First Day Skiing!

 Today was Day One of ski lessons.  11:00 - 1:30.  Above:  Estelle maneouvers a slight incline.  (she fell shortly after I took this photo).  Below, about 90 minutes later, you can see Estelle lower left, in red/white, heading left, next to girl w/pink pants (strangely that girl is named Léna).

 Below:  The REAL and one and only Léna, who survived her first day.  She did great, though was crying at the end because she saw me get Estelle first as I couldn't get thru the mob of parents to her right away.  She was tired enough to let that push her over the edge and was crying by the time I got back to her.   When I said "Why are you crying?"  she wailed back "I WANT TO GO TO A RESTAURANT!"

 Once the girls were safely into their lessons, I put on my rented equipment and got myself a 5-day (student price!) pass and off I went, first time in 8 years.  After going down the same trail that Estelle's group was on and using the (I don't even know what it's called in English????  T-bar?  J'bar or something like that) "tire-fesses" (literally:  "buttcheek puller"), I decided I was ready to go higher:

 With my handy laminated little minimap in my pocket, off I went on another tire-fesses which brought me to a 4-person chairlift and with some major terrified trepidation, off I went.

 Totally worth it.  The views were amazing.  I stayed on only one huge green trail that took me all the way down, and then it was time to get the girls.   

Thomas left this a.m. at 7:00 to head back to Sophia to work today and tomorrow.  He'll come back up tomorrow night and stay thru til Saturday.  I look forward to skiing with him - though I totally enjoyed being on my own today, even tho I only skied for an hour.  Conditions were perfect.

Piou Piou

Sunday - today we checked out the village of St. Dalmas, which to our delight has everything we need.  Then we went the 2 km more up the hill to La Colmiane, the ski station.  We got all our stuff to be ready for skiing tomorrow.  Here's the girls with Piou Piou, the mascot for the little kids' area.  Estelle & Léna we SO excited about him.  It snowed beautifully here today and things are great.
I have been in fine form all day - no migraine!

Ski Chalet, Day One

Our little family is happily installed in St. Dalmas, a village in the greater commune of Valdeblore, where there is a ski skation La Colmiane.  We arrived this afternoon and are thrilled with our chalet that I found to rent on the internet.  The owner and his wife were here for the meet & greet.

No photos to show yet and here's why: this morning at 7 a.m. I woke up with a headache, which progressively got worse as I spent my morning packing up to leave Nice, with Andrée & Guy helping.  We left around 12:30 for the quick ride (less and 90 minutes) and my headache was escalating.  Eventually I was carsick and Thomas did a quick pull-over.  As soon as our meet & greet was over at the chalet, I laid down and things went from bad to worse.  After vomiting 10 times and feeling like my head would split open, phone calls were made, and a lovely doctor named Vincent arrived at our snowbound chalet, gave me a shot in the butt and some codeine to drink and went on his merry way.  1 hour later I was able to sit up.  4 hours later I ate soup.

Holy migraine, batman.  This happened to me once last year and the same result:  only a shot in the butt was able to save me.  Anyways, so grateful for the French system of doctor house calls - even up a mountain in the snow!  Yeah France!

Provided upon popular demand - apparently inquiring minds DO want to know!
Translation of Léna's report card!

"Léna is all about being discreet and efficient.  This little girl rarely speaks out in class but when she does it is always very apropos and fair.  She is always in a good mood and has a willingness to help others which serves her well because they all want to include her in/share with her their play/games.

She consistently wants to complete the exercises asked of her, whatever they may be, and she does so with reflection and ease.

What a pleasure!"

Léna's Report Card

A few photos that I managed to get this morning when I dropped Léna off at Carnaval.

Léna and a little classmate, Liora (Little Red Riding Hood). Louise refused to let me take her photo but she was a very cute Tinkerbell.

 
 And for those of you who want to brush off that rusty French....enjoy.

Happy Valentine's Day!

 Our Valentine's Day is off to a good start.  Here's Estelle & Léna with a nice care package that arrived in the mail last week from Auntie Martha.

 Little Debbie's Snack Cakes - Iced Valentine Brownies.  (this is a silly joke between me and Martha which dates back a few years, trying to hide Little Debbie products on each other.  Don't worry if you don't understand.  We barely do!)

 But look how excited they are because of the colorful box!

 Yum Yum!

 If it's sweet, she'll eat it.

And here's a little "atelier" for making Valentine's Saturday morning before we left for our snow-weekend.  This was fun.

Today at school it's Carnaval.  Really, Tuesday was Mardi Gras, but since the teachers were striking (There is a proposed reform to make the kids go to school on Wednesday mornings, which no one wants). Carnaval was pushed back to today.  Léna went in full cowgirl/flamenco dancer attire.  She was excited!  Estelle's school doesn't do this but I will go today to give a little English lesson, my first time since she's been in 1st grade. Should be interesting!
My special Valentine Thomas is in bed for day #2 with a gastro/flu bug that all of Nice seems to have.  I myself am back on cortizone for my lungs as I've been coughing up stuff.  And Léna's been sick too with a cough.  We are ready for vacation which starts in 2 days!

This and That

 It's a lot of work to try on last year's snowpants.  Toooooooooooo small!

 Yes another frangipan.

 New coat rack thing.  Amen.  I finally found it after searching for 6 months.  Thank you French craigslist-type site.

 Sous-chef above.  Meanwhile, out in the hallway....

 Testing out new velour p.j.'s....  Martha do you recognize that teddy bear with the little blue sweater? You gave it to me for my baby shower for Estelle, in Mom's basement in the winter.  He was pinned to a clothesline in the rafters.  Léna loves loves loves that bear.

 Estelle's new thing:  giving rabbit ears to everyone in photos.

 Valerie visits on Friday afternoon and got treated to a big costume fashion show.  And art.

 Making telephones out of yogurt cups. 

 Now that Léna doesn't nap on Wednesdays and on the weekends, Saturday nights after we get home from the pool, it's a big race to get some food into her before she looks like this:

 Like I said, Estelle is all about rabbit-earing people in photos now.

That's all for now folks!

"Chandeleur"

So it's that day again:  Chandeleur.

February 2nd is 40 days after Christmas, and thus is known as "Chandeleur" - or "Candlemas" in English.  I doubt many French people know that this 'holy' day is one of the 12 great feasts in the Catholic calendar = Presentation of Jesus at the Temple.

Cause in France, the thing to do on Chandeleur is make and eat crepes.  When in Rome.....

This morning, I had my own Vermont version of Chandeleur: pancakes & maple syrup.  The photo below represents what, to you?  a.  A little 6 1/2 year old girl who is excited to eat her first pancake of the morning.  -or- b.  The daughter of someone with OCD.  Look at that precision with which she cut up those 2 stacked pancakes.  She freaks me out. 

 Then, there's child #2, who takes after her father (yes I know she IS so darn cute, dang it):

So, after all these crepes and pancakes, we needed some exercise today.  Threw the girls' bikes in the trunk and off we went to Beaulieu.  Parked and rode our way back to St. Jean Cap Ferrat.

Please note the villa on the point on the right side of the photo.  How the other half lives.  Meanwhile, out on the jetty, a few shirtless guys.  Yes it was that warm.

One lone sailboat.

All along this walk, a world better than Downton Abbey is just on the other side of the wall.  Villas beyond description on some of the highest-priced real estate on the coast.  Note this rumored-to-be-sultan's property who has a freaky gold statue of some guy on a tortoise which is so big it looks over the wall.

Porte at Cap Ferrat.

Why ride forwards, when backwards is so fun?

We picnicked at 1:45, after finally working up an appetite post-pancake.

Incredibly, Léna sat in that spot and never moved for about 40 minutes.  She just looked at the waves.

Yes, yes, she's cute, I know.

What a lovely day we had.