CARNIVAL, Costumes, Crepes, Cuteness

Things are hoppin' in Nice. Carnival kicked off Friday night and we're all living and breathing it now - it's all intensified this year because Estelle really "gets" it - and because for the first time in a long time, I'm not in Vermont during this period.
But first, a few other shots: Saturday, while Léna napped, so did the rest of the family....
Until she woke up and walked in on Daddy and Estelle and decided she was jealous.
Last week on Monday night we had a fantastic "surprise" visit from Craig & Doug. We had a nice aperitif at home, capped it off with a lice treatment for Estelle, and then the boys took me out to one of Nice's top-notch restaurants called "La Petite Maison". Doug and I had a chateaubriand that was just.....unbelievable. As comforting as the food and wine was, the company and the conversation was better. Miss them!

Friday, "Bébé Valise" (Suitcase Baby) came to visit. Really this is Basile, Eliott's little brother, but for some reason Léna can't say Basile and instead calls him "Valise". Which means suitcase.

Léna was really happy to see Valise.

She also has taken to reading in the toilet. Which nobody in this house does, so we don't know where she got that from!
The typical thing to eat on Mardi Gras is crepes - so I made the batter, let it rest, and Thomas worked his magic when he got home Tuesday night. Slap on some Nutella, and everyone's happy. Even Estelle, sporting a hell of a shiner after wiping out racing Léna to the bathroom Sunday night.
And all the rest of Estelle and Léna's spare time is spent dressing up. I've got a lot of odds & ends costumes that I pick up at thrift shops etc.



Lots of kids make headpieces at school/nannys for Carnival. Here's Léna's:

And this is Estelle's from school, that Léna likes to wear. It's pretty amazing, this mouse.

Sunday afternoon we ventured out into the Carnival madness. This year's theme is "The King of Sports". So the 20 floats all have some topical sports reference.

This one above is the Nice team. Below it's mocking the behavior of the French World Cup team 2 years ago in South Africa (when they had a "strike" on a bus).
This person is a man named Bernard Tapie, who is a big sports president and then he went to jail for corruption or something but he's still a gizillionaire.
Meanwhile if you want you can buy some yummy socca.
Or listen to some music

This is the float about the Tour de France (which will come to Nice in 2013). It's all about the doping. Those are doctors behind the guy in the yellow jersey....

This one has to do with how in Nice you can ski during the day and be on the beach by evening.
I don't get this one, something about the middle east or something.
More Nice stuff: It's supposed to be the people who deliver socca.
This one is a play on words: Promenade des Anglais - the boardwalk in Nice, but it's supposed to be the Royal Family out walking in Nice (famous Negresco hotel behind)....


Kate and William:
This is something about how the sport of muscle-making/body building has evolved. Or something.
This is the King. He gets burned out at see off the beach on the last night.
This is the Nice guys again. That's a famous statue in Nice.
This is something I can't explain about something.
These are just girls twirling. They were really young!
This is the queen. I think she is freaky looking. Like the Snow Queen in Narnia.

And here is the huge mob of city workers waiting to move in and clean up. This photo captures about 1/4 of them.

Also in the children's playyard there was this absolutely amazing merry-go-round.
(Don't know this kid above, just trying to capture the intricateness of this thing)
It was all made from driftwood found in Lake Evian (yes. like the bottled water)
It could take 7 kids, and each kids was sitting in/on an animal made of wood, cloth, leather. The animals were all ones that you would find near Lake Evian.



Below: Estelle on the Animal up high in the center - she told us after she was scared.
Léna, meanwhile, lovin- every second.
and it turns by two people going up and down on a see-saw. And the music is live, a guy on a piano.

There's Thomas on the see-saw (right) with Estelle watching him while Léna was riding.The whole thing was like nothing I had ever seen. And totally free. Best part of Carnival.
Today Estelle went to dance, piano, and the pool dressed in a tutu and wearing a tiara. People smiled like crazy at her everywhere we went saying "Oh, Carnival!". I realize it's a little like Halloween. Except instead of Tootsie Rolls and DumDums, you eat crepes.

Valberg

Last wkend, Estelle took her first ski lessons of her little life!


We were in Valberg, which is about 1h30 from Nice
We stayed in a renovated sheperd barn, owned by my friend Philippe R. (as opposed to Philippe C that I go to theater with). Here's Thomas on the 3/4 km walk from the car to the grange.

Down in Valberg village, both mornings we drank hot chocolate and played in the snow while Estelle was in her lesson for 2.5 hrs.
Meanwhile, just 5 minutes away, the views around our lodgings...

Back on skiing....


Playing games after Estelle's first morning on the slopes:
The whole kids' learning area of the ski station:


Saturday we had our lunch at this place with the great shutters:




Saturday night, after a bath, look what happened in front of the fire before dinner:
Sunday, back to ski lessons:
...while we did some sliding!


Sunday breakfast:

This is where we all slept together
The bergerie/grange where we stayed/froze as seen from the outside:

There were a few "challenges" due to the extreme cold: pipes freezing, heat not working, chains needed on car tires. But it was all fun, nonetheless! Too bad we picked the coldest weekend of the century to go!

Miss America

Today while Estelle was at piano, Léna and I finally got into a electronics store for me to handle some cameras that I am eyeing on the internet. I didn't buy one, because the prices in France are so ridiculous compared to those in America for the same product that I can't bring myself to buy one here. Yet.
So here's a film from 10 days ago or so. I'm just sitting here breathing thru my machine so thought I'd put this up.

And for anyone who cares, my lung update: have been not well for a week, finally got in with an Ear/Nose/Throat specialist who stuck a camera up my nose (so freakish) and declared inflammations etc but no infection.
Then I met my new favorite guy, Dr. Bensa - my new pulmonologist who is easier to access than the nice lady lung doctor at the hospital. He spent almost 45 minutes with me and even put me in this super cool glass box I keep seeing at all the pulmonologists that I've been wanting to get into since November.
You get in and they seal you in, with this exciting and mildly terrifying sucking sound when the door shuts. Anyways, they did a bunch of tests while I was in the box, while talking to me thru a microphone that was piped into the box. It was surreal. So Brave New World meets 1984 and the Miss America contest & the soundproof booth for the final question. I kept joking with the Doctor, when he told me to "breathe like a dog" (first of all, what?) I responded with "Well, Doctor, my idea of how to bring about world peace would be to start with the children. Right after I finish my baton lessons" This needed explanation and interpretation, but once he got my joke he thought it was great and called in the other doctor for a repeat. It was like my own kind of Vaudeville, behind glass. The Freak show at the Champlain Valley Fair.
This is my kind of audience, I thought. I made the same joke to Dr. Lung-who-tried-to-kill-me-with-too-strong-Horse-shots back in November when the pleurisy was crippling me and it was like Rodney Dangerfield: "hello, is this thing ON?"
Anyhoo, verdict: Post-Infectious Persistent Asthma - PIPA. That's me, Pipa Middleton.
Now I have a machine, again, with tubes and masks and medicine and a portable inhalor too. They think it'll take a good month to calm things down. I'm not teaching for the rest of the week.
Meanwhile, "are you a citizen of state, country, or world"? (this was the final question for last year's Miss America)....

No more diapers!

2 weeks ago on a Wednesday, Léna just said "I'm going peepee in the toilet". And that was that.

We had this little chart that came free with diapers in the US last summer. Léna went from 0 to 60 in 1 second. There was no middle-ground or accidents or anything. Just like that, snap your fingers, she decided to use the toilet (not even a little potty - I mean the real deal) all day long, for everything.
At first I thought I'd need to reinforce the good behavoir with stickers - I soon blew thru my stickers! (hey mom do you recognize those? You gave them to me, they were on rolls...)

Meanwhile, we went to a housewarming with friends last Sunday. Here is Basile, Eliott's little 3-month old brother, with Rose, who is Flora's 5-wk old sister.


There was some costume fun - Flora, Eva, Estelle & Celestin.
Another day, I found Estelle playing "teacher/school".
These 2 are good friends. Mostly.


Saturday Thomas made us a marble cake- yummy. Even tho he forget the baking powder.
Wednesday afternoon, Léna took her nap, I layed down on the couch, Estelle played quietly, then came to lay down with me, and fell asleep. I got up, Léna woke up, and calmly stood guard over Estelle until she woke up.

Here's Estelle & Léna Skyping with cousin Heather in America.

So much fun to have together on Wednesdays when there's no school.
Monday night - whoops! Out came Estelle's tooth!
Well guess that's all for now. I'm in a lung relapse that I'd rather just not get into for lack of energy but people are watching so hopefully and almost certainly it's not all going to spiral like before.
It's cold as can be over here! Below freezing. Quite unusual. Not helping the lung issue but we've seen cars with snow on the roofs which is shocking around here. Tuesdays they cancelled school at lunchtime and Thomas was let out - all we had in Nice was rain but all around was snow.