The Ides of March

Poor Ceaser didn't make it thru this weekend all those years ago, but we have.

We were off to Drauginaun for the day yest, under an hour an a half away in the region called The Var (name of the river). We were visiting the newly built holiday home of the Mallets, friends from Angers whose son Francois is a old old hockey buddy of Thomas' from the PeeWee ages. You've seen him and his parents René and Martine on the blog before.
This property has been in René's family for 6 generations. The building that they have totally renovated used to be the family farm's "abattoir" - or, slaughterhouse. Here is it now:

Estelle loved playing in the rocks and dirt. I'm so glad I dressed her for the occasion.
This landing with all it's railings was a great source of fun.

Outside there was a lot to discover!
Here's doctor René explaining the finer points of renovating a slaughterhouse to Thomas.

They explained to us that this area has very strict zoning laws, and so no one is allowed to construct anything "new". You can only renovate existing structures, and you must keep the same style, etc. of the walls. So this photo below shows the small enclosure to the left, which will be their "poolhouse". Which hilariously used to be the pigpen, or "cochonnerie". They enjoyed making jokes that really them in their own poolhouse will be like walking into a pigpen. This was funny since they are both doctors. I should also add that "cochonnerie" also means "stupid thing", like if you say "Oh mince, j'ai fait un cochonnerie", it means 'oh darn, I've gone and done something stupid".
This big empty space will eventually be the pool. It used to be a big watering basin for the animals. Stacked in the middle you see the traditional clay shingles which the workmen removed from the old structure and have reused on the new. There are no nails, they are just placed in a certain fashion.
Estelle enjoyed this chaise lounge. Meanwhile I kept thinking of the chair that comes alive and battles Snoopy during the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special.
Martine is hiding behind René as they explain the finer points of sunbathing to Estelle.
Meanwhile, a very famous bike race called the "Paris-Nice" was going on this weekend. It always ends in Nice on a Sunday. Ironically, Saturdays "stage" was going right by the old slaughterhouse in Drauginaun! Here's a photo of my leg that was supposed to be a shot of the helicopter which was so close to the house that Estelle was mildly intrigued/terrified and I thought those clay shingles where gonna come right off.
We had to go home a different way in order to avoid the blocked roads.
Back home last night, she had a lot to say before taking a shower with Daddy in his swimsuit.
He had just said to her "tu es nue comme une verre" (you are naked like a worm!) and she interpreted it as "nu comme une pomme de terre" (= naked like a potatoe). This provided several minutes of screaming laughter that ended in hiccups.

Meanwhile, today began with a double batch of pancakes and succulent syrup from my brother Cedric. Some pancakes went wrapped in aluminum with my ever-so-sporty husband and Eliott's dad as they crossed the Italian frontier to hit the slopes for the day. The rest of the batch was devoured by Estelliot and Estelliot's moms. Namely me and Fransiska. Eliott keep saying something over and over in Dutch to his mom, who smiled and told me "he wants more syrup."
We finally rolled our bellies to the car and made our way to Villefranche, to the top-notch playground there. Unlike the playgrounds here in Nice, it is new, very clean, in excellent condition and hardly frequented at all. It also has a lovely view of the sea and lots of benches in the sun or the shade.
We spent a great hour in the warmth of the sun, I was in a light shirt and no coat. The kids had a blast. There are two enclosed playgrounds. Once for ages 2-6, another for ages 6 and up. After 20 mins in the younger, we moved to the larger and Eliott, whose future career is as a stunt man, really got to show his stuff on this massive slide that I wouldn't even go down, pregnant or not!

Estelle remained in calmer waters:

In this photo above, another little boy had a motorized car which Estelle quickly got the hang of. And below we have Evil Kenival in his finest hour.
After about 20 times going down head first (again, this is a slide for 6 year olds, not 2 1/2 year olds!) he did get a slight fat lip but hardly a tear was shed. Estelle went down twice, but she dragged her hands to slow herself down. Not so for her fair-haired friend.
Here's a short film of Estelle practicing for her permit. You can see a bit of the soccer field below this playground with a match going on, and beyond that, the sea in the bay.