Phew! Vacation

One week later, I'm finally posting up some more photos from our Calvinet/Auvergne vacation....
Agnes arrives the day after us by train from Paris. This is instant fun for Estelle.
The day after we arrive, Thomas is pounced upon by cousins to play in the village soccer tournament that just happenned to be while we were there. This was a fun occasion to see the village playing fields and discover a little playground I didn't know about.

On the same day as the soccer tournament, there also just happenned to be a large event happenning in Calvinet to honor the centennial anniversary of a historic and controversial thing that occurred that very day 100 years prior - the Mayor of Calvinet removed a cross from the top of the central fountain and replaced it with a statue of liberty (not the same as the kind in NYC). This was a huge scandal in the region and he was blackmarked as anti-clerical. A long story but very very interesting and superbly presented the the regional historical society, involving several different parts of a "day-long" celebration. I went alone with Riri and even got my photo in the local paper the next day!

Papie Guy and Estelle enjoying a family dinner on Sunday afternoon

Sunday walk at Thomas' cousin Marthe & Bruno's farm. This is Bruno's prize-winning bull. He literally weighs a ton. He is one big animal. That's Bruno leaning against him!

Here is Estelle going for a walk on Bruno and Marthe's farm, aided by 2nd cousins Lalie and Aubin.


Monday canoeing down the "Lot" river - Me and Thomas and Agnes and her friend Romain. What a glorious day we had.


After canoeing, we hooked up with the family in a nearby village called St. Projet, home to Thomas' great grandparents and the Ouillade family origins. Sylvette, Thomas' godmother and his dad's first cousin, has inherited the old family home up in the village and uses it as her summer spot. This view is from her window of the village and the Lot river below.

In St. Projet, Thomas' godmother Sylvette and her husband Gerard (who is actually quite lovely but looks scary in this photo! :-)

Wednesday was a lovely dinner at Tata Josette's, the butcher's widow. She made a traditional dish called "Aligo" - mashed potatoes mixed with famous local cheese called "Tomme". You serve it by cutting it with scissors. It should be stringy. And it was, which means it is fabulous!

Josette's entree - ham filled with a mayonnaise vegetable filling.

Playing with cousins out on the patio.

One day we stopped for a visit with Thomas' mom's cousin Nanette and her husband Jean who live in the village as well. They are 95 years old. And still driving! Yowza!

The night before we left there was a wedding in Calvinet of a young woman related to Thomas' uncle DeDe, who is married to his aunt Yvette, which is from whom Estelle got her middle name. Anyways, this bride is connected via various ways to a number of Thomas' cousins. So here they all were walking thru the village after the civil and church ceremony, on their way to the vin d'honneur and the big party after that. We lay in waiting for them on the corner in order to say hello and see them in all their finery. TaTa Yvette and Tonton Dede, us & Agnes, then Jean-Luc, Sylvie and Pascal, Joelle and Theirry, and Jean-Luc's wife Marie-Andree - all cousins on Thomas' mom's side.

Thomas and Estelle and I walking around the village.
Holding Estelle is of course Manou Andree, with her two living siblings, Yvette and Tonton Riri. Riri lives in Calvinet on the property of their parents. Yvette now lives in Salon de Provence.

Thomas' cousin Francoise lives with her family in the original family home of her grandmother which they have recently renovated, next to her father Riri. This is her daughter Annaelle, Estelle's favorite person in Calvinet.

Estelle and Annaelle in front of the fountain on the main square in the village.

Here is Ocean, the horse that is in the pasture flanking Francoise' property. He was a large source of interest.

Vacation Glimpse

Here we are, back in Nice after 10 days in the Cantal, which is in the Auvergne - sort of middle of France. Village of Calvinet, Thomas' answer to my Glover, Vermont.
I have a mere 169 photos from the trip, but when you need to pull together a quick blog - always start with the desserts.
Here are photos of SOME of the desserts we ate every day. Every day we had a big meal with different family members of Thomas parents on both sides. This means:
"Aperitif" - light cocktail and something salty to wet your appetite
"Entree" - starter course
"Plats Principaux" - the is the main course with its side dishes and WINE of course
"Fromage" - you all know what this means, and I should add that CANTAL is also the name of the cheese from the region we were in - some of the best cheese in France.
"Yaourt" - yogurt
"Dessert" - this you should need no translation for. And if you aren't sure what I mean, just check out these photos:
Tarte a la fraise:

Une "fraisier" holy moly was it good. Knocked my socks off

Serious ice cream parlor at night in nearby village of Maurs

Tarte biscuit a la framboise

"Cornet Murat a la creme"

Stay tuned for the rest of the trip....

Stuff We've been doing

It's a whirlwind over here - me back from the States, Estelle's birthday, new toys, and my own kid whose French is surpassing my own. Also we've just had houseguests for 5 nights - busy times! AND bought a brand new car, and are wrapping up the "school year" at Estelle's daycare and nanny as the entire country of France prepares to go on vacation for the month of August, as is the custom. Having said that, so are we - on Friday. But lots to do before then! Anyway, a few shots of recent times:
New tricycle bought for Estelle by Manou and Papie. A big hit!

Neon blue pancakes - a gift from DC friend Phil, Dianne, Claire and Jack Spellberg. They mailed a box full of two large Aunt Jemima mixes, an enormous bottle of maple syrup, and neon food coloring. This cost a fortune to mail, not to mention when I went to pick it up at the P.O. it looks like cocaine poufing out the sides of the box -but really it was just Aunt Jemima.

This tent, another birthday purchase, was promptly returned the next day when I realized it wasn't really safe. Oh well! Daddy had fun in it too!

Going for a walk on a Sunday with the new trike in the background.

Play date with Helen and her son Mael.

VERMONT - or - How to be the only person at a wedding wearing a Hat - Part Two

Let's pick up where we left off the other day, before Estelle turned 2. After eating creemees and seeing my aunts down in the Burlington area, swimming with my twin sisters and seeing my niece Rachel who just graduated from my alma mater, St. Mike's, it was back up to Glover on Tuesday the 8th.
That very night I participated in something called "Shape Note Singing", which, if anyone has seen the film "Cold Mountain", is what Nicole Kidman is doing in a few scenes in her dad's church. This old style of group singing has a major grassroots following up there in VT and nearby, and my sister's fervor peaked my interest. I wish I had a photo of the inside of the barn at the infamous Bread and Puppet where it took place, but even that wouldn't do it justice. It's without a doubt an audio thing. Suffice to say that I sang my head off, even if I couldn't always read the shapes. It was so beautiful, truly.
Back to the photo chronicles: Here's our cabin on Shadow Lake. Dad built it himself in 1957 after purchasing the land from my French-side grandfather (in other words, Mom's Dad). 51 years later, it is still going. No running water, sleep loft, and many many memories. We love it. Outhouse and all.

Wes and I took his boys overnight on Thursday evening. They fished, and I barbequed for the 2nd time in 5 days. I'm becoming a pro. This time it was venison on the grill (sorry Jeri and Sara). And man was it gooooooooooooood. Here they are down on the dock catching stuff.

Oh that's right, readers, lean in an get a closer look - yep, a real griddle. There it is. As in John Denver and sun's comin' up and there's cakes on the griddle. Even with blueberries.

And maple bacon.

Friday we got ready to leave on Saturday to head down below Boston for my niece Caitrin's wedding. I took a photo of the limo cause I knew my husband would be impressed.

Here's part of the ceremony of the wedding in the Orthodox church. They circle a table 3 times holding hands. I should be able to tell you what it means but I already forgot. Check the comments on this entry and with time I'm sure sister Laura can chime in with an explanation.

Maid of honor, my niece Maura and the groom's brother as the best man.

Me with the bride and groom, Michael.

That is one blue cake. Yummy.

The 6 sisters hit the dance floor. You probably all know who is who in there. Without planning it, we are lined up in order of beauty, I mean, age! Just kidding Joan!

This in my niece Emily and her beau Michael (can we find some guys to add to the family who aren't named Michael, please?) They both live in NYC and came on the good old Chinatown to Chinatown bus for the occasion.

Maura and Joan

Maura and me

Cait and Wes (who is sober, even though he doesn't look it!)

Mom getting serenaded by the DJ man, to a Sinatra song of course.

In case you hadn't noticed, I wore a hat to the wedding. In France, women wear hats to weddings. I brought a hat. Suffice to say there was a LOT of commentary about the hat throughout the entire weekend. As the dancing went on, the hat started making the rounds. These are just a few photos:
Wes in the hat

Sister-in-law Susan in the hat

Woman whose name I can't remember in the hat. Laura, what is her name? She is the woman who brought together my sister Laura (mother of the bride) and her 2nd husband New Paul. We call him that to distinguish him from the "real deal", our brother Paul. I have always called him by his middle name, George, so I only have to refer to New Paul as New Paul when I'm talking out loud to anyone else. Which is, I have been told after the past 2 weeks, all the time. Me?

You think here I'm laughing but really I think Mary stepped on my foot.

There are no pictures of so many other family who were there - brothers Ed and Ced, brother-in-laws Dan and Danny (again, looking forward, I ask that we try to avoid bringing in a man with a name already in use by someone in the family), brother-in-law Chris and his daughter's boyfriend Chris (you see what I'm saying here?) and all my nieces and nephews like Conor, Eliza, Addison, Alexandra, Jacob, and Jesse and his girlfriend Sara (thankfully my niece Sara was not in attendance just to confuse everyone more). And somehow WAYNE, youngest family member in attendance, escaped my shutterbug eye. So here's a shot of him 2 days later, on the eve of my departure to Montreal, a send-off BBQ with corn on the cob and all the works to go with it. And peach cobbler made by Darlene who also is in no photos! Sorry!

Here's Cole, working on his Statue-of-Liberty look.

Heather in one of Estelle's old t-shirts...

I boarded the plane and so enjoyed my anonymity and watched the films and ate my meal. I was not the "Woman with the Toddler". What a joy to travel like that!
But look who I returned to! And look at this photo and the previous one of Heather - are these girls cousins or what?

Lastly, despite my jetlag, this girl was ready to go the day I arrived at 7:30 a.m. after stepping out of a taxi.

All in all, what a lovely trip!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ESTELLE

The festivities began early: yesterday was our annual visit of Genevieve, her daughter Charlotte, and HER daughter Eleyethana, our "Ley", now living in Rennes but formerly of Nice. They brought a playdough set and pump for Estelle. This was a big hit.
Here we are having cake with them and a friend and boyfriend.
Going to the park with Ley.

Last night we laid out all her presents and cards that awaited her for this morning:

But, when morning came. who has time to open presents when you live on the French Riviera? What else is there to do when you turn 2 but go to a fabulous beach in chic Villefranche-sur-Mer. We went with our little friend Ines and her mom Kristel. Ines is 5 months older but no taller!



It's true, she's two today. Two candles avoided any disputes about who blows out what.



at 11:30 we went home for lunch, and were treated to Daddy taking a half day and coming home at 1:00. After naptime we went to visit nanny Cathy to celebrate (again) with Carlo and Mila.

Homemade by yours truly in a jetlag blur yesterday, frosting at 10 pm.

Even the candles have soccer balls on them in Europe!

Finally back at home in the late afternoon, opening presents with Daddy.

More gifts!

Here's a little video of some birthday fun today at Cathy's:

And lastly, Ines's mom just emailed me this photo from a beach adventure we had about 3 weeks ago. Look at my hat and it's crazy MC Escher effect! Wild!

All in all, a great birthday. I think she sort of understood that something was different since people kept singing to her in person and over the phone all day.
Thanks everyone!