A Weekend in Provence

Saturday morning we drove to Salon-de-Provence, a town in between Aix and Avignon. Here we rendez-vous'd at Thomas' aunt & uncle's house with his parents so as to "hand off" Estelle for 2 weeks. We stayed the night and came back to Nice with just Lena Sunday.
A few shots:
Estelle on Papy's shoulders with Uncle Dédé
Picking cherry tomatoes with TaTa Yvette
Léna trying on one of her many gifts she received in a new "shipment" from Angers/Calvinet...
Enjoying "cornet de creme", all completely made from scratch by Yvette. One word: Unbelievable.
Those cones look small, but they were big in delightfulness. I had more than my share.

Lena enjoyed sleeping in this iron bed which was used by her grandmother (Andrée), Yvette, and the 3 brothers in that family. It has been lovingly restored. It is charming. So is Léna in her Ben & Jerry's onesie.
Don't worry we blocked the sides with stuff so she wouldn't get stuck in between.
Manou enjoys feeding Léna her nighttime bottle (which I had pumped while stuck in traffic on the autoroute earlier!)
Dinner out on the veranda....
Tradition in France is to toast a new baby with champagne. I am as excited as I look. It was some top notch champagne! Dédé's wine cellar is something to revere.
It should be noted that our visit to Salon also encompassed me meeting up with some family! My grandmother's second cousin, who is only 61 years old, is presently touring around France with her husband on bicycles.
Lin and Seph live in Oregon. I had never met them. They were long lost until 4 years ago when a man whose hobby it is to research photographs he finds in Antique shops connected them and us. It's all quite remarkable and complicated so suffice to say there were many Salmons and Stones up in heaven grinning away Saturday at noontime as I picniked with Lin, to whom I am a 2nd cousin twice removed.
Here they are, riding away to Avignon, their next stop. What a treat to get to meet!

And now here we are back in Nice, Estelle-less. It is bizarre. Last night after Léna went down at 7:00 we sort of wandered around the apartment giggling and not knowing what to do with ourselves as normally it's time to feed, bathe, chase and entertain Her Highness. I know she is having a blast and getting LOTS of attention.
Here's Lena with her friend Louise:

Trip to New Hampshire

Well, we've officially been back in France one week. It's 8:25 a.m. and this is just about the time we wearily crawled in the door last Friday morning, children and suitcases in tow.
Stealing a few minutes over my tea this morning to upload some more photos.
Yesterday I unloaded the last suitcase and today I pack up new suitcases to ship Estelle off for 2 weeks with Papy and Manou, and ourselves alongside for one night in Provence at TaTa Yvette's.

Faithful readers may remember that my Blog Chronicles of our trip Stateside left off just after 4th of July weekend and I had arrived in NH chez Lisa & Dan to visit them and my mom. Sister Laura also came up from below Boston to visit for one night.
Here's what Dan was up to....

Laura caught mom, Lisa and I enjoying someone else's blog!
That's the only photo I have of my mom from the whole 4 days! She was paparazzi-weary so I let her be. (Can you imagine how many photos you have to pose for when you have 11 children and 26 grandchildren? Staggering!)

Estelle did a lot of tearing around Lisa and Dan's big house. They have two different sets of stairs to get to their 2nd floor and that was VERY entertaining for Estelle. As was the dishwasher, apparently.

We did a lot of lounging around as the weather was SOAKING WET.
p.s. Laura you left those socks at Lisa's.
Here's cousin Ana at the playground with Estelle, in between rainshowers. Should be noted that Ana was on a marathon of playing with Estelle. I almost felt like I should be paying her, the poor college grad that she is....
A slightly different look than the parks in Nice!
Retro toys:
Rain Rain Go Away.
Story hour at the New Boston Library....
Who is that woman in between Lisa and I? The Milkman's daughter? How is she our sister? We always said Laura looks nothing like us.....

One morning Laura gave us pedicures.
Heaven.... now if this isn't sisterly love, what is?
Enjoying the baby over tea....

We had a great few days before going back up to VT and getting ready for Thomas' arrival....Thanks to the whole New Boston crowd for being our wonderful hosts.

Time to get my day going so I'll sign off, but here's a sneak peak at the next installment with a little video....

Estelle on Uncle Paul's swingset. July 15th.

Videos

Here's a few videos from the past few days. Estelle talks 24/7, in English, about anything and everything. But of course when I try to catch her doing it on video, she clams up. Sort of. Well, you get the idea!

Appetizers

A few things to wet the whistle until I get organized to start blogging again.

(how arrogant to think people are sitting around waiting for me to post.....).
A video from June 27th, the day we moved my sister into my brother's house cause now he lives in my mom's house (say it 3 times fast).

Followed by 4 photos as a partial representation of what Estelle did in America:
1. Picked flowers (this is a Red Clover, the Vermont State Flower)

2. Watched the farmer haying the field (not just any farmer, my 2nd cousin).
3. Took some nature walks
4. Played with cousins at Shadow Lake
Lastly, here is what Lena did: Drink Milk and sleep. This photo is so NOT flattering but hilarious so must be included.

ALIVE AND WELL

Arrived in Nice this morning. Trip ok.
Now back on-line so sometime this weekend will post the 3,000 photos from the rest of our trip in America.
Hello Everyone! I owe a lot of emails and thank-you's to many people.
Also our postal mail was being held during our absence so if anyone mailed us packages, etc and thinks we are very rude and forgetful for not acknowledging them....that's why. (we are rude and forgetful but this time there is an excuse).

VERMONT: The First 2 weeks

Here we are in America, I'm at my sister's with a high-speed internet connection. 20 photos to say we are alive and well with a brief description. Nothing is in the right order but beggar's can't be choosers.

Cousin Chelsea with Wayne, Cole and Lena...
Mom reads to Estelle and Cole.
Wes and Dan under Dad's old Chevy.
Heather and Estelle with guitars.
Wes gives a trackster ride to the kids...

These next 5 shots are near a small lake where we stopped to give Estelle a break whilst traveling to NH from VT yesterday. She still threw up later on. Dang. One thing I've learned on this trip - the girl is prone to being carsick. Rats.





Sunday evening, Estelle and my friend Ana's daughter Aleah told Joan how to get out the weeds in her new garden.
Spanish dinner on the deck.
4th on July on this past Saturday - dressed for the occasion!

Friday July 3rd, in Richmond, VT - Uncle Danny shows Estelle around his farm.
Thursday July 2nd, Aunt Mary reads to Estelle.
Thursday afternoon, visiting my Aunt Becky, Dad's sister in Colchester.
Wednesday July 1st, visiting my Dad's other living sibling, Aunt Elaine in West Glover...
12 hours after arriving in Glover, Tuesday June 23rd, visit from my high school friend Jane and her 3 kids!
Checking out frogs by the pond.
Snack time in the playhouse.
Saturday June 27th - the day the whole family came to move Joanie from her village house into Wesley's old house on Perron HIll.
Playing in a tree.
Mom meets Lena, grandchild #26.
Two little girls who like to watch a baby.
Where are the photos of Aunt Martha and her kids, of Uncle Cedric pushing Estelle on the swing, of the 4th of July at Peter's house, etc etc.... I just don't have time for photos of everything, I suppose! Having a great time and anxiously awaiting Thomas' arrival Monday.
Best of all, Estelle is speaking 90% in English. And unbelievable transformation. I cannot believe how well is speaks.