Dressed to Kill

We've had a big problem with wasps here recently. They make nests under the roof tiles, which are very hard to get rid of. Even when we leave the windows shut, they find a way to get inside. We've killed at least a dozen in the house. And despite this being quite thrilling, I decided to go up on the roof with every can of wasp spray they had at both grocery stores in Pontcharra (three by the way) and kill me some wasps. I was stung by a bee a few days ago, so I went a bit overboard with protection.



No more wasps in the house so far.

Frog Hunting

Since arriving in France, I was encouraged by a few of David's coworkers to join Open House Grenoble, which is an English speaking organization for people living in Grenoble. Amanda, the wife of one of David's coworkers, invited us to the Teddy Bears' Picnic to go frog hunting. Basically, several moms who are members of Open House and their children met at a nearby pond where we each brought a snack, frog catching gear, and our child's favorite stuffed animal.



Summer was very excited to go frog hunting. On the drive to the pond, she spoke nonstop about how many frogs she would catch, how she would throw them back into the water, and what they would be like. Only after arriving at the pond did we realize that we were actually going to have to HUNT for the frogs and that they would not be lining up to jump into Summer's bucket.



I was quite surprised by Summer's determination and persistance. She squatted by the water's edge for almost an hour, pitching her net into the water and avoiding the mud (and other smelly gunk) being tossed into the air by the nearby frog hunters. We actually didn't see ANY frogs in or near the water the entire time, but Summer did get to play with a frog that her friend Ellen had caught before most of the children had arrived.

My First Bee Sting

With a subject like that, you were probably thinking, "Awww, I wonder which girl got stung." Well, the answer is none of them. I have no idea how I've made it this far without getting stung by a bee. (I've never broken a bone either, but we have two months left here yet.) I went for a run this morning and while going down a road that zigzags down a hill, I saw a man in a funny hat working out of the back of his van. As I got closer, I saw the tell-tale can of smoke. My excitement at seeing my first real-live bee keeper was short lived as I was soon attacked by a bunch of angry bees. I kept running as fast as I could, wildly swatting at the bees like a mad man. I only got stung once, but all in all, it was probably worth it as the bee keeper now has his first interesting blog entry in weeks.

Summer peut faire du velo

Summer learned to ride a bike today. The Craigs have a small green bike that Summer had enjoyed riding with training wheels on the front porch. Sometimes she would go outside without telling us, and we'd crack up when we saw her zoom by the living room window. Today, she insisted that we take the training wheels off. We'd tried this back home a few times with a hand-me-down bike that was probably a little too big for her. Allison recommended that we go to a gravel soccer field that's just up the hill. This turned out to be the perfect place since it was very flat, wide, fairly soft, and empty. I held on to her the first time down the field, and after that she took off on her own.



Samantha was a little grumpy at the attention that Summer was getting.



But then she joined in the fun and quickly got over it.



Summer rode for about forty-five minutes before I had to drag her home. She's mostly figured out how to turn and get started on her own, but stopping is still a crapshoot.

(One more unrelated thing. On the way home from Grenoble yesterday we drove through a little rain, and then saw the end of a rainbow actually touching down in a field. We'd never seen that before.)

Mowing

I'd been putting off mowing the Craig's lawn for too long. I had my share of excuses, including that each town in France has restrictions on when you can mow that vary by day of the week. The general rule is not too early, not too late, not around lunch time (which explains why our neighbor who has an even bigger yard than ours had to mow in a morning and afternoon shift), and not on Sunday. The alpine meadow look had started to grow on us, but as much as Summer insisted, I wasn't able to leave the flowers and only cut the grass.

Funiculaire

We have been waiting for the Funiculaire to open this year, which is a pair of small, slow trains attached by a cable; as one goes down the steep mountain, the other goes up, etc. It is near our house, and we spot it every time we drive to Grenoble. Summer and I went there today and enjoyed the views on the way up. We shared our seats with a French gentleman, who was wearing winter clothes for the ascent and was carrying a large backpack. We noticed other people dressed similarly as we got off the train, and all were carrying large backpacks. I assumed that they were going on a long day hike. I was a little embarrassed because Summer and I looked like typical tourists in our short sleeves and flip flops, and I was hoping that we wouldn't be too cold at the top.



Summer was excited to discover a park at the top, where she played alongside French children for half an hour or so. Only after that did we come upon a large, grassy field that hugged the side of the mountain. It was there that we discovered that the people on the train were paragliders. Summer and I sat there for several minutes and watched the long process of getting the parachutes untangled and straightened, and waiting for the go ahead from the instructor. It was amazing to watch the paragliders run off the side of the mountain and then to see them come back up once their parachutes caught the wind. Summer was begging to go, but I don't think she understood what it all entailed.



As we were walking to catch the train back down the mountain, I noticed that Summer had caught some butterflies.



Our descent was quiet, as we were the only passengers traveling back down before the train was closed for a two hour lunch break.



I mentioned before that we could see the Funiculaire's tracks cutting into the side of the mountain from the highway. We also noticed a very tall waterfall to the left of the tracks, which we wanted to find a way to get closer to. Shortly after our descent down the mountain began, we heard falling water and realized we were the closest that we could get to the waterfall.



Even though we have been here for only three months, I am happy for all of the beautiful and different places that the girls are getting to see. Samantha probably won't remember much from our time here, but I think Summer will remember most, if not all, of it.

Provence Part Deux

I took Friday off from work, and we spent a long weekend in Provence. We took some windy roads through the mountains down to Aix-en-Provence, where we first went to go see Cezanne's studio. His studio has been preserved since he died a hundred years ago. After I filmed a short movie (one frame below), I found out the hard way that they don't allow pictures inside the studio.



We took turns playing with Samantha outside because you're supposed to be quiet and not touch anything inside of his studio. She can do both of those things but just not at the same time.



Next we walked into the city center, where we found an almost magical candy store, La Cure Gourmande.



We were lucky enough to stay with the parents of my friend Ezra, who moved to Austin from England four years ago. They are six years into restoring a house that was first built around 1550. The inside magnificently blends in modern designs.



They live outside of Pertuis, which is a small town outside of Aix-en-Provence, and there is no other house in sight, with the exception of the neighbor that shares one wall of their house. I think the two houses used to be one because the neighbor was actually born in the room where Samantha slept. He's lived in the house his whole life and never ventured farther than Marseilles, twenty miles to the south. It makes me happy that you can still find someone like this.

The girls' favorite attraction was their dog, Tuffy, and it didn't take us long to find out her unsanitized German name, Tuffschitt. Seeing the girls around the dog convinced us that we'll have to get one in the next couple of years. Maybe we'll give it a French name.



They also introduced us to some funky-looking local tomatoes. They have a thinner skin and taste better, too.




On Saturday we picked up lunch in Aix-en-Provence and headed down to the coast. We keep the windows down since the car doesn't have AC. The girls get a little hot sometimes, but it's not too bad yet.



In the masterpiece 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance', Robert Pirsig says that you can't really experience a place boxed up inside a car. That's just glorified TV. Whereas on a motorcycle, you're out in the open and able to take in everything. And there's nothing wrong with being hot and worn out and smelling like two hundred miles by the end of the day. Going on a road trip with the windows down captured some of this allure. We'll see if I still agree with him in June.

We drove through the Camargue to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, where we found a small beach. The girls had lots of fun playing in the sand and running away from the waves.


We spent the night in Montpellier, and on the way out of town the next day, we stumbled onto a zoo. You can tell this is a French zoo because there's an old man wearing a beret.



Since it was early, the only other people at the park were joggers, and we had it mostly to ourselves. After going through the gates and seeing one peacock, we had to walk ages before seeing any animals. We did see lots of wooden cutouts of animals, and I honestly started to think that we somehow misunderstood the signs, and in fact this was just an animal-coded network of jogging trails. But soon enough we saw some kangaroos. It's amazing how effortlessly they hop around.

We took a small detour on the way home to see the Pont du Gard, which according to Wikipedia is part of a Roman aqueduct that carried water 50km from Uzes to Nimes, while only losing 17m of elevation (less than two feet per mile)!



Close to home, we stopped off at our favorite park in Grenoble, where the girls got to play for a little while before piling back into the car one last time. Samantha's favorite thing was walking over a rope bridge and then sliding down a long slide feet-first on her belly.



On the way home, we all had fun sticking our hands out the car windows. It's nice when you get to re-experience that kind of thing with your kids.

Elfi's

We have been doing many fun things outdoors lately, but Summer was extremely excited to visit Elfi's, an indoor play area for children.



She has been to a couple in Austin before, but none were this big.



Because Summer isn't attending school here anymore (Long story! Basically, she was very miserable because of the language barrier.), we are finding that many of the places we visit during the week are empty because the children are in school. Summer shared the entire area with one boy, who left a little while after we got there.

Warmer Weather

For quite a while, Summer has wanted to build a vine to swing on, and after her failed attempts with string and tape, David constructed one for her out of some rope and a plastic pipe we found in the garage. He promised me that Summer won't get a concussion like he did the last time he tried this kind of thing twenty years ago. While hundreds of dollars worth of toys sit untouched inside, this cheap toy has entertained her for hours over the last few days.



We have been enjoying the warm, spring weather over the past week and have spent many afternoons outside. David took the girls out for a drive this weekend and spotted a field of sheep, which they loved to watch. We're getting used to living in a rural area, but we're still pleasantly surprised every time we happen upon something like this. Over the past few days, we've even noticed a horse in the backyard next door.


We definitely spend more time in the Craig's yard than we do in our yard in Austin. We're enjoying the tall trees, collecting pine cones, looking at the mountains, and watching Nathalie's tulips open and close each day.

Pâques

Today is Easter (Pâques in French) and the girls woke up to a pile of candy brought by church bells instead of the Easter Bunny.

We'll all be eating a lot of chocolate over the next few days, which come to think of it, isn't much different from the rest of our time here.

Annecy Again

Everyone piled in the car and we drove a "small hour" (as the French like to say) up to Annecy, where Allison wanted to do some shopping while I entertained the girls. The highlight of the day was renting a boat and taking the girls out on Lake Annecy. It was a little chilly but otherwise perfect.

Since the boat's top speed was just above a crawl, both girls got a chance to drive it. In general, Summer was scared that we were going to crash into the land that was straight-ahead, albiet fifteen minutes away, and Samantha insisted on turning the wheel all the way to the right and keeping it there. Given Summer's propensity for motion sickness, this didn't last long.


Summer then got to pedal a horse around the park there. When she started her ten minute (for 3 Euro) turn, she had the track to herself, but by the end she was jockeying with ten madly-peddling terrors who spent more time looking for their parents than watching where their horses were taking them.

While mom wrapped up her shopping, we three went for ice cream downtown. Samantha lost most of her second scoop, but Summer was nice enough to share with her.

The girls were worn out, so we took the scenic route home while they napped.