• French stores whose names I enjoy saying:

    Darty  NafNaf  Quick Podmod BUT Ed FNAC and my personal favouite: Flunch

  • French stores whose names I enjoy saying:

    Darty  NafNaf  Quick Podmod BUT Ed FNAC and my personal favouite: Flunch

  • Untitled post 4764

    Le mecredi So, kids in France through elementary-level don’t have school on Wednesday.  Don’t ask me why.   {OK if you must know…the best I’ve understood it is: something to do with the official split between church and state in 1905. After this, the Catholic church asked to have Wednesdays off, so children could receive the religious education…

  • Le mecredi

    Le mecredi

    So, kids in France through elementary-level don’t have school on Wednesday.  Don’t ask me why.   {OK if you must know…the best I’ve understood it is: something to do with the official split between church and state in 1905. After this, the Catholic church asked to have Wednesdays off, so children could receive the religious education they had…

  • Untitled post 4771

    After a couple hours of eating amazing canapes….we started eating this incredible meal.  We ate for hours…almost 5 in total!  The chateau had a large vegetable garden on the grounds…which made for the freshest and tastiest salads and vegetables.  The cheese course included 3 different regional cheeses.  The gratin dauphinoise was by far the best…

  • more eating

    more eating

    After a couple hours of eating amazing canapes….we started eating this incredible meal.  We ate for hours…almost 5 in total!       The cheese course included 3 different regional cheeses.  The gratin dauphinoise was by far the best I have ever eaten…served piping hot and super creamy.  Thank you to Stephen and Dervla for…

  • Untitled post 4779

    French-Irish Wedding Extraveganza – the part where we eat (some more) So as you would imagine, standing around and eating incredible Canapés (Hors d’œuvre, appetizers, whatever it is that we are supposed to call them) non-stop for hours really makes one hungry.  Well lucky for us [luck o’ the Irish I suppose] we were in for a…

  • French-Irish Wedding Extravaganza – the part where we eat (some more)

    French-Irish Wedding Extravaganza – the part where we eat (some more)

    So as you would imagine, standing around and eating incredible Canapés (Hors d’œuvre, appetizers, whatever it is that we are supposed to call them) non-stop for hours really makes one hungry.  Well lucky for us [luck o’ the Irish I suppose] we were in for a serious meal. We were lead into a candlelit stone barn that…

  • Untitled post 4789

    French-Irish wedding Extraveganza (Part Deux) So on Saturday at ‘half three’ (that’s 3:30 – and not literally ‘half of three’ – which would be 1.5 – or 1:30 as I would have guessed) the wedding itself got going. The wedding itself was a beautiful affair.  We weren’t quick enough to beat out the relatives who…

  • French-Irish wedding Extravaganza (Part Deux)

    French-Irish wedding Extravaganza (Part Deux)

    So on Saturday at ‘half three’ (that’s 3:30 – and not literally ‘half of three’ – which would be 1.5 – or 1:30 as I would have guessed) the wedding itself got going. The wedding itself was a beautiful affair.  We weren’t quick enough to beat out the relatives who sat on the side that…

  • Ça Marche Comme Ça

    Some of you have noticed that – due to overwhelming demand (i.e. one person) – we added the ability to subscribe to the blog (so you don’t have to waste all those valuable seconds of your day looking at pictures of us to see if there is anything new).  To do so – just click…

  • Ça Marche Comme Ça

    Some of you have noticed that – due to overwhelming demand (i.e. one person) – we added the ability to subscribe to the blog (so you don’t have to waste all those valuable seconds of your day looking at pictures of us to see if there is anything new).  To do so – just click…

  • Untitled post 4800

    French-Irish wedding Extraveganza (part un) This past weekend we drove from here to close to Bordeaux, which is basically a 650km road trip from one side of France to the other.  We had friends take care of our kids for the weekend (yes, yes – those are good friends) so we could make the trek…

  • French-Irish wedding Extravaganza (part un)

    French-Irish wedding Extravaganza (part un)

    This past weekend we drove from here to close to Bordeaux, which is basically a 650km road trip from one side of France to the other.  We had friends take care of our kids for the weekend (yes, yes – those are good friends) so we could make the trek just the two of us.…

  • Untitled post 4812

    à la bibliothèque We stopped by the little library in the village on our way home today and got each of the kids a library card of their own (although somehow my ability to spell in French means that there is now a “u” and an “r” at the end of Matea…..)  It’s a quaint…

  • à la bibliothèque

    We stopped by the little library in the village on our way home today and got each of the kids a library card of their own (although somehow my ability to spell in French means that there is now a “u” and an “r” at the end of Matea…..)  It’s a quaint little library, with…

  • This is how we roll. (Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

  • Untitled post 4818

    First Day of School Last Thursday was the kids first day of school. New country, new language, new/no home, new friends, and then new school  – hence we were expecting a very smooth and easy rentree (note: english really needs a single noun for “back to school time” – can some of you work on…

  • First Day of School

    First Day of School

    Last Thursday was the kids first day of school. New country, new language, new/no home, new friends, and then new school  – hence we were expecting a very smooth and easy rentree (note: english really needs a single noun for “back to school time” – can some of you work on that?) Luckily when we…

  • Untitled post 4824

    Le Pont du Gard On our way home from le Midi we made a small detour off the autoroute to stretch our legs, let the blood flow back into my white-knuckled driving hands, and let the kids do what all small children love best – look at ancient Roman ruins! The Pont du Gard is…

  • Untitled post 4832

    The South of France (part deux) We went to the sea twice while we were there. Both days we waited until about 4pm or so, as it was easier on our pasty-white-children (although it still was 30* out).   The kids were pretty impressed with being able to pull over to the side of the…

  • Untitled post 4844

    The South of France! We decided to take a quick vacation last week since: 1. we had previously promised the kids a 3 month holiday which disappeared 2. they started school on Thursday 3.if we didn’t leave the Simoni house, it’s possible one of our kids or their stuff would end up in a 40ft sea…

  • Le Pont du Gard

    Le Pont du Gard

    On our way home from le Midi we made a small detour off the autoroute to stretch our legs, let the blood flow back into my white-knuckled driving hands, and let the kids do what all small children love best – look at ancient Roman ruins! The Pont du Gard is an absolute engineering marvel.…

  • The South of France (part deux)

    The South of France (part deux)

    We went to the sea twice while we were there. Both days we waited until about 4pm or so, as it was easier on our pasty-white-children (although it still was 30* out). The kids were pretty impressed with being able to pull over to the side of the road and instead of wheat or canola fields,…