One last

Our last days have arrived and it has been a bit strange. I spent the last week trying to sort out all of our belongings as well as my emotions and feelings. It was really hitting us that our trip was almost over so we tried to do and see things we have grown to love before we go. It’s the little every day moments we’re going to miss the most I think. So here is a series of ‘one last time’ as we say goodbye to this pretty town, this beautiful country and our once in a lifetime adventure.

Last weekend we took a last minute road trip to Carcasonne for one last castle visit. The kids weren’t excited about seeing yet another castle but I think in the end they were impressed. It is rumored that this castle was the inspiration behind Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. This is likely the closest our kids will get to seeing Disneyland although they would prefer Disney anything over this 2500 year old pile of rocks.



On our way home we stopped by ‘La Mer’ for one last swim.


The way Pavlov’s dogs salivate when they hear a bell, I have a strong urge to pour a wine when I begin preparing supper. (At least I can make it to supper). Anyhow, here’s a pic as I prepare one last meal in our kitchen.

One last walk down our path. I call it our path because we actually created it by walking to school and to town every day. Now all the other renters use the path as well.

The property is gated and every time we drove up to it, a fight would break out among the kids to see who would get to punch the code. We won’t miss the fights so much but the memory will always be there.

Here I am having one last café at my favorite coffee shop. It was served in the prettiest glass cup with a delicious little cookie on the side.

Our last supper before leaving Uzes. This was Etienne’s choice, one we all agreed on and that’s not easy with a family of 5.

The twins walking to their last day of school…

…and from town.

Un dernier petit déjeuner de croissant et café. Well, it’s a hot chocolate for Etienne, coffee for me.

One last early morning walk to the bakery for a baguette or two.

And of course one last French Door.

Patisseries

I love to bake. Back home I’m often making muffins, cakes, cookies and pies. I haven’t done much baking here. There really is no need with so many beautiful decadent desserts to choose from. One of the many things we’re going to miss about France is La Nougatine, one of our favorite bakery/coffee shops. They make all their own desserts in house and from scratch. Etienne and I went for a croissant and pain au chocolat a few mornings ago and snapped a few photos.





I look forward to baking in my own kitchen again but since we will soon be back to reality (where the hell did all that time go?!!!!) I don’t mind indulging a little bit more.

Asperges

It is asparagus season here.  White or green, it’s everywhere.  A few weeks back Shamus and I helped out at Etienne’s school with Rugby sessions as ‘parents accompagnateurs.’  One of his classmate’s grandmother was also voluntering.  She has an asparagus farm and invited us to come visit.  This morning we finally made it out there for a visit and what a treat!

We learned that the green ones are less exensive than the white ones because the white ones need to be closely monitored and picked every day.  They are buried in the dirt which makes them more work to harvest.  Once they see the sun they turn green.  Depending on the weather the transformation might only take a few days.  On a warm day like today they can grow up to 2 inches.

If you are wondering who that guy we’re hanging out with is, that’s Thomas. He is the brother of Shamus’s brother-in-law (did you get that?).  He came from Switzerland to visit and I’m on his Ipad right now in heaven even though it is a german keyboard. I thought I hated computers until I didn’t have one and now frankly any language will do (pinterest is universal anyhow). I also have an overwhelming urge to to write ‘Gesundheit’ and ‘Was ist das’.

Back to my asparagus lesson, they are also more expensive depending on size.  Skinny ones are the least expensive, medium ones are mid range and the fat ones are the priciest. It’s the opposite back home which worked in our benefit because I actually prefer the thin ones.  Regardless the size, the flavor is the same.  We bought 1.5 kg of fresh asparagus for supper.

Solange offered to show us how it all works.  We hopped in her  SUV and headed out in the field.  They have had this farm since 1965!  They also harvest tomatoes and zucchini, everything that makes a ratatouille.

The first stop was the white asparagus.

Can you see the tip slightly poking out?  With her tool she popped that cute little guy right out of there.

Once that was done we headed over to see the green asparagus.  The difference is that they’ve grown out of the earth and are getting some sun.  Basically they have a tan.  Can you believe they hand pick every strand of asparagus????  Seasonal workers are hired between the months of March and september.

This family also grows cherry trees and grape vines. The cherries aren’t quite ready yet but the few we sampled were delicious.

The vines are coming along nicely too.  We’ve been waiting so long to see them bloom, they’re so beautiful!

We headed back to the house and Solange showed us what happens to the asparagus once it’s been harvested.  First they get washed…

…then cut.

They come out looking like so!

Now they are ready to go.  Some are sold privately but most are shipped off to Lyon to be sold at the Marche.

Once back home, Thomas insisted on cooking supper.  He bought Cabillaut (a type of white fish) and made asparagus pasta.

I love it when someone else cooks for me, it was delicious!

Missing In Action

Hi there, remember me?  It’s been a while. We had a mishap with our computer a few weeks ago so I haven’t been able to blog.  We accidently poured water into it and rather than letting it dry for a long time we gave it a few hours, hoped for the best and turned it back on. And fried it for real. We knew better but we assumed it was toast anyhow.  Plus the urge to resist checking was too much, we were headed to Italy the next morning and thought we really really needed our laptop.  Somewhere along the way we had officially become addicts, completely dependant on our MacBook.   Thank goodness for our iphones to help curb withdrawal symptoms. They’ve been our methadone, our electronic cigarettes (we see a lot of those here).   After the electrocution and once it was way too late, we tormented ourselves and googled what to do if you got water on your computer.   We watched one guy completely immerse his MacBook in water, take it apart, let it dry for a week and turn it back on.  It was totally fine.  All we needed was patience.   Learn from us.

Afterwards we spent a few weeks trying to figure out what to do; whether to buy a new one,  get it fixed, buy a keyboard…. We analyzed every option but with only a few  weeks left we decided we would take our beloved computer home and make do with our iPhones for the remainder of our trip.  I’m acting as if its a tragedy.  Of course it’s not really a tragedy but see how you feel next time you trash your computer.  The worst thing is that 1) I can’t blog very easily from my iPhone and 2)that we will likely have to replace our laptop when we get home.  That’s ok cause we have all kinds of cash lying around after being on a sabbatical for the last 5 months.  I am hopeful that the hard drive and all our photos will be retrievable and choose not to worry about it till I need to.  Anyhow, that’s the story about why I’ve been neglecting the blog!  I will try and keep up a little and hopefully will continue to properly blog when I get back to Canada.

Computer or not, life must go on and we were (still are) very aware that our adventure was coming to an end soon.  Since the kids had yet another 2 weeks off for Easter break (the French have a strong holiday ethic) we decided to check out the French Riviera.  Here are a few photos from that trip. Grant and Vivian were still with us. We visited Cannes, Antibes and Nice.  Etienne spotted his first topless sunbather.




As I briefly mentioned, we also went to Italy. Such a different culture and country but equally as beautiful.





This week it’s all about the pool. The kids have time on their two hour lunch break to have a little swim, and again once home from school. It’s still a little chilly for me to dive in but I sure don’t mind sitting on the lounger watching them have fun.




So there you have it, my first iPhone post. I have no idea how it will look on a big screen but I’m glad to be able to keep things going.