Christmas "space"

We are having a lovely time at the red house. Christmas Eve was celebrated Norwegian style so Granny and Granda got to open their presents a day early! The weather has been pretty good, cold but dry with a bit of sun. 

Jarle having a wine tasting this evening with some friends so I am going to go out in a wee while to visit Wendy.

By the way Christmas space is what the days between Christmas and New Year is called in Norwegian, "romjul".

Ready for Christmas

The bags are packed.  The washing is up to date.  School is over for the year.  Granda has his instructions to make "mealie dumpling".  We are ready......I think

Christmas Concert

Last night was the 2nd to 5th grade concert at school.  It was lovely to see the children on stage proudly playing recorder and singing.  

Saturday

We popped in to the Christmas market at La Defense this morning.  Ben was at school at a Model United Nations Conference all day.  He was elected as Best Delegate!

Jarle and Mia did some secret shopping while I took the metro to Champs Elysee to do my own secret shopping.......

Versailles

I've done Versailles several times but this time it was with a guide on our Friday tour group.  It is freezing cold outside so it was a very good idea to have an indoor tour!  -4 degrees.

The tour was interesting and very good.  There is a temporary exhibition inside the Chateau at the moment by an American artist called Jeff Koons.  Very Very strange to see "pop" art in the chateau of Versailles to say the least.  Michael Jackson and giant balloon dogs......

The hall of mirrors is very impressive.  Especially when you think that mirrors were so difficult to make and hugely expensive at that time.

Visitors

Aren't they cute?  I just want to take them inside and keep them......

Jingle bells Jingle bells.....

It is very cold now in Paris.  Yesterday it snowed and it was really pretty but the snow melted after only a couple of hours.

Today I took the train into Paris with a list of things to get and I was quite successful.  Then I met Jarle for lunch.  We went to Le Petit Poucet which is on the island called Isle de Jatte in the Seine by Neuilly.  Lovely lunch and then I did a tour of the Christmas market at La Defense before going back to school for the kids.

New Santa hats! 

Flying past

The week is flying past.  I have ticked off several people from my Christmas shopping list, yippee.  It's freezing cold in Paris and raining a lot!  

Ben and Mia have three advent calenders each!!   Counting down the days now..........

The Flat

A lovely old (established 1820) sweet shop.
Our long awaited new sofa.......and strawberry tarts for coffee.

Oh, we miss our flat already!  We don't know when we will be there again, need to book flights for some time in January or February.

The weather was HORRIBLE, thunder, lightning, torrential rain.......  However we "koste oss" as they say in Norwegian (enjoyed ourselves, had a good time).  Our new sofa and armchair arrived and this time they are the right colour!  We had to assemble the sofa, can you believe it?  Jarle has vowed that this is the last time we buy anything from IKEA.....

We bought two lovely drawer units for the living room and a couple of cushions for the (huge) new sofa.  Very cosy.  

The old town in Nice is lovely to wander around in, with loads of restaurants (mostly Italian) and cute shops.  The market is great too.  

Thanksgiving.......

So the children are off school tomorrow and Friday because it is Thanksgiving.  

Ben is going to be spending the weekend in Paris with his Dad. Me, Mia and Jarle are off to our lovely flat in Antibes.  Expecting nice weather????  Snow there apparently.  Probably the first time in 100 years or something.  C'est la vie.

Det snør......

Brisk walk in the snow to feed the ducks......Mia's tooth fell out!

Friday Tour - Musee de Louvre

Today our tour guide Jacques took us around the Richelieu wing of the Louvre Museum.  This is the newest part of the building (19th century) and in fact was only connected to the rest of the building with the glass pyramid about 20 years ago.

We started in the courtyard which is covered over with glass so is inside now.  Here there was 4 great statues of men and horses which used to stand at Place de la Concorde (there are now copies of them there!) the originals being too precious to stand outside in all weathers any longer.  Even earlier they had been in the grounds of a royal castle at Marly which is no longer there.

We toured the collection of Mesopotamia artefacts dating from about 3000 BC.......  The first ever written code of laws is on display there!

Then we saw some very precious French pieces which had been saved from various churches around France.  Saved because the Revolutionaries would have destroyed them if the priests and other people of the church had not managed to rescue them.  This included the coronation sword which was used to "crown" every King of France from the 1200's and the only remaining royal sceptre. 

Then coming right up to the 19th century we saw the only remaining state rooms of the Napoleonic era (Napoleon the 3rd).  I know that the royals (and then Napoleon) used to live in the Tuileries palace and I always wondered where it was and today I discovered that it in fact burnt down.  The fire was deliberate......and was stopped where the building meets the Louvre (phew) so some rooms were saved from the Napoleon 3rd time.  Overly lavish, over the top Victorian style.  Very cute "conversation" chairs though.....

Coffee morning and field trip

Mia and her friend Mackenzie
A triceratops, apparently!

 
Yesterday morning I went to a coffee morning hosted by an ASP mum who lives nearby.  I met a few new people which was lovely but I do have a different feeling about meeting new people now because I know we are leaving at the end of the school year.  There doesn't seem much point in getting to know new people now only to say goodbye in a few months......

I was asked to go along on the 2nd grade field trip today.  Woke up feeling really rough this morning as I have a cold and my head is stuffed, but I had said I would go as a parent "helper" so I took a couple of lemsip and set off.  We visited the skeleton/fossil museum at the Jardin des Plantes.  The kids have been studying dinosaurs........

Le Bon Marche

At last I know what the Bon Marche is!  It is also an experession meaning "a good buy"  or "a bargain" but it is in fact the worlds first ever department store.  It opened around 1860 and was unique in the world at the time.  The first place ever where customers could walk around freely looking at the products.  The first place to have sales, offer delivery, accept returned items.  Quite an enterprising man who created it.  I have forgotten his name......

Anyway, other department stores followed including Harrods in London and Macys and Bloomingdales in New York.  BUT this one was the first.....  (Now owned by the huge Louis Vuiton corporation)

Anyway, it was our guided tour on Friday and we also visited two churches and the Maillol museum.  Next time it's the Louvre.

Watch this space.

Forgot

to put in a picture of our new kitchen at the red house (which I am really pleased with by the way)..........

Day off

Today is Remembrance Day and a public holiday in France, so no school or work.  Ben met his friend Rodrigo at La Defense and went to see the new Bond film.  So Jarle, Mia and I took the metro to the Champs Elysee to join the tourists.  We had lunch in the famous La Duree then did a little bit of shopping and walked to the English bookshop on Rue Rivoli.

Friday tomorrow

Yesterday I strolled (dodging Japanese tourists, beggars and a general assortment of people from all walks of life, including a woman with purple hair and matching thigh high purple suede boots who seemed to be in every shop I went into!) down and up the Champs Elysee.  I also enjoyed a coffee with Lotta in La Duree.  We found a lovely enchanted forest fairy ice land type "bar" at the back of the ground floor and had the place to ourselves.  

So tomorrow I am off to Stavanger (ON MY OWN!!!!) to check on the kitchen, put everything into the new cupboards and buy new pans that will work on our new induction hob.  This will involve surreptitiously wandering around kitchen supply shops with a magnet.....

Wish me luck!!

Antibes

Taking the sea route into town.  Snow on the Alps.

Whales at Marineland, in the rain.
We are back from one week visiting our new flat in Antibes.  The weather was lovely when we arrived (with only two folding chairs to sit on and two mattresses and two inflatable beds!) and we enjoyed breakfast on the terrace.  The kitchen is almost finished, minus washing machine (rather inconvenient as I had deliberately not packed enough clothes for the whole week so that we could try out the new machine) and granite worktop.  However, Ikea delivered on time as promised but unfortunately the sofa and chair were the wrong colour!  A really horrible mustard colour when we wanted a lovely dark brown......  The poor delivery men had to carry it back down the two flights of stairs as the lift is not working yet.  After a conversation with a stroppy woman from Ikea they agreed to order a new set for us.  It will hopefully be available for delivery for the Thanksgiving weekend when we go down next.

So apart from that, me and the kids enjoyed a day at Marineland while Jarle flew back to Paris for a meeting.  Then it started to rain, and boy did it rain?  We were dressed for a lovely sunny day and had to buy two umbrellas and take the bus instead of walking and STILL got soaked.  It rained a lot from then onwards.  

We did manage to buy lovely garden furniture, a table and six chairs and a sofa group with table for the terrace but which we used inside for the moment.

Friday

No walking tour today as I was busy at school.  Mia and her classmates very proudly presented their Tiny Town to the parents.  Very cute....

Then they had a parade through the school in their Halloween costumes followed by a party in the classroom with games outside.  Lots of fun.

Halloween

Tomorrow is the last day of school before the Toussaint break (tattie holidays to you and me) so the children celebrate Halloween a bit early.  The lower school kids have a parade through the school in fancy dress followed by a little party in the classroom.    

Tomorrow is also the day when the 2nd graders present their "Tiny Town" to the parents.  Pictures to follow.....

So Jarle comes back from Houston tomorrow and then we leave on Saturday for our new flat in Antibes.  I will post again when we get back.

Dessert at Jarle's birthday dinner

Oslo

The Grand Hotel, Oslo.

Vigeland Park

The New Oslo Opera House

Lovely weather, lovely hotel, ill birthday boy!  We made the best of it.

Lunch in Paris

On Sunday we drove into Paris and had lunch outside in the sunshine.

Friday - Ile de la cite

I am officially on the Friday walking tour now, yippee.  We met on the square in front of Notre Dame on the island which is where the earliest Parisians settled.  We went underground to visit the crypt where remains of cellars from the middle ages and from Roman times were found in the 1970's when a carpark was being built!  Luckily they saved the remains and they can now be viewed by the public.  We saw the remains of the Roman central heating system and bath houses.  They were very advanced in those times, what happened in between??  It was very interesting.

Then we moved on to Saint Chapel which was built by Louis the 9th in the 12th century to house holy relics which he apparently bought from the Turks because they really needed the cash to try to save the Byzantine empire.  So the church contained the crown of thorns, nails and bits of the cross of Jesus.  During the French revolution however, the relics were moved to Notre Dame for safety and are still there now!

The Chapel is the only building of its kind with such a large number of stained glass windows.  It is very beautiful.

Afterwards me and Lotta dashed off to Le Marais to buy falafel for lunch.  Vegetarian fast food Jewish style - perfect.

Saint Germain en Laye

Saint Germain en Laye is a lovely town on the outer edge of the Paris suburbs.  We've been there many times but this time Lotta and I went inside the Chateau where there is a an archeological museum.  Lots of very old things........ bones, flints and stuff.  I was hoping to see inside the chapel which looks lovely from the outside but we didn't get access to it.  We did a little shopping afterwards and then a quick lunch in a cute creperie, yum.

Chateau Malmaison

This was Josephine's "posh" bedroom, she had another one next door!


Well, I finally visited Chateau Malmaison which is just down the road from where we live!  This was the home of Josephine Boneparte, her place in the country where she enjoyed time with her grandchildren and collected exotic plants and animals.  Oh, and Napoleon was there some of the time too.....

Lotta and I were interested to see that Josephine's ancestors now are the kings and queens of half of Europe (including King Harald of Norway and King Karl Gustav of Sweden) 

The Chateau is lovely, cosy and homely compared to the giant castles at Versailles and Fontainbleau.  The gardens look a bit neglected though.

Thanks Lotta for getting me here and showing me the centre of Rueil Malmaison.

Autumn

The leaves are falling, the men and their blowing machines are out in force.

Top photo taken in Bois de Boulogne, second one in forest beside our house.

Ikea

Jarle went to the dreaded Ikea this morning to order beds and a sofa for our new flat.  Now we are keeping our fingers crossed that they will be able to deliver on the day we want......

Le Marais

Today I joined a walking group from school.  The guide was very interesting and knowledgeable.  We explored the north and south parts of the marais area.  I learned that there was virtually nothing there until the mid 1500's and then by 1600 the area had become very fashionable.  That was when Place de Vosges was built, which is the lovely big square with gardens in the middle that I have visited lots of times.  

We even saw part of the original city wall which bordered the old town of Paris that dated from the 1200's!  It's part of a school now.

Lots of beautiful buildings around every corner.  We also went inside the church of Saint Paul and were told that the hearts of Louis the 13th and 14th used to be kept there.  They were destroyed during the revolution.  Slightly creepy story about an artist who witnessed the event, he took what remained of the hearts and ground them up with oil to make a dark brown paint which he used in some landscape paintings which are now in the Louvre......

The first picture is of a private mansion which dates from the 1500's and the second is inside the dome in the church of Saint Paul.

Antibes

Phew.  Jarle and I are back from the whirlwind visit to Antibes to take possession of our new flat.  We drove down in a hire car full to the brim with duvets and pillows and plates and goodness knows what all.  We stopped overnight about 2 thirds of the way down and then were up early to drive the rest of the way.  Our flat is very very cute.  I'll try not to use the word small (oops it slipped out) but it is lovely.  The terrace is big and we have views from one side of the Alps and views of the sea and the old fort of Antibes.  The gardens are all complete and looking great, palm trees, orange trees.  The swimming pool is close to our flat and can easily be seen from the terrace so we can watch the kids.  The kitchen will be fitted next week and we can´t wait to actually get down there and stay for a while......

Ours is on the top floor on the corner.

Heia Brann!

Madness at the house last night as Brann beat the top Spanish club Deportiva La Coruna 2-0 in

Bergen.

La Coruna beat Real Madrid last week and that explains a lot apparantly....

Crazy Football

As invented by Mia and Jarle......

The rules are there are no rules

Mid week

Ben is in the Lake District with school this week.  I have heard that there is a lot of rainy weather but I am sure he will be having a good time anyway. He comes home on Friday evening.  Mia's class start swimming lessons at school tomorrow.  They will be visiting the local pool every week for the whole school year!  Luckily she just learned to swim this summer and so things should go well.

It was lovely and warm today so we had dinner outside on the terrace.  The scottie dog from number 3 visited us as she often does when we are outside.  It must be the sound of cutlery that attracts her.  Jarle (big softie that he is) gave the dog some bits of ham.    Yes we still miss having a pet and are constantly thinking about getting a dog..........

Paris at night

We drove into Paris yesterday afternoon for a stroll along Avenue des Ternes.  This is a nice street for shopping and there are lots of cafes and restaurants.   We stopped for a drink at a corner cafe very close to Porte Maillot before heading to an Italian restaurant for dinner.  Bellagio was very nice.  The service was friendly (although the waiter insisted on speaking English even though we were speaking French!) and the food lovely.  I had buffalo mozzarella and tomato salad to start and then asparagus risotto which was really lovely.  No room for desert!  Jarle had carpaccio of beef to start and then dorade (fish).  Mia had spaghetti carbonara.

We drove around a bit before heading home.  The Eiffel tower was blue........