2nd Grade - International Day

Mia's class have been working hard for weeks and weeks on their country projects.  Today we were invited to school to see and hear all about them.  Mia was very proud and excited and quite rightly so.  All the children did a great job.  It was lovely to see what they've been working so hard on.  

More from the flat

We climbed to the top of this tower in Nice......

......to get this view!

We enjoyed some good weather while at our flat in Antibes.  In fact we did eat breakfast every day on the terrace.  We get the sun on our terrace from first thing until about 12 o'clock.  This is probably a good thing come summer time as it would be too hot to sit on the terrace during the afternoon otherwise.

Although there are two regular bus routes passing close by, we walked into the town centre.  There are many many restaurants to choose from and we particularly liked one called Le Chrono which was small and nothing much to look at with no outside terrace but the pizzas were really good, all the food was.  

We enjoyed rose wine and found that a local vineyard sells great wine and the rose was only 4 euro something.

This is the beach in the neighbouring town of Cagnes sur mer.

Tourists in Bergen

We had a free day on Friday to be tourists in Bergen.  So we went to the aquarium of course!  Cute penguins, some of them are sitting on eggs.  

Konfirmasjon

After our trip to Antibes, we flew to Bergen for Sindre's confirmation.  The weather was lovely, almost 18 degrees.  The ceremony was held in the Greig Hall and we were entertained with dancers, singing and an orchestra.  Afterwards we went to the Hotel Norge to celebrate with lunch and speeches and singing.  All in all good fun.  We took pictures near the lake in the sunshine.

Ben and the confirmee Sindre.  

Caves near to Grasse (the perfume town which we will return to one day to visit the perfume factories)

Oh my Goodness, so much to catch up on!

Kids are back in school today and Jarle back to work.  So it was the supermarket for me first thing to stock up again and then housework......yawn.

Anyway, we have had a lovely two weeks.  First we were in Antibes for a week and a half.  Jarl Christian joined us for a few days there.  Then we flew to Bergen for Sindre's confirmation.  Back to Paris and everything has grown sooooo much.  All the trees are in leaf now and there are a lot of flowers around, including our wisteria and some cone shaped pink and purple flowers on lots of trees (no idea what they are, sorry)

So, here are a couple of pictures from our flat.  JC diving into the icy pool, and the three kids on the beach at Nice. 

 The kids DID use the swimming pool even though it was freezing!!!  We walked often to the old town, takes about 25 minutes.  We visited Nice and Cannes and also took a day trip to Italy to visit the town of San Remo.  

Saint Michel

Saturday lunch outside in a busy cafe in the Saint Michel area.  

Montparnasse

Today our walking tour was in the neighbourhood of Montparnasse.  Nowadays the area is most known for the hideous skyskraper Montparnasse Tower, but it was well known for the cafe culture in the beginning of the 1900's.  One of the most famous is called Cafe Coupole and is known for the artwork inside and the fact that it is the biggest cafe in Europe apparently.  We did not go up the tower (which is on my list!) but explored the neighbourhood instead.  The area is also known for the creperies because of the number of people who settled there from Brittany.

We finished our walk with a visit to the Bourdelle museum.  Bourdelle was a student and friend of the artist Rodin, and his work is in similar style.  The museum is housed in Bourdelle's home and his studio has been preserved as it was in the early 1900's.  Impressive bronze statues in the garden.

Spring - firebugs and primroses

The firebugs in our garden are back......

Also we have lots of primroses on the grass, very nice.