Ella shopping...

Mail from Home...27 November 2008

Today Andrew collected his Christmas present to himself from me. Does that make sense? He’d ordered the dvd of the rugby league grand final this year that Manly won, a Manly Sea eagles scarf and also a mouse pad.

We also received a parcel from Aunty Sherrie for the kids which was a book/dvd about the 12 days of Christmas, Australian style for Samuel and Ella to take to school to show their French classmates. Thank you Sherrie. The kids love it. It is absolute bliss to receive mail when we are so far from home.

More French lessons...

Andrew and I continue to go to French class twice a week with Dominique who is an absolute character. We really enjoy the classes mainly because of her personality I think. All up we've had 20 hours of lessons. I read in a blog somewhere about this guy who is entitled to 250 hours of free French classes to be paid for by the French government. I am so envious. I think I would need a couple of hundred hours at least to get to a level where I could hold a back and forth conversation like a normal person. At the moment we are still leaving out a lot of key words and adding much gesticulation in order to make ourselves understood. It must be pretty funny to watch. I would love to have us on video. I think it would make hilarious viewing.

Time with Dad...

One of the best things about coming to France I think has been the extra time that we've been able to spend doing things with the kids, especially Andrew. He’s actually able to have time to think of things and then do them with the kids. I think even if they don’t remember all the tourist attractions we’ve taken them to, they will always remember that this was a really special time with Dad.

Cite de l'espace...23 November 2008

On Sunday we visited the Cite de l’espace exhibition in Toulouse. The highlight was the imax film which showed astronauts in space going about their everyday work floating around in the space shuttle. It showed how they manage to eat, sleep and carry out repairs to the outside of the shuttle. Pretty amazing to see (and terrifying if you ask me).

Frost... 27 November 2008

Today (jeudi) was very exciting. The weather has been getting colder and colder. This morning it was -1°C on the car temperature gauge.

We don’t have a carport and the poor car has to stay out all night in the freezing cold. There was frost all over the top of it and the windscreen had ice on it. When we put the wipers on to clear the windscreen the ice broke off in little sheets.

The countryside looked foggy and the fields were covered in frost. It looked so pretty. The prospect of a white Christmas is very appealing. The kids are hanging out to light a fire in the living room. We have a wood stove thingy as well in the kitchen. We’ve ordered a load of fire wood so that should be interesting. We also need to buy an axe because the wood comes in large chunks which need to be split and made smaller.

Lourdes 7 November 2008

Grotte de Massabielle

We visited Lourdes on our way back from Pau a couple of weeks ago. Lourdes is a town of about 15 000 people which was made famous by a 14 year old peasant girl Bernadette who saw the Virgin Mary in a series of visions that came to her in a grotto. These days around 5million visitors come every year from all over the world many of them terminally ill and praying for a cure. There has been 67 medically certifiable cures over the years.

It was interesting to see what Lourdes was all about as I’d heard a lot about it over the years and wanted to see what it was like. There is a huge tourist complex built around the cave (Grotte de Massabielle) where Bernadette had her vision and there’s an ornately decorated church built right over the top of the cave.

Carlipa Images

The Route de Bram

Carlipa boulangerie

Looking up the Route de Bram from l'ecole

Ecole Elementaire de Carlipa

Our street in Carlipa

Snow shopping 25 November 2008

Today we went shopping for Christmas goodies for the kids at the Carrefour at Portet-sur-Garonne which I’d read about on the Americans in Toulouse website. We came home with various bits and pieces but the best bit was getting Samuel kitted out for the snow. The reason I was so thrilled to get Samuel's ski gear is that we only paid 29 € for the all in one suit in a fire engine red colour and I was expecting to pay hundreds. But I shouldn't speak too soon. Andrew and I have to get our ski clothes yet. We are planning to go ski-ing in January some time. It seemed like a good day to buy snow gear considering the temperature outdoors didn’t get over 4° all day and also raining. It was like walking around in a freezer. The thermometer in the car started flashing on 3°, maybe it doesn’t go lower than that.

Mobile mini markets

Something which they do here which is a great idea is the mobile grocer and butcher. One day a week, in Carlipa it happens to be on a Friday morning, a couple of vans roll into town madly tooting their horns to tell everyone they’re here and they set up a couple of stands of fruit and vegetables. The boucherie (butcher) has a van with the side that comes down and displays the fresh and smoked meat, sausages and deli items. We don’t get the Boulanger (baker) very often because we have a boulangerie in Carlipa (our only shop). Andrew and I do our big shop in Carcassonne or Castelnaudary every week but it’s great to have the mini market to get a few things if you’ve run out.