Les Spectacles de Noel

Every time we see or hear that a Spectacle is occurring I crack up. Refrains of "Spectacular, spectacular, spectacular" run through my head while I conjure up images of some fool making a spectacle of themselves in front of a live audience. The French seem rather fond of their special events, and never more so than during the holidays, so I've had lots of opportunities for a good chuckle of late. Not too surprisingly, Vivi and I have had our chance to "play the fool" as it were, as we enthusiastically participated in the school and church Christmas programs.

Here, Vivi is featured in a maracas solo. But please note, she sings along en francais with the rest of the school. Bo sang along too, but in the safe shelter at my side from the audience. He's no fool and refuses to be made a spectacle I guess.



I had to record this for my mom. This is the only French song I even remotely know, thanks to her singing it to me every Christmas I've ever known. Hearing it sung in the church in the center of Cravant felt a Christmas present delivered just for us. Joyeux Noel, Maman!



There was supposed to be a group of women doing a sacred dance at our church's Christmas program, but the choreographer (me) went and got majorly sick the week beforehand and had to cancel rehearsal. Somehow, they convinced me to do the dance with just Vivi, seeing how she and I could work on it at home, in between my naps and nose-blowing. So, Vivi and I found ourselves serving as the finale of our Christmas service, red-nosed and all:

The Christmas Capital of Europe

Around October I began to realize we would be spending our Christmas tout seul. It hit me when I started hearing of all the travel plans of the families around us. It seems very few of the people here live nearby their extended family. Thus, the holidays mean road trips for people to visit grandparents dans le pays. (Please appreciate the humor in our environment being considered something other than "in the country." I cannot imagine how remote is the housing of the elderly family members of Cravant.) But for us, the holidays normally mean an Advent filled with a varietal feast of visits with friends and family. This year, it was shaping up to be a time of social famine. I couldn't bear the thought.

This was the inspiration for a search on Google for the best place to celebrate Christmas in France, which lead me to Strasbourg in the northeastern corner. Strasbourg is perhaps most famous for being the home of the first Gutenberg press, and thus, where the first Holy Bible was printed. Sadly, while the love of the written word has been woven deeply into this city, the love of the written Word has not. But it was easy to overlook the very secular-humanitarian emphasis amidst all the lights and one of the most glorious cathedrals I've yet to behold. It held very true to it's claim of being a Christmas Capital. I've never set eyes on a more gloriously decorated city.

This tree is located in the center of town - in a huge courtyard next to the town hall. For one of the days while we were there, it was surrounded by an open-air market.


Every street was decorated with rows upon rows of lights - each street was different. I should have taken more pictures of the variety. There were angels, chandeliers, stars, snowflakes...

This is where we had lunch. I had a dish traditional to this area - ham, sauerkraut, and potatoes. It was YUM! David had a traditional soup - which was called something like "3 meats" - but turned out to be a fish stew with potatoes. Not what he expected, but delicious nonetheless. Bo had chicken and french fries (of course), but Vivi tried and loved spaetzle.



We spent our time strolling the markets:

This vendor was selling slabs of a nougat candy. We bought one loaded with almonds and swirls of Nutella and let me tell you - it was AMAZING. Like a Snickers gone gourmet. I'm drooling just remembering it.

We also went ice skating next to the cathedral:
And in Besancon on the way to Strasbourg, we enjoyed an evening ride in a ferris wheel!
The view of the market from the wheel:
I'm so glad we did this. It was so much better making these memories than sitting alone in Cravant just missing home. Merry Christmas everybody!

Christmas Commences

School vacation is underway, which means we have made it through the week of special Christmas events without any major catastrophes, not that I expected any, and plenty of surprises, which I did.

Last weekend we got our tree, which we purchased through the kids' school because it is not possible to cut your own here. They don't have tree farms or groves of evergreens, so unless you want to cut and decorate a grape vine, your options are only pre-cut, store-bought. We paid 25euro (roughly $33-) for this:

Yup. It's a Charlie Brown Christmas at the Dauphinais' this year! When we picked up the tree, it was wrapped in that netting stuff and, because it was pre-ordered, it had our name on it, so we bought it sight unseen (again I think this is the norm here). We got it home and fashioned the extremely low-tech stand (a log cut in half lengthwise with a hole bored into it) and got the tree standing upright. With all the pomp and circumstance Vivi could muster (which is quite impressive for a 6 year old), Vivi cut through the netting to release our glorious tree from it's captivity.

I've never before experienced a more anti-climactic moment in real life. All that was missing was the little chimes playing and Snoopy's cackle like in Charlie Brown's Christmas special. Needles softly tinkled to the ground as roughly 20 branches (count yours, I bet it is over 50) "unfurled" in three little clusters, revealing gaping holes where tree should be. There was a frozen moment of awe before David and I, jaws dropped in shock, simultaneously turned to one another and promptly burst into laughter.

We've had to make our own Nativity set, because I simply could not tolerate having a tree and no Jesus. The kids and I colored paper cut-outs from online and before the first spot on the first cow was colored in, I knew we had created an heirloom. I treasure it.

We also had to alter our stocking stuffer assortment this year as the only "stockings" we have are Bohdan's tall but skinny soccer socks. Luckily, he has a practice pair and a game pair, so there is one for each of us, and even more lucky - he doesn't have any soccer between now and Christmas so I can guarantee the *clean* stockings will be hung with care (well actually, the mantel is stone and has no hooks, so they might be placed with care instead). I've learned stockings aren't always done here - often shoes are used or special wooden shoes that remind me of Holland.

Christmas cookie traditions were a bit of a stretch as well, but I did manage to make Grandma Phillip's Chocolate Haystack cookies - with some alterations, Rice Krispie Treats, and Christmas sugar cookies. We shared them at the kids' school Christmas program and the church's Christmas program and they were enjoyed, but not so much so that we couldn't bring home left-overs.

The rest of the week is full with Christmas shows at school and at church, a trip to Strasbourg and, of course, our annual Birthday Party for Jesus on Christmas day. It's been weird and revealing using someone else's decorations to adorn someone else's house in someone else's country this Christmas. I've learned the U.S. doesn't have a clue when it comes to decorating city streets, but that my "sparse" decorating at home is actually quite lavish. I've discovered I really do depend on snow, or at least lack of so much green to get me in the Christmas mood, I love WHOM 94.9 this time of year way more than I thought. Lastly I have grown keenly aware that enjoying special traditions (like making cookies, the Golden's party, going Christmas caroling, and Jesus' Birthday Party) with our family and friends throughout the Advent Season is what I do best and what I miss most.

Brief Update

I've got so much blogging to do I don't even know where to start! I have a list of over a dozen posts to write and a period of over two months to cover. Suffice it to say, I find myself boxed in by a major writer's block. I could use tons of excuses about how busy we've been, but what a lame excuse.

For now, I will try to at least provide an update with a list of highlights:

Thanksgiving was good and bad - Everything looked beautiful but I forgot to take pictures! It seemed the guests who didn't know each other got along well. I used salted butter in my apple crisp. The Indian pudding looked like playdough. The buttermilk pie sans buttermilk was delish. The addition of fine French wine made everything taste better. And I have enough left overs to make tons of yummy turkey dishes like Turkey A la King, Turkey Noodle Soup and Turkey Pot Pie.

The kids and I are counting down the days until Christmas break. Which is not to say school isn't going well. But it is to say I am significantly more sold on homeschooling than ever before. We miss each other! The kids say everything about school one would expect them to say - school is "fine," school is "boring," their teachers are "nice," and recess is their favorite.

David and I are attending a French luncheon once a week designed to help non-natives practice speaking with native-speakers. It is helping a lot and we both learn more each time we go. The kids' French is coming along beautifully. Bo's French tutoring was observed by Vivi's teacher (I have no idea why), and she said Bo is doing really, really well. He seems to understand way more than he gives himself credit for. Vivi's accent is impeccable and her vocab just keeps growing. I have no doubt they will be speaking as much, if not more than me by the time we get home.

We've toured tons of great spots which I've yet to blog about. Castles mostly, but also a zoo that was filled with baby animals. We even saw a one day old gorilla. Very cool. I really must get those photos edited so I can post about it all.

We're working hard at preparing for a Christmas service at church. I am in the choir and Vivi and I are in a sacred dance (which I am choreographing). We hope to be able to use this event to invite a lot of Bo & Vivi's classmates to come check out our church. Sunday school is going well, but I am really slacking when it comes to Bible study. It simply doesn't work to procrastinate in a foreign language. I don't recommend it.

Eight months to go. We are all homesick right now - probably because of the holiday season, no doubt. But we have all sorts of things to look forward to - a trip to Strasbourg, France right before Christmas, celebrating St. Vincent's Day in January, friends' and family visits in April. It promises to speed by faster than I can blog about - that's for certain!

Hoping to get back into the swing of things and get photos and stories posted in greater detail soon. Thanks for reading!

L'Hermione - The Ship of Liberty

This post is in honor of homeschoolers, history buffs, but most importantly, my dad. Can't wait to see this ship arrive in Boston with you, Daddy! xoxo

With the centuries-old rivalry between England and France it should come as no surprise we had had our fair share of French sympathizers during our war for independence a little bit ago. One of whom even many American's may recognize - the Marquis de Lafayette, earned the rank of Major General by Gen. George Washington. During the course of the revolution, and after much effort on Lafayette's part, the King of France finally agreed to send a frigate to the Americas under Lafayette's command in 1780. On March 19th the Hermione set sail from Rochefort, France for Boston, Massachusetts with supplies and soldiers ready to join our fight against the British.

Today, in the historical ship-building port of Rochefort, an amazing project is nearing completion. One of the retired dry-docks has been revitalized for the purpose of reconstructing an historically-accurate reproduction of the Hermione,, which was originally built and sent from this very same place. Once sea-ready - this beautiful ship will set it's course for Boston to reenact the voyage undertaken by Lafayette.

We had the chance to tour the boat dock and were thoroughly impressed. Here are some snapshots and tidbits we learned along the way:

A view of the front of the ship. Most of the exterior is complete.

I believe you can click on the images to see them bigger. This shows the stages of construction, which began in 1997. The ship is scheduled to set sail sometime in 2013.


A cross section showing what the interior looks like.

The deck.

The Masthead

We learned that the gold leaf on the crown emblem was applied in the same way it would have been in the 1700's. This is just one example of the meticulous ways in which they have stayed true to the original. Here are some others:

All the rope (close to 7500 meters worth) has been manufactured using organic materials (mainly hemp) just as it would have been back then.

All of the sails (enough to completely cover 9 tennis courts) were sewn entirely by hand.

All of the ironwork for the entire ship (artillery included) was forged on site, using traditional methods and tools:

Oh how I wish I could conclude this post with a image of this gorgeous vessel at full sail. But I guess that will have to wait until Summer 2013! For now, this will have to do:

The Family Shrinks and Grows

We anticipated things changing a bit while we were away. After all, a lot can happen in the span of 12 months. Sure enough, not long after we arrived we received word that our cat, Cona, had to be put down. Her organs were starting to fail. At 14 years+ old, this was reasonable enough, but still hard to know she won't be greeting us with her incessant mewing when we return. Slightly less expected was the death of Bo's pet rat, Whitey. This came as pretty sad news to Bo, which is understandable to be sure (if you can get past the fact that Whitey was, indeed, a rat).

So our little family gets littler on one hand, while in another far more spectacular way it has grown. Nooo, I'm not pregnant. It's better than that. So far we've experienced two baptisms, which make for a new Sister and new Brother in Christ. Hallelujah! We missed being there for one of them, which took place State-side just after we left. But it was that of a dear, dear friend who I sure hope lives on my street in Heaven. The second one we got to witness here in France. I thought I'd share some snippets of it so we can all revel in the Glory. I think it is so totally cool to see how similarly we do things and I just love that God's family is so multicultural.

First we did some singing (listen closely and I think you might recognize the tune):



Then Nathanel shared his testimony, which sadly, I didn't understand enough of to give the Clif's Notes here, but I was impressed with his confidence up there in front of a completely packed house comprised of many relatives and friends along with the normal church family:















Then he took the plunge!



And, of course, just like I do in the States, I cried for joy while the angels in heaven rejoiced.

Welcome to the family, Nathanel!

And a belated welcome to Beverly. For the record, I love you and I love that I get to call you Sister for real and for eternity from now on.

Street Performers in Paris

One of my goals while in Paris was to see some street performers. I think it is so cool that people showcase their talents (albeit some rather bizarre) in this way. I can only imagine it is more profitable for these young men than bagging groceries at the local SuperU. (Incidentally, grocery stores don't employ people to bag your groceries for you - you have to do it yourself). And I hope it means they are earning enough to keep them from attempting other less safe, less legal forms of street enterprise.

The first performance we encountered was a guy playing an amped guitar on the steps to Sacre Coeur. But we were quickly distracted from appreciating his campy cover tunes by this other young man and his balancing ball. In the photo below he is about 15 feet off the ground, having shimmied up the lamppost with the ball on his head the entire way. He also did all sorts of acrobatic maneuvers on a wall, all of which included the ball never touching the ground. It was pretty amazing.

Besides musicians in the subways and artists in the courtyards, the performance highlight for me was coming across dancers on the Champs-Elysee. I had just said to David and Janell that I wanted to see some street performers when we happened upon them. Little did I know when I took this video that they were just warming up / playing around in anticipation of their more refined, choreographed performance. Sadly, because I had already used a bit of memory in my camera for this video, I didn't get anything from the "real" show. But this is a pretty good sampling of what was to come. It was exactly what I was hoping to experience while in Paris!

*I cannot promise appropriate lyrics in the following video. In all honestly, I was too busy taking in the coolness to notice!

Hommage a la Tour Eiffel

For our family, the highlight of our Paris adventure had to be visiting the Eiffel Tower. Perhaps because it's glow-in-the-dark image graces the bubble-gum pink walls of our daughter's bedroom, or simply because of its iconic fame, we found ourselves in awe and insisted on seeing it both during the day and lit up by night.


Above is Montmarte and Sacre Coeur taken from the 2nd level of the tower. One can go all the way to the tippity top, but not this one. I was in death grip-mode at 350 feet (roughly a football field length UP), let alone the 896 feet-worth of height found up there! No way!
Below is the Arc de Triomphe.
We took a special trip out just to see the tower lit up at night. It was still a little early, but I think it made for better pictures this way instead of it being totally dark.


This final image is my favorite. A while back, when Vivi figured out we were going to be in France and that the Eiffel Tower happened to be there, too, she requested one thing for her birthday: To see the tower lit up at night. Granted, we are about 5 months early, but she didn't seem to mind.

Pieces of Paris

Just thought I'd add some more photos of Paris. The weather was pretty horrible, but hopefully you will agree a little photo editing made the memories look a little better.

l'Arc de Triomphe

Pont Alexandre

Je ne sais pas. (I don't know.) But it is rather pretty, isn't it?

I exercised great restraint by not going in this lovely shop to buy biscuits and jam, after all this isn't London and my purchases need to reflect such!
(Yes, I am buying lots of wine.)

We're finding every decent town in France has a "Hotel de Ville." I'm guessing this one is the grandest of them all.

Sacre Coeur at the top of Montmarte
My favorite part of this stop was reading the banners at the entrance way to the basilica. Bohdan was so impressed he took a picture and then shared this information with his entire class!

In French on the left and English on the right, it reads,
"Depuis 125 ans ici jour et nuit quelqu'un prie le Seigneur.
Venez adorer le Seigneur."
For 125 years here day and night somebody has been praying to the Lord.
Come and adore the Lord."
And inside there were signs that further indicated that indeed, for every hour, 24/7, prayer happens in this building and consistently has been happening for the past 125 years.
Can I get an "Amen?"

Next up, an Eiffel Tower photo shoot and hopefully some anecdotes from our adventures in Paris.

A Paris Tribute

Little did I know when my friends and I attended the Mama Mia Sing-Along at Regal Theaters over two years ago that I would have the chance to capture the lyrics to "Our Last Summer" in person, on film. Thanks to the company and idea of Janell, here it is:

Our Last Summer - Abba

The summer air was soft and warm
(Not so much. It was freezing and raw most of the time we were there.)
The feeling right, the Paris night
Did its best to please us

And strolling down the Elysee

View of the Arc de Triomphe taken while crossing the Champs de l'Elysee

We had a drink in each cafe
(I am horribly ashamed to admit we did not stop at any cafes for drinks. At 5.50euro for a hot chocolate, we simply couldn't justify it!)
And you
You talked of politics, philosophy and I

Smiled like Mona Lisa

The Actual Mona Lisa in the Louvre Museum

We had our chance
It was a fine and true romance

I can still recall our last summer
I still see it all

Walks along the Seine,

Janell and I strolling along the river Seine.

laughing in the rain

You can't tell, but it is raining!

Our last summer
Memories that remain

We made our way along the river
And we sat down in the grass

By the Eiffel tower

Janell, Vivi and I (btw-Vivi knew exactly what and why we were doing this!)

I was so happy we had met
It was the age of no regret
Oh yes
Those crazy years, that was the time
Of the flower-power
)Sadly, the weather wasn't conducive to strolling through any of Paris's famous parks.)
But underneath we had a fear of flying
Of getting old, a fear of slowly dying
We took the chance
Like we were dancing our last dance

I can still recall our last summer
I still see it all
In the tourist jam, round the Notre Dame

The Notre Dame

Our last summer
Walking hand in hand

Paris restaurants

Janell's first glass of wine while we waited for our lunch. It was a Morgon Rouge.

Our last summer
Morning croissants

Making our way back to the apartment with fresh baguette and croissants (in the bag).

Living for the day, worries far away
Our last summer
We would laugh and play

And now you're working in a bank
The family man, a football fan

I couldn't help include a shot from one of Bo's football matches!

And your name is Harry
How dull it seems
Yet you're the hero of my dreams?