We're off to England....yayyy!!!!

This morning we're driving back to Carcassonne to catch our "free" Ryanair flights to London. The flights really were free but the taxes, fees and charges added up to €339 all up for the trip. There is a fee to check in at the airport rather than on-line and there is a charge if you want to check in any luggage.

Andrew has organised tickets to go to see Manly Sea Eagles play the Leeds Rhinos in Leeds. We'll be away till next Wednesday and we're really looking forward to it.

Some Photos at Home in Cavaillon

Team Speedie washing the car

Just behind the kids is the pool (check out the pool fence)

Ella in front of our roaring fire

Our dining room

We've spent the first week of the school holidays at home not going out much at all. The kids have enjoyed watching english pay tv and playing outside in the yard and we've been getting things organised for our trip to the UK. We're all looking forward to England and speaking to people that speak english and people that understand us.

French Hairdressers

Andrew and I both need a haircut. Andrew and Samuel had a haircut in Barcelona at the barber who did a wonderful job with only his scissors, no clippers to be seen and then we all had a haircut before Christmas from Kristel in Carlipa who came around to our house and gave us all a good tidyup.

Now we all need grooming again. I must tell you I’ve been wanting to visit the hairdresser in France for a while but have been abit scared due to the language factor and not to mention, the cost. But Andrew would not be put off. He said let’s go and get a rendevous with the hairdresser. He’s a man who needs a mission. Anyway we rolled up at the hairdresser in our local shopping centre and they don’t take rendezvouses (plural of rendezvous) and we were asked to sit and wait till a hairdresser was free and we were both able to have our hair cut at the same time. It actually wasn’t a big drama at all but there wasn’t any any of the normal chit chat and gossip that goes on when you’re at the hairdresser.

One thing the hairdresser did that they do to me in Australia every time is to look aghast at my hair as if to say who on earth did this to your hair. Just about every time I go to the hairdresser at home they criticise whoever came near my hair before. I say well I’ve been coming to this salon for 15 years so it must have been someone in this salon.

L'Isle sur la Sorgue

On our first weekend at Cavaillon we drove to a little town a short distance away, L’Isle sur la Sorgue. The Sorgue is the river which runs around the old town. The river water is transparent and clean and fast flowing with these beautiful old water wheels dotted along it. The water wheels were used in the olden days to provide power for the wool and silk industry. The old town is kind of a mini Venice.

L’Isle sur la Sorgue is famous for its antiquities and has 250 antique dealers which is amazing considering the population of the town is only 16000 but apparently people come from all over Europe to the markets here. The Brocante (antiques market) is held every Sunday and the markets go for miles up and down the main street and off into the little side streets. It’s unreal all those bits and pieces people are selling. I love looking at all that stuff. But there’s not much point buying anything, I don’t think it would fit in to our house in Australia.

Carpentras

Last Friday we visited Carpentras sans children. The markets were on in the town. I love getting lost walking around markets up and down looking at all the local produce. This was the first market we’ve been to that had secondhand clothing for sale. Andrew just loves me looking at secondhand stuff. He’s terrified I might buy something. I was looking at the winter coats and he noticed one which had someone’s hair on it. It was selling for €10 and Andrew said it would probably cost €25 to have it cleaned. Oh well, didn’t get it.

The markets are very social. Everyone gets out and about and chats to each other. Gee it would be great if we could converse in French with someone. Sigh…

We also found a Fujifilm camera shop and bought a new battery for the digital camera (€49) but it hasn’t solved the problem. The camera works for 5 minutes and then konks out. Very frustrating!

I found some beautiful looking big fat red strawberries at the supermarket. They came from Spain. They were delicious. They tasted like strawberries should taste not that cardboardy-nothing taste like they’ve been picked too early before they’re ripe.

The apples, oranges and lemons from Espagne are good too. I've made apple crumble and my orange cake twice already.

We’ve found a Boulanger nearby where we’ve been buying our baguettes. The bread he makes is the best we’ve had in France I think. So scrumptious! A little crunchy on the outside and so soft on the inside – delicious! We’re buying 3 baguettes a day would you believe. Boy I’m going to miss that bread when we leave France. I’ve also found someone to practice my French on….the boulanger. He never understands a thing I say but I just keep repeating myself till I get it right. I only talk to him when there’s no-one else in the shop, of course, so they don’t laugh at me.

At Home in Cavaillon 18 February 2009

The kids had no school today. They are happy to stay home and play around the house. The yard here is great with 3m high dense hedges all round the fence perimeter which the kids love to hide under. They play underneath the hedge and make little cubbies. In the corner, there’s a kid’s slide and a swing set (sans swing) and a knotted rope to climb and swing on. The yard actually extends beyond the hedge where the owners have a bit of storage area and a few bits and pieces.

The day was warm enough (sort of) to sit outside and have our lunch. It was nice and the wind was only blowing at 30 kmph instead of the normal 80 kmph. The wind makes it so cold. On Monday when we took the kids to school Andrew was scraping ice from the car windscreen and it was -6°C. Chilly! But at least the sun was shining. We’re looking forward to some warmer weather soon. We’re a bit sick of the cold. It feels like it’s been cold forever but it’s only been since the end of October last year when we came back from Barcelona.

My little pocket digital camera is on the blink so photos will be scarce for a while. The camera hasn't worked properly since Paris in January. I think it took a dislike to the cold weather and hasn't been the same since. But we have been videoing and now just have to work out how to get the video on the blog. I think it involves a cable of some sort which we don't have.

Avignon - Friday 13 February 2009

Today after we took the kids to school, Andrew and I visited Avignon which was about 20km away. What a lovely city! We walked around inside the old part of the cité within the 4 km of ramparts. We found the tourist office and collected a map and a couple of brochures about things to do. Parking was free on the other side of the beautiful Rhone just outside the walls and there was a free bus every 10 minutes to get into the cité. There’s a massive Palais des Papes (Pope's Palace) which we’ll come back to look at another time when it's not so freezing cold and windy. We saw the famous pont d’Avignon which doesn’t actually reach across the width of the river. Only 4 spans remain of its original 22 which were washed away in the 1600’s. It looks kind of funny to see a bridge only going half way across the water.

Village des Bories

We went for an afternoon drive to Le Village des Bories which had these funny little beehive shape huts. The village was just outside the gorgeous hilltop village of Gordes. The bories are built of drystone which is stone without mortar. It just looked like stacks of flat rocks but somehow, amazingly, they don’t fall down or collapse because of the way they’ve been put together. There’s hundreds of them around the Provence region but there’s a whole village of them near Gordes.

Gordes is built on top of a hill, like so many others, it looks like the houses are carved from the rock itself and very steep and imposing. I’d like to go there again and have a good walk around.

We drove back through Roussillon which is another pretty village. Here all the houses are made of this orangey-red stone. The colours are quite beautiful particularly in the late afternoon sun.

Cold in Cavaillon

We are still freezing here. Provence has a cold, cruel wind called the mistral which blows constantly. I read that the mistral is named after a poet called Frédéric Mistral who lived in the 1800’s. Fancy having a wind named after you…hmmm.

We’ve had another load of wood delivered and we have the fire in our living room going every day. It’s a built-in enclosed fire behind glass and its really yummy and toasty warm to sit in front of eating chocolate and watching tv.

The villa has a big back yard and a beautiful inground pool outside our back door which we can't wait to use when it gets warm enough.

Cavaillon 11 February 2009

Cavaillon is not pretty. I was unpleasantly surprised when we first arrived in Provence. It was not what I expected. There was graffiti on everything and lots of rubbish lying along the sides of the road and blown up against fences. Certainly not the gorgeous scenery I’ve seen in all the Provençal postcards and photos. It’s a very old area.

I’m still getting used to the new villa aka stables. Apparently the villa was stables in a previous lifetime. I dislike new places usually. It takes me some time to be ok with new so I have to get things the way I like them, re-organise bits and pieces and it makes me feel like I've put my mark on things. Plus it has a few things I don’t like but which I will get used to – like the washing machine taking several hours to complete a cycle; we’re using the landlord’s wifi connection; the oven has no temperature gauge so you have to guess what temperature you’ve set it on. Only small things, I know, but as I said, it takes me a bit to get used to things. On the bright side, there's a food processor and I made my whole orange sourcream cake and it turned out yummy except for the burnt bottom bit (I'm blaming the oven).

Cavaillon 10 February 2009

Today we went to enrol the kids in school. We started at the village school down the road at Les Taillades which would have been a similar size to the school at Carlipa. But we were told that our address wasn’t in the zone for that school. We’re dreading the kids going to a big school because we’re not sure how they will handle it after being in that lovely little school at Carlipa.

So then we ended up back at the Mairie in Cavaillon who directed us to the Services Scolaire where they were very wonderful and so helpful. (Let's remember that Andrew and I have limited french language ability but somehow we manage to bumble our way through most things.) We filled in a form and they made some phone calls and then asked us to come back at 3pm when they would know which school we could go to.

In the afternoon we went to meet the director of the school, filled in another form and the kids start on jeudi (Thursday). We need to go back to the Mairie and buy a carnet of tickets for the canteen so the kids will be able to eat lunch at the school canteen. The school canteen meals are a proper 3 course lunch usually with a hot main meal which the kids really enjoy.

The school is in centre ville so it involves driving to school every day which we didn’t have to do at Carlipa. The Director said the kids have two sessions for lunch and 2 play sessions which means the older kids and little kids are kept separate. The school has 300 kids and they’ll go to school from 8.30 am to 4.30 pm. The kids can be picked up as late as 6 pm which must be a great thing for working parents.

Samuel and Ella don’t want to go to school at all. I think how terrifying it must be for them but then I think they’ve got through the hardest part at Carlipa already where they knew no French at all. It should be easier now. They understand what people are saying to them more than Andrew and I do.

The kids have two days of school this week, 4 days next week and then we have 2 weeks' school holidays again. There's lots of school holidays in France.

We fly to the UK at the end of February to watch Andrew's team, Manly play Leeds Rhinos. I hope the weather will be okay by then. There’s been terrible weather in the UK - snow, rain, winds. In Paris it’s the first time they’ve closed both airports in 34 years because of forecast bad weather.

Last Day at Carlipa Ecole

Today was Samuel and Ella’s last day at Carlipa Ecole. We went to the school 10 minutes early because I asked the teacher if I could video the kids so Samuel and Ella would have a reminder of their French class.

Anyway we waited outside till they finished and they came out loaded down with all their books. Thibault has been one of the boys that Samuel has talked about the most and been friends with. Thibault’s Mum had a little gift for Samuel and Ella which was really nice. She gave us all gros bisous (kiss) and I had to give that big boy Thibault a hug. She said some stuff in French which we didn’t understand very well. We said goodbye to the teacher and she wished us well (I think).

It’s been the hardest thing not knowing the language when you really want to speak to someone that you think would be a good person to talk to. Our French has not improved that much but in the end it all comes down to having a go and being prepared to make a twit of yourself saying the wrong thing. We haven’t progressed much past hello and goodbye to the parents we see at school. It’s intimidating to arrive at school and they’re all in gaggles talking away in French, it’s not like you can join in. It’s very isolating.

Carlipa - 6 February 2009

Today is a beautiful day. It was warm enough to have the windows open at the front of the house. Late in the afternoon about 4ish the weather changed quite dramatically and was really cold with an icy wind. It was shivery weather. About 6.30pm it started snowing, softly at first, like little bits of fluff coming down but shortly after it changed into big bits of fluff that looked like torn up bits of white tissues. They were really big fat flakes. It was quite lovely to watch. Of course the kids wanted to run out on the road and play in it. It quickly covered the car, the flakes were so big. A nice memory of Carlipa. We thought the snow was beautiful.

Leaving Carlipa 6 February 2009

It's time to leave. We’ve found another place to rent in Cavaillon, Provence and we’re heading off. We’ve done everything we want to do in Carlipa. It is a bit sad, though, leaving Carlipa. Village life has a funny way of sneaking up on you until you really love it and don’t want to leave. We’ve been here 5 months. It’s gone fast. We’ve met some nice people and had a good time here. The house has grown on me and I’ve got used to all its little things which I didn’t like to start with. There are things which I really love about the house now that I’ll miss.

Packing up and cleaning the house took a couple of days. Andrew washed windows and floors and I washed the curtains in the living room and wondered how we were going to fit everything in the car. Andrew somehow managed to stuff all our gear in our small Renault. The boot was packed to the very top. We had to put a suitcase in between the kids in the back seat with a seat belt around it and the kids had their Spiderman and Tinkerbell bags on the floor at their feet. Very squashy. Andrew also had to strap a suitcase and another bag to the roof of the car so we were feeling very much like the Klampetts travelling ‘round the countryside. We were full up!

Our French Teacher Dominique

This photo relates to the previous post about Dominique.

3 February 2009

Here is an email from our french teacher Dominique and my reply in my best french. Dominique included a photo in Word which I will attempt to include. Dominique always says we need to practice more and that's the only way we'll learn.

***

Bonjour,

Comment allez-vous ? Où êtes-vous en ce moment ? Toujours à Carlipa ?

What's about your hollidays in Paris during Christmas ?
Did you visit a lot ?
And now, what are your future projects?
I hope to have some news from you...
Je vous souhaite une bonne Année 2009 et surtout une bonne santé.

See you soon.
Best Regards.
Dominique.

***

Bonjour Dominique,

Merci pour votre email.

Nous sommes très bien. Nous sommes à Carlipa en ce moment mais nous allons à Cavaillon février 7.

Notre vacances a la ouest côte et aussi Paris c'est bon. Il fait moins neuf degré. C'est très très froid. Trop froid pour moi.

Bordeaux, Nantes, Rouen, Caen, Paris tous magnifique. Nous avons le meilleur temps. Nous restons près de Louvre dans 1er. Les soldes à Paris toujours c’est trop cher. Tu peux lire blog www.chezspeedies.blogspot.com.

Nous sommes fatigué à course de ski-ing la semaine derniere à Ax-les-Thermes. C’est beaucoup plaisir pour les enfants.

Nous sommes pas d’électricité pour trois jours après le vent violent. C’est très pas bon. C’est bonne chance nous avons les bougies et cuisinière à gaz.

All the best to you and your family for a healthy, happy and prosperous 2009.

Kind regards.
Anne Speedie

Saturday 31 January 2009 - Carlipa

It's the last day of January already. This time next Saturday we’ll be on our way to Cavaillon in Provence (near Avignon) where we’ve rented a 2 bedroom villa for four months till the end of May. We’re looking forward to a change of scenery. We’ve been in Carlipa since the end of August and have had a great time looking around this area and done lots while we’ve been here.

This week we’ll be busy packing up our stuff and cleaning the house. There seems to be a lot more than we came with but I suppose we’ve all had a birthday and Christmas since we’ve been here.

Last Day of Ski-ing 30 January 2009

It was our last day of ski-ing today. We checked out of our hotel and put all our gear in the boot of the car and headed back up to “the slopes”. Samuel and Ella couldn’t get there fast enough and were off ski-ing straightaway. Our “slopes” was more like flat ground with a small hump half way down but hey we have to start somewhere.

The rope pulley stopped working shortly after we arrived and then it only worked on and off the rest of the day which was a pain. The kids made the most of it when it was working and ski-ed as much as they could. Andrew pulled them up the slope when the rope wasn’t working. Andrew didn’t ski much today because he was exhausted from dragging the two of them back up when they ski-ed down.

Ella’s small friend was there again today. So Ella and Samuel and small friend teamed up and ski-ed to their heart’s content. It was great.

Some Photos of Ax-les-Thermes

Ax-les-Thermes lies between two rivers: the Ariège and the Oriège

Village of Ax-les-Thermes

The beautiful (and noisy) river running through town

Across the road from our hotel

Day 3 - Ski-ing 29 January 2009

In the telecabin going up to the ski station

Faraway photo of Ella (middle) and her friend (front)

The practice area

We had another lesson today. Today we had an excellent day ski-ing. We were much better organised. We were up at the ski station earlier for a bit of practice before our lesson. Samuel dug in the snow hole that he’d made the day before and said he definitely didn’t want any practice before our lesson.

To be honest when we had our first ski lesson I hated it (and so did Samuel I think). I found it frightening, slippery, I hated the speed and I was scared I was going to hurt myself or hurt someone else crashing into them. My shoes hurt, my pants were uncomfortable and I really couldn’t have cared if I never ski-ed again. By the third lesson with a bit more practice I started to enjoy it. It’s hard in the beginning but as the instructor said to me “It’s the same for everyone at the beginning”. Ski-ing uses muscles you never knew you had. It’s exhilarating when you feel as though you’re getting a bit better and lose that fear a little bit. It’s actually great fun.

Today Samuel decided after the lesson he would have another go on his own and once he started there was no stopping him. He just kept going up the rope and ski-ing down again and again till they turned the rope off at 5.30 pm. Samuel and Ella were the last kids still ski-ing.

Ella made a friend. This little girl all dressed in pink the same as Ella claimed her and the two of them happily ski-ed all afternoon together. Every now and then we could hear this maniacal laughter which was Ella enjoying herself going faster and faster with her arms raised in the air and then cruising to a comfortable finish in position at the start of the rope pulley ready to go up again.

It was very enjoyable for Andrew and I to see both our kids doing so well and really enjoying themselves. Samuel practised his turns in between some ski poles that had been placed there by an ESF instructor for practice.

Thermals

After we finished ski-ing on Wednesday afternoon we went over to have a look at the Thermal baths in the village. I'm not sure what we thought it would be. It sounded quite exotic and it was a bit disappointing to find out it was just a small heated indoor pool and two jacuzzis. There was also a weights room and two saunas which we weren't interested in. But we still enjoyed the pool and spa. The kids were very excited to be in a swimming pool and we had to keep telling them to be quiet seeing as we were the only people there with kids. There were signs all over the place saying "Respect the Silence". All the big people were in gaggles talking in hushed whispers.

Day 2 of Ski-ing 28 January 2009

Samuel playing in the snow

Samuel burrowing a hole under the fence

Enjoying lunch at Lou Cantou

Andrew enjoying a beer at lunch

Our second day of ski-ing was très bien. We ended up exchanging our boots at the ski hire shop. Ella and Samuel took a bigger size and I took the same size in a different style. It turns out there’s a little lever on the back of the boot to make it a fraction easier to walk when you don't have your skis on. So you don’t feel so much like an astronaut taking his first steps on the moon.

We had our second lesson. Ella started doing a few more things. She loves it all. She has no problem with any of it. The kids have good balance and find it easy to get up again when they fall down. Today we all got a bit better at hoisting ourselves back up with the rope pulley which gets you back to the top of the slope. After our lesson Samuel didn’t want to ski anymore. He only wanted to play in the snow and he dug a hole through the snow under the fence and burrowed down into it.

After we’d finished our lesson we had a scrumptious lunch at Lou Cantou and a couple of beers and then Ella and Andrew did some more ski-ing. I took some photos and did some video-ing and Samuel burrowed himself into his snow hole.

Ski-ing Trip Tuesday 27 January 2009

Looking out of the telecabin down to the cars below covered in snow
Telecabin

Ella and me

Andrew and Samuel ready for action

It was a rainy, blurry drive to Ax-les-Thermes

We left Carlipa this morning to drive to Ax-les-Thermes in the Pyrenees. It only took a couple of hours. We found our hotel and were able to check in early. We went to pick up our ski gear that we’d hired. The lady in the shop was really nice and helped us with sizes. The kids' gear included helmets. All the kids wear helmets to ski. I hadn’t guessed the kids’ shoe sizes too well and the ski shoes were very heavy and uncomfortable to walk in.

Carrying all the equipment (skis, poles, shoes and helmets) was hard going. The gear was heavy and the kids couldn’t manage their own gear.

Our first ski lesson was booked for 1pm. Just the four of us with the ESF instructor (École de Ski Français - France's leading ski school). He was very patient with us and good with the kids. Ella and Samuel took to it easily. They are amazing!

I think ski-ing should be called slipping. It so, so slippery. The first time I put skis on and immediately started sliding backwards I couldn’t believe how slippery it was. I fell over a few times and just couldn’t get myself into any sort of position to pick myself up. It was very awkward and quite unnatural if you ask me.

Ella was getting quite a bit of speed up and loving it. At one point she was having her turn and Samuel was at the other end and Andrew and I could hear her laughing as she scooted down the snow not too slowly. The instructor told her to slow down.

Samuel was a bit irritated with it. The rope pulley was a bit hard to get used to but once he got the hang of it there was no stopping him.

Monday 26 January 2009

The power still wasn’t on when we woke up. Kerrie sent a text message asking if we were ok in the hurricane so we started wondering how bad the storm was if they’d heard about it in Australia.

We had no information. Our landlord Mark said one million people in the south were without power.

The power finally came on at 6.30pm Monday night. We were so happy because we needed to get things ready for our ski-ing trip. We finally found out about the storm when we read the news on the internet. The news said it was the worst storm in a decade and winds had reached up to 200km per hour.

Narbonne Plage Sunday 25 January 2009

Andrew building dam wall

Ella and chateau

Samuel and chateau

Ella and Samuel at Gruissan

The candles and tea lights that we had left over from Christmas came in handy last night when the power still wasn’t on. We have cuisinière à gaz (gas cooker) so I made dinner and we had some wood to keep the house warm.

After dinner we played 8 games of Uno by candlelight. Ella kept winning and Samuel got the pips. He said “I’ll never catch up”. Ella 4, Dad 2, Samuel 1, Mum 1. The kids have their DS’s too and Samuel looked at his Pokemon cards.

It leaves very little to do when there’s no power. I’m glad there wasn’t much meat and food in the fridge/freezer. We’ve been running down our supplies of everything because we’re moving in a couple of weeks. There wasn’t much in the fridge but I was sad to have to throw out my spaghetti meat sauce that I made the day before.

We spent Sunday, while the power was still off, at Narbonne Plage. We had fun playing on the beach, looking for shells and sticks and making elaborate sand chateaux and dam walls with big bits of driftwood. Narbonne had lots of big trees blown over in the storm.

Samuel ended up getting his shoes and socks soaked “accidentally” in the ocean so the kids took off their shoes and socks and rolled up their trousers. The water was freezing but they didn’t seem to mind while they were playing but after we had rinsed off the sand and dried off as best we could, they just couldn’t warm their feet.

We really expected our power to be back on when we got back from Narbonne but it wasn’t so that was kind of depressing.

Vent Violent Saturday 24 January 2009

It is so windy today. We went shopping at Go Sport in Toulouse for ski clothes for me and Andrew. Andrew said he could feel the wind moving the car as we drove down the road.

The wind was blowing like crazy. When we got back from Toulouse at about 1.30pm we had no power. So the wind must have damaged something, blown a power line over or something.

Patrick, a friendly French chap in our village came to warn us to get the kids inside because the Mairie (village council) had issued an Alerte Rouge. The kids were outside in the wind picking up sticks for firewood. Patrick said the power was going to be off for a while.