local attractions

Considering that we are living out in the countryside, there are a couple of surprisingly nice attractions for the kids within a five minute drive. We visited both during the past week: Les Villages des Automates (an offbeat amusement park in the woods) and Zoo La Barben (a beautiful little zoo perched on a hill above a chateau). On top of that, the Christmas market has started in Aix, and they have rides that the girls love. So they are living large these days...

Saint Cyr-sur-Mer

Last weekend checked out a small seaside town about an hour from where we're staying, Saint Cyr-sur-Mer, in part because it was mentioned in a cartoon ("Oggy and the Cockroaches") that the girls watched recently. That made this town very interesting to Ella, who was trying to figure out where exactly Oggy and his friends had been in this town. As for the rest of us, the sunset and the rocky paths by the coast were enough to make our trip worthwhile. We also saw serious windsurfing on the waves. The famed Mistral wind was over 100 km/h at times last week. The wind generally comes for a day or two at a time, once every week or two in the fall (and more often in the winter, I believe). A small price to pay for the nearly constant sunshine here.

a few reflections

Now that we've been in France for three months, a few reflections:

We are feeling very fortunate to have this experience, and we are enjoying it a lot. The girls (including Martha) have had great attitudes about learning the language, and are making a lot of progress. My dormant French (from living here for a year as a ten-year old, and then taking a couple classes in high school) has been better than I expected, although I won't ever be mistaken for a native speaker. It hasn't been all peaches and cream for Eve and Ella, as they often feel some boredom or frustration at school from not understanding what people are saying. Right now they're at the stage where they can say and understand bits and pieces, but not much more.

One of the best parts of our time here has been the natural beauty we're surrounded by. We are living in the countryside, and the sun light in Provence is as good as advertised. We've gone frequently to Aix en Provence to get a bit of city life, and it's a great place to walk around. One of our favorite aspects of Europe is how pedestrian-friendly a lot of the cities are.

Italy trip

We saw a lot of the major sites in Italy during a 9 day trip over the girls' fall break. We were all impressed with the art, history, natural beauty, pasta, and gelato, not necessarily in that order. We did the trip by car, and were pleasantly surprised by the Italian drivers, who did not live up to their naughty reputation. During our visit to St. Peter's in the Vatican, the Pope made an appearance, although we could barely see him in the distance. St. Peter's is indeed a large church.