Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Sightseeing in Pau

There is a bus from our house straight to the center of Pau. Yesterday, the girls and I went sight-seeing. First stop, a fountain next to an old church.

The real point of the journey: to get crêpes! When I was in Paris for a few days ten (!) years ago, I practically lived off of crêpes from carts. I haven't found one yet in Pau, though, so we spent a little more for the restaurant version.

The highlight for the children was window shopping. So many swimsuits, pretty dresses, and, here, bridal gowns.

There's a short funicular train.

It's free. We rode it 3 times.  😊

For me, the highlight was seeing the high Pyrénées on this clear, sunny day.



Monday, June 20, 2016

Les Gens de Voyage

As we were walking to the kayak races, a few shiny white caravans were winding through the streets toward the river path. When Leen remarked that the 'gypsies' were coming, we thought it was a joke.

Then we got to the park by the river... now a caravan parking lot.  I didn't think there were even roads to get in there. The path was full and we were winding between trucks, campers, awnings, laundry racks and children. But the people were nice-- one said "Enjoy your vacation" (In French, I guess  motivated by us speaking English) and Leen answered "It's you who's on vacation!" and he laughed.

We passed a police man and the mayor along the path, but apparently it is law that towns have to provide some space for them.  The newspaper that night reported that they're planning to stay for two weeks and they are a well-known evangelical (presumably Christian?) group.

Click on this article to see the pictures; they definitely blew several of my stereotypes away.


Sunday, June 19, 2016

Extended family

Some of our favorite times so far have been activities that seem too mundane to capture or times when the camera wasn't appropriate.  Given that we are here with the kids and want them to have lots of down time, there has been a disproportionate amount of time spent hanging around the house, walking to the bakery or the grocery store or cleaning the house.

Our biggest stroke of luck, I think, was our rental house. Not just because it's beautiful and just spacious enough for us to be comfortable, but because it is a duplex shared with Leen's sister-in-law's family. (Leen is Dave's sister, my sister-in-law). Living next door has not only given us friendly contacts who are willing to put up with our attempts at speaking French but also has made it so we've been included in family events. Last night, we celebrated Odette's 80th birthday. (Odette is the mother of our host, Béatrice, and Leen's husband, Jean-marc). It was amusing in that Odette didn't want a big deal made so it was just a family dinner and then at the end they lit candles and sang Bon Anniversaire over her objections.  Similarly, last weekend, Béatrice and her husband, Xavier, invited us over for Sunday aperitif  which meant wine and snacks that started at 1pm.  I mostly just quietly drown in the rapid french but I do get bits of conversation and lots of good food and drink and friendly company.



Thursday, June 16, 2016

Toulouse with Robin

I saw on Facebook that one of the girls' teachers (and our neighbor) was going to be in Toulouse this week. So we drove two hours west-ish to spend the afternoon with her.

Mae and Robin 'race' their horses


Adi on the upper deck


Ben makes his suave descent

Old men collected on a bench in the nearby park


Beautiful buildings everywhere.




Ice cream and macarons to say goodbye

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

San Sebastian

While Dave was on a business trip hanging movie screens in Barcelona and London, my friend Ben from Colorado was visiting. On Monday, he and the girls and I drove east two hours to the Spanish city of San Sebastian, on the Atlantic Ocean.


The forecast was for rain so the girls got to test their new rain boots in the waves... while people swam behind us. They didn't look particularly cold but I wasn't willing to try it (or deal with the aftermath of the girls getting wet!). It didn't rain on us but the wind was fierce.


Vivi collected scraps of sea shells (and a lot of sand).

We visited the aquarium, which I'd been to ten years before. 

Jelly fish

On our trip ten years ago, I'd fallen in love with some iridescent tile. When we remodeled our house two years ago, I used a picture to pick out tile for our powder room. But I didn't remember where I'd taken it in the city so I was shocked to look up and see the building.
Seven
So fun to hang out with Ben!
The bathroom
It was great to hang out with an old (and good!) friend...


Sunday, June 5, 2016

First day in Pau

The river Pau, about a half mile from our rental house.




Our gîte has four sets of French doors, because it is, after all, in France! The shutters are operational, keeping out the heat and the light and opening to let in air. 

Favorite things of the day

Dave:
walking to the river, skipping stones and looking for wildlife. 

Vivi: seeing two snakes and tiny fish that looked like tadpoles (to her). 

Adi: seeing a dead porcupine (actually a hedgehog)?

Mae: getting to play soccer in the yard with her cousin Paul.

Me: enjoying finally bring here, and how nice and well-located our house is.



Thursday, June 2, 2016