The Duchess vs The Volcano...

Remember that post where I extolled the virtues of living in Europe? So close to so many countries, one of the best perks of living in the south of France.... That is unless one of those countries owns a volcano which decides to errupt and create travel chaos, just as the Walking English Megaphone is trying to flee, I mean, fly, back home.

We are on day 8 of his 4-day stay. We are getting a little anxious. We hope that his re-scheduled flight from Béziers to Bristol will leave on Wednesday, but we are not too convinced that it will. Ever heard the saying 'When America sneezes, the world catches a cold'? Well, Iceland has sneezed and some of it has landed on the Dukedom.

I know in the grand scheme of things, we are lucky. We aren't sleeping at the airport, or missing a family wedding or a funeral, and aren't one of the 4 teachers stranded with 40 15-year old British schoolchildren in Shanghai. But still. We are a little family who like to keep family visits short and sweet. We love each other in small doses. This may get interesting.

Anyone else out there been affected by the volcano chaos? Hope you all are where you want to be, or can get where you want to be going. Thanks to one of the other great perks of living in France, we do have a plentiful supply of wine to see us through...

Happy New Year...

Hope your new year has started well! Family go back to the States on Monday, so I'll be back next week to share photos and details about their visit (So far they've done Paris, Spain, St Tropez, Monaco, Italy and Carcassonne....). Enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend! Bisous...

Paris in sight...

We've got a little bit of everything going on here at the Dukedom at the moment.

First up, the oldest little lady turns 7 tomorrow. I've spent the last week trying to come to terms with the fact that a) I have a 7 yr old, and b) this means it is birthday party time again. What I wouldn't do to have a roller-skating rink in my neighborhood at this time of year.

Just to make sure the house is even messier than usual for the party, we have officially gone back into the fray of house renovations. This time around, painting the stairwell and upstairs hallway and all 7 doors upstairs, removing the paint from the beautiful stone stairs (the person who applied that first coat of paint all those years ago should have been guillotined!), and repainting all 12 sets of wooden shutters. Those of you who know how expensive paint is in France will understand why we have been recently considering selling our firstborn.

All these renovations have been spurred on by the fact that we will be having visitors soon. My dad and my uncle are coming for a 3-week stay over Christmas. My dad has been out several times, but this will be a first for my uncle, and it will be the first Christmas in over 15 years that I will get to spend Christmas with my side of the family.

I'm going to meet them in Paris when they arrive and we'll spend three nights in the city before taking the train down south. I've rented an apartment in the 6th, booked the train tickets, and am now employing Master's level research skills in finding some good restaurants for us to try. I'm arriving two days before them to give myself a little 'me' time and hope to fit in some book shopping and lots of café sitting before the grand tour starts.

For those of you living in Paris, would love to hear some recommendations for restaurants and bars, and particularly bars where we can listen to some music, as per request from my dad (so probably not rock or punk, maybe jazz or chanson français, or something like that!). Thanks!

Little something for the weekend...

It's raining again, must be Sunday. Looks like we'll be doing mostly brunch, laundry, puzzles and homework today, then.

I did manage to get the cabin-fevered girls out yesterday, though. We discovered a new children's theme park/play park that's just opened up outside of Béziers, Captain Frimousse. The difference between this one and all the other children themed places around here is that this one is inside, a concept that up until now has seemed slightly alien to the southern French. Plenty to do when the sun is shining, but not so much for a rainy day. I know the States and the UK are full of places like this, but you don't see too many down here in our neck of the woods.

This new place is in a converted wine domaine hangar and has trampolines, a luge slide, massive McDonalds-style play stuctures, giant legos, a dance floor and a motorized car track. Costs 8.50 euros to get in, parents are free, and you can buy drinks and snacks, too. I managed to stay 2 hours without the kids getting even remotely bored, so I'm thinking that since it's cheaper than a movie and it's open on Sundays and all bank and school holidays, we might just have found somewhere to go when it's not fine enough to go to the beach. It's nice to have some options.

Here's some more Sunday music for you. Number one on the charts this week, Magic System with Même Pas Fatigué.

Spring cleaning...

My dear walking English megaphone arrives today for a week stay, so I'm frantically cleaning the house in the way you do only just before someone comes to sleep and bathe in your house for an extended period of time. I've discovered parts of my oven are dirty that I didn't even know existed, and it appears that the inside of the bathroom door is really meant to be cream, not the dirty grey that I thought it was (apparently, that was just a layer of the little ladies' grubby handprints). Now I know.

I thought Spring cleaning was supposed to happen as the Spring sunshine pours in the windows (which is suppose to highlight the fact that your windows need doing, right?), but we've had an awful lot of rain recently, so I could have easily put off this tedious task for another couple of weeks. And I'm more confused than usual because normally my father-in-law brings the rain with him, enabling him to express his favorite opinion that the weather is no better here in the south of France than it is in England. God help us if it's sunny all week; he might enjoy the sunshine so much that he'll decide to come more often. Bless him.

On the bright side though, the little ladies went back to school today (she says, fists punching the air and dancing around the living room). Don't get me wrong, I love spending soooo much quality time with the little angels, but seriously, do you know how much damage (both structural and esthetic) two little children can do to a place in the span of two weeks? I'm now paying for the fact that midway through Easter break I threw my hands up in the air and thought, why bother, I'll only have to put it away, clean it, straighten it, wipe it up, or glue it back together again in 5 minutes.

At least while they are trapped in school for the day I might get a chance to catch up. That is unless my father-in-law starts trashing the place...

Moi aussi, je t'aime...

Il n'y a qu'un bonheur dans la vie, c'est d'aimer et d'être aimé.
George Sand

Postcard from the edge...

Currently recovering from an intense week of summer 'fun' with the little ladies and the last of the summer visitors.

La rentrée is on Tuesday.

That may be when you see me next....

This is what we'll mostly be up to this weekend.....

Our neighboring village has a 5-day festival that starts tonight. Five days of outdoor meals, music, free wine, bouncy castles and merry go rounds. The 14th of July has overtaken the 4th for this American in France. Although I do miss the sparklers and parades.

Sunday our village is having a 'vide grenier', which basically is a village wide yard sale. Nothing like browsing around your neighbors junk to get to know them better!

The Duke's company bbq chez nous and then a birthday party for the little ladies to go to on Tuesday. I should be just about ready to go back to work on Wednesday.

Early morning swimming lessons finished today, so I'm looking forward to the next 7 weeks or so of not having to worry about being late for school, dance, music, swimming etc.

This is the silver lining of summer holidays with two small children, right?

Velos, Marriages, et Beouf

We've had a busy couple of weeks around here.

My little 5-year old lady has had another bike accident, this time without the training wheels and going quite quickly down a hill. Luckily she had her helmet on; unfortuntely said helmet didn't have a face grid. So another round of trips to the ER, the doctor, the pharmacy and the dentist has ensued. I've got this area of French vocabulary well and truly covered now, thank you.

We also celebrated our 10-year wedding annivesary last week. The Duke and I managed to escape for one whole night! We were married in Arles so decided to have a night in the same hotel to celebrate. We had a sunny couple of hours at the beach on the way and then drove through the Camargue with all of the flamingoes, wild horses and bulls running around. Friends from Canada flew in and surprised us, the weather was amazing, and the food and wine were good too. Almost makes it worth enduring another 10 years....

Last weekend my village held the first outdoor meal of the summer, our annual fête de boeuf extravaganza. Definitely not one for the vegetarians. The cow (and the whole cow) goes on the spit up at the park around 9 in the morning, while all the local boys come out and circle around it, poking it, advising on how to do it, and of course drinking pastis. Oh, and someone stirs the gigantic pot of beans cooking next to the cow too.

At 7.00, there is an aperitif dansant, where the older couples of the village come out to dance for an hour or so before the rest of the village shows up. The food usually shows up around 9-9.30, after a few bottles of wine have already been and gone off the tables, and then the coffee is served and the real dancing begins. We went to bed at 2.30 with the sounds of band still bouncing off the village walls.

And today, I'm off to the beach. I'm taking advantage of one of my last days to myself before school gets out next week. Summer is most definitely here.

The Walking English Megaphone

So I just got back from the Tabac where I bought the Duke's Father's day old Daily Mail, and whilst I was there, I thought it probably best to apologise for his behaviour yesterday, and for what he may do in the next few days he is here.

You see, he's 72, hard of hearing, non-French speaking, more inclined to side with the Germans than the French, and pissed off that we live here and not with him in the UK. So he makes this apparent each time he comes to visit. He speaks loudly, and quickly, in English, to any French person that catches his eye, any woe betide anyone stuck behind a counter, they won't even know what's hit them. One of his favourite sayings is 'Why don't you speak my language?'. Mortifying.

The Duke and I conducted an experiment when we first moved here by taking him to an out of the way pizzeria. We were testing him, and he failed. I finally managed to catch the eye of the waitress to bring the bill, and nudging the Duke, who by this time had almost slide underneath the table with embarrassment, we made a pact that this would be the last supper au restaurant for father. Which actually suits him fine, as his usual philosophy is that it's too expensive, we can cook it better at home, and that there is no substitute for a homecooked meal. Okay, then, we're agreed on the decision to eat our dinners at home...... Whew!

I don't know why I feel so embarrassed by him, or why I feel the need to apologise for him. Lord knows I'm past the age where I should feel mortified by parents......

I guess it's the fact that I'm reminded on a daily basis that I'm foreign, and the last thing I need is for someone who is known to me to pass through the village like a walking English Megaphone, asking for the Daily Mail.

We are just off the Pezenas Market now, so if you hear someone shouting loudly in English, come over and say hello, I'll be the one hiding between the stalls.......