Rain, sun and wind...

This week the weather is horrible, howling gales and heavy rain with the occasional blink of sun. The forecast is for improvement at the weekend, yippee.  Mum and Dad arrive on Saturday for a week.  Hopefully we get decent weather the whole time they are here.

Not being doing much this week so far.  

More pictures from our holiday last week.... Old town Antibes and by the sea.

The Rhone

On the way home we stopped for two nights in a little town called Tain L´Hermitage.  Our hotel was right by the river Rhone with a great view from the terrace.

  

We drove to a town called Condrieu where they make a fantastic special white wine from a rare grape called Viognier.  We had a picnic lunch on the hill overlooking the town and vineyards. The vines are planted on steeply terraced slopes.

In the town of Tain L`Hermitage there is a famous chocolate factory so of course we had to visit the shop and buy tonnes of chocolate.....  After that we went for a wine tasting at Chapoutier.  Ben and Mia were very patient while we tasted wine, they found games on our mobile phones to play.  Jarle was very impressed that they let us taste some very special (and expensive wine).  So impressed in fact that he bought an early birthday present for himself of a 1992 Hermitage.  

You can see our hotel in the picture with Chapoutier´s vineyards on the hill behind.  It´s the one with the yellow sun shades near the bridge.

La Mer

So we made it down to the sea, yippee.  We stayed in a hotel in Juan le Pin right next to Antibes.  It was a lovely Provencal style hotel with brightly decorated rooms, cute garden and little swimming pool (freezing! only Mia dared to go in).  The day we arrived it was really windy and wild or "blawing a hoolie gail" as Granda would say.  Next day though it was lovely and warm and sunny.  We visited two kitchen places for quotes for the kitchen for our new apartment.  The quotes were several thousand euros different so not too difficult to choose.

The old town in Antibes is really lovely with loads of restaurants to choose from.  Also it was market day, I bought lavender and little dishes for grating vegetables in.  We went for a very long walk to and around the old fort when we got sunburned. 

Beaujolais

We are back after a week of travelling the length of France and back again.  We stopped about half way between Paris and the South coast in the Beaujolais region.  I love Beaujolais wine but not the nasty Nouveau stuff which is horrible.  The best wines are from the villages.  We toured around a few of them, it was picturesque.  Lovely little villages with beautiful churches and surrounded by vines.  We visited Saint Amour, Julienas and Fleurie.  In Julienas there is a church from the 1st century!!!  However it´s not used as a church anymore, they have a newer one next door.  The old church is now for wine tasting!!  The first picture is inside the ancient church in Julienas, the sign says "not a good meal without Julienas".  

Jarle, Ben and Mia climbed this cliff (I stayed at the bottom with my dodgy back!)

 

Saint Germain des pres

We took one of the Paris Walks today around the St.Germain des Pres area.  This included the church of Saint Sulpice and the church of Saint Germain (Part of this church dates from the 10th century!)  It´s a lovely area to explore with lots of cafes and cute shops.  I must return some day when I can pop into them instead of walking past.  We passed the famous cafes where the literary set used to hang out, Les deux magots and Cafe Lipp.  We also saw the hotel where Oscar Wilde ended his days.

I forgot my camera......

After school we went to the dentist and Ben got the top set of his bracket thingies put in place. It took only 20 minutes and so far no problems.

Tuesday

Parents of First Grade were invited to stay after drop off this morning to listen to their children read some of their work.  This was very cute.  It´s amazing to see how Mia has progressed with reading and writing in the last months.  Today we also brought in Mia´s house project which has been a joint effort between Jarle, myself and Mia!  See picture for some of the houses so far.....

p.s. the Sami tent is ours (sorry I mean Mia´s)

Vintage shopping

We were packed like sardines on the metro this morning into Paris.  There was a "pertubation" on line 1 (I think it means disturbance) which usually runs every 2 minutes no problem.  So it took a bit longer than usual to get into the centre.  Today we got off at Saint Paul which is right in the area known as Le Marais.  This is the Jewish quarter of Paris and is a very interesting area.  We were on the hunt for vintage shops (which is the posh and trendy way to describe second hand shops!) which Lotta had made a list of and then accidentally forgotten to take with her.  However, she remembered the street names of all the shops on her list and we visited 3 of them.  Desire on Rue des Rosiers, Free P Star on Rue de la Verriere and a third one that I can´t remember the name of but it was not so good so never mind.  Fun shopping!

This is a rather interesting door in Le Marais.......

And a chic Swedish lady.....

 We enjoyed a coffee in a Jewish cafe and then later a quick Starbucks lunch on the pavement in the sunshine.

We even had time to do a little shopping in Du Pareil au meme www.dpam.com very cute clothes for kids.

After school I got my first online food shopping delivery, yippeee.  A rather surly man delivered my stuff at exactly 4 0´clock, the agreed time being between 4 and 6, so super no hanging around looking out the window for two hours.  Everything as it should be, I think I´ll do this again!

Pizza tonight and tomorrow Jarle comes back from Houston, Texas, yee ha.

Online shopping

Ever tried doing your food shopping online in a foreign language?  Well I thought I´d give it a go so I don´t have to carry heavy bags around.  My back is doing a lot better but it´s not quite right yet so I´m still being cautious.  Good excuse not to do any housework!

So I have chosen my items and processed the order and paid for it.  Let´s wait and see if my shopping turns up at the agreed time on Friday......  I might end up with something I didn´t want as it was a bit tricky, and there were some things I just couldn´t find.....

Mia visited a butterfly farm today with her class.  She had a great time and was so excited to tell me all about it.  Butterflies as big as her hands apparently.  Sounds super.  Parents were not required....boo hoo.

Picture from home....

Springtime in Paris

???

A bit unexpected but very pretty.  The forecast for later today is 9-10 degrees so I expect the snow will melt quickly.

Mum and Dad -  hope it warms up for your visit!

Lemonade

Today is International Day at school.  I am supposed to be there on the British stall selling scones and lemonade.  However, yesterday morning I managed to hurt my lower back when unpacking my shopping.  Potatoes!  It´s really painful so there´s no way I can stand for two hours serving food.  I´ve sent Ben in my place (he had offered to help out before).  It´s very sweet of him.  I did manage to make 4 and a half litres of lemonade last night though.....  Supposedly something very British and I had never made it before in my life, hope it tastes good.....

So Ben, Jarle and Mia are off to school.  And it´s raining!  Well well.

I think I need to lie down now, sitting is not much fun.

p.s. who is anonymous????

Italian designers and Marie Antoinette

We took the train into Paris today again (Lotta and I) to visit a new shop on the very fashionable street Rue Fauborg Saint Honore.  Think Gucci, Channel, D&G......  The shop was Roberto Cavalli which Lotta had read about in a magazine.  The clothes were bright, garish and with generous amounts of gold and silver.  Not my style really even if I did want to pay the scary prices!  Interesting to see though, and the lift was very cute with silver sofas and tv´s showing fashion shows. 

 

Then we had a coffee at the famous Parisien cafe La Duree.  Very poor service (typical Paris) but the place is lovely.

We walked along the Seine towards Ille de la Cite (the island with Notre Dame on it) passing by several pet shops that we just had to peek into.  Soooo many puppies and kittens in tiny cages, it was quite sad to see.

We then visited la Conciergier which was a prison and was used during the Revolution.  There was a reconstruction of Marie Antoinettes cell.  Not so much to see apart from that but the hall on the lower ground floor is the oldest Medieval hall in Europe (from 14th century).

Marie Antoinette

Lotta and I visited the Marie Antoinette exhibition at the Grand Palais today.  There was a queue to get in and it was quite crowded inside.  Those with tickets bought in advance walked in ahead of the queue, why didn´t we think of that?  Anyway, the exhibition was very good although we were both a little bit disappointed not to see her clothes and shoes.  Maybe they didn´t survive, after all it´s been over 200 years..... There were paintings, furniture and some decorative items.  The picture is of a mother of pearl writing set.  

I bought a book so I can learn a bit more about the poor unfortunate woman.

Then we had a quick lunch at a nearby Paul cafe and headed up the Champs Elysee a bit, popping into Gap and Zara.  I didn´t buy anything!  Metro then train back to school in time for pick up.  A good day in all.