Parties and Departures

Peekaboo!

Saturday afternoon - African festival in Nice. It was really big, this is just one little corner of it. The woman right front in black/green is some we know, Emmanuelle, who is a dancer and who also works as a home assistant sent via social services. After I had Léna, I had the "right" to have her visit 4 hours a week for 3 months. We have stayed in touch and Estelle loves her.
Estelle explores the musical instruments for children.
Back at home, Léna tries to fit into a toy crate.
Sunday: the annual Carlo/Mila/Marie birthday party. The mom's had hired 2 women as "animators", who did crafts with the kids and then painted their faces. Meanwhile, the adults drank champagne. Now that's my kind of party.


Then the 2 ladies left and Thomas was in charge:



More lovely cakes!
Carlo, Marie, Mila: Marie's dad hightailed it recently (internet, younger woman he's never met in person, crazy story, stopped me in my tracks when I heard it in June). Mother doing quite well considering! Funnily enough he was there for the first part of the party and then he left. But then the toilet got plugged and so Marie's mom called him back - he's a plumber! She whispered to me "He's good for something, at least".
Food thought for the day: Choucroute. aka sauerkraut. Cathy (nanny) made a huge mess of this to serve to her daughter's new boyfriend on Sunday lunch - except that Saturday night said daughter came home to announce they had broken up. Lucky us! We all got big tupperware containers of this stuff with all the fixings. It was really good and we were thrilled to not have to cook Monday night!
And lastly, my student Sophie is leaving Nice today for Montpellier (FRANCE, not Vermont). Sophie has come to see me every week since before Estelle was even born.
She went thru an arduous competition for a prestiguous art school, Ecole des Beaux Arts, and so off she goes today for 4 years. I took her out for a glass of champage to celebrate in a lounge bar I have wanted an excuse to go to.


That's the news!

Thomas Turns 33!

Wednesday was Thomas' 33rd birthday. In the afternoon, before swimming lessons, we made him a chocolate tart. I only had one "3" so had to fudge the second number.
Pierre offered to babysit so we could go out.
Funnily enough, when he arrived, Estelle noticed that on Pierre's shirt were "two threes, just like Daddy's birthday". A coincidence!
The restaurant we went to (around the block) used to be just a "cave" (wine shop) and now has been totally remodeled and is also "dégustation" (tasting/eating). There are 5 tables and the owner, who is an oenologue (wine specialist, with years of schooling) serves you the Plat du Jour and selects glasses of wine to accompany.
Charcuterie (smoked meats from Italy) are a focus of this place and you nibble on them to go with your wine. In the middle of the floor is this massive hand-operated meat slicer, which can be rolled up to your table. He explained that an electric blade would have the negative effect of getting warm, which melts the fat on the charcuterie- indesirable effect.
It is very modern - one wall is alive, literally.


The next morning, no mercy. Both girls awoke around 6 a.m. (strike day AGAIN, no school for Estelle). So Estelle wanted to have an oatmeal picnic in the living room.


On Fridays I stay home with Léna. Yesterday she helped with the laundry.

Here's a little video of nothing, just eating.

The Week in Review

Above - Estelle modeling a new outfit from Manou - start of the week. Below: end of the week, Estelle and Eliott enjoying their dessert after a homemade pizza dinner and Ipad show of 300 photos from Slovenia, where they went on vacation this summer.



Saturday (yesterday) I harvested grapes all day at Xavier's property. Thomas stayed home with the girls just to make life easier.
Vines over a kind of terrace trellis-cover.
The view from the pool (where we all stuck our legs after being in the vines all morning).
Getting ready to press. We harvested all of those except 4 crates, which Xavier goes and buys from someplace out in the country to add variety to the flavor of his wine.
This is the press over the "cistern". Each crate of grapes is dumped into the "funnel", and someone turns that hand crank to smush them up. At the bottom of the cistern is a bunch of sticks, strategically placed in a bundle above the spout, with a huge rock on top of them to weight them down. This is to keep all the stems of the grapes from stopping up the hole and spout, that way just the liquid passes thru.

Here's the main course of the meal we sat down to after we got all the grapes in and before the pressing began. Xavier made this lasagna himself, it was ridiculously big pieces - interestingly, no ricotta cheese at all - only bechamel and bolognaise sauce. The entree was breaded fried eggplants and tomato salads, all from their garden.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch at dinnertime - I gave Léna her bath while Thomas took Estelle to swimming lessons. She was happy to see Daddy when he returned!



Other news this week: Estelle began her two Wednesday activities: collective swimming lessons (also Sat) at the municipal pool which is in the old town, a 10-minute walk. She enjoyed it a lot, so far! Also began a music lesson, a small group (only 2 other children). This is with a professional and is in the showroom of used pianos of a well-reputed Maison de Piano in Nice. It is an initiation to music course, which will run the whole year. All different kinds of instruments are presented as well as notes, chords, etc. Wish I was in that class!

Rosh Hashanah & the Tetine Fairy

Last Saturday night, the Tetine (pacifier) Fairy came in the night. Estelle left her a note:
This card explained that Estelle was ready to give up her pacifiers, and that in return she of course expected something! During the day we went to a toy store and Estelle looked around to pick out what she wanted from the Tetine Fairy.
She explained inside her card, I wrote exactly what she dictated to me:
When Estelle woke up in the morning, there was a new doll. That poor Tetine Fairy, she was in sticker shock when she went to the store and found that the doll Estelle had selected cost 46 euros! 46 euros! That is over 58 dollars. That's a lotta Tetines. Dang.
Here is Estelle playing NOT with her 46 euro doll:
That doll is one my sister Martha made me, with a whole bunch of custom-made clothes. Estelle enjoys playing with her now.
Léna is holding the doll's nightgown, for which Martha had made me a matching one back in 1974. Meanwhile, our little Rugby Player is on the move at all times:

This week on Wednesday we had a visit from Lucas Bule, godson to Uncle Craig and Uncle Doug. He was born in London, has already been to Bermuda to visit his mom's family, and now is on his way to go live in Abu Dahbi for 3 years. We enjoyed meeting him. I enjoyed looking at his exhausted mother and knowing I will never relive those early months. Hallelujah.
In response to reader feedback/comments (Martha!), last weekend the Apron Fairy got Estelle a 2nd "tablier", this one with short sleeves. She wore it every day this week (only 3 days, big strike on Tuesday, don't get me started on THAT!)
Curious readers (i.e. my sisters) will be happy to know I have ordered badges with her name on them which I will sew onto the aprons. My dreams of embroidering her name myself were quickly put into harsh reality when I went to the sewing store and the ladies cocked their eyebrows and said "if you can't sew on a button, you better let this one slide, order the badges and move on". Ouch.
Last night, on the eve of 911, I was invited to a Rosh Hashanah dinner - the start of the Jewish New Year. Including myself, we were 6 - 3 Americans, and 3 English - 1 of each being Jewish. I learned that you eat sweet things to bring sweetness to your new year.

Above left, Leslie the host, who is an American NYC Jew, straight up. She owned an art gallery. Anyways, her husband is English and after 10 years in Nice they are moving to Durham England where he is some kind of astrophysicist researcher or some such nonsense. They have a daughter Zelda who is Estelle's age.
Who says we don't talk with our hands in our family? I remind myself SO MUCH of my sister Mary in this picture I laugh every time I see it.

Leslie had a lovely table set for Rosh Hashanah, with the first course being apples in honey - something sweet!
Below, John and Diane - English. Diane is a BBC writer/journalist.

Liz, also English, who lived in Turkey for 11 years, married a muslim Turkish man, had a son by him, and then left him. Then she lived in Bucharest for 3 years (where I have been). We had a lot to talk about. John is a retired yacht captaine in Antibes.
John's wife Jackie, on the left, is American and from Massachusetts - she has been in Nice 32 years. Her children are in London and Boston. Liz and Jackie work at an international school here where Leslie has worked a decade.
So much interesting conversation! I even learned a few Hebrew words but of course now cannot remember a thing as to how to pronounce them. Anyways, morning came calling with a vengance since Léna woke up EARLY and Thomas left at 7:30 for a hockey tournament far away.
I've been thinking of all the fun I had last night and of all the people lost 9 years ago, such contrast.