Strike, Strike, Go Away

Another one today. If only I understood it all, but I don't. Now there's a gas shortage because the strikers are holding the petrol hostage in tankers off Marseille. If we make it out of here Friday morning and make it up to Stephan & Laure's wedding in Nantes this wkend, it may just take a miracle.
Meanwhile:
No this is not child labor in strike aftermath. 2 Saturdays ago we had a little soirée with 2 1/2 other couples and a total of 7 kids. Estelle's room got pretty wild.
Eliott hung tough as the lone boy amidst 6 girls.
Estelle enjoys a bath, making Irish soda bread with me one morning....
A visit from my friend Chantal...
Socca with 2 retired teachers from Hazen High school, colleagues of my brother Wes.
Playing PlayMobil with Pierre. Supposedly we'll be getting on a plane Friday morning......if there's not a strike....

In Wake of Recent Events

She looks so harmless, even at 6:15 in the morning....


So innocent... (and this is Léna's room for those of you who have never seen a photo of it)
And pure
Sunday morning we went to the beach with Pierre at Villefranche....

That's Thomas & Lena in the foreground on the rock...
It was a beautiful morning
Not bad for October 3rd....
That's Estelle out in her Winnie the Pooh buoy.
Saturday afternoon we met up with my American/Ghanian friend Naad and her daughter Mai. They live over on the other side of town now so we don't see them as often...


No movies but this is the best I can do with the old MacBook....

1,620

This is the amount in US dollars that it will cost to fix my Macbook.
That's an expense cup of tea.
Trying not to throw up about this. All because Léna decided to bump my desk.
Needless to say I can buy a new one for that price - in America, that is. Not here.
Trying to keep it relative.
We're all healthy, right?

Tea and Sympathy

Yesterday morning, our routine was different for various reasons and I had not finished my tea yet by the time I sat down to check emails. Sometime later, when I returned to Macbook, I discovered the entire keyboard submerged under tea, though my mug was upright right next to it.
Léna was nearby. Upshot: Laptop is dead and has been taken to the Apple dealer. This broadcast is coming to you from my OLD and very slow Mac.
Cross your fingers for us.

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!