Vivi's First Days of School

Here's Vivi's account of the last two days, exactly as it was dictated to me:

This is about the first day of school. I was excited and happy and I tried to behave.

The first thing I did - Mom, and me, and Bo and Dad went to Bo's school. Then I took the bus when it came. It was a beautiful bus! I loved it. It was way better than the orange one in the US. It had a picture of little children with backpacks on. So I hopped in the seat, but first I had to wait for the other kids to get off the bus. They were on the bus because they were going to Bohdan's school. We were looking out for Lucas, Bohdan's friend, but he wasn't on the bus. The bus drove really fast. Indeed, I was trying to look for a bird flying in the sky, but the bus went too fast.


When we got to the school, I got my backpack, put it on my back and I went through the gate to the courtyard. Then I went inside a different door (not the one to my schoolroom - but it is part of my school) into the art room, where we learned everyone's names. Our names were written in lowercase, uppercase and in cursive. That was really pretty when it was written in cursive.

After that we discussed the weather. Then we went in our classroom, but we did not sit at our desks yet. There were lots of seats basically circled like a half of a circle and we sat in those. We were trying to memorize something (of course it was not a Bible verse). I'm not quite sure what it was because, of course, it was in French. So I couldn't memorize it that good.

After that we went to our desks and sat down. "Maitresse" (teacher) had to point to which desks we would sit at. I got to sit next to Lucy, my friend. Lucy had another friend, but I like Lucy better. Then I think we did writing. I can't remember. I wrote cursive! My cursive is a little good because Mom taught cursive. Whenever something is really right, Maitress puts a smiley face on my work that I've done. If it is sorta right, she makes a face with a straight mouth.

I don't remember much more, so I'm going talk about lunch now. At lunch Dad, Mom and Bo came to get me. But they didn't actually bring me back home. We ate in the car! We're just silly Americans because the French would never do that.

Then it was recess. We played for about 20 (or 10) minutes. Then we came back in, washed our hands and sat at our desks. I don't remember what we did in the afternoon. Then we went home, hopping on the bus going back to Bohdan's school.

Here's the next day:
The next day we woke up, well, Mom and Dad had to wake us up. Then we got breakfast, got our shoes on, got our backpacks and went to Bohdan's school with the car. We have a Ford. Then when the bus came I hopped on again, chose my seat and rode like a tractor going super fast.

When we got to school we went to the courtyard and played for a little while. Lucy was there before me. I saw all the kids lining up at the door and I got my backpack and we went inside. We hung up our backpacks on the hooks and sat down on benches. They're not made out of wood I don't think. Of course, we did names, only in a different way.

After that we went to our desks and did cursive writing. Then we did numbers. Basically, there would be a number and we would circle objects to match the number. Then we did more numbers, only I got to go up front and hold a ruler about as long as a floor lamp. There were numbers at the top of the chalk board. I took the ruler and pointed at what number was quatre (four). Maitresse said, "tres bien," which means "very good."

Then it was recess. After that she called us in again and we did painting, sorta painting. There was a big piece of paper with red, green, purple and yellow paints. I was red because that's my favorite color. Lucy and her friend were red with me. There was a tiny paint roller and a big one at our table. I used the tiny roller and then a boy asked me if I wanted to switch with him so I got the big one. I tried writing my name in cursive, but I didn't know how to write the second "V" so I only wrote "Vi." But I tried my best.

At the end of the day we got our backpacks and went home.

That's the whole story of the first days of school. I love school and I like my teacher and I love everything!

Bo's First Days of School

Bohdan wanted to share about his first day of school. So I had him dictate to me while I typed. Here's his story, in his own words:

On the first day of school I felt a little worried because I haven't been to school before. I had to wake up very, very early. I had to force myself to eat breakfast because Dad wanted me to, so I would not be hungry at school.


When I was at the steps of my school, me and Vivi were waiting for the bus.

When the bus came, it picked up Vivi and we said our goodbyes and she left on the bus. The bus is much nicer than the buses in the States. (See the photo of it below.)

Then I went into the courtyard and I was looking at the other children to see where they put their backpacks. When I found out, I said "hi" to my teacher and the teacher introduced me to my class. (That's what's happening in the next photo.) Then I went to the door of the courtyard and said goodbye to my mom and dad and I found my friend Lucas. We played "sharks and minnows."

Our teacher said, "on y va," (which means "come on") and we came to the door to our classroom and stood in a line. Our teacher made us quiet down and we walked through the door and into the hall and then into my classroom. I sat down at a seat, but my teacher said that was the wrong seat and I went to my right seat.

We took out our pens, pencils, markers and colored pencils and our teacher opened up the ginormous white board. She gave us some notebooks and a tiny piece of paper and there was a little slot in the cover of the notebook. We wrote our names on the tiny piece of paper and put it in the slot on the cover of the notebook. The teacher wrote something on the board and it said, "Je m'appelle Severine Pellet," and it said where she lived and what she really liked to do. Then she got out a big bamboo stick with a point on the end of it and I got to go upfront and point to where I live in NH on a big map of the world. Then we all wrote the same thing, except our names, where we lived and what we liked to do. I wrote, "Je m'appelle Bohdan. J'habite a Cravant. J'aime football et velo." (which means, "My name is Bohdan. I live in Cravant. I like soccer and bicycling.")

Then we did writing until 11:00. At 11:00 we lined up at the door of our classroom and the teacher made us quiet down and then we walked out of the classroom and outside into the courtyard. I found my friend, Lucas, and we played "sharks and minnows," tag and raced.

At 11:30 our teacher clapped her hands and we all lined up at the door. She made us quiet down and we walked into the hall and then into our classroom. We sat down in our seats and we did more writing until 12:00.

That's when we eat lunch. There was a line of children who were going to the cafeteria and there was a line of children who were going out of the courtyard to eat with their parents. I went into the line of children who were eating with their parents. We all walked toward the entrance of the courtyard and we met our parents. Mom, Dad and I went to Vivi's school that is in the next town over, and we ate lunch in the car with her.

Then at 12:30 we went back to the courtyard where the other kids were playing and I said goodbye to my mom and dad. I went into the courtyard and played with Lucas and Thomas. We played "sharks and minnows" again, but it is fun. At 1:05 or so we went back inside our classroom and sat down and there was some homework on our desks. We kept doing writing and learning the A-B-C's in French.

At 3:00 we went outside again and we played something different this time. It was sort of like "sharks and minnows" except more funner. I don't know what it was called.

At 3:30 we went back inside and sat down and there was more stuff on our desks. A black notebook, a little piece of paper and a piece of paper and a glue stick. The person that was sitting next to me told me what to do. So I glued my piece of paper inside my black notebook. I wrote my name on the tiny piece of paper and put it in the slot on the cover of the notebook. The teacher talked to us about the next day and she wrote something in my agenda.


At 4:00 we went outside and lined up and I said goodbye to Lucas and we walked out the door of the courtyard.

I really liked the beginning because I didn't know what was happening, so it was an adventure. Although the writing was a little boring.

The next day (today) I played with my friends and after we went into the classroom. But today was NOT writing day. It was Math Day! I really liked that because I love math. The math problems were cool and easy, because I already knew them. All it was was counting by ten. I got them all right. I used my chalk slate for the first time to answer a question. I wrote the answer on my slate and I held it up for the teacher to see. All the children did it at the same time. I got another two new notebooks today - one is for writing cursive and I don't know what the other one is for yet.

I can't wait for the next day of school (which isn't until Thursday, because we have every Wednesday off). Poor Tristan.

The School Story

David and I just returned from dropping the children off for their first day of school. I am going to attempt to write "the story" of how this came to be without soaking the keyboard in tears. Perhaps this account will be the perfect distraction for me. God, I hope so, because right now it is all I can do to avoid going into the full blown Ugly Cry.

Originally, my hope was to find a group of homeschoolers in France with whom we could connect and continue to homeschool (as we do in the States.) I knew it was a shot in the dark. For the record, I did find homeschoolers - but they are an hour+ away from here and they didn't know anyone in this area who homeschools. That left us with the difficult decision of sending the children to school or homeschooling in utter isolation.

Seeing how our goals for this year include language acquisition, cultural immersion and making some friends, our only option really was to send the children to school. At first it seemed I was going to get exactly what I wanted - which was to send the children for half the day. This would have been the best compromise. A couple weeks before we arrived here however I was informed this was not going to be possible. But by then, the idea of going to school had grown on Bo & Vivi, so we discussed it and they requested a chance at going full-day. Needless to say, this kicked my nerves into high gear.

There have been many challenges/obstacles along the way, which of course have made me question whether or not we are making the right decision. But everyone insists this is the best, fastest way for the children to learn French and really the only way for them to make any friends. So I have pressed on, nerves on a rampage and prayers going up every 10 seconds for God's hand of Blessing to be upon this crazy ordeal.

The first challenge in sending the kids to school came in the vaccination requirements. Children in France are absolutely required to have diphtheria, tetanus and polio vaccinations. Luckily for Bo, I guess, I hadn't educated myself on vaccinations until he had already received these as an infant, so he was all set. But Vivi has only had Dt, and that just this past June in preparation for this trip. I had hoped we could avoid having to get her the polio vaccine here, but she will go tomorrow to receive it and the mandatory physical (for Bo as well) for entrance into school, unless I can convince the doctor to do otherwise. (Getting to the doctor has been another wild experience in itself, worthy of a separate post which will be written forthwith.)

A completely unanticipated obstacle has been the need for the children to be insured. Not with the standard US medical insurance (which of course they have) but with a French "civil responsibility" insurance and a "personal insurance." These insurances are required of anyone who wants to do anything, anywhere, with anyone in this country. Basically, it means if you break something somewhere, you're insured to repair or replace said item. So we are in the process of getting this for all of us (because of course David needs it as well to play volleyball and who knows what I will end up needing it for, but I am sure I will need it for something).

Another decision we've dragged our heels with has been school lunch. The children get an hour for lunch and recess where we have the choice to leave them at school or bring them home. If they stay, they eat a full restaurant-type meal (appetizer, main meal, dessert and drinks) and have free-play time. All along I have been thinking it would be best to bring them home for lunch, thereby saving the 6.20euro a day ($9-) and giving the kids a break from the immersion for a bit. But everyone here, and I do mean EVERYONE, says this is a very bad idea because it is during this free time that the children will make friends and get to relax and play. I've been told this time is critical social-time and it would be a shame for our children to never get the chance to just hang out with the other children. Plus, logistically, it would be difficult to have them for lunch each day because Vivi's school is about 10 minutes away by car (which means half her break would be used up with the commute). So for today and tomorrow we will take a picnic lunch, pick up Bo in Cravant and drive to Vivi's school in Panzoult for the lunch time and then drop Bo back off at his school afterwards. But starting Thursday they will stay there for the whole day. Without me. And me without them.

Aside from the pending doctor's visit, we are still trying to get Vivi's Dt record from our doctor's office in NH. This is proving a challenge because of HIPA. HIPA laws state the office cannot email the document to me and their fax machine won't dial an international number. HIPA also prevents anyone else from picking up the document for us, unless they have our written permission. The only person who has this is our attorney (who is also our best friend), but he works in the opposite direction of our doctor's office, so this is a challenge. I am pretty sure the only way he can get this dumb paper is to show up in person. Needless to say I am beginning to not care one bit whether we get this ridiculous sheet of paper or not.

Lastly, I think we have finally managed to convince everyone involved that we really and truly do not have a "Liverette de famille" - because whatever this is, it doesn't exist in the States. This "Family Booklet" is just that - a little booklet you receive when you marry with pages in it for information about the happy couple and any little results of their happiness (with room for up to Nine Results!!). This booklet proves you are a family. I chuckled at the thought of what Family Booklets would look like in America what with the brokenness of our family units and how complicated the branches of our family trees can become. There would be addendems and entire bottles worth of White-Out in most books! Thankfully, everyone appears to be willing to take our familial-relations on faith.

Added to this exhaustive list of hoops to jump through is the fact we've had to do it all in the midst of a very thick language fog. We've slowly pieced together what's been needed through bi-lingual emails, choppy conversations with the teachers, the mayor's office and local parents, or my sketchy attempts at translating various French government websites. There have been countless miscommunications resulting in confusion or frustration. But in the end, I guess it is all working out because the children have now been in school for a full hour and no one has called home yet.

I am anxiously awaiting news as to how the first day went. I'll be sure to let you know. As we say here in France, "On va voir" - We will see!

B&B Bliss

We've hosted four different clients (2 French parties, 1 Italian & 1 British), at the B&B so far. Each one has made me a little more comfortable and consequently has received a little better service. I supposed I should feel poorly for that first French couple, but they didn't seem to care.

The most recent reservation when off swimmingly. Of course, the fact they were from London and had three children may have helped a tad bit. This lovely family of five were touring the Loire Valley by bicycle. They had arrangements with the bike-rental company for their luggage to be taken by delivery service to each subsequent overnight stop along their way. They've traveled something like 15-20km a day with a 12, 10 and 6 year old on bikes! I was seriously impressed given our own fear of being run down while simply crossing our street to get the car port. But of course, now that I know another 6 yr old can hack it, I am ready to do our own touring via velo.

Anyway, this family helped me stay mindful of why I wanted to try out this whole B&B management thing. They got in (by bike, mind you) around 5pm and straight away wanted to know about nearby restaurants. I tried to keep a straight face as I considered how this question would sound to someone like my friends Peg & Stacy, who live in East Nowheresville, NH (aka Strafford). However, there actually is a restaurant just down the road in the center of Cravant les Coteaux (think "downtown" Melvin Village or Lee, NH to get the idea), but their hours are like eeeeverybody else's; "open when we feel like it." Apparently they didn't.

I felt poorly for these folks, car-less, tired from having already biked 15+ kilometers, hungry, and unrealistically hoping to return home before dark. So I did what you would expect: invited them for dinner. They hesitatingly agreed, "But we're five. That's so many. Are you sure you'll have enough?" I insisted it wasn't a problem and then rushed to the kitchen to lay hands on the beef stew ingredients and pray for what I like to call a "loaves & fishes anointing." It so worked. It always does. We had such a lovely evening with enough leftovers for another meal. Bo, Vivi & the little boy played "football" until it was too dark to see the ball, while the grown-ups sat sipping wine and chatting away like old friends.

After two days of the kids playing together every chance they got and lovely conversation sprinkled throughout, at the end of their visit we promised should we make it to London this year (which we so hope to do) we would let them know so we can be sure to visit together again.

And that it precisely why I think running a B&B is totally the coolest. (The cool factor certainly has NOTHING to do ironing sheets.)

My Successful Afternoon

It is the little successes which seem to make all the difference when you find yourself immersed in a different culture with a different language. Yesterday I had so many of these glorious seconds they added up to an entire afternoon where I felt almost at-home.

After lunch (which pretty consistently is comprised of baguette, Nutella, fruit, sliced tomato, mouse de canard and a Fresca-like drink called Jean's Citron), the children and I headed into Chinon to meet up with a "fellow" B&B manager.

The first little success of the outing was simply in the drive there. Given the expert training in how to drive offensively by my dad, I am finding it very comfortable on French roads (so long as I'm in a car and there are no big trucks nearby). I feel so much less the "rude speed demon" next to french drivers I might finally be willing to put a Christian fish emblem on my car (if it were my car). It's fun being surrounded by crazier drivers than myself for a change!

We parked the car in a lot and walked to my friend's B&B a few blocks into the center of town. If you recall my photos of Chinon, you will understand why I didn't attempt to drive directly to her home. The roads in the center of the towns are akin to our sidewalks back home. On the walk over I made a spectacular discovery: the GRETA office - which is where David and I will register for French classes. They have virtually no on-line presence (other than a site entirely in French, which as I'm sure you can imagine is utterly useless to someone looking to register for beginner French). We were beginning to worry we would never be able to find them in time for the Fall semester as not many French people know GRETA's whereabouts, being they don't typically require French language lessons. I vowed I would stop by on my way back to the car and get us registered.

Once we successfully navigated the alleys (or maybe major thoroughfares, you truly can't tell them apart) to Helene's house - we enjoyed a sublime visit in the most lovely ancient stone-wall-enclosed garden (I really should have taken my camera). It seemed straight out of "Secret Garden." Her B&B is situated in the heart of Chinon and the house is completely dreamy with a spiral staircase enclosed in a honest-to-God castle-like turret and vibrant kitchen with mismatched cabinets and hardware. It was an eclectic explosion of red, orange, yellow, green and blue. Her decorating taste was so fun and elegant - how she successfully combines these seemingly opposed elements is beyond me, but it works!

Helene offered me un petit cafe - akin to an espresso - served in an adorable chartreuse demitasse with a built-in spoon holder in the handle. (Again, I wish I could have taken a photo.) With one sugar cube, it was deee-lish. (I fear I may finally develop a taste for this addictive beverage while here.) Helene's English is about as good as my French - which means we went back and forth between the two languages with a humorous blend of comprehension and patience. But we managed to discuss a great deal; including running a B&B, the differences with the clientele, raising children to appreciate diversity, and life in Chinon. In the end, I left her magical courtyard with quite the sense of accomplishment and contentment.

The children and I then stopped by the now closed Greta office where I noted their office hours, which more than likely mean absolutely nothing as I find most businesses take an "open when we feel like it" approach to their schedules. (Something that makes me think my father is more French than he lets on - unless this is typical of the Irish as well.)

When we arrived at the park (the reward for such well-behaved children at a boring Frenglish coffee date), it was so quintessentially "Summer in France" I spun round searching for the Hollywood film crew. In the courtyard an impressively numerous group of retired men were playing Petanque, a little family played in the playground (actually the mom was playing with the children while that dad reclined on a bench enjoying his cigarette), while a group of raucous teenagers invaded the playground equipment, consequently scaring the family away. I savored it all with the most ridiculous Cheshire grin that the old men gave me strange looks and, while I didn't comprehend what the teenagers were saying about me, I am sure it was colorfully critical. I chatted a bit with a little girl desperate to play with Bo & Vivi, who were too busy noticing the language barrier to see the playmate potential. We made do with my French (what is the word for "swing?") and managed alright.

After a bit we headed off to Leclerc to pick up a few necessities (baguette, some baguette and then a little baguette. And also a light bulb). I laughed out loud at my recognition of our checkout clerk. Imagine! I'm in a store the size of a super Wal-mart, I've only been here for two weeks and I already recognize the check-out lady?! That tells you how often I'm making the mad dash for - you guessed it - more baguette!!

Oh, how I hope these successes are a sign that I've turned the corner from a rather terrifying last-week into comfortably settling in for our year en francais!

When Reality Hits Like A Ton of Bricks

I've heard countless comments about how lucky we are and how jealous people are that I thought I would take a moment to shed light on some of the not-so-glamorous realities of my life right now in hopes of making the rest of you feel better.

We've barely left the house at all because David has to work and the kids don't want to leave their physical and emotional "comfort zone" of the house. Consequently, the children and I are starting to get cabin fever and I will be forcing the three of us to go SOMEWHERE tomorrow. I don't care how much they want to stay home!

Because we have guests right now, I am getting up to an alarm (something I haven't done in a VERY long time). I wouldn't need the alarm but for the fact that try as we may, we cannot seem to get the kids or ourselves to bed on time. In fact, we are close to two hours late most nights, so most of us are experiencing some mild, but chronic sleep deprivation at this point.

I spend the mornings preparing food and cleaning. After lunch, if I am lucky, someone from home is on Skype and I get to chat with them. Otherwise I am on the computer or playing with the children, or more often than not playing referee between the children.

Whenever the phone rings I have a mild panic attack, take a deep breath and pray the caller speaks English before answering, "allo?" This happens about once a day.

* * *

So here I am, smack dab in the middle of the most amazingly beautiful, history and wine -rich environment ever seen on earth and I can't go enjoy it because it seems rather inappropriate to drag my children along from wine cave to wine cave and castle to castle while my husband works! Thus, I am twiddling my thumbs and vacillating between laughing and crying over the irony.

Talk about a time when a girl could really, really use her non-nursing, non-pregnant, wine-loving girlfriends. Gosh. Now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure that rules out a large majority of my girlfriends currently. Well, those of you who fit this category, GET OVER HERE!!! I NEED YOU!!!

orrrrr... maybe I need to find myself some french girlfriends. Odds are good even if they are pregnant or nursing, they would still love and enjoy touring wine caves with me!

Making My Mark

It is of no surprise to anyone who knows me in the least to hear how I simply had to make a few changes to things when I got here. I think I waited two whole hours after P&S left before digging in, and that was only because I was still sleeping. After rearranging counter appliances in the kitchen and completely re-organizing the linen closet, it was still absolutely imperative to reinvent the living room space. Here's the before picture (with Bo cleverly "hiding"):


Here's my "new and improved" space. I know it doesn't seem that different, but the fainting couch was positioned such that you had to sit with your back to the fireplace and TV, which was simply unacceptable for me. Now I will be able to sit on that piece of furniture (my favorite) and enjoy the fire in the winter (my other favorite).




Ahhhhhh. That's much better.

A Whole Lotta Nothin

The past few days have been very unexciting I'm afraid. Sunday was a rainy day, but that didn't matter because we went to church, which is held inside obviously. There were very few people in attendance and we were told this is because all of France goes on holiday for the month of August. For us, this was perfect, as we were able to ease our way into introductions and immersion into Christian French vocab. (sadly something never covered in any of my forays into language acquisition).

One of the couples there is from England, and they invited us over for lunch afterwards. It was so lovely to spend the afternoon without having to speak slowly or search for translations in my head! The children spent time reading children's books in English, relishing in their comprehension. I have no doubt their home will become a welcome Christian English refuge for us this year!

Monday was laundry and cleaning day. Which, given I don't know where anything is stored and once I find something I can't be sure if it is floor cleaner or dish soap, took the better part of the day. But in the end I found everything I needed, minus a mop, and the rooms are now ready to receive guests - one Italian couple and I think either a French or Canadian couple. This morning we will go Leclerc to get supplies for their breakfasts (and perhaps a mop). Apparently, friends of mine want pictures of Leclerc, so any chances of blending in will be destroyed should I acquiesce. I suspect they requested them explicitly for the joy of the mental picture of me wandering around a store like Wal-mart snapping photos like a badly misplaced Japanese tourist. (I mean no disrespect to Japanese tourists, here.) Maybe I'll make David wear black socks with his sandals and a plaid shirt and I'll wear a moo-moo and we can tell everyone we think we're in Florida. There is a Disney here after all (but it's near Paris).

Well, now that I've more than likely offended a few people I'm going to go have breakfast. Nothing like starting your day off right!

Our First Dinner Out

Today we explored the city of Chinon, about 5 minutes west of where we live. We decided to grab lunch out, but we failed to remember at first that lunch is the biggest meal of the day here, so what we thought would be a quick bite, turned into a full meal with drinks at a lovely cafe.


Our ordering was limited to what I could understand on the menu as far as options went. In fact, I almost ordered myself a pastis, having heard of it many times in books about France. But not knowing what it was, I had the willingness to embarrass myself by asking about it first. The waiter tried explaining, but of course I didn't understand a word. So he brought the bottle for me to smell. My super-power olfactory sense indicated it is the French version of Ouzo or Sambuka, so needless to say I declined and ordered a cassis avec framboise having no idea what the "cassis" part was either, but knowing it had raspberry in it, so it couldn't be that bad. Having now had a whole glass, I think it was a plum wine with raspberry flavoring. Very nice.

I guess because it is tourist season and Chinon is a major tourist hot-spot, they actually had chicken nuggets and french fries ( de poulet et pomme frites) on the menu for the kids! Hooray! David and I had a salad with lettuce, tomato, ham, and hard-boiled egg followed by chicken with penne pasta and a tomato, pepper & onion sauce. To top it off we shared a raspberry mousse that was divine! Bo & Vivi enjoyed an ice cream novelty that was actually quite novel indeed. Unbeknownst to any of us it had pop rocks in it! All the sudden the two of them got the strangest looks on their faces and then began laughing. Fun surprises can be in store when you can't read labels!

On Our Own

Our first day on our own wasn't spent very adventuresome. David worked. I organized and unpacked. The kids discovered all the new toys and played and played and played.

I got to Skype with my mom and dad, IM with one dear friend and Skype with a couple more. I can already tell these times will become oases of rest and relaxation for me. Not that I expect we will have a hectic schedule, but when even a simple task like going for groceries requires a GPS, map, language dictionary, and massive amounts of translation effort to even know what toppings are on a frozen pizza, mental breaks come in handy now and then.

I know this to be true already because at 6:30 tonight we figured out we didn't have anything in the house that would work for dinner. Not a thing. Not even a french thing. Sooooo.... we piled into the car with the above mentioned accoutrements and headed in the direction of Chinon. Thank God Sylvie had driven me around yesterday, even if just briefly and at a rapid speed, or we would have been completely lost in a matter of seconds. After driving the long way - through downtown - to get to the Leclerc (similar to a super Wal-mart back home) - we filed into the store and walked around until we found enough supplies to get us through dinner and breakfast tomorrow. How pathetic are we that this was our very first purchase in France??

We were so relieved to see prices very comparable to the US. Sure hope it stays that way!
2-pack of Frozen Pizza: 3.69 e = $ 5.54
12 pack of Ice cream novelties: 1.98 e = $ 2.97
Mega size box of cereal: 1.69 e = $2.54
lg jar of Nutella: 3.54 e = $5.31

We finally ate dinner around 8pm (so much for getting the kids to bed on time, again). Tomorrow we hope to take the day to tour Chinon with no agenda and end it with another trip to Leclerc to stock up on food supplies. I'll post pictures tomorrow night(of Chinon, not our food supplies)! And I know I promised photos of the house, but I need to finish cleaning it up first! Here's part of the terrace where we take every meal weather permits because there are NO BUGS (except flies and the occasional bee).

Party A La Francais

Before P&S left they hosted a party so they could say goodbye to their friends and introduce us to them. Talk about being thrown into the deep end! There were about 20 adults and 10 children all speaking rapid-fire French all at once while I attempted to translate and communicate for four. Fun times.
No, really. It was fun. Here's some of the most memorable moments:

1. David tried all the food. He actually did. AND he saved his negative reactions to today, when we went to eat the left-overs for lunch, all by ourselves. I was so proud of him! Some of the more "foreign food" was a homemade bread that had clumps of some kind of cheese and raisins in it. I thought it was delicious. David, not so much. The kids wouldn't even touch it. Then there was some sort of mashed beet mixture which none of us liked. The left-overs went to the chickens. Mashed smoked salmon served over a mound of some dill-cream mixture (eaten with the smallest spoon I've ever seen), "fisherman's salad" - which consisted of tuna (I think) potatoes, and seasonings/mayo (by our impressions, "not bad"). The yummiest new discovery were lamb sausages with curry and other spices. These will be a regular purchase while we are here and David quickly declared he will miss them when we are gone. Of course there was also lots and lots of wine. We ended the evening with champagne and cheese (which none of us ate) and two incredible tarts - one pear and the other pineapple/coconut.

2. I broke my wine glass. I was the only one to break my wine glass. After apologizing profusely, I proclaimed, "hey, maybe I have greek roots - Opa!"

3. Finding Bo and Vivi held up in their bedroom playing by themselves. After much effort and some success from the French children including our kids in their play, Vivi and Bo hit their limit and took a break. Once the had recovered some, they did rejoin their respective groups - girls playing in the house and the boys playing soccer (excuse me, football) in the courtyard. Bo especially was in his glory. At the end of the evening the girls wanted to give kisses to Vivi. It was so sweet and the whole evening served to be a great encouragement to me.

4. A woman wanted to "french kiss" my husband, but I wouldn't let her. As people were leaving everyone was giving the customary french greeting of kissing both cheeks. David was caught off guard at first and this very nice woman tried to explain in broken English, "it's okay. I give you french kiss." I quickly retorted, "Non. Pas mon mari. Vous ne donnez un baiser francais a mon mari! Je ne pense pas!" (No. Not my husband. You don't give my husband a french kiss. I don't think so.) She turned beet red and everyone laughed. Including her. It was so exciting to be funny in French! A proud moment indeed.

5. Paul learned Republicans can be nice people. At one point in the evening, Paul broke down. "I know I shouldn't ask you this and it doesn't really matter. I told myself I wouldn't ask. But I am so curious and can't figure it out. Are you Republican or Democrat?" I almost fell laughing off my chair. When we admitted our staunchy conservative leanings, he was shocked. "Sylvie was convinced you couldn't possibly be Republican because you are too nice." Ha ha! I guess we showed them!

It was great, great fun and THANK GOD for the jet lag because the four of us went to bed around 1:00AM!!!

Sleepless in the Air

When we booked our flight, we thought it would be the most logical to fly through the night for a couple reasons. First, we thought if it was through the night, we wouldn't need to take up valuable luggage space with "on-flight entertainment" for the kids because they would be sleeping. Secondly, we figured if we slept on the plane, it would feel more like morning in Reykjavik, Iceland and then more like noontime in Paris, and therefore we would adjust to the time difference with relative ease.

What we did not take into consideration was the potential for other passengers on the first flight to have other ideas as to how they might spend their 4.5 hours in the air. Sadly, one little two year old boy thought it far more logical to scream, cry, wail, shout, and carry on like a raving lunatic for that duration instead. Soooo..... needless to say we arrived in Cravant with a broken-up grand total of 2.5 hours of sleep (thank GOD for the TGV - it lulls you to sleep better than any cradle does a baby).

Gratefully, the rest of our travel went by without incident. In Boston, we had NO line to check our luggage and nothing was overweight or refused. Then virtually no line at security and we weren't stopped for anything. In fact, in Iceland, they rushed us through security so fast we couldn't keep up and they got annoyed with us! (Haven't figured out yet why we had to go through security to switch planes. Has Sky Mall started selling weapons or something?)

In Paris I guess they are far more secure and confident they can handle any problems that come their way because we didn't even have to pass through customs. We were taken by shuttle from the plane to the baggage claim. Then we excited the baggage claim, assuming the next room would be customs, but instead we found ourselves outside and walking to the next terminal. So currently we have no stamp in our passport to prove we have actually arrived! So much for that expensive visa we're carrying.

We were a funny image in the Charles De Gaule with all our luggage. Bo was a real trooper helping to carry stuff without complaint. We managed quite nicely. When we got to the train station, we stopped for a bite to eat.



Bo and David discovered you had to pay 0.50 euro ($0.75) to use the bathroom, so I held on until we boarded the train. (P&S thinks maybe it was a person scamming people because they've never heard of this policy before!) The TGV was AWESOME. We paid the equivalent of $15 to upgrade our seats to first class and that was so worth it. But it was so quiet I felt badly for the other passengers because we had brought children with us!

It wasn't long after getting on our way that Bo, Vivi and I became catatonic with sleep. David forced himself to stay awake because he was worried we would miss our stop. I think we just might have based on how difficult it was to rouse the children when the time came.

Overall, it was really a very successful travel day. But now I am afraid we are all still adjusting to the time difference and not sleeping when we should and feeling generally tired all the time.

Tomorrow, P&S depart very early. And then, our year en francais will truly begin!

We Made It (in 17 pieces)

The four of us, our 8 carry-ons and 5 checked bags ALL safely arrived in Cravant yesterday - without any problems or hiccups whatsoever. Praise God!

I can NOT WAIT to post photos of where we are. IT IS AMAZING. As we made our way to bed last night, David chuckled and commented, "we definitely got the longer end of the stick on this deal, I'm afraid."

He might be right. It is beautiful - exceedingly and abundantly beyond our expectations.

I am excited to post later about our travels and some of the low and high-lights. But while P&S are still here, I am a bit busy gleaning as much as possible about managing this glorious property and how to live here for a year!

A bientot! (they leave Friday morning, so look for another & better post from me sometime later that day!