back. On the way out quite a bit later, I spotted some tiny, free books that were a promotion and we gathered a few each as an extra little gift.<br />We went to the supermarket and got a couple of things and then back to the Patisserie, Patrick Noppe. As with everything in France, presentation of bought items is beautiful and we ended up with various delicacies in a hot pink and black box. We walked back down the hill and went back to Avilly where we ate, yet again, checked Shell’s luggage and had an early night.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1075757685427638055.post-8362224473957147272010-07-09T01:51:00.000-07:002010-07-10T18:50:19.722-07:00Tuesday 15th June to Friday 18th June, 2010<strong>Friday 18th June, 2010</strong><br />Off to school as usual. The trip is easy now, but I still get a thrill each time I come around the corner to see the roundabout and the Chateau Chantilly just there.<br />I had a headache during the day today so didn’t turn rope as I usually did. The children didn’t seem to understand that the rope turner just couldn’t do it for that day. <br />Gray came in for sport and I had the Grande Section children for reading. Catriona keeps asking me how I am going with the scripting for the book she wants. I grow closer to telling her to do it herself as I have been doing reports and writing the concert and these days trying to organise the music. I have resisted so far and tell her that she will have it before I leave. <br />I went home quite early after school as I had such a headache. Michelle went for a walk to the bottle disposal unit along the back lane. While she was there Loretta rang to say she had lost her wallet. I looked in the car and there it was. It must have fallen out the previous night so we all took it in to her and came home to have our aperitif and make dinner.<br />It is getting dark very late these nights and it is strange to be still in broad daylight at 11.30pm.<br /><br /><strong>Thursday 17th June, 2010 </strong><br />Another tired start to the day. We practised songs and words in class time. We had to shop today as we hadn’t yesterday and were running out of food again. Shell wanted to go early to St Maximin by bus so that they would have been nearly finished by the time I got there, but Gray wasn’t keen. I whizzed home and picked them up. We went to Cultura first for blue face paint for the concert and to see if we could get tickets to Les Mis in Paris to take Loretta. The days we could go were pretty well fully booked so we didn’t get tickets. We went on to Cora and shopped and then had to hurry as I was going to the Parents Dinner at Le Conde de la Ferme. shell and i had popped various bits of chocolate into the trolley for Bonne Fête de Papa's day on Sunday. I took them home, changed and then went to school to pick up Loretta and off to dinner. Poor Stephanie had organised it and 4 people had cancelled in the last half an hour before we arrived. There were only about ten, but it was an interesting night with great food. Loretta assured me that we paid for ourselves so I had a lobster dish for entrée and steak and dessert and a couple of glasses of wine. Glorious food! Imagine my horror when they said the bill would be split amongst us all! I protested, but lost and ended up paying 37 euros for my 70 euro dinner. Embarrassing, but nobody seemed to care!<br />I drove Loretta to Rochelle’s and on the way saw an animal out of the corner of my eye in amongst the trees. “Cow!” I said automatically! “No” said Loretta, ”Deer!” It was an enormous stag, as it was the size of a cow on its rump. We had texted Rochelle who was going to meet us at the Avilly turnoff, but when Loretta checked, the message hadn’t gone through so we just kept driving to Montgressin. Rochelle had a houseful as there was world Cup Soccer on.<br />I drove home carefully in case there were more deer around.<br /><br /><strong>Wednesday 16th June, 2010</strong><br />I climbed out of bed early as usual while they both slept on. We had French children and we practised their concert singing items. They are singing all Aussie Campfire songs and it is a scream when we get into lesson time after the break and these French voices are still singing the catchy tunes of a Ram Sam Sam and John Jacob quietly almost under their breath. Loretta says that in the French traditional schools there is not much freedom; it is still very traditional sitting in desks learning by rote and copying notes so these kids loved the freedom of the music and one of their favourite games in music was Musical Bumps. They also learned to play heads down and thumbs up.<br />Micheline had given us tickets for the races that day; so after school at 12 o’clock I went home to have lunch and to go to the races. We didn’t have to dress up as it was a weekday. She told me that on the two previous Sundays when we had been busy, there were 35,000 people for the big Chantilly Race Days, but on the Wednesday there would only be about 500 people. Sounded much better to us.<br />As usual, with anything we went to do for the first time, we had no idea of protocol or where to go etc. I spoke to Martine and she was horrified to know that we weren’t ready to go yet as it started at 2 o’clock and she was rushing off. Micheline couldn’t go as the girls had dental appointments.<br />We eventually set off and I was just exhausted and thinking it was really the last thing I wanted to do. I needed to experience it, but not right then. We found a parking area and were surprised to find that parking was really expensive!!!! Ha ha! 1 euro, bit different from home. We found our way through the forest tracks to the gate and showed our France Galop invitation tickets. Through we went and then had no idea so I had to go back and ask him where we should go as we had never been before. We had a programme now and saw that a Collet horse was running in the second race that was due to run very soon so we hurriedly went to a Betting booth and Gray put a bet on it. We watched the horses parade around and then went into the Pavilion and through to the course itself. It was an amazing site with the Castle on one end and the Horse Museum and a beautiful green track. It was awfully windy and unpleasant and there wasn’t really anywhere to sit, so I wasn’t feeling very good as I was still so tired. Shell had never been to the races before so she was quite excited and interested in everything around her. The horse lost!<br />We chose something each for the next race and then went through the Pavilion to get a seat for me, watch the parade and then to see if we could get upstairs to the Restaurant we could see from the bottom. Eventually we found our way to the lift and right up the top had the most magnificent view of the whole track and Castle from a window seat. A very snooty waiter explained that if we wanted to eat something in the dessert line, the kitchen was closing in 10 minutes. As he tried to take our order, the race was on and we were barracking for Shell’s horse that won. He took our orders and we discovered that there was a betting booth right next to where we were sitting. The afternoon improved rapidly for me with a comfortable chair, out of the wind right up high where we could see everything, a betting booth and red wine and coffee. The waiter discovered we were Australian and the snoot disappeared at once. His best friend had gone to Australia 35 years ago and had only been back to France once. We were suddenly his best friends. It is amazing how people’s attitudes change immediately when they discover we are Australian and not British or American. It was a funny afternoon. I, who am such a large punter with my $1 each way bet on the Melbourne Cup once a year, was handing over 2 euros each way to have a bet on each race. After Shell’s win, she and I shared a bet in the next race and it won and we collected 15 euros something each for our win. In the next race I chose the horse being trained by the Giselle’s husband, A Royer Dupre. He had trained the winner of the Prix du Diane and one of the Arc de Triomphe races, but that information didn’t help my cause and it lost!<br />For the next race, I chose something for its name. I wavered a bit between a couple of things, but in the end went for California Dreams. It won and I collected 67 euros for my 2 each way! I was shellshocked and so was the betting lady. Meanwhile we drank good red wine and ate interesting cheese and then dessert. Gray wasn’t very happy by this stage as he is the won who knows about horses and races and he hadn’t won a thing. He shared the next horse with Shell and it won too. We had won well over 100 euros and for people who bet once a year, this was a lot of fun.<br />We went home to dinner and a reasonably early night.<br /><br /><strong>Tuesday, 15th June, 2010</strong><br />Off to school as usual. Had some time off as usual on a Tuesday. We had a staff meeting and Gray was coming in so that we could leave at a reasonable time to collect Shell. We wanted to go to Beauvais in plenty of time as we hadn’t been there before. As we were just starting the meeting my phone messaged so I crept out to read it and found that Shell was still sitting in Barcelona, delayed for at least an hour. I tried to call Gray, but he didn’t answer of course. I went back to the meeting and he eventually arrived and waited in my room till the meeting was finished. We were still waiting for a message from Shell so we decided to go home and have a coffee. She messaged and said it would be about a quarter to 8 before she arrived. We decided to go anyway so that we were there on time. The Tomtom did a good job and we followed its directions carefully this time. It didn’t however tell us that we were good that time. On the way to Creil we came across massive fields of spinach, epinard! None of the fields are fenced and I was thinking it would be good to return at night and pick some. We didn’t of course, but it is extremely expensive in the shops and the first time we saw it, it was 2 euros something a piece! Needless to say we didn’t eat much while we were there. We reached Beauvais with plenty of time to spare. The problem was French Air Traffic Control. Some of them were on strike again. Each time Shell travels there seems to be a strike!<br />It was a funny countrified sort of airport, but had lots of international flights. We parked the car and had a coffee while we waited. The board said the plane had landed so we duly stood by the door, peering in each time it opened. No Shell! I then heard an official tell someone else there was another terminal! We were in the wrong place! It was only out the door and round the corner and as we went out we met Shell coming towards us, wondering where on earth we were because she knew we had arrived quite a while before.<br />Parking was cheap! Three euros for all the time we were there! We headed off again on Tomtoms directions until we had to find petrol in a hurry. This we did and had difficulty getting out of the garage. None of them ever have clear signs and we creep carefully out hoping nothing is going to come flying at us. Tomtom led us back and we went into Chantilly and had dinner at the Tomassi Pizzeria about 10 o’clock. The food was very nice and the waiter was a scream. I thought it was Carla and Faustine’s Dad who used to pick them up at the gate. Turned out to be the Julia’s uncle, but he had never been to the school, it was his twin brother who did the picking up! I was very sceptical but it turned out to be true.<br />We were all exhausted and drove home very carefully to bed.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1075757685427638055.post-83117250122405732982010-06-22T06:40:00.001-07:002010-06-22T06:40:51.818-07:00Monday, 14th June,2010<strong>Monday, 14th June, 2010 </strong><br />I couldn’t believe it when the alarm went off at 6.30am. I stumbled out of bed and went off to school feeling absolutely exhausted, old and unprepared! I struggled through the day. Maternelle lunch was almost too much, but I have changed the rules and now they sit on their chairs to wait when they have finished and cleared up instead of rumbling all over the floor noisily by the door. They then go to brush their teeth and get shoes and coats on to go out to play.<br />I went straight home after school as I was so tired and had lots of work to do for the next day. We set the Tomtom for the airport at Beauvais as we were going there the next afternoon to pick Shell up. I was in bed fairly early. It was our 35th wedding anniversary and we had messages from all the girls.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1075757685427638055.post-4640610257998573102010-06-22T06:38:00.000-07:002010-06-22T06:40:09.221-07:00Sunday, 6th June,2010 to<strong>Sunday, 13th June, 2010 </strong><br />I woke at 7 to a perfectly silent house. I wondered what I could do as it was dark downstairs and I didn’t want to make a noise. I read for quite a long time and then decided to have a shower as noise didn’t seem to travel far through the house. I did this and as I finished and peered over the landing, Lyn appeared so I could go down and sit outside with an orange juice. It was a perfect morning and Paul went off to get breakfast and came back with fresh croissants, a pain aux chocolat and a Sancristan which is a Provence speciality and had crusted almonds around it. I had some of this with coffee. Yum. We cleaned up and went off to see the Luberon and Peter Maille country. Many British people bought properties in this area after his book came out evidently. We drove through the most amazing small villages and looked at others across on mountain tops. We got out to take photos of some of the more spectacular ones. We reached Gourdes about12.30 and went for a wander around the town. Lyn organised a restaurant for 1pm and we had to be back for that. We saw some art exhibitions and I bought some presents to take home. I had a text messaging conversation with Shell in Barcelona as I had found a perfect dress for her and wasn’t sure of the size. Technology is wonderful.<br />Lunch was just fabulous. The food was delicious and very well cooked with incredible flavours. We were happy that Paul and Lyn allowed us to take them out. We drove on from there towards home in San Remy, travelling through some amazing places again. <br />We had a short time in the house, Gray had a swim and then Paul took us to the station in Avignon. We said goodbye to Lyn at the house as it is rather cramped in the back of the house. They are such lovely people. We had the most terrific thunderstorm and hail as we went along. Cars were obviously terrified of the hail and were heading off the road as quickly as they could to shelter under bits of branches. It eased the closer we got to Avignon. Paul drove into the carpark and we left him there having had a marvellous weekend. The train came after not too long a wait and we were seated in our correct seats this time. We had food Lyn had made for us as we would be very late home. The scenery was fascinating as we travelled through it. There were really old farm complexes, villages and castles in amongst green fields of crop.<br />Once back at Gare du Lyon, we had half an hour to get to the train at Gare du Nord. Before we travelled there was something I had not done, we realised. How did we get there? We ended up waiting for an RER train and consequently missed the TER which only stops once before Chantilly. We asked at two ticket windows where to find the platform for the IDF, slow train, and finally found it buried in the depths three flights down. We arrived at Chantilly after 11 and walked across to school to push the heavy gate open and retrieve the car. We drove home and fell into bed. What a fabulous weekend we had had! Thank you to Lyn, Paul and Lou.<br /><br /><strong>Saturday, 12th June, 2010 </strong><br />The alarm went at 5 to 4am and we scrambled up to the sound of absolutely torrential rain. A good start. By the time we left at 20 to 5 it was down to a slight drizzle, but everything was sopping wet. As we went along the road between the poppies we suddenly saw lots of eyes lit up in the headlights. Foxes, I thought and said and then we realised it was a herd of deer, small ones and a fawn jumping in the air amongst the poppies. That was great as we had been hoping to see some. We arrived at school just before 5 and the gate was open thank heavens. It was still drizzling slightly as we made our way across to the station. We had to go up to Platform A to see where the train would stop and the down again and up to Platform M. As it grew closer to the time of departure more and more people came out of the darkness. It was the slow train so we stopped at each stop, but were lucky as it went all the way to Gare du Lyon so we didn’t have to change. We had a coffee there and then went to find the board to see which platform. We found our way and looked at the board to see where carriages were situated and walked all the way down the platform, climbed on to the train and found our seats. We were feeling very happy until some fellow arrived and it turned out we were in Carriage 12 not 2. We had 4 to 5 minutes to get down to the other end of this long, long train. In the middle there were two diesel engines facing each other so we couldn’t go through the train itself. I ran and Gray hobbled and we found our carriage and seats with 1 minute to spare. Phew! Another learning curve! We now know how to read the train board, even when it is back to front on the screen. <br />It was a TGV, the very fast train, and runs on a track of its own and so travels at incredible speeds. The first stop was Avignon and we alighted to start looking for Paul, Lou’s brother. Lyn had said he was very tall. I spotted him straight away, realising later that I had seen photos of him at Lou’s. We had about a 30 minute trip to San Remy where they live and we talked to Paul on the way. Lyn met us at the door of the house and what beautiful people they are! We were made to feel so welcome. We had a drink and then went to San Remy to walk around the town. It is another lovely place, full of narrow streets and quaint houses. We did some shopping and then went back to the house. We had lunch outside in the back garden under the wisteria covered pergola. It was quiet and relaxing with the sound of trickling water from the swimming pool pump. An exciting thing for me; Lou rang up and we had a chat. It was good to talk to her in the middle of her bonfire night from so far away.<br />After lunch Lyn, Gray and Paul had a swim and a snooze in the garden while I sat inside and read and did some sleeping too. Lyn had bought two copies of the same book by accident so she said one was for me and one for her. She is very kind. It was nice to be able to sit in a comfortable chair. That is one of the two things that aren’t so good about the house we are in; the other is the small fridge. I cope with hand washing and everything else, but do miss my chair. However, we really have no complaints as we are very lucky with it all.<br />After this relaxing time, we went for a drive up to Les Alpilles in their right hand drive English car.. This is a very unusual mountain range nearby. The rock formations were incredible and the rock was very white and chalky. There were villages on mountain tops and we saw many unusual ones. Once we were back at the house it was all hands on deck to help with dinner preparation. I hulled strawberries with huller. A new gadget for me, but saved lots of the end of the strawberry that we lose at home with a knife. We had a delicious dinner and some good wine outside under the pergola. It is light for so long that we could spend hours out there. We cleaned up and went upstairs to bed. We had our own floor in the house which is in a complex of southern French looking houses and beautifully furnished. It has shutters which can be latched and the window left open all the time at night or while they are out during the day. Gray not popular as sleep machine back at Avilly.<br /><br /><strong>Friday, 11th June, 2010</strong> <br />Off to school quite early. She went to Paris to catch the plane to Barcelona to spend the weekend with Diogo from Brazilian family. <br />We had play practice after lunch and it cut into my time with my Grande Section children. They are very keen and bring their books every day to me for more words. Loretta and I went to see the man about leaving the car in the grounds over the weekend. It was fine which is great because as well as being free, it is safe. I went home very tired. A good wine helped and we packed for Provence. Went to bed quite late and were going to have an early start.<br /><br /><strong>Thursday, 10th June, 2010</strong><br />School. Nabil was a thorough pain in the neck. Others were really good. Gray and Shell went to the Bar and Tabac for a drink before Shell caught the bus to Chantilly. She came after school to use the Internet and we didn’t get home till after 6 again. Dinner and hard time trying to get this music sorted out. It is much easier when Shaun and Mark do this stuff. Catriona had the hide to ask me how I was getting doing her writing book and I told her I was doing reports at the moment and had written all the play script and she would have it before I went home. She was disappointed as she wanted to start on it!!! Two weeks before the end of the year. I ask you. I kept my cool and told her that I could do a couple of pages and she could do the rest. Oh my goodness me. A bit of nous would be good! <br /><br /><strong>Wednesday 9th June, 2010</strong> <br />Went school early again and worked on the script and music. We had Music and worked out the Wednesday Children’s concert and practised that. My French boys in the English class are getting better and better each week. We try to do something different each time and they enjoy this, rather than just work sheets.<br />I went home at lunchtime and we had lunch and then Shell and I went to St Maximin to shop. We convinced Gray to stay and rest his leg before the weekend. We finished and had coffee and took some patisserie goodies home. We also bought a tray and red roses to put on the balcony. Home to dinner and then an early night for me.<br /><br /><strong>Tuesday, 8th June, 2010 </strong><br />Went early to school and started to get organised. I don’t think I like the starting time of 8.30am. The children don’t all arrive on time and wander in, in dribs and drabs. It is usually 9.45 before we have everyone at their desks ready to work. I worked on the play script and music for most of my break today. Gray had found Gouvieux swimming pool after an expensive taxi ride an entry fee. The pool was good and he helped his knee a lot, but the wrecked it walking all the way back to the station to catch bus to Avilly. We had a staff meeting after school and it was a long one to do with the play. We finally finished about 20 to 6 so I was quite late going home. Shell messaged about quarter to 6 when I was on the first roundabout going home so I decided I would go home and have a coffee before coming back in for her. Gray and I both went in to meet the train and then we went to Giorgios for dinner. I was too tired to cook and the food there is always delicious. It turned out it didn’t open till 7 so we had an aperitif in the bar next door till then. Good food and then home and an early bed.<br /><br /><strong>Monday, 7th June, 2010 </strong><br />School. A new week and Nabil was a nuisance all day both for Claire and me. Came home to find gray had found Swimming Pool, but wasn’t allowed to swim. He had hurt his knee again while getting off the bus. We had a night where I worked and Gray wrote Diary and did stamps.<br /><br /><strong>Sunday, 6th June, 2010</strong> <br />I was up quite early as Pierre Eric and Isabelle were coming to lunch. This would be interesting as we don’t really have much cooking or entertaining room. I drove into Chantilly for another of my experiences. Went to the supermarket and bought a few small things we needed and then went to find the boulangerie near the castle. There was a long line of people buying baguettes and not a cake or tart in sight. I asked in my best French and was subjected to a bark of “Tu as commandé?” No, I mumbled and lost all my French in one fell swoop. She went off and came back and said did I want tart or gateau and I told her I didn’t care. She offered me three types of fruit tart and I then had to wait for 10 minutes before it was produced. I hurried outside to find the sky as black as I had ever seen it. I bounced across the cobblestones around the castle and drove home through thunder, lightning and heavy rain. I made it and hurried to make lunch ready. Pierre Eric and Isabelle arrived and we had a good afternoon. We ate a mixture of Australian and French as we couldn’t do much cooking, but I think it was successful. The weather had fined up beautifully so we went for a walk amongst the field of red. The poppies, coqulicots, are just everywhere. You can hardly see the green amongst them at the moment. It wasn’t too good for the hayfever and I had an uncomfortable night, but the afternoon had been lovely and we they will dine with us in Orange when they come to visit Yann and Debbie.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1075757685427638055.post-41262265028310538502010-06-22T06:33:00.000-07:002010-06-22T06:37:58.420-07:00Sunday 30th April, 2010 to Saturday 5th June, 2010<strong>Saturday, 5th June, 2010</strong> <br />We were very slow this morning. Eventually we went into Chantilly and caught the train to Paris. We walked to Marché aux Tissus, the material market and found some material for the school concert. An incredible place this is with several kilometres of streets full of material stores. We then found a small funicular to take us up to the top of Monmartre. I just love it up there. We had a delicious lunch in a restaurant and then went walking, looking at shops. It was completely full of wall-to-wall tourists. We don’t feel like tourists. We know we are, but don’t feel like them.<br />We walked down cobblestoned roads looking for a way to the Metro and I kept telling Gray to watch as it was so uneven. We were lost and I was trying to find our way on the map. When I turned back, he was nowhere to be seen. Eventually I found him sitting on a bollard in dreadful pain. He had missed his step. I was more cross than sympathetic as I had just missed telling him about that one. He hobbled on down to the road and I hailed a taxi to take us to the Hotel where we were meeting Glennis and Dennis from Tumbarumba for a coffee. They had emailed weeks ago to say Ros and Bob had told them we were in France. It was good to see them and Glennis looked really well which was a bonus. We found a Bar and had a drink together. They didn’t have much time as they were due to get the bus to dinner and a show. We took ourselves by metro to San Michel and had an early dinner in a Greek Restaurant. We were getting a bit worried as it was very slow and we didn’t want to miss the train. However, we made it and were home by about 8.30pm.<br /> <br /><strong>Friday 4th June, 2010 </strong><br />School as usual. It is a much faster trip than this time a month ago. Shell was off to meet Caro in Paris and then on to Bruxelles to stay with Ann. Gray came to do sport at school and I had my 4 Grande Section children to try and get them to read in 4 weeks…ha ha! After school we set off to find gateaux and wine to take to Chateau Chesnae for our Promenade Musicale et Piquenique à Parteger. We also bought plastic plates and glasses and serviettes. We struck Friday afternoon traffic and arrived home in a hurry to get ready and go. I set the Tomtom and off we went heading towards Paris. Ugh! On a Friday night! We were late to start a I couldn’t find the paper with the address and phone numbers on it. Eventually, there it was, safely in my purse where I had stored it.<br />This was to be a real treat. Evrard, one of my boys had brought in a mini project about himself and his house and on the picture of his chateau was information about this evening. It said to reply by email as places were limited so I sent an email asking if we could please come. The boys’ father is a Prince of Madagasca and the mum is a Countess in her own right. I guess this makes the two boys young Princes! <br />Anyway, Tomtom led us all the way in and out of traffic jam and we eventually found the castle wall and pulled up to park on the pavement, as you do. Then we had to find the gate so we walked all around the edge of the wall till we came across one. In we went, to find elderly grandmother who lives with them, doing gate duty. We collected our name tags of birds without names and went on in. Wow! As you will see in the photo. There was a 13 piece string group from Paris playing under the trees. We handed over our gateaux and bottle of wine for the fridge. They weren’t “Bio” as we discovered later that everything should be so we didn’t see the gateaux again. The boys’ faces lit up when they saw us which was nice as they could have groaned. They had two friends from school with them, Nicolas and Quentin, our French Vietnamese boys.<br />We sat on chairs and listened to the music and Marie Caroline came and sat with us too. We had worried we were going to be late, but there were very few people there at this time. We listened for a while as we thought this was the concert. No one clapped at the end of the pieces. I realised that we were hearing the same thing over and over. Eventually, after about an hour, lots more people began to arrive. The string group all stood up and moved their chairs out on to the main part of the lawn looking down to the Chateau. At this time, I had gone for a walk around the garden. It had its own hill like a barrow in it with plants all over it and statues. There was a very large Greek Urn on a plinth as well and masses of places for boys to run and play Hide and Seek. All around this amazing Chateau and garden were busy roads of traffic, hidden by the trees, but still noisy. I guess once upon a time it would have had field and forest all around as it was built in 1770. An amazing place for boys to play in! <br />We changed chair to more comfortable ones near the Group as people were putting several rows of chairs around the outside of the group. I went to find a loo and Quentin took me inside the Chateau. Marie Caroline spoke very quickly to him in French and he ran off. To me she just said “Attendez”(wait!”) Quentin came rushing back with a roll of loo paper. It was all I could do not to laugh. It had sounded as though we were in trouble, when she spoke so sharply. <br />The group played a long interesting piece, but by now we were becoming thirsty. None of our Music in the Gardens, sit and drink! At the finish, everyone clapped and then got up and started moving chairs. We just looked. We had no idea what was going on. After a while Leif, the boys’ Dad came over and said time to eat! We took our chairs towards the chateau and suddenly many large round tables appeared and were covered with beautiful folk scene tablecloths. We stood and looked at each other and wondered what to do next, there was another couple looking the same so we approached them and asked should we sit together. They were happy to do that and we had an interesting evening as he, Patrick, spoke no English and she only had a little. We got by in mostly French. Another couple came and sat too and spoke French, but we have a feeling she had good English from a couple of comments. It was time to eat! It was about 9.30 and our stomachs were feeling our throats had been cut as it was a long time since lunch. The buffet table was incredible. There were many kinds of quiche, tarts, terrines, pates, salads etc. What a feast! <br />We drank wine and had good conversation with our “friends”. Another woman spoke to me and I knew her face, but couldn’t place her at all. Imagine my embarrassment when she turned out to be the mother of one of my Wednesday French boys and I had been speaking to her just two days ago at school.<br />Dessert came out, but not ours. The prince of Madagasca likes Jacobs Creek Chardonnay as we had picked up a bottle of that for Gray on the way. We told him we would send him a good Australian white wine when we get home. \<br />We left there about 11 o’clock. We went to find our host and hostess and Humbert said to me, Are you going? Why?” It was 11 o’clock was my reply and we had to find our way home. It was another great experience. A little different from Music in the Gardens, but still the same principle.<br /><br /><strong>Thursday 3rd June,2010</strong> <br />Once again, quite early to school, but the gate was already open so drove in easily. I usually arrive about 10 to 8 and Sharon comes in at 8am or a bit after. Loretta rang to say could I greet the Maternelle parents as Sharon was stuck in a traffic jam somewhere and would be a bit late.<br />School was an ok day, but Nabil is starting to be noisy and a show off again.<br />The poppies grow more and more beautiful each day. The yellow Canola paddock is usually yellow with flowers, but the red has taken over. I don’t know what happens at harvest as there are too many poppies mixed in. <br />Shell walked in along the forest path to Chantilly and then on to school to use the Internet. It is much faster at school and doesn’t seem to use as much as the one at home. We didn’t get home till about 6pm. <br />Wednesday 2nd June, 200 <br />Set off quite early for school to make ready for my French boys. We had singing which seems to drag on and on each week. After break the boys came in and worked hard today. Shell and Gray eventually arrived having been to the market. Shell had found a handbag she wanted and they had had pain au chocolats and a chocolate and drink at the Chocolatier. They had brought nothing for me. That is the first time since we have been here. Oh well saves a bit more weight. We went home and had lunch and went to Saint Maximin for the weekly shop. Had coffee and pastries afterwards in the cafeteria. It is getting easier each week to buy my Internet time and I don’t have to ask them to put it on for me. <br />We went home and cooked and spent the night as we do many others.<br /><br /><strong>Tuesday 1st June, 2010 </strong><br />A quiet day. RFF from 11.30 on which is good. The only trouble is that I spend lots of time emailing and skyping that I don’t get all my work done. <br />We had one more parent/teacher interview left and that was Rochelle. She brought me a pile of books and we had a chat and then went home in the rain.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Monday 31st May, 2010 </strong><br />Rose at 6.30 as usual. Went off to school a bit early to make everything ready to try and have contact with Shaun. He had a busy day and hoped to be home and online by 5 o’clock. It was all set up and the children started work at 8.30am as usual. They were all agog at what was happening and a couple of them went rather silly when we had connection with Shaun. We didn’t have webcam working, but Nabil told me what was wrong and we reconnected and could see each other. Shaun talked to the children and took us on a tour of his home and outside to show them that it was 5 o’clock in the evening and it was almost dark. Charlie came on and had a chat too. It was good to see him and the normality of home.<br />The day went as planned. The Maternelle lunch is becoming easier, but oh so noisy! I am glad we don’t have hot lunch where everything has to be heated in the microwave. It goes on forever.<br />Claire and I had parent teacher interviews with my class. At the same time there was a board meeting which Loretta had to go to. It was interesting having French/English interviews, but all seemed to go well. We had an interesting one with Nabil’s mother and brought stepdad in too. We made lots of suggestions, but somehow I feel they will all fall on deaf ears. We managed to finish earlier than expected and I went home about 10 to 6 rather than the predicted 7. Micheline, our landlady, keeps telling me I have to stay. Claire said it was an easy lot of interviews so I am happy.<br />I went home to Gray and Shell who had had a long afternoon in Senlis organising Shell’s trips to Brussels and Spain. They had found the swimming pool at last.<br /><br /><strong>Sunday 30th May, 2010 <br />Bon Fête des Mères - French Mothers’ Day </strong><br />I had a lovely new silver necklace from Gray for French Mothers’ Day. We were going to Sharon’s for lunch and thought that as we had so far to go, we should leave about 10.30. We were to be there by 12, but 11.30 would be fine. Shell went out and picked a bunch of poppies from the field and some white things as well and came back and presented them for the second Mothers’ Day flowers of the year. They were beautiful, but sadly don’t last. The fields are becoming thicker and thicker with poppies.<br />We set the Tom Tom and set off. We finally followed the instructions to turn left at one certain place and found, to our amazement that it was a much quicker way for many directions we had been travelling in lately. It was the first time we had actually managed to pick out the little lane to go left. Usually we went sailing past. <br />We finally went through Creill which we had been wondering about for many weeks and on towards Beauvais, where there is an airport that Shell might fly back to from Spain. We then followed many Tomtom directions through many small, quaint villages and through beautiful lush green countryside. We saw several really old 12th or 13th century farm buildings in the traditional square in the midst of the green fields. We only disobeyed the Tomtom once when it looked as though the street that continued was too narrow to be one way , but we “turned around as soon as possible!: and did the right thing. I am still waiting for the Tomtom to come out with “You stupid driver, why don’t you listen to me?” Instead, it usually just recalibrates itself and gives the next instruction. The funniest thing about it is when I am trying to set it in the house, it keeps telling me to “Go to the end of the road and turn right” or “Turn around as soon as possible and go back”.<br />We came across a car rally of very old Citroens and then other types of car going through one place and there must have been a hundred of them. We passed places such as Silly Tillard and Tillard and many others, all with very old houses and quaint narrow streets, often cobblestoned. It was raining rather heavily at times so we thought we would get photos on the way home.<br />We finally arrived in Valdampierre through a tiny street out of the country and following Sharon’s directions, turned right up the first on the right which was a grass and stony road and led us up a hill and round into a farmyard. The shutters on this farm house were green and as we knew we were looking for blue ones we kept driving through this farm towards a gate back to the original road. A woman looked up from the sink at us, but didn’t react at all so we figured strangers must do it quite regularly. <br />I remembered the number of the house and as we went to turn Sharon appeared at the gate and waved us round to park right in front. <br />We had a lovely afternoon. Lotfi, her husband, is jut gorgeous. He is a mischievous Tunisian and full of humour. He had been most worried about us coming to visit, he managed to tell us in his limited English the equivalent of my French. His mother in law is English and he thought Australians would be the same. Wanting the night meal at 5.30 on the dot each time they visit. He also said he was worried because Sharon had been working at the school since September last year and I was the first one she had invited home. She had told him that he mustn’t kiss us when we arrived, he should shake hands, so when I walked in and greeted him in the traditional French manner, kissing on both cheeks and Shell did the same after me, he relaxed, he said! <br />We had a tour of the house which was 150 years old and had originally been 5 houses joined together in a row back from the street. It was a shell button factory and the workers lived in the houses and the factory was in one. Today they are still finding lots of pieces of shell in the garden beds. When they bought it, it was two houses with a wall right down the middle inside. A couple had bought it and later separated building the wall through the house. Lotfi has renovated lots of it and has done a great job. There are different nooks and crannies going up and down everywhere and an attic that runs the length of the house. Sharon is an artist and there are many beautiful examples of her work though the house. E drank and nibbled while they cooked barbecued ladonne (fatty pork), mergez and chicken. We finally ate after 2 and it was delicious. Alexis and his girlfriend, Caroline, were hungry so tried to hurry things along. We ate rice first and then the meat and then dessert which we took. Beautiful food and great company! We had a lovely afternoon and we left at 4 as we had a long way to go. <br />The Tomtom spoiled all the chances of taking photos on the way home as it took us a different way home on bigger roads. It took us about 50 minutes and we had had a great day. I had work to do for the net day, so worked quite late.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1075757685427638055.post-6754479552299759682010-05-29T11:43:00.000-07:002010-05-29T11:46:57.182-07:00Monday 24th May, 2010 to Saturday 29th May,2010<strong>Saturday, 29th May, 2010</strong><br />We spent a slow morning and had several discussions about what we would do and where we would go as we wanted to get our tickets for Provence. Eventually we decided to go to Senlis to the SNCF office. Senlis has been my nemesis, but we drove in and found a car park without any problems. I had discovered that I hadn’t driven through a red light the other day, just through a give way line, so I felt better. I asked where the office was and we found our way there just to discover that it as closed for an hour. On the way to find something for lunch we came across a beautiful baby shop and bought a little outfit for the newest Gillett arrival. We wandered off and Gray went back to check if there was the need for a ticket in the car park as we forgot to look. <br />We found a nice place for lunch and once again had a delicious meal. The French chefs certainly know how to cook a pave of beef. <br />We went back to the SNCF office and there was a very helpful lady in there who booked us our seats and didn’t complain at all when the tickets were printed and we realised we were sitting down the bottom of the train rather than the top. She just changed them over happily. She was a bit different from the gorgon in the Chantilly train office.<br />We found a Nicolas, a wine shop, and as I was explaining that I couldn’t find a wine I really liked, Shell came out by mistake with the fact I didn’t like French wine, she realised later. We found a supermarket and then went back to the car and off home.<br />I did the washing and more blogging and Shell discovered a better way to pump the mattress up more. The washing was on the balcony being very lightly rained upon.<br /><br /><strong>Friday, 28th May, 2010</strong><br />6.30 came too early! Shell got up and had breakfast with me and I aimed to get there a bit early as I hadn’t done any preparation the night before. <br />All was quiet for the first hour and a half and then Nabil became his usual self. He was completely off the air which was sad because he has been good. The day for him went from bad to worse and finally finished with him being brought in, banned from sport in the afternoon. The children finished their hats and Sharon judged them for me. England had rung to say they had received Sharon’s hats and how absolutely thrilled they were with them. This bodes well for the competition! I had an email from Isabelle and they are right to come next Sunday for lunch. We are having a great time visiting people and being visited. <br />Gray came in for Sport and was happier with the way the children were participating. They are just not team players and have no idea of playing hard.<br />Shell had come into Chantilly on the bus with him and had then gone for a walk to try and find the swimming pool which I had been told was a 2 minute walk down the road near the school. She messaged at 4 and said she was at the Chocolatier in Chantilly and could we meet here there. We did and I had coffee and a pain au raisin. I am having too many of these lately, but they are so yummy.<br />We went back to Avilly and decided to have dinner at home seeing we had had coffee out.<br />We opened the special wine from Le Mont Saint Michel to have as an aperitif. It was all right, but not so special. I am still trying to find a nice French red wine that I like.<br />By the time we had had dinner it was rather late and I was ready for more sleep. I blogged a bit and then gave in.<br /><br /><strong>Thursday, 27th May, 2010</strong> <br />The alarm went off at 5am and up we got in the dark. I figured we needed to leave at a quarter to 6 as we didn’t think Shell had had any of our messages and we needed to be at the exit as she arrived. We set the tomtom and set off. It led us very nicely to the beginning of the Aerogare 1 and we just followed the road round, and round and round and up into the Parking Station. We went to find the Arrivals and when we looked on the board, to our horror, Shell’s flight was delayed and not due in till 8.11 am. <br />Oh dear! School starts at 8.30! What to do? It was too early to call Loretta and so we had a coffee. It was another case of there is nothing we could do, but sit in an airport chair and wait. We bought a newspaper and read about the grève. It appears that some of the trains were running, but we thought it was just as well we were there because otherwise Gray would have been at Gare du Nord waiting and waiting for a few hours not knowing what was going on. I sent a text to Loretta and then I sat with 2 mobiles on my lap and waited. One eventually rang and Loretta said she was on a train going to school and it was fine. I would get there when I could.<br />Shortly after the board said the plane had landed, my mobile went and it was Shell saying she had just got my message. I sent back that we were there and we waited some more. Eventually she appeared and we headed back to the car. The lifts did their usual. Each time someone pressed a button, the directional light changed. We followed Tomtom’s directions and got back easily in good time. I dropped Gray and Shell at home and drove off to school arriving only about an hour late. My guys were in with Claire the French teacher, finishing Mother’s Day presents. They came back in with me and Nabil started to play up a bit. They worked on their Floppy the Dog’s Hats to try and win 300 English pounds worth of reading books and started their glass painting for their Mothers’ Day candle holders. We worked on all these things again in the afternoon and some people finished.<br />I arrived home about 5 o’clock and we decided to go back into Chantilly for dinner as I was too tired to cook. We drove in and I told Shell to watch around the next corner. She was suitably amazed. Each day I drive through tunnels of green trees and roundabouts and then suddenly I come to one cobblestoned roundabout and the close view of the Chateau Chantilly. It is so big and old and has beautiful stonework and turrets and sits in the middle of a lake. It is history just sitting there in the middle of the countryside. We drove on into Chantilly and I managed a parking spot on the pavement. I am still not brave enough to try and back into a space between two cars. We went to Giorgios and had a nice meal, but the grumpy waitress was on. We went home not too late. Then began the fun! We had bought a double blow up mattress and a pump, but hadn’t tried it out. We unpacked it and after many laughs and changing of pumpers, we brought it to a “sleep on” stage. We would add more air tomorrow.<br /><br /><strong>Wednesday, 26th May, 2010 </strong><br />The alarm went off and I seemed more tired than usual. I made my breakfast and got the ironing board out. I looked at my phone for the time and discovered it was only 9 minutes past 6! What was going on. The alarm was sill set! I looked at the messages and it was a jolly message that had come in from Shell who was just boarding the plane so I had thought it was the alarm and climbed out at 5.30 Ugh!!! I went back to bed and read till a decent hour.<br />The Wednesday children were good, some of them are improving in English and some of my group are just like me. I say,”Ma française à disparu aujourd’hui” and they say “My English has disappeared today!”<br />Gray came in from the market in Chantilly carrying a huge bag of vegetables and some cheese (of course!). We went to the station to get him a ticket for the next morning early as he was going to meet Shell at Gare du Nord. Sadly I struck the only really nasty woman I have met in France and all she could say was grève, grève. I looked this up and found it was Strike! She told me to look on the door for times and I told her our daughter was coming in to the airport at 6.40am. She shrugged and virtually said “Tough!”<br />We stressed about this and tried to contact Loretta. I thought I would drive and get her and with any luck be home for school in time. How French! <br />We went to Saint Maximin to do the shopping. We put it all through the check out and packed it all up. You have to pack your own here! Then my card wouldn’t work in her machine. It always takes an age, but she got impatient and started pushing buttons. This wrecked her whole system and after quite a while with a supervisor present, we had to unpack and put it all through again. All was well and we went to buy lots of paint at Cultura for Sharon to start painting the backdrops for the School Production. Lately I have been much happier driving on the roads around here. However, things can still go haywire as I discovered when trying to find the way out from Cora to get to Cultura. I went on to the roundabout and couldn’t find a way off until another couple of cars came on and I discovered, to my horror, that I was going the wrong way around the round about. Aarggh! I backed into one entrance and then drove around it properly and found an exit. <br />Another French thing! They talked about getting paint in the staff meeting and waffled around as to who would get it and when. I said we were going shopping so I would. When I gave the docket in the next morning, I was met with an amazed look and “Already!” Nothing happens here in a hurry!<br />We made dinner and I rang Rochelle to see whether or not I could get to the airport and back in time fro school. She is so lovely! She offered to go for me, but she has 3 children to get to different schools so I refused.<br />Eventually Loretta rang and said it was fine, just get to school when I could. I looked everywhere on the Internet to see if I could find arrival times for Charles de Gaulle and for Malaysian airlines so we could check in the morning, but there was nowhere. I went to bed as we were going to have another early morning.<br /><br /><strong>Tuesday, 25th May, 2010</strong><br />The alarm went off at 6.30 as usual and I stumbled out of bed, unwillingly, to get ready for school. It was quite warm for a change and not a bad drive in. I felt far more comfortable in the car as we had driven that far to Le Mont Saint Michel. I was first as usual and had everything ready as the children arrived. Nabil wasn’t great, but not too bad. <br />The day progressed as usual and we did “rope” as usual.<br />Gray was really sore and tired so went back to bed after our lots of walking at the weekend. He went for an easy walk to the Bar and Tabac to buy a baguette only to find it closed. How annoying, no bread and no beer!<br />We had a staff meeting which I had to run as Loretta had a sudden board meeting so I didn’t arrive home until nearly 6. <br /><br /><strong>Monday, 24th May, 2010 </strong><br />We woke on Monday morning and had one tray of breakfast in the room. In France they don’t have the same Accor deal where you have one free meal each time we eat, but we still accrued a lot of points.<br />We packed up and left about 9.30am heeding Sharon’s warning of Long Weekend traffic. Tomtom did a good job and took us back to the motorways and we headed for home. We had wanted to go through some small villages, but thought that it would be much slower and a four hour something trip was quite long enough. We decided to leave the tollway and have lunch in Vernon and go to Giverny to Monet’s Garden. Lunch was good. Very rarely do people now answer me in English when I speak French to them. The light still hasn’t gone on yet though and I do not think in French yet either. <br />We found our way to Giverny and walked through to buy our tickets. We had to go to a different place from where Nic and I went in last year and we joined a long, long queue. I realised that we had bought our tickets before we went last year and so could go in a different entrance. We would have taken about an hour to get to the front of the queue and it would have been nearly three before we even got into the gardens so we left, deciding to get tickets and go back one Wednesday afternoon when Shell was with us.<br />We changed Tomtom’s route and followed him home arriving at a decent hour with time to prepare fro school on the Tuesday.<br />Had messaged a bit with Loretta and they were stuck in traffic going back to Paris so we were really happy that we had left early.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1075757685427638055.post-61392722551768957562010-05-25T05:22:00.000-07:002010-05-29T12:05:32.267-07:00Monday 17th May 2010 till Sunday 23rd May 2010<strong><strong>Sunday, 23rd May, 2010</strong></strong><br />I woke to the harmonious sounds of sleep machine next to me,so I was up rather too early for my liking. We dressed in summer clothes as it promised to be another warm day and then packed up. As we were doing this, our breakfast arrived and the description “a groaning tray of food” had nothing on our tray. It was very heavy and contained tea, coffee, juice, yoghurt, fruit, jam, butter, croissants, bread, pain au chocolat, bread, cheese and various types of meat. After we had eaten through some of this, we finished packing and left the hotel. We asked if they had another night as we could cancel the other without penalty, but unfortunately they were all booked out. We joined the crowd and drove out across the dyke towards the Mont. We were early, but there were thousands of cars and motorhomes and cars and bikes out there already. (This is no exaggeration as you will see when I eventually get photos up.) People seem to spend the night in their motorhomes out there. Things have changed rapidly since I was there in the 70s as they would all have been swept away when the tide came in. Nowadays there is only a small amount of water because the dyke has changed the ecological way things work and the River Cuesnon has a lot of silt. There are huge programs under way to try to restore it to the way it used to be. Still a steady stream of cars poured in behind us.<br />We walked a long way to the bottom of Le Mont along with many other people. It is an amazing sight from the base of it as the old stonework forming the buildings and the abbey is fabulous and just…so old. According to the book we bought, the first building on it was in 700AD. The actual abbey was built in 1300s. All the stones were pulled up by a huge wooden wheel, a replica of which is there today.<br />The crowds were large as we walked up the cobblestones, through the steep alley lined with tourist shops and restaurants. One line going up and one coming down and no-one else able to go past. We walked up and up and eventually decided to go into a museum house, a museum and a son et lumiere. This was great as it was all in French. However, I managed to understand a lot of it. Gray got some and I could help with some. When we exited this we were at the beginning of the abbey. More climbing, up, up, up till we eventually went into a hall to pay and begin our Abbey experience. There were lots of people, but it wasn’t unpleasant. Each room had a plaque as to what it was and we had a brochure. There was a service taking place in the Abbey, which was full. We were able to watch some of it. Outside the Abbey the view was over the sand flats that extended for kilometres. People were walking over them and swimming. There were huge groups of people walking around the sands and we discovered that these were groups of pilgrims making a pilgrimage both to the Abbey and to other sites kilometres away. We walked through all the rooms of the Monks’ area which led us back down to the main hall. We had to leave by les Jardins and we walked a long way further to the exit of the Abbey area.<br />Now, we were tired and hungry so we looked for a restaurant and had a delicious lunch. I went for steak because, as nice as my seafood was the night before, I miss my meat. <br />After lunch, Gray decided that he really should have bought the stamp he had seen up in the Abbey shop and he would walk back up to get it. I found a bit of protruding rock in a wall and sat and waited for him. He returned empty-handed as he couldn’t find the Les Jardins exit and wasn’t going to queue in the IN line for ages.<br />We decided we had had enough walking so we would go back to the car and book in at the next hotel. That was easier said than done as there was now wall to wall people climbing the Rue and going down. We just stepped out into the flow and were carried down in a crush of humanity. We eventually reached the bottom and walked back to the car. Now there were two rows of huge coaches on the road at the bottom of the entrance and thousands upon thousands of cars. The sign had said that the tide would come in at 3 and take about 3 hours. It certainly wasn’t the rush of water that had come in 38 years ago when I was last there.<br />We found the car and joined the steady stream of vehicles moving towards the exit. Then we crawled back into the village and booked into the Mercure Motel. It wasn’t as exotic as the Relais le Saint Michel, but it was comfortable and it was a bed for the night. <br />We walked around the village and did some shopping. Then we decided to walk back part of the way and see what the water was doing. It was a little higher in the Cuesnan, but not much. We watched a family of ducks, nine ducklings, swimming down the river and some other birds. We walked back towards the motel and went down a road at the back, only to discover a large fence that we couldn’t pass so we had to walk back and through one hotel’s bottom floor. We had dinner in the restaurant that was attached to the hotel and sat outside under an umbrella. We had been thinking of driving back out to Le Mont at dusk as Pierre Eric said it was very different, but suddenly realised I had had a couple of glasses of wine and might be slightly over the limit so we didn’t.<br />For the first time in France we saw about 6 or 7 buses full of Japanese Tourists in the village and up on Le Mont.<br /><br /><strong>Saturday, 22nd May, 2010</strong><br />Up quite early and we had breakfast, packed and left about 10. We had the tomtom on and decided to follow it carefully. Well we started out that way until it told me to turn left and I missed it. Oh well, it repositioned itself and picked us up again. We went on to a Toll way, something I had been scared of doing, because of the money. I had texted a Mum the night before and asked if I needed, notes, coins or a card. Back came the answer of all three are ok. Well here we went. There was a toll booth and a toll collector. All my worries vanished at once. This was different from what I had been led to expect. Another fear dispelled! When on earth did I become so fearful of so many things?<br />We followed our Tomtoms directions religiously, but discovered that bear left does not mean turn left. Well we went round a sort of a square round about and a few streets, three times till I worked that fact out. Back we headed for the motorway and kept going. We pulled off into a garage cum food place along the way to have some lunch, after we had passed a few and worked out that yes they did come back on to the motorway. It is all so different that you can take nothing for granted.<br /> The next few kilometers were very busy and there were huge hold ups at the toll booths. There was also roadworks along the way which is great on a holiday weekend and I was sure that the left lane wasn’t as wide as our car. It did turn out to be all right though. Next point of interest was going towards Caen. Take the exit and keep left, so I did and then when it said keep left I became a bit disorientated and we ended up back on the motorway. Oops! Never mind Tomtom fixed us up and we continued on our way. Sharon had said don’t leave too late and I am very glad we took her advice as it was slow enough at that time.<br />Eventually we came across signs to Le Mont Saint Michel and Gray thought he spotted it between the trees. Then it disappeared again. We stopped at one hotel to ask for directions as when I had put the co-ordinates into the Tomtom, it came out as East for the latitude not west, so we didn’t have firm instructions of the actual place. We eventually arrived at our exotic location for the night and found ourselves in a magnificent room looking straight out to the Mont itself. Wow what a view. Room was great and internet was free so lots of emailing and we even talked to Mum on Skype. Only one detail missing; no coffee making things! Very strange for a four star hotel! We had a walk a little way along the path and then to a local supermarket and bought some wine, beer and nibbles and yet another tire buchon, as all the other three corkscrews were in Avilly. We sat out on our small verandah and enjoyed the early part of the evening.<br />At seven we went to dinner and were seated right at the front window with an amazing view of the mountain. The food was delicious. For entrée I had Paté de Foie canard and Gay had a seafood tasting plate. The waiter came with a selection of 5 extra pieces of cutlery I think it as and laid them out on the table setting. The plate was huge and he had winkles which he had never had before. For main course we both had lobster, mine was with white butter and Gray’s was supposedly flambé, but the waiter came with his little copper pot of Calvados and it wouldn’t light. Really didn’t matter as the taste was still there. I have always hated watching people eat lobster at the table because of the mess it makes. Well…! Now I hate it even more because I managed to make more mess than anyone I have ever seen. Meanwhile the night was beginning to get a bit darker and I took photos of the Mont through our window. Card were streaming out and back in all the time.<br />Desert was delicious too, Gray had profiteroles. Over here they are all filled with ice-cream and then I had a coffee. Back in the room I continued to take photos and it was finally dark just after 10.<br />I did my usual, very little sleep in a strange place so was very tired.<br /><br /><strong>Friday, 21st May, 2010 </strong><br />I was in quite early and set up the computers. Sharon has invited us to her home for a barbeque on Sunday next week. That will be nice to be able to socialise with her without all the hassles of school. <br />The printer, which I thought I had wrecked worked again, thank heavens. We had a spelling test and they all answered the Borenore children’s emails. I tried to make them all email accounts of their own, but it was too difficult as the computer was reading between Australia and France and didn’t like the fact.<br />We covered a lot of work and finished our artworks as well. Some people started on their Floppy dog’s hat. Nabil was pretty well behaved. Slowly I seem to be winning, but it is a three day weekend so Tuesday will be interesting. I just seem to have to be the dragon and he is good.<br />Had time off and wrecked the printer again. This is a difficult one as no one seems to do computer things at all. Gray came in for sport in the afternoon and I had 2 Maternelle 6 year olds who can’t read yet. Oh dear! One has quite a lot, one has not much at all and the two who are French have NONE, were away. More next week, but we did have a happy Mum. Sport is another thing! Frustrates Gray no end. There are 16 of them and they don’t move around. They will look at the cricket ball instead of chasing it in continuous cricket. Obne good little fello wasn’t listening to him at all and reminded him that he had no English. We speak a strange jargon when we are giving instructions so that everyone understands.<br />We didn’t go out for dinner as we were going away for the weekend. We were so tired, we didn’t even pack. Decided to do that tomorrow.<br /><br /><strong>Thursday, 20th May.2010 </strong><br />I was really tired this morning and didn’t want to get up. I spoke with Shell as there was no email from her saying she had booked. She is still vaccilating she said. …so… will we see her, will we not!<br />Nabil was nicely settled for most of the day for me. He is still hard work and played up no end in the playground and wasn’t very good for the French teacher. Gray walked into Chantilly along the so called Forest Track. It was most disappointing as there was a large wall on one side of the track and a fence on the other. He had a beer and then found couldn’t get a bus for a long time so he walked back home. He was exhausted when I came in.<br />School was an interesting day. Loretta was yelled at again by Claire who didn’t like something that had to be done. I went in to make her some tea and heard Claire say something very loudly as I walked past, so I opened the door and said nicely,<br />“Did you say something?” Well now I know what it feels like to have someone yelling in an extremely loud voice at me as I stood there hoping to calm her down. She was shouting full bore at the situation. Two little girls had come inside for something and went back to Loretta to tell her we were having a fight. I hastened to tell them, that I don’t fight and had gone in because I knew she was upset, to see if I could help. How unprofessional to scream at people like that! I have never seen or heard anything like it. Life is full of different experiences over here.<br />At lunchtime they skipped again. As soon as the Maternelle bell rings, the cry goes up, “Rope!” and Mrs Doherty will you turn rope please?” I now have tennis elbow or some such ailment in my arm, but how can you not play with them. It gives them something to do in the concrete yard and they just love it. I do have to look up some more skipping rhymes because I could only really remember Teddy bear, teddy bear and I am heartily sick of that one. Nabil is always a problem when I am not out there and just want to tell the others that if they got up and played a game or two with the children instead of sitting in a line on their chairs he would be better for them too. Ah me!<br />Thursday afternoon they finished off most of their museum book work although some will still be going next week. The room is beginning to look more like my classroom now thank heavens.<br />I was late home as was helping Loretta. Had an email from Isabelle and they will come and visit us soon. We had been hoping to see mo and Gaynor as they drove from Calais to Orleans, but it was not to be. That is sad. He said they might come for a weekend, but we worked out we only have 3 free weekends left in our time here. I can’t believe how fast it is going.<br /><br /><strong>Wednesday, 19th May, 2010</strong> <br />Had emails from mum and others. Mum skyped me at school but I missed her. Shell thinks she will come. We had Music and the children showed the instruments they had made. I then played the guitar and we sang. I am not very good at it at all really. I think it is because a) Loretta is there and I never play well in front of adults and b) it is a small one and doesn’t have much sound coming out of it. We had a good lesson with my English Class. Gray came from the market with a bag full of cheese and vegetables and we came home and had lunch. I put all the shopping away and we then went to St Maximin to do the weekly shop. It becomes easier each time. We bought all the food, not quite so much as last time as we were going away. We couldn’t find a Post Office, but there was a stamp machine. We had many goes at trying to get stamps of the right amount and in the end we gave up. We came home via Chantilly so gray could go to the post office. I found a parking spot on the pavement and drove on to it, as you do here. He went to the Post Office and I got a ticket from the machine to put in the car window…and another ticket…! Eventually he came back with a story of a fellow trying to get a passport and everyone in the line huffing and puffing because it was taking so long. They are a very patient people the French…haha! <br />We bought some maps while we were in Cora to see where we would go on Saturday to get to Le Mont Saint Michel and after dinner we put them out on the floor to look. I managed to get one hotel booked for the Sunday night, but everywhere seems completely booked out for the Saturday night. Eventually I found one at an exorbitant price and we decided just to take it as otherwise we might not find one anywhere. I was happy to have a bed for each night.<br />We went home and unpacked everything and I made dinner and then did my work. I was very tired once more.<br /><br /><strong>Tuesday 18th May, 2010</strong><br />4 degrees in car this morning. Gate at school was shut so I had to try and open it. The car fitted on to the pavement in front of it. Just! I had to use every muscle I have to push the gate open on both sides. Ah well, I have done it now, so I know I can do it! The fear of it has gone! Now I can go earlier if I want to. School is supposed to start at 8.30 so there is never enough time to do everything before it starts, especially if I want to read the emails.<br />We had a good morning! Nabil was pretty good. The others were keen to work and are enjoying the freedom of doing work that isn’t as formal that they are used to all the time. Their presentation skills leave a lot to be desired. Humbert and Nabil have a huge college exam tomorrow. Nabil couldn’t have cared less, but I spent the morning answering Humbert’s mathematical questions. There are so many things they haven’t covered this year! It is a bit scary!<br />I had from 11.30 off this morning with just Break duty and Lunchtime duty. I am still turning rope or playing Dodgeball. We have converted one Maternelle person to play and Loretta will turn rope, but the rest just say no and stay sitting on their chairs in the sun if there is any. It is incredible. The children are all playing together and having loads of fun, but they do need some help to do some of these things! One of the great delights is watching 6 year olds, Ange and Nicolas having such fun running in and skipping successfully. Nicolas’ face almost splits in two, his grin is so huge.<br />Gray took it easy today and only went as far as Courteuil. The woman at Tabac told Gray that she was only closed yesterday because it was so cold! He bought home a baguette and had lunch.<br />My French hasn’t reappeared properly yet. It is a bit of a worry.<br />Good one from Gray tonight! His new red shirt has shrunk!!! He won’t have it that it hasn’t and the cheese is starting to show. Hehehe!<br />Gigi bought ne a bag of new books to read today. This is great as I had read all the others. It is good having a personal library to borrow from when necessary.<br /><br /><strong>Monday 17th May, 2010</strong><br />It was rather cool this morning. The jockeys from across the road were snuggly rugged up when they set off. The dragon in me flared this morning and I laid down the law to Nabil and told him there was no way I was accepting anything except vastly improved behaviour. We all had a much better morning. He was pretty good in French as well. The afternoon was more pleasant and the others all enjoyed it much better. <br />Gray had been for a walk and looked rather dead when I eventually arrived home. It was much further than he had expected and he turned back through St Nicolas d’Acy or it would have been worse. He trudged into Courteuil to have a long awaited beer at the Tabac, only to find it closed! I am getting tired rather early and waiting for the clock to get to 10 o’clock. This is most unusual for me!<br />My French seems have disappeared! I have been concentrating so hard and trying to understand as much as I can and speak it as well, so maybe it is overload and it might be hidden in there somewhere.<br />Finally I managed to book a second hotel for the Saturday night this coming weekend. Monday is a holiday and we are heading to Mont Saint Michel for the weekend, but everything was booked out. I booked one for the Sunday night and we got the last room in a different hotel for the Saturday. It is quite a long way and I have set the Tomtom. However! It says go to the end of the road and turn right! This is a bit of a worry as it is taking us in the opposite direction from that on the map. We shall see! Next amusing instalment. <br /><strong></strong>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1075757685427638055.post-21963968394443657372010-05-18T06:08:00.000-07:002010-05-29T12:02:09.995-07:00Monday 10th May to Sunday 16th May, 2010<strong>Sunday 16th May, 2010</strong><br />A quiet day after our gadding around yesterday. I did the washing. It really isn’t hard to hand wash our clothes as nothing really gets dirty. There was a good wind so it all would dry in the day probably. I swept and mopped the floor. I do not like bare floors as you can never get rid of all the dust. For the rest of the day, I read and talked with Sian on computer and phone to fix my Optus account. Messaged with Nic and tried to get Shell, but she wasn’t answering.<br />We seem to do a lot of eating when we are home all day, but it was nice to just sit around. This evening we have our funny radio we bought. It is solar powered one which is also a dynamo and you wind it up when it runs out of power. It is really very funny.<br />The end of another week. They really are going very fast. We haven’t caught up with Maeve yet and I had a shock when I told her that we only had 7 weeks left and 3 or 4 of those are already booked up. <br /><br /><strong>Saturday 15th May, 2010 </strong><br />Relaxed and sat around on the computer for quite a while. The other computer is better and I have a much more stable connection now, but still very slow. We talked about what time we would catch a train to Paris and looked at the timetable. Suddenly I realised we had better get a move on as we had to get parking ticket for the car and train tickets. We hurried off and did all the necessary things and sat on the station to wait. I was a bit puzzled as the grumpy ticket seller said the next train was at midi dix-sept, 12.17. This was a long time after the one I had found on the timetable. The wind was cold and we sat in the shelter as a few fast trains went past. We looked again at the timetable and discovered to our horror, and then amusement, that the ones we had found didn’t stop at Chantilly at all! Well the one she told me about, would be the one we would catch! Well we would have done if we had been on the right platform! I went back to the window and asked and she looked at me in horror! She became nice suddenly and said it had gone. You have to look 10 minutes before it comes to see which platform it would stop at! We went and had lunch in the hotel across the road and went back in time to catch the fast train to Paris with no problems.<br />We found our way around the Metro Map and caught a train to Concorde. We went up and out on to the edge of the Place de la Concorde. After a while we found the way to go and Gray began to remember where he had been with Nic last year. Only one problem, we had no cash! So we had to walk a long way up the Champs Elysée to find a bank and then back down to the arcade of stamps sellers’ tents in the Park. Gray looked and I wandered patiently along behind until I found a chair and sat and waited. It was cold. The wind was freezing! We had taken a bag full of extra clothes and by the time we came home we were wearing just about all of them. <br />We wandered back down the Champs Elysée and found a restaurant called La Nôtre and we went in and had coffee and macarons. Gray had chocolate which looked like completely melted chocolate in a cup.<br />Loretta had messaged to say we should meet for an aperitif or dinner. She said it would be too early to eat so we thought we would have a drink and then go back and eat in Chantilly. We were to meet at 6pm, so we still had 2 hours to wait. We walked all the way down to the Tuileries and sat and watched the children running around the pond with sailing boats and sticks that a man was hiring out. It got colder and colder. We decided to meet Loretta and Laurent earlier as we were so cold and walked on the through towards the Louvre to find a Metro. We came across a man selling small Eiffel Towers and as I had taken all the children back one each last year, bought some more. He quoted me an exorbitant price when I said 13 and started counting out piles of 10. We suddenly realised he thought i said 30 and he gave me 13 at a much cheaper price. We found we were on the wrong bank and headed off in the right direction, remembering where the metro was. We just managed to squeeze on the train and the doors shut right behind me. It is so squashy, it is amazing. We only had a few stops to go so it didn’t matter. We had walked miles and were tired. Loretta wanted to take us to Place des Voges to look around and so we walked another long way. When we got there we said we just had to sit so we had our drink and a chat for a while. The Place des Voges had a whole square of buildings built by several kings. They then led us to the Bastille Station and we returned to Gare du Nord for a train home. We had to get that one because there wasn’t another one for a few hours if we had missed it.<br />We got to the car and drove into Chantilly and went to Giorgio’s for dinner again. We sat next to a young family from Boston and had a pleasant night. The children were quiet and beautifully behaved and the parents were good company. Our friendly waiter from the night before asked would we back again the next night. We drove home and I booked a room for next weekend in Mont Saint Michel and then went to sleep.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Friday, 14th May, 2010</strong><br />School as usual, but no time to do all I had to do this morning so a bit disorganized and no emailing done. Mum called on Skype so we had a bit of a talk. Nabil was off the planet. He was the worst he has been since the first day. The others are very sick of him. We only had 5 children and all the others did great work. They emailed Deb’s children at Borenore and Camille worked on their blog. Claire was away so I had them for the whole time till lunchtime. Gray came in to do sport so I stayed inside and fixed computers. It was really, really cold again. So much for spring! Because of the holiday we were lots of children down. Loretta only had 3 for the day so there were only 8 for sport. <br />After school I did some emailing and packing up and Loretta had some interviews at 5 something. We went home and discovered I had left one computer cord at school. Such a nuisance! We were going to dinner in Chantilly seeing it was Friday night so we called back in to school to see if the gate was still open and to collect the cord on the way. Anne-Laure was still there and very surprised to see us.<br />We decided that we would go back to Giorgio’s for dinner as we should try somewhere else rather than the Brasserie all the time. We walked all around Chantilly and hadn’t seen anything nicer. <br />We had a very friendly, helpful waiter for the night and the food was delicious. It was a much better experience than the girl at lunchtime on the Wednesday. Home in the dark. We are getting later and later, but managing well in places I am familiar with. I am sure most of my fear comes from the fact that it has to go back without a scratch on it. This is tough in France where most cars have scratches. <br /><br /><strong>Thursday, 13th May, 2010</strong><br />Today was Ascension Day so we had a holiday. Very nice too. I was so tired I didn’t do much for most of the day. In the afternoon we went for a drive. We went to look at the village of St Maximin to see what was there. Lots of cars were there at a car boot sale, but there wasn’t any room to park so we didn’t stop there. It seemed to be another village with a mixture of old and new. Some are done well like Avilly and some are awful. We found our way to the big petrol station in St Maximin, but this was disastrous! It is a card paying one and we couldn’t open the tank anyway. A young fellow spent an age looking for the button inside the car. He gave up and we set off to find something else. We decided to go into Chantilly and get it at the one there. On the way we came across an Elf one so I drove in and a nice friendly man showed us that it was open all the time when unlocked just like Gray’s Honda at home. Oh dear! Another laugh! We bought an icecream and sat and ate that in the freezing cold. We drove home through Chantilly and saw stacks of people at the castle so we stopped, parked and went to see. We couldn’t go in as Gray didn’t have his wallet and I didn’t have much cash, but we took photos and will go back another day. It is an amazing sight that I come across each morning on a roundabout on the way to school. We bought a coffee and went back to the car absolutely frozen and home to warm up.<br /><br />Wednesday, 12th May, 2010<br />We only had a few children today as the French schools were making up days so that they didn’t have to go to school on Friday. Thursday is a holiday for Ascension Day and we were hoping to have Friday as well for an extra long weekend, but they had left it too late to ask. My French children were a bit restless, but beginning to try and speak more English each week. Gray had been to the market in Chantilly and got some fruit and vegetables and of course some cheese! He met Loretta and me in Chantilly for lunch . We went to Giorgio’s for the first time. The food was good, but the waitress was surly. We dropped Loretta back at school as there wasn’t a train for a long time so she went back to do some work. We took the market shopping home and then went to St Maximin for our rest of our weekly shopping. We got what we wanted and then we queued to get to the checkout. Nine trolleys in each queue!!!!! Zut alors! We were talking to a woman with a couple of small grandchildren with her. Coping in French, but she also said she spoke English, so that was helpful at the end of the day. However, another fellow was sounding forth and he had no English. We had a discussion about the state of the country, quite a few of us. Most of it I understood and could comment. Still a long way to go though!<br />Eventually we got though and thought we might eat there, but everything was still shut for another 10 minutes so we went home and cooked.<br /><br /><strong>Tuesday 11th May, 2010</strong><br />School as usual for me. Louise wasn’t there as she was going to Singapore with her mum. They were taking a horse to race. Camille wasn’t very pleased about it all in the beginning, but she was fine for the rest of the day. I spent my time off trying to fix computers in the Maternelle and Claire’s room. Gray was going to have lunch in Chantilly Castle, but when he was picked up by Rochelle and her aunty from Australia, Janet, they went to Pierrefonds Chateau as Chantilly was shut, being a Tuesday. They had lunch there and then, during the afternoon, Loretta came in and said would I please look at the message that had just come in on my phone. There was a message from Rochelle saying would I please pick up Sam from the College as they were running a bit late. Horrors! It was raining and I had no idea where to go. Gigi knew she said and Anne-Laure drew me a map. We got there safely and Sam then led us to Montgrasin as we were taking Gigi home and going to do the sheet and towel washing. They had all arrived home just before us. We put the washing on and had a couple of cups of coffee. We took one lot of towels and sheets home wet and left another load in the machine. Rochelle said she would deliver it to school. She is so kind. We discovered that there is another ash flow from Iceland. We decided that if it happens just when we wish to fly home, we will drive as far west as we need to and fly from there. We don’t want to be stuck again. At least we will be going the right way this time! Rochelle looked it up because Janet is supposed to be flying home soon, but most of it seems to have gone west this time and only closed some airports. I got a new collection to read from her which is good. Home safely in the dark and made dinner and did some work. Waiting on the doorstep was a large box of flowers from the girls and Guy for Mothers’ Day. They were pink rhododendrons and small greenish white hydrangeas. They were lovely.<br /><br />Monday 10th May, 2010 <br />Alarm went off at 6.30 as usual and I was reluctant to climb out as it was cold. Gray went down to the Bar and Tabac to see if he could get a paper, but they had all gone. He did, however, come home with a baguette. Surprise! Suzan gave him a letter from his Mum and also a key for the letter box so now we can look. I have put a Famille Doherty d’Australie on the door and I m supposed to be expecting something. Had a good day with 6 of the children, but it was the first day after a weekend so Nabil was off the air. <br />We had a meeting after school to work on the concert. I arrived home about 6pm.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1075757685427638055.post-58563037075145825572010-05-11T03:32:00.000-07:002010-05-11T03:37:06.018-07:002nd May to 9th May 2010Sunday 9th May, 2010<br />Climbed out of bed at a quarter to 8 to a text from Nic wishing me a Happy Mothers’ Day. Also heard from Sian by internet with a card and Sammi by phone. For the first time in 32 years Gray did nothing! He has a chance on the 30th to redeem himself as it is French Mothers Day. He spoke to his mum by phone, but it ran out of credit so we shall have to buy some more this week. I was talking to mum and I ran out of credit, I recharged and had given her my number so we eventually got to talk to each other once the recharge had gone through. Nic and I tried all ways to get Skype and Google chat going, with no success and she eventually put money on Skype and rang on that. She wasn’t very happy.<br />I seem to go to sleep quite a lot when I work on the computer so went off to have a sleep in the afternoon. Not successfully as noise travels up from down below here as well as through our own part. They are not noisy but you can hear feet etc. some times. We went for a walk along the back laneway and came across a sports complex where there was a very loud, active game of soccer in progress and at the side of the field outside the fence was a large cleared area of dirt where there were many games of petanque being played. We wandered along and had a look at several of the games. There was beer for sale in the old shed and some kind of a BBQ, but we hadn’t taken any money. We continued our walk along the road and then down through the forest path. I took photos of many interesting different types of wild flowers. We walked back through Avilly and saw some beautiful houses and gardens and some very old parts. We then had to walk along the road I drive each day and it is very narrow so we walked on the edge of the canola crop eventually. The ground is full of small rocks, but the canola grows up through it. There are many fields of it around the Oise area.<br />We watched the big horse carrier return the beautiful horses it had taken out this morning. It pulls up outside the gate right next to where we live so I like to go out on the balcony and watch them when I am here. They are the most magnificent animals and well looked after. Michelline said I should ask Martine to take us in to see them one day and I shall.<br />I cooked dinner and then sat down to try and get the Blog writing up to date. Another week has gone. Time is going too fast.<br /><br />Saturday, 8th May, 2010<br />We woke quite late again. My back isn’t great and doesn’t do too well in the mornings. It does tend to settle during the day. We emailed a bit and found one from Deb saying she had been talking to Pierre Eric. We set the Tomtom and set off. It was happy because we followed most of its directions to Senlis. When we arrived we went around the roundabout and off down the road we had come back in on Wednesday. Well I thought we did! We kept hearing Tomtom say take the next left, over ad over again and then we came to a town we didn’t know at all. Wrong road again! We did see some lovely countryside and old, old villages. Back we went and Tomtom led us to the right road. This was a pretty good road and I had looked on the map the night before and written down all the places we were likely to see on signs. This worked for some of the way and out Tomtom didn’t like the way we were going and kept trying to get us to turn around and go left or right. Useful if we didn’t know where we were going! We turned too early and I have to say that the tomtom led us back on to the right road. Now we had a bit more faith in it and we listened to it. It eventually led us right to the front door of Isabelle and Pierre Eric’s house.<br />They are delightful people and they made us very welcome. Marine was there and she just wants to go back to Australia. She is so different from when we first met her in Orange. She is working in childcare madly saving to return. I told Isabelle that we could do a swap. Nicky could live with them and Marine could come with us. She thought that was a great idea. It could happen tomorrow! We also met Valentin who is studying at University to be a Maths teacher.<br />The weather was beautiful so we sat outside and had aperitifs. I had red wine and we ate cashews, tiny cheese profiteroles and other snacks. We managed our conversations well. Pierre Eric, Marine and Valentin all wanted to speak English and I wanted to speak French, but Isabelle’s English wasn’t keeping up and neither was Gray’s French so we mixed both and translated in between. Mine is coming slowly. Marine was surprised at how much I have now.<br />We moved inside for the main dinner. The house is a few centuries old and just amazing. There are beams close together in the ceilings and the floor is made of hexagonal terra cotta tiles. It is a very uneven floor as old ones are and must be a nightmare to clean.<br />First course was homemade duck pâté de foie gras. They had been to a duck farm in November and today was the first time they were trying the pâté. It was simply amazing! No words could really describe its taste. We ate this with salad and balsamic vinegar. The second course was really good too. We had small potato squares well cooked, a bit like chips, but nicer and some duck. It was delicious and we were filling up. Next came the cheese! Brie and goat and something that looked blue, but wasn’t and some fake cheese Isabelle called it, made on crème frais. It was nice too, with bread to accompany the cheese. Then came desert! It was superb! Raspberries and cream and some soaked sponge and more fruit. The whole lunch was a gastronomic delight. We had coffee/tea outside in the sun and were surprised to find it was 4o’clock! Isabelle took me on a tour of the second and third storey of the house. It is so old. The bedrooms are on the second storey and then there is a little door in Valentin’s room and some worn away stairs that go up to the attic. The attic has 4 rooms in it and it incredible. It hasn’t been restored, but one day when they have some money they want to do it. It is an old house that you would dream about to restore, but it would take a fortune.<br />We left shortly afterwards with Pierre Eric’s instructions in our ears. It was much easier than coming, but Tomtom digressed at one stage ands we followed him. He led us most of the way properly. We arrived home quite late and just sat and talked about the day. I made a light plate because we had eaten so much and we sat and wrote journal and blog and I am ready for bed.<br /><br />Friday 7th May,2010<br />Up at 6.30am again, arrived at school about a quarter to 8. Fortunately the gate was open and all was well. Margot was there already so I didn’t have to cope with locks and alarms. We worked hard in the morning and finished many things. At recess time I spoke only French with the staff outside. I have decided to do this as I really need to improve. Still waiting for the light. I spent my time off trying to fix Claire’s computer. It has masses of space, no viruses and is slower than a wet weekend. I had conversations on Skype with Sian to see if we can fix it. It is difficult trying to do it in French and the dictionary came into good use. I also listened to my class’s French lesson and decided I should go with them every day as I learned a lot. Claire did my lunch supervision and I kept on it. It all finished the scanning and I thought all would be well, but it is still slow. The school has no antivirus on most of its computers and no wireless security. It is a hackers and viruses dream. I have a lot to do in the few weeks left! The afternoon was sport and we ran around the chateau and then did stretches, dodge ball and some hockey skills out on the grass. Loretta talked after school and I left almost at 5. She has a difficult job as some people are very hard to get on with. Went home to Gray. He had caught the bus to Chantilly and gone to the market. He is a consummate shopper and had bought all sorts of things, some we needed and some we really didn’t, like 2 tiny cucumbers when we had a whole long one in the fridge drawer. Let him loose near cheese etc and he just has to buy!!! I am going to limit him soon as the fridge doesn’t hold it all and things go bad.<br />At 6.30pm we headed off into Chantilly for dinner at the Brasserie. It is always very nice. We know we have to find other places as well, but it is good to know we will always get good food and wine.<br /><br />Thursday 6th May,2010<br />Off to school once more. I felt a bit dizzy when I got up and for most of the morning, but I think it was my neck from all the rope turning. I desperately need to look on the net for more skipping rhymes as the only one I could remember was Teddy bear, teddy bear and I am heartily sick of that one. Nabil came in with a tiny bit of a hair cut and a vastly different attitude. He worked very well for most of the day. He is on a behaviour contract which I hate, but I had tried everything else. So far so good.<br />I had kinder lunch supervision and some of the complete babies are beginning to let me help. They have no English and I was very strange, but they are coming around. There are children of so many Nationalities and mixed Nationalities. The food they bring in is amazing. Today we had sushi, salmon cutlet, lentils and chicken, plain green beans, all kind of Pasta, and lots of other exotic dishes.<br />We had a good morning and have almost finished the newspaper and they were working on the blog and their museum work. They love to do interesting work. Quentin brought in a cake that he and his mum had made for the homework a couple of weeks ago. I had brought an orange and we cut the orange up first and wrote all the fractions on the table in pencil. This was a novelty. They have gone from worksheets all the time to discovering and in a much more relaxed atmosphere. It amuses me when Nabil is naughty or talking and as one you can hear “Shoosh Nabil, we are working!” We skipped again today and they love it. Humbert is so tall and he does really well to get his feet over the bar in time.<br />After lunch we did some more on our projects and art.<br />Gray in the meantime had waited in all day for the builder who was supposed to be coming, but didn’t ever arrive.<br />We had liver for dinner. Most enjoyable.<br /><br />Wednesday 5th May, 2010<br />Another cold and gloomy morning, but I am always warm enough. I suspect Gray goes back to bed when it is cold after he has let me out. My early time at school is precious as this is when I get my emailing done properly. My home connection is much better but still very slow so I do most things at school. We had assembly and then I had all the primary kids for music, the Wednesday children were there as well. We sang songs and did some rhythm patterns and drama while Loretta had a meeting. We went way over time and made it out to break at 20 to 11. It amuses me how it is such a big thing to have extra children sometimes. I am used to far more than 7, but evidently many teachers over here have to have a few days warning before they will take extra children. There is stress because one teacher will be away for a day next week and that will only leave a teacher, a full time aide and a prac student on class for 23 kids in the morning and 16 in the afternoon. I am afraid I laughed. I have 7 French speaking children after music on Wednesdays while mine go to French lessons. These children have no school in their own schools on Wednesdays so they come to the Bilingual School to learn English once a week. The children skipped all Break again. I asked one teacher to come and turn rope with me but was told no, she didn’t want to!!! School finished at 12 o’clock. Gray caught the bus to the Chantilly Markets on Wednesday morning under strict instructions not to buy anything. He is a compulsive buyer and just loves all the cheeses and patés around. He came to school and we went home together to have lunch and then to try and follow the Tomtom to Senlis and on the way to Annett sur Marne so that we will know where to go on Saturday. We started out all right and followed the tomtoms instructions until it wanted us to go left and we wanted to go straight on. We did! It recalibrated itself and then kept giving us weird instructions. As we drove in to Senlis Gray kept working out where he had been in the bus. He managed to get me to a roundabout and then was so busy telling me that was the pub he had had lunch in that we missed the turn off that the Tomtom said we should take. Eventually we found ourselves a way to turn around and set off on a road and somehow found the road we were looking for. We went down a certain way and turned off following a sign back to Senlis as we thought we would be right on Saturday. The road that took us back into Senlis was better so we thought we would follow this out on Saturday. The Tomtom didn’t like any of this and eventually I turned off the constant voice of take the next left, etc. It is a wonder we don’t hear it say , you are a silly driver! We came back through Courteuil and saw Gigi’s brother Harrison coming down the road. That was funny in the middle of nowhere! We were almost home and then I cooked. Another one of my gastronomic delights coming up! Among the delicious smells wafting though the room was another strange odour. We ate dinner amidst lots of laughter again. Who ever puts a large plastic sticker on the base of a frying pan? I hadn’t looked at the bottom of the pan and so had melted and melded a great plastic label. We got the stove clean quite easily, but there are still bits of plastic stuck in bits at the bottom of the pan. Gray had bought milk in Chantilly in the morning and was quite amazed later on that it only had one day until it ran out of date. No, he said, he hadn’t looked at the date. He will in future I think. We certainly do a lot of laughing in France.<br /><br />Tuesday 4th May, 2010<br />World was gloomy, grey and cold this morning. A cool 5 degrees this morning. I arrived at school and the gate to the street was open. This is my fear now. One morning I watched a woman struggle to open the old green gate on to the street. It was extremely heavy and awkward so I hope each day it will be open when I get there. I had left my phone at school by accident and was horrified to find three missed calls and two messages from Loretta who had wanted to stay the night before. I felt awful as it was ringing away in the classroom not at home. The meeting she had finished after 10 and the next train back to Paris was at 11.40. She stayed with one of the parents in the end when she couldn’t reach us. I taught for the two hour morning period and Nabil was a little better behaved. Some better comments on his report today, but still a long way to go before I am satisfied. I was on RFF from 11.30 for the rest of the day except for some Playground supervision. I asked the girls if they had a long skipping rope and they dragged out a very old rope one which had several knots tied in along the way. I asked Loretta to turn rope with me and they skipped for a long time. Some could already and some had no idea. The best one was a 6 year old French/Vietnamese boy who mastered it and then couldn’t stop his grin. It went from one ear all the way round to the other with his mouth open. It was hilarious. After school, I went home and collected Gray so we could go shopping. He hadn’t walked as the day was too cold and almost raining. We went to San Maximin with ease and stopped in the Cora shopping area. We found a key cutting place, so that we could get extra keys cut for the flat and a battery for Gray’s watch. 9 euros11 for a key cut and we wanted two!! We didn’t! We just bought the battery. We then found a Pharmacie and I tried to buy some Swedish Bitters for Gray as his were running out. First I looked, then I queued, and a long time later when I eventually got to the front of the queue, the assistant had no English and sent me to a man on the other side. I queued again and waited and waited while he served someone. When I finally reached him, he had about the same amount of English as I had French. We bumbled around and around and eventually we were successful and I walked out triumphantly to Gray with my bottle of Elixir du Suédois. Mind you it was 31 Euros for a much smaller Australian bottle that I bought for $19 on the internet! Then we tackled Cora again. Gray had the fruit weighing lady chuckling as he went back again and again with bags to be weighed. We bought a double blow up mattress and pump for those who would like to come and stay. You are welcome! We also bought another huge amount of food. It really isn’t so much when packed away into the small fridge. We also bought a small frying pan as the one in the cupboard is so large that it takes up both hotplates.<br />We decided to eat there and not have to cook when we reached home. We unpacked after 9 and I felt a bit too tired to do any work. I am really good at sitting down and falling asleep, usually about 6pm, but it was later this night. Tomorrow was an easy day so it was all right.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1075757685427638055.post-64852559421490221152010-05-06T08:56:00.000-07:002010-05-22T13:38:34.455-07:0024th April,2010 to 3rd May, 2010<strong>24th April, 2010</strong><br />I slept until 7.30 which was a luxury. We sat around for quite while and then headed off to Saint Maximin to do some shopping. We had a long list of things to buy to make us even more comfortable. We weren’t quite sure how to get there and asked the lady who lived downstairs where we should go. Haven’t quite got the Tomtom working yet. She told us where to go and then said she would lead us. That was very kind of her and she took us most of the way there. It is an amazing place. Absolutely huge! Acre upon acre of shops. They are set out in roads and are roughly grouped in the same sort of businesses. We found But and bought a microwave, an iron, a kettle and an ironing board. We put them in the car and went off to find another place for a broom and other things. That one was shutting up and we had great fun and games as I had arrived at the checkout with a very colourful broom head and a different coloured handle. This was a no no and they asked loudly who spoke English and a customer came across and explained. She said I had time to run and get another one, which I did, one covered in ladybirds. We were the last to leave, being glared at by the security guard. We moved on to Fnac where we bought a new SIM card and an internet USB. Then we found another shop to buy a tea thing, coffee plunger and sharp knife.<br />We then drove to Cora, a supermarket/Big W type shop in a large mall. We first had lunch, a baguette and a pastry and then went into Cora. It is a massive place with a supermarket at one end of it and everything else you would want to buy at the other end. We had lots of fun. When you buy fruit or vegetables you must put them in a bag and line up to have them weighed if they cost per kilo. The assistant weighs them and puts a sticker on them before you get to the checkout. The array of magnificent cheeses and pates and sausages etc was just simply mouthwatering. We found a huge drying stand and sheets etc and all we wanted. I was coming back in triumph with some things when I slipped on a pile of something on the floor and went down on my knee. We finished shopping and found a security guard and reported my fall in case it turned nasty later. This was a feat as they had no English whatsoever. My French is limited, but we managed and I found I could make myself understood quite well. We eventually went home after many hours and many purchases. More fun, we followed the road we had come in on and found ourselves heading in the wrong direction up a main road. We came to a round about and back we went and managed to get ourselves home with only a slight detour in one part.<br />Putting everything away was fun as we have a tiny fridge and did an Australian type shop!<br /><br /><br /><br /><strong>25th April, 2010<br /></strong>Anzc Day! Happy Birthday Dad! We slept in and lazed around. I tried out my internet USB again and it is so slow it isn’t funny. It times out before it brings the mail through. We went downstairs to give Suzanne some chocolates for being so kind the day before and she invited us in for a drink. She was the wife of the stable owner who had died, before Micheline’s family had owned it. She talked on in French and we understood some of it. We then went for a walk to St Leonard. We looked in the walled cemetery and looked at some of the very old graves and crypts. I said the Ode in front of the war memorial as it was Anzac Day. <img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 363px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 259px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474191488279695186" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq7qukmezvR9habAz7C-p2AzhT7Tq_84oNQJzM42x3sbVPoWwvYq1pAc1KTv0Gvqkp1YKoFaQQhWQwwEh4Fq4ZC4v_YllBDq1pqpRIKuGR3vHrvpuzjAxBA409oiW4M3UZIzC9S8j4LGQ/s400/War+Memorial+Avilly.jpg" />St Léonard is where the Town Hall (the Mairie) is and there is road a couple of kilometers long between the two villages. Some of the buildings are really ancient and some are very modern. Most are in walled compounds with gates that need codes to open them.<br />We walked back and had lunch and I did some hand washing and cleaned up.<br />I slept for a couple of hours and Gray did stamps and the journal. We cooked and enjoyed our meal. The end of another day and school tomorrow!<br /><br /><strong>26th to 29th April, 2010<br /></strong>School, school, school!<br />Gray became adventurous this week and took himself off on his usual walks and then one day on the bus to Senlis to the markets. This was an interesting one as the first bus was going the wrong way and so he waited for the other one which happened to be the same driver. When they arrived in Senlis, the driver told the shuttle bus driver to look after him and get him off at the right stop. He bought some great cheese at the Senlis markets and it has lived out on the verandah since then. Good cheese, but shocking smell! We have a half day Wednesday so we went off to San Maximin again to try and fix the Internet and to get food and other small things we still needed. For someone who doesn’t like shopping, I have done an awful lot lately.<br />On Thursday morning the horse transport pulled up outside the gate. One horse was taken off and then the truck went off up the road. Great! I thought I can get out; but it had gone up to turn around and load horses in the other side. I fled down quickly and when he saw me coming out he kindly shut the doors and pulled up the ramp so I could get out. I don’t see how Hire Car companies can expect cars to come back unscratched, when every other car has scrapes and bangs on them. This is why I think I worry so much about it.<br /><br /><strong>30th April, 2010</strong><br />Up at 6.30 as usual and was ready to leave by 7.30. I didn’t want to be hemmed in by the horse van if it came again.<br />I went to school and unlocked everything as I was the first by quite a while to arrive. I hooked up the computers and one was making gurgling noises. I went to investigate and it was Mum on Skype. We had a good talk and then I did some mail. The children arrived and we started work at 8.30. There are so few of them that I can give individual Spelling tests.<br />I taught them for 2 hours and then it was time for Break. Nabil had brought in some Pizza pieces for his homework task. I had them for 2 hours in the morning. Then they had their time for French. I did 2 lots of supervision and after lunch we had sport for two hours from 2.00pm to 4.00pm. Ugh!<br />I spoke to Nabil’s Dad and said he was on a work contract to try and get his behaviour to improve. I also asked him to cut the hair. We shall see.<br />I went home after school to Gray. I didn’t have any passengers so we had time for a sit, a chat and a cup of coffee. We were going to Rochelle’s for an Aussie Barbeque<br />We drove to Montgrasin and looked for the green gate. We had stopped to ask, funny French was coming out of me, but the guy spoke a bit of English so I said “Rochelle” and he said “English lady” and I said “Australian”, but we found the green gate which had a number code that I eventually got it right. Well! What an amazing house. Original parts of it go back as far as the 1600s. I had a tour and the boys have their own huge space upstairs, with old beams going through all the length of the house. Gigi has her own room in an area and the main bedroom has a king sized four poster complete with all the curtains above. This was an amazing feat to get into the house and the men carrying it kept saying no way and Rochelle kept telling them they would do it. The house is in a courtyard and the family who own it all live in one bit and Rochelle and family live in another building. We had a great night with Loretta, Grace, a friend of Loretta’s and Nic’s, Frances, a parent from Wednesday school, Rochelle, children and Claire, the primary French teacher from school. We ate and ate and drank good wine and went home about 10.30pm. First time driving with lights! but we managed.<br /><br /><br />1st May, 2010<br />We slept till 9.30! Unheard of! We ate breakfast and I managed to get on to the internet and skyped with Shell and Sian and paid some bills and read and answered emails. We managed to contact Maeve eventually, but she was in Aix en Provence and we will probably meet up with her next weekend.<br />We caught the 13.15 TER train to Paris to Gare du Norde. We wandered around, bought a map and went to a café to have lunch and study the map. We had decided to go to the river and look around and then go to San Michel for dinner.<br />We discovered the pink line 4 that we used to catch with Nic was the one we wanted. We caught it to the Cité and went up to road level. We crossed on the bridge and discovered we were going the wrong way so we looked a bit on the right bank and then crossed on the Pont Neuf. We had great fun trying to find Nic’s good eating places in the narrow streets. I texted Loretta and she put us on the right track. There was a convoy of about 10 Police cars and wagons, all with sirens blaring, touring around the city and everywhere we went, they would suddenly appear. There were people everywhere selling Lily of the Valley plants for May Day. We stopped to have a drink at one stage and chuckled at two English girls who asked did they serve bear. The waiter latched on to this with a great laugh as he flirted with them. He set us on the right way to find the street.<br />One thing I love about Paris is the entertainment in the streets. It is the 1st May which is Labour Day so there was a lot going on. In one street there was a woman with a beautiful Operatic voice singing in the midst of the crowd who had all just stopped to listen. A few corners later, there was a Space suited band of 6 with various instruments just setting up. We stopped to listen before trying to find the restaurant streets. We had been going in the wrong direction to find the street I had eaten in with Nic, but we were a lot closer now and just happened to stumble across the restaurant eventually. We had a very nice dinner of snails, duck and beef etc Gray says the snails were a waste of effort and he won’t bother again, but the taste was nice. When the bill came I was horrified to find we had been charged for double the wine I had had. They changed it very quickly and were most apologetic. I wasn’t fooled though as many people never check their bills before paying.<br />We found our way back to the station of Saint Michel and caught the metro back to Gare du Nord. We arrived there and hurried to get a ticket for Chantilly as the train was due to go. We rushed along the platform and jumped into a door as the whistle blew. There we sat! They made an announcement of which we understood just a tiny bit and we eventually were moving about half an hour later. Once again we were home before dark which was good.<br />We had a nice day and it was good to be in Paris again.<br /><br />Sunday 2nd May, 2010<br />Once again we slept rather late and had a very lazy day. I did skyping and emails and caught up with lots of bits and pieces. I did the washing by hand and we will take the sheets and towels to Rochelle’s. It isn’t hard and we do a little each day so it is mainly shirts on the weekend.<br />It was very cool and rained on and off so we just stayed in and did journal, blog,work and ate. A nice relaxing day.<br />I broke the corkscrew trying to remove the cork on anew bottle so once again, fun and games before I could get some wine.<br />It was quite late before we eventually retired.<br /><br />Monday 3rd May<br />Alarm at 6.30! I climbed out of bed to find a world of grey, cold, gloom. It had obviously rained a lot in the night as there were puddles everywhere. There were no horse noses poking out of their horse boxes so it must have been cold. I left at 10 to 8 and the car temperature was 6 degrees. It is just like home.<br />We had a busy day and the newspaper is doing better and the children blogged and have gone home to look at it. I am amazed at the size of some of their homes. Two families in my room live in Chateaux and have no idea how many rooms there are in their houses.<br />I am hearing lots of French each day, but so far the light hasn’t gone on where I understand everything. I had a 3 year old correct me the other day when I used the masculine word for naughty to a little girl. It is great, they are all trying to help. Hopefully one day it will all come together.<br />Gray didn’t go out today as it was too yuck and we don’t have umbrellas. Tomorrow we will have to go shopping again as we are running out of food. Small fridges don’t hold a lot of food and I don’t think the food is bred to last a whole week without going off. We also need umbrellas and a new corkscrew. They haven’t believed in screwtop wines yet.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1075757685427638055.post-61812992622630813102010-05-03T12:33:00.000-07:002010-05-22T13:16:12.760-07:0023rd April, 2010<div align="center"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 250px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 188px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5472600667447751586" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4UKbpU8PjYfe6JZxG9nzv3jUREa4t6cArddLDhrfKrVO5kX_-_ki6F5eODunHa4BmYMFwgcpLtcUS6XOz_e86KyhjA6HnlJRkaANlCsbNAWeMx_MyQwruIvGM8iwffD_tky8lYQ0cd_w/s400/Beginning+of+daily+torture.jpg" />The first sight out of the gate each morning as my torture begins. <img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 250px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 188px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5472601748741555522" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmx_V1SjHn957hvRjU3ZL65nwbrnx6f1SD6shmt388ZG-ksOWDFNJIbOLZgnrfPMsz5Tk0S5MBs7tYd6fxAgPzo8paDb9NJzpyFdBh49vwPaVqDhFSMs7v_Jkez6mtpaLgoRBkRaOuKGg/s400/Ourend.jpg" />Our part. <img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 250px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 188px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5472601743494264226" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNtwBxfTZebafCHysZgyzjtj-JtMxRhG69K3UeFDnm09Ww_9p7Vgat4Gm5k3ju3P31WY8kQ1dhPDdEURpno1EVc2wcTKSB35i7U6enXkGl-86IM1l66P7W1IeirS1BpWWHET3w9Qo_xOg/s400/Our+end.jpg" />A closer view.<br /><div align="center"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 250px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 188px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5472601737735810994" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX7j4IJfzT-Ssea4RX3xZVd_-1bOMtpOBtUrLuKoCMpAuU_4u3z3IPthWSEoQ9b6DDO0tPZbptq74xOAggWXWCyrBjAcJckgfx8nU3I4Ym-Kr0VUeLYa5jX-KNekEBrKXBRqllt7CrQ4g/s400/more+of+the+house.jpg" /> Our house . We have the top window on the far right.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgrlTKWjc6aAkxIXA5knNCt22-Da7up1c3XBTOL7zjBkOfcUlSVgBsiqT4DCQswyamuwmbiVpYCGJ0RB56URt7VkWsVqwk9QuN1QG9KwVhgVlk_OdrOP7543QTdacFVWvmiUnMMiMnklU/s1600/Ecurie+Robert+collet.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 250px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 188px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5472600659080974914" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgrlTKWjc6aAkxIXA5knNCt22-Da7up1c3XBTOL7zjBkOfcUlSVgBsiqT4DCQswyamuwmbiVpYCGJ0RB56URt7VkWsVqwk9QuN1QG9KwVhgVlk_OdrOP7543QTdacFVWvmiUnMMiMnklU/s400/Ecurie+Robert+collet.jpg" /></a>View of the stables, throught the gate<br />The alarm went off at the proper time on Friday morning and I headed off to school about a quarter to 8. I got lost again and found myself around the High Schools somehow.The children are lovely except for Nabil, but he was a lot better today. However he is an absolute handful and a show off. I think he is very bright and has been bored in American schools for many years so has turned to bad behaviour instead. I taught for 2 hours and then we had Break supervision and the next 2 hours are off again for me.<br />The children went to the French teacher. I did playground duty and then we had 4 times around the "castle" Old Manor House in the grounds outside the gate and then sport on the asphalt. Well Lorretta, did while I looked on. We are locked in all day; the gate into the park is locked and the building is locked as well. You have to put in a code to open the boom gate from the street and an alarm code for the building.<br />I only got a bit lost going home and felt much better about it all. Gray had been walking in different parts again and we talked about where he had been. We drove back into Chantilly in the evening and parked on the footpath outside the Brasserie and had a nice dinner in the same place as on Wednesday night.It is a nice way to finish the week. We drove home in the daylight. It is good that it is still light till about 9.30 so we haven't had to tackle driving with lights yet. The house is comfortable and the bed is good. The shower is fantastic and that is a luxury because many French ones are not.</div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1075757685427638055.post-86379527416740927382010-05-03T12:25:00.000-07:002010-05-18T06:21:06.193-07:00First Day of School<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxcGzl15m2k9IaSkryiB5wuQC3tSzwqjKT0AEevYtqBSFWfh_ZASY0vEaw-LhgiDQQHLeTPeU9V2eeT0k8gLnhuk1F6D94MvPfj9xvRvR1xCIcUaTtcNp7ZUzZal-vKIl6obzc6O0m1Es/s1600/building.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 264px; height: 198px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxcGzl15m2k9IaSkryiB5wuQC3tSzwqjKT0AEevYtqBSFWfh_ZASY0vEaw-LhgiDQQHLeTPeU9V2eeT0k8gLnhuk1F6D94MvPfj9xvRvR1xCIcUaTtcNp7ZUzZal-vKIl6obzc6O0m1Es/s400/building.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5472599360403213458" /></a><br /><p style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;color:#000000;">My phone alarm went off at 6.30 the next morning and I got up, feeling quite rested, but thinking it was very dark. I made my breakfast and lunch and had a shower and got dressed and thought that it was really still very dark and as it was summertime. It shouldn’t be quite that dark, without a sign of dawn anywhere. I looked at my watch and discovered to my horror and amusement that it was just 5.30. My phone was still on <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Dubai</st1:place></st1:city> time, so I had carefully clambered out at 4.30. I didn’t to back to sleep, I did some Preparation on the computer for the day instead.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;color:#000000;">We had a good laugh about that and I set off just after 7.30 to try and get to school. I was absolutely terrified. The car felt bigger than the Kia and I had already tried to get in on the wrong side. Try was the operative word! I saw an awful lot of <st1:place st="on">Chantilly</st1:place> that first morning and lots of it was on the narrowest roads that you have ever seen. At one intersection I realised I was on the wrong side of the road, so had to back up and move into the correct place, but then I couldn’t se the traffic lights as they are level with the front of the car and there are none on the other side of the road. Two ladies were having a good laugh on the kerb and there was a police car across the road. I turned and went down to another crossroad and got stuck in the middle, eventually going round when the traffic had to stop. In the end , I climbed out of the car and said to a man on the side of the road in a plaintive voice,</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;color:#000000;">“Monsieur, Je suis perdue!” He had no English, but I understood à gauche, à droite, à gauche, à droite, even if I didn’t quite get to do that the first time. However I managed to follow the instructions with only one wrong turn and to arrive in one shaken piece and park in the wrong place. The day was going to be easy after this.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;color:#000000;">The staff were very pleased to see me. There were quite<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>a few children stuck in different parts of the world as well such a <st1:city st="on">Luxor</st1:city>, <st1:country-region st="on">Portugal</st1:country-region> somewhere, <st1:place st="on">Corsica</st1:place> and various other places. They staggered back in on different days of that week and the next.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;color:#000000;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;color:#000000;">It was quite a fascinating day language wise. The children are all fairly competent in English, but prattle along in French at different times during the day. I needed to tell them to stop and speak English, but I didn’t want to. I was keen to listen. They are good and help me when needed. Their English is not bad, but their sentence construction is rather poor and their tenses get lost somewhere out there. Several parents came to say hallo, all in French, but I coped and understood most of them. I am desperate to go home much more fluent than I am now. The mix of nationalities is amazing. Most of them have parents of two nationalities and many were born in different countries around the world. The little ones are sometimes hard to understand, but seem to understand my French if I have to talk to them. </span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;color:#000000;">School starts at 8.30 and finishes at 4.00pm. in all these hours I only manage to have 12 hours face to face teaching! There is supervision of kindergarten lunch, which is in the dinner room and is lunch they bring from home. Some have food which needs to be heated and it is an interesting time.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;color:#000000;">I have many, many hours off during the week and the school closes at 12.00pm on Wednesdays. </span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;color:#000000;">Hometime!!! Off I went and promptly got lost again. It doesn’t really make sense, but I think I have so much to think about such as staying on the correct side of the road, dodging other cars and almost falling in the ditch because some people want the whole road. I eventually arrived and gray was a bit staggered at the site of me. Think I must have looked pretty ghastly as the coffee appeared rather quickly.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;color:#000000;">I cooked dinner and listened to where Gray had been walking. He had had a one sided conversation with an old woman in the forest, but they managed to understand each other, somehow. I needed a glass of wine! Horror of horrors, no corkscrew! I tried to lever it out with some scissors and then to push it in. Last time I shall try that one! It went in quite easily with a whoosh and the ceiling, the walls, the floor and me were completely covered in red wine!!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Another laugh! We are doing well on the laugh scene. We got it all off the nice patterned white wall paper, even up the sloping roof which is hard to reach. The wine wasn’t even a particularly nice one.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;color:#000000;">We talked about where I had to go the next day and I worried all night because there was one stretch I couldn’t remember at all. I dreamed about it of course and thought I would never get used to the car or the driving on these roads. We bought a yellow road sign to put in the back of the car that was a diamond shape and it says” G’day” and has pictures of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>a kangaroo and a Harbour Bridge and the words, Sydney, Australia. It isn’t my choice of words, but I think this helps as people have been pretty good, staying back and not getting too close.</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1075757685427638055.post-3643855277023508262010-04-27T23:47:00.000-07:002010-05-03T12:24:49.357-07:00Leaving Dubai and Arriving in ChantillyWe stumbled out of bed at 4.30am on Wednesday morning and dressed ready for the car that was to pick us up at 5.20am. We tried to contact the airport to see if the planes were flying, but i had to get the Hotel desk to do it as we couldn't get on to the airport. The car arrived at 5.20 and the driver said everything was flying.<br />We were met at the car by a hostess who led us to the checkin desk and a porter who brought our luggage. He was great because he kept looking for shorter lines and we were checked in pretty quickly.<br />We flew on a new 380 Airbus and it was huge, a double decker aeroplane.<br />we landed in Paris about a quarter to Three and then had to get all our luggage to the Europcar in Terminal 1. Laurent met us there and helped with the booking. He then drove us to meet Loretta in Chantilly. it was fast and on the wrong side of the road. Oh dear!We went to the school and had a quick tour around and then we collected Loretta and she showed us the way to Avilly St Leonard. Gray sat in the front and we squashed in the back. The trip was much more comfortable for me as I couldn’t see a thing. The roads are incredibly narrow and cars go so fast.<br />We looked in the apartment and were nicely surprised. It is sparsely fitted out, but very comfortable and while not large, it is big enough so that we don’t feel as though we are under each other’s feet. We are out in the country between Avilly and St Leonard, two very quaint villages.<br />Laurent drove us all back to the station so that they could catch the train for Paris. He parked in the station and off they went! AGH! I had to drive after being up at 4am and feeling tired and scared. We had no food at all and needed supplies and things for me to take for lunch the next day. <br />I gingerly managed to get down the street and park on the footpath in one vacant spot as everyone else was doing. We walked down to the Supermarket “Simply” and wandered around thinking what we might need. We had seen a Boucherie and thought we would go there on the way back to choose our meat. When we eventually carried our stacks of bags back up the street, the butcher was closing. We had to hurriedly think what we wanted as his lovely display was all put away and we ended up with some ham and some veal, the latter being cooked which we didn’t realise at the time. We put the shopping in the car and headed across the road to the Greengrocer which was also closing, but I asked her was she closing and they let us in. We said everything we could think of and they produced it, even some plastic box things I could take my lunch in the next day.<br />Having put all that in the car as well, we decided to go into the Brasserie for dinner. It was a good choice as the food was good and the atmosphere pleasant. <br />Then we had to find our way back to Avilly. The roads are so narrow and the car is a bit too big for some of these roads. It is a diesel and nice to drive, but terrifying at the same time.<br />We arrived back and carried the shopping upstairs and put it away and unlocked all the suitcases. We took a few things out and left the rest. I was going to have to wear the same shirt the next day as we had no iron.<br />It was quite late when we eventually fell into bed and we slept reasonably well.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1075757685427638055.post-88016205782065585322010-04-20T01:47:00.000-07:002010-04-20T05:35:27.298-07:00Adventures in France<span style="font-family:arial;">We left home early on Thursday morning to travel to Sydney. We called in to see Gray's mum on the way and then went to <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">Sammi's</span>. She and I went to Guy's work to collect my UK passport which had arrived that morning and then back to her home. The car, well huge Mercedes Van, arrived at 4.30 and took us to the airport. Michelle and Sam came as well as there was so much room in it.<br />As we booked in a fellow asked were we going to the UK as it was all closed due to the volcanic ash. He said Paris was fine.<br />We sat with the girls and Guy arrived to take them home and we went through to the Business Lounge for approximately 15 minutes.<br />We boarded the aircraft and had the customary champagne while we prepared for takeoff.<br />We flew over Orange and waved to everyone on the ground. Then we ate a lovely meal. I didn't do much sleeping on the way to <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-error">Bankok</span> and when we landed many people got off, but we stayed on. It isn't the safest place in the world at the moment.<br />As the crew changed over, the incoming crew told us that Charles <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-error">de</span> <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-error">Gaulle</span> was closed now as well. That meant lots of uncertainty and what would happen? we wondered..<br />We sat in the Dubai airport for 6 hours, moving several times to more comfortable seats and we watched lots and lots of people come in and not many leave at first. However, as the day went on it grew quieter and quieter as flights weren't coming in. At 2pm, when the net flight was cancelled we were sent to the Sheraton Towers, Dubai Creek .</span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">This was a very comfortable hotel and we were so tired that we were surprised to find it was only just 2pm. The manager was very helpful and suggested the next morning that we go to the Emirates Office and see what we could do. We set off in a taxi. Here you go everywhere in a taxi and the usual cost is about 10 <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-error">dirhams</span>, approximately $3. We found what we thought was a very helpful man who told us we could just stay on in the hotel and no I didn't need another voucher. We caught another taxi back to the hotel and the manager said we couldn't stay because they were fully booked and he had already told Emirates that when they rang. He was very kind. We took another taxi back to the Emirates building and were given another man to talk to. He could do nothing about accommodation as they were only the Booking Office, but he did manage to get us a flight on the 21st! Back into a taxi the hotel <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">because the</span> manager had said if we could couldn't get anything from Emirates, he would find us a hotel. He organised a whole suite of rooms in the Business Club part of another Sheraton Hotel. When we walked in, I was so amazed I went back downstairs to check the room rate.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">We had no luggage for 4 days so visited a huge shopping Mall to buy a couple of sets of clothes and some shoes as we had set off in our <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_6" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">wintry</span> clothes for the expected 7 degrees when we landed in Paris. A shuttle bus goes between the Hotel and the Shopping Mall so we only had to catch a taxi one way that day. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">Yesterday we caught a Water Bus to the Old Souk with some <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_7" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">Brits</span> we had met and walked through tunnels created by very old wooden arches that looked like the upside down hulls of boats. At ground level there were hundreds of material shops behind old wooden doors. As we walked they began to open the doors up for the evening's trading. Shops and businesses close at 1pm and open again at 4pm till 10pm. The trading week is from Sunday till Thursday. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">We saw an incredible fire while we were in the Old Souk. First we heard many sirens and then we saw smoke pouring out of a building. It took the two fire engines half an hour to come, by which time the fire had completely taken over and the watching crowd had swelled greatly. We caught the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_8" class="blsp-spelling-error">waterbus</span> back across the Dubai Creek and walked up to see the Gold Souk and the Spice Souk. The spices were displayed in large sacks and containers both inside and outside the shops. The smells were delicious.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">We joined our <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_9" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">British</span> friends and some Australians who were friends of friends of ours in Orange. It is a small world! for Happy Hour in the Business Club room and it was good to mix with others in the same boat.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">Our hopes were building as things seemed to be improving on the Volcano front and we were confirmed to fly out tomorrow. Our British friends had a flight today to Manchester, but this was cancelled when they had been at the airport for some hours. Our feelings are like <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_10" class="blsp-spelling-error">yoyos</span> as each new piece of information arrives, but there is a lot of misinformation flying around as well. We are going to fly out at 8.20am tomorrow morning.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1