Le weekend en Avignon

Sur le pont d'Avignon
L'on y danse, l'on y danse
Sur le pont d'Avignon
L'on y danse tout en rond

English translation not so rhythmical...

On the bridge of Avignon
Everyone is dancing, everyone is dancing
On the bridge of Avignon
Everyone is dancing in a circle....

Well, the Edneys walked along the Pont d'Avignon, with no dancing to be had. Partly due to their over-protective mother who wouldn't let go of their hands on a bridge with precarious railings, and a decent drop where the River Rhone has claimed the magnificent bridge as its vicim since the 17th century.

Perhaps the other reason for no dancing was the modern-day distraction of a Jetski show and competition, just under the bridge. You could not get two more diverse emotional and visual experiences...on the one hand the remains of a 12th century bridge constructed by pastor Benezet, apparently as a result of several requests from God, and the other, one of the worst modern machines of our time, the destruction of which I'm sure has been the basis of many different holy requests!

Needless to say the history and significance of the bridge was lost on the kids, and all too soon, we were riverside taking in the jetski race. Me included! Oh well, at least we have our fridge magnet and Lonely Planet guide to recall the significance of our visit to Avignon.

Having said that, the kids have been wonderfully interested and enthusiastic about all the historic sights we have seen. They love the audio guides that accompany them on most of our historical visits. Sasha and Sam in particular work together and determinedly follow the numbers and sequence, I think sometimes to the detriment of actually taking in the sights. I, on the other hand, enjoy just looking and imagining life so many centuries ago, while the kids are tugging on my hands to let me know we missed a doorway or set of stairs. We will each remember different things from these experiences, and who am I to take away from their enjoyment. Throughout this whole trip they have been amazing and never once asked to leave a cathedral, palace, gallery or bridge...but accept the offer unbelievably quickly when I suggest it's time to go!

As you know we then spent a lovely night in the Avignon Novotel. While it was actually quite a relief to stay in a place where most people spoke English, it also made me appreciate the french culture, attitude and language that has become such a big part of our daily lives. This was showcased by the Australians at breakfast with their own jar of vegemite, the Asian tour group racing for the elevators, and the older American couple demanding an early check-in, and in a deliberate dig at the receptionist asking, "Is this a Westin property"?

All these thoughts are my own and probably not shared by our children, who were so thrilled being able to have a bubble bath, and with the glass window dividing the bathroom from the bedroom, which turned from clear to fogged with just a press of a button. Ben skyped us while we were there, and Will couldn't wait to take the laptop into the bathroom and show him how it worked. The little things in life!!

Our Sunday morning was spent, with audio guides, walking through the huge halls and spaces of the Palais des Papes, the Palace of the Popes. I wasn't aware of this piece of history, that the Roman church "escaped" from Rome and the infighting of powerful Roman families, and established themselves in Avignon from 1309, remaining there for 70 years. In moving to Avignon, the Roman church fell under the influence of the french king, and this was evidenced through the lifestyle adopted by the church, more reminiscent of princes than clergy. The scale and the (original) opulence of the palace truly highlighted the wealth and power of the Popes. There was a segment on our audio guides while in the grand hall, that talked of the absolute indulgence of the Popes in their celebrations and grand dinners, in terms of the amount of food, and use of silver and gold plates. The Pope would sit alone on a table at the head of the grand hall, while their guests sat at tressle tables lining the walls, going down the room in order of importance. Reminded me of our wedding...just kidding!

It was yet another piece of history that we have learnt about during this trip, showcasing the incredible divide between the wealthy and poor. And as you stood there, just as we did at Palace of Versailles, you could truly understand the emotions that lead to so many conflicts and revolutions!

It was a wonderful weekend, and a perfect and timely reminder of the beautiful sights, country and history immediately surrounding us, only an hour by train. While school and french immersion are a key part of our time here, we are equally determined to avoid a routine, and experience as much of "other" France that we can. Looking forward to sharing those "other" experiences with you over the coming months.

M x

The birthday carnival continues....

While I am determined that a separate blog will not be written for my 4..th birthday tomorrow, I wanted to include these latest photos, showing firstly the kids enjoying the pool in Avignon (Queensland-style). While the water was absolutely freezing, due to no heating and gradually cooler weather, they had a ball and were determined to make Sasha's birthday weekend fun for her...blue lips and all! I must add, it felt very strange to be staying in a 4-star hotel completed 2 years ago, metres from a famous and historic 12th Century french town...having said that, got used to the luxury very quickly!

Secondly and more importantly, are photos of the gorgeous and thoughtful gift sent to Sasha and myself, from Mel and Blair....for us to enjoy, while you are all so far away. Thanks guys, you are wonderful!

Sasha was thrilled. The package arrived by courier Montpellier-style, just before school pick-up. I was able to quickly put the items on display, and was rewarded by a huge smile from Sasha when she came through the door. Will was our artistic director and did a fabulous job creating the perfect set.

It was a wonderful climax to a great weekend. I hope Sasha won't mind if I break the news to her gently...carnival is now over my darling!

M xx

Mon anniversaire a l'école et la nuit

Just wanted to let you know I had a special afternoon at school. When it's your birthday here, all the children and teacher stand around in a circle and sing Happy Birthday. I had to stand in the middle of the circle!!

It was pretty special as they sang Happy Birthday to me in 5 different languages - French, English, Espagnol, Japanese and apparently "Americaine'. Not sure what language that is, but I assured mum it was different to the English version anyway.

Then I handed out lollies with the help of 2 friends, Maya and Meline.

I felt like a real part of the school, and not as if we only started 2 weeks ago!


Since writing a blog this afternoon, we have had our sushi dinner out with Jess, which was great fun. We then went for a walk around the old part of "Centre Ville" near our apartment and the Arc de Triomphe. We all had a chocolate chaud, and now time for bed.

Mum was pretty creative with her photos. Hope you like them!

Thank you to everyone for my wonderful birthday wishes. You have made me feel very loved from such a long way away!!


love Sasha xx

Joyeux Anniversaire Sasha!

Well this is a first...our daughter's 9th birthday in Montpellier, France. Exciting on the one hand, but just doesn't seem right not being surrounded by family and friends!

The boys came into me around 5.30am so excited for Sasha, who was happily oblivious, and fast asleep until they woke her at 6.30am. All happy now, presents open...and currently running around our apartment with Sasha's favourite gift, elastics! The little things in life, c'est magnifique! All the girls (and boys) play these at school, where you put the elastics around your ankles and then someone yells out something like, "Qui aime....?", and if you don't like it, you jump out. Sam loves playing with the big girls!

Today, l'ecole then sushi tonight. Our babysitter Jess from Australia, who is studying here for 4 months, is joining us, which will be lovely.

Wish you were here, or we were there!!

Love to all!

School life a Montpellier

As I was preparing dinner tonight in the kitchen, the children were all around me...skipping and dancing in the bedroom, on a barstool at the kitchen bench writing Sasha's birthday card, at the kitchen table doing des devoirs.

Today seemed a great day at school, and the pearls coming out of the mouths of babes were priceless:

Will: I played with so many boys today. We played "Attrap les files"....catch the girls. Went on to explain, could be "garcons attrap les filles" ou "filles attrap les garçons"

Will: "I have so much homework. I have to read for a demi-heure....can't believe I have to read for 15 minutes."

Sasha: "Will, a demi-heure is 30 minutes!"

Mum: "Why do you have so much homework?"

Will: "Mum, I am the highest grade in school! Higher the grade, more the homework."

Sam, sitting down to his apparent homework, saying quietly to himself "I will need to use a stylo bleu".
(he thought the notice about after-care, written in french, was his homework. Bless him! Needlesss to say he happily bounded away from the kitchen bench, when he realised he had no homework)

Mum to Sasha: "Does Vincent still tell you he likes you?" A very cute story that one. This lovely boy Vincent, who can speak English, has liked Sasha from day one, and keeps telling her he likes her. He wrote her a poem...

"When the rain falls, you are the rainbow in the sky"!!

Will: "I wish Sasha knew the word for cute in french, so she could tell Vincent."

Sasha's reply: "I know the word for cute, it is "mignon"...but why would I say that to him? That means 'little', Vincent isn't little!"

Anyway, happy evening at Chez Edney.

Sasha's birthday tomorrow and she is very excited. Would you believe no rice crispies in Montpellier, so I couldn't prepare my usual low-key chocolate crackles for her class. Oh well, some Haribo lollies will have to do!

Sasha wants to come home for lunch tomorrow, instead of the canteen, so I can make her an omelette. Then, tomorrow night, sushi in France.

For her pseudo birthday party, we are heading to Avignon for the weekend, and have booked ourselves into Novotel Avignon, in the heart of the old city and with a swimming pool, for a bit of 4-star 'luxury'. Happy days!

Love to all.

M x

School for me so far...

Hi everyone

I have started school. The school is called Ecole Lamartine, and its only trente metres from our apartment. I have made a few friends already. One is a girl Maya who speaks English, yeah! Her mum is french and I think her Dad is English, so she can speak English but has a very strong french accent. Today we played elastics. Mum said we should buy one and bring it home.

My teacher is the principal of the school and she is very beautiful. We are working on 100 days...we have a purple cup and 100 straws. We put a straw in the cup each day and when we put the 100th straw in the bowl there will be a big party and the parents will be invited!

I have my own desk with an area underneath to store things, and 9 different books. At the end of school my backpack is very light because I can leave things in the classroom. I haven't had any homework yet.

I can understand most things which is great. And today in the canteen we had dessert which was waffles and whipped cream, and no cherry.

I would love to hear how you are. If you can't post on the blog, mum says to email her at michaelasmith500@gmail.com.

Aurevoir, bed time here.

Sasha x

Will's stationery list

Here's mine:

colle
ciseaux
calculatruce (bet you can guess)
crayon de couleur
compass (easy)
surfineuse (no idea)
classeur (again, no idea)
4 intercalaures (highlighters I think)
feuilles (easy..paper)
pochettes transparcutes

Mmm..shopping should be fun!

Sasha's stationery list!!

1 stylo bleu, vert et rouge
2 crayons gris
1 gomme
2 batons de colle
1 paire de ciseaux
1 taille crayon
1 pochette de crayons de couleur
1 pochette de feutres
1 chemise a rabats
1 paquet de 50 feuilles mobiles seyes
1 agenda

No problem at all, you should see Will's!

My first day of school in Montpellier

I have successfully made it through my first full day of school in Montpellier...even made a few friends as well.

I am in the highest grade, CM2 and in a classroom with its own outside staircase. Pretty cool hey?!

Not sure of my teacher's name yet as she only likes to be called "mistress", meaning teacher. In class today we did maths, literature and presentation of the class to get organised.

I had lunch in the canteen, which is not like canteens in Australia. You put money on a card and put the card in a machine at the start of the day. When I went to the canteen at lunchtime, I didn't need to order, the meal arrived at the table. Sadly, didn't get to choose, so lunch was way too healthy (stuck with fish, rice and carrots)!!

There is no school uniform..yeah! And school is only about 40 metres from our apartment. Today on the way to school Mum bought us a chocolate croissant for morning tea, and after school Dad took us to get a slushy. This is the life!!

Missing all my friends. Would love to hear from you. If you can't post on the blog, send me an email. The best address is michaelasmith500@gmail.com. I will start sending emails as well.

Au

revoir mes amis.

Will

A Paris

With the Queen and her conquering cricket team behind us we ventured (in two taxis, one with me and the luggage, the other with the rest of the caravan!) to London St Pancras to catch the Eurostar, our first very fast train journey.  It is a fabulous way to travel and the Anglo-Franco transition started immediately with very friendly French waiters getting us started on our conversion into speaking French...thanks partly to Sam, as alot of our conversations have taken place in cafes and restaurants, and started with "pas noisettes?"ie. no nuts?

For this our first stint in Paris, our apartment was in the Marais district, or 3rd arrondissement; in Melbourne terms more like a Brunswick/Fitzroy with a terrific bohemian feel.  The apartment was classicly Parisien, walking into tall windows letting in a warm breeze from a leafy courtyard.  Weary from the journey we wanted a quick dinner and around the corner was a perfect bistrot, dining on the street and Michaela spoke to the waiter like a local.  The food was already up a notch from London, with Sasha in particular enjoying, not for the first time, her favourite omelette.  The poulet roti (roast chicken) was perfect!

We familiarised ourselves with the Metro/RER rail system and made our way to Eurodisney the following morning to see the first ball bowled (or roller coasted!).  An amazing place and we had a perfect day of circa 28 degrees with bright sunshine.

With only 2 full days in Paris, we had been recommended both a Seine canal cruise and the Palace of Versailles...and of course, the Eiffel Tower. We were not disappointed. Our canal cruise took us along the Seine for a couple of miles before entering a canal tunnel that navigated a long tunnel under Paris before emerging into a series of around 10 locks before dropping us on the outskirts of Paris.  The canals were largely built under the reign of Bonaparte bringing fresh(ish) water into central Paris for all for the first time.  They now empty the canals for cleaning every 7 years finding a myriad of flotsam and jetsam (cars, safes, cows (dead ones) etc).

Our guide was a lovely 'motherly' woman called Elizabeth, pronounced I think as "Eliiiizabet". She imparted a great deal of information and knowledge, and ended up with quite a soft spot for young Sam. He has taken to street (and boat) dancing in random locations during these holidays, and the canal boat was no exception. Oblivious to spectators, Sam was happily jigging away when Eliiiizabet stopped her commentary...a pause followed, and so did everyone's eyes on Sam. Will and Sasha were downstairs and when they heard over the microphone a request for more dancing, they knew it was their younger brother! Needless to say, Sam did not disappoint and an encore performance followed. Eliiizabet's parting remarks accompanied by a kiss for Sam, "if you have him in your family, there is no need for television...you would watch him all the time!"

We then made for the Eiffel Tower and took the obligatory dozens of photos from all sorts of angles before joining our queue jumping tour guide, which was a relief.  We passed a couple of hundred people queuing at ground level before taking a lift to the second level - a mighty achievement for Michaela.  Despite much cajoling and encouragement that was as far as she was going.  Will, also not keen on heights, stated calmly that if he could make it to the second level he could make it to the top; so the four of us made off.  There was a big difference between level 2 and the top, the view was inspiring and we all absolutely loved it.

I think the Eiffel Tower is the most impressive structure I have seen; remarkable to think that it was built with the intention of bringing it down after the exhibition for which it was originally made, as the entrance gate! Mac wasn't too pleased about the "bring it down easily" part of the guide's talk, and spent the next few minutes checking the apparent tightness of the bolts!

As with any attraction like this, we were all very conscious of pick pockets and it was oddly fascinating to actually see some of them at work trying to distract tourists.  Usually a child operating in tandem with  a parent - a clear representation of the sorry state of the French economy and social system.  We made off for the train on a high after a fantastic day, taking some last snaps of the magnificent tower.  We also got a family shot with the help of a passing Spanish family, for whom we reciprocated. This required putting our backpack on the ground......can you see where this story is going?

It was less than five minutes later that we passed through the gates of the RER and I realised I had left the backpack.  It felt like a scene from a movie.  I knew exactly where I had left it and every step I had taken - the contents were mostly replaceable (why my iPad was in there I have no idea!!), except Will's camera.  I sprinted to the spot leaving my family on the station - not there, eerily there was nobody there; what had been a crowded promenade was empty, I could see easily it was nowhere in sight.  I raced around a carousel and food area hoping to see sign of it (asked a machine gun toting French military trio for help in vain) and returned devastated to the station.  Seeing tears well up in Will's eyes over the memories in his camera was a real bad dad moment.

My amazing positive wife then sprung into action and said we would go back and check again, and mentioned that she had seen 4 french police on velos (bikes) near the area we left the backpack. Why she recalls seeing 4 handsome french policemen in bike gear...mmm, let me think? I was mournfully downbeat but off we went. Still no sign of the bag (or policemen), Mac suggested we go to lost property at the Tower and we made straight for tourist information who directed her with an almost sarcastic (Bon Courage) tone to try the police.

As we approached the police station at the Tower, incredibly one of them saw us and exclaimed "le sac, I have your backpack!".  Hard to describe how lucky I felt at that moment.  They had checked the photos on Will's camera and linked me (having remembered the logo on my shirt) to Sasha and Sam in Will's last photo.  Great police, great persistence from Michaela, great relief for me!!

The next day was Versailles; what an unbelievably stunning place.  The scale of every part of it is absolutely beyond belief.  Not hard to see why the natives got a bit restless when they were struggling to put food on their table and the various King Louis' were steadily enhancing this most extraordinary of estates.  The palace is ridiculously ornate and massive, but the gardens are something else.  We wandered through a tiny percentage of the gardens (for a couple of hours) for the most part accompanied by Mozart concertos emanating from invisible speakers - of course. As we strolled alone up one avenue of hedges we heard an opera and happened upon 10 minutes of a fountain show to music across an amazing vista, that seemed to have been put on just for us. Forgot to mention this was all in torrential rain...again the kids were stoic and fabulous!

The palace itself was the reverse with masses of people herding through magnificent rooms, the Royal Chapel and Hall of Mirrors particular highlights.  It was tempting for the revolutionaries to trash it but the visionaries saw beyond the inequality of the regime that created it, and made it a museum for France and the world - we are lucky they made that choice.

We note below a very similar statue of Louis XIV, approximately 200 metres from our apartment in Montpellier. Needless to say, young Louis was a rather arrogant chap. The story goes in Montpellier, that when the park area was built (where his statue is located), it was built to sit above the main city. Not good enough for Louis, his statue needed to be the (then) highest point in that park and Montpellier! Fittingly now, and in memory of those who fought and died in the French Revolution and other conflicts, Montpellier's Arc de Triomph towers over his statue.

Next blog to follow....the Dordogne...our beautiful french holiday, during our french holiday!