22 September – 29 September 2019
It’s just normal life, but it ain’t half bad… especially selling enough Ricard to buy your own island.
It’s funny how quickly you settle into a routine. We have already been in Aix for a month now. Time is flying and we are trying desperately to slow it down, grabbing on to almost every moment in a futile attempt to arrest the slide.
It’s amazing how ‘busy’ one can feel even without the style cramping imposition of a 50+ hour work week. Our minds are conditioned to fill every blank space with activity – be it value add or not. It takes a concerted effort to be OK with the white space. To slow down long enough to let Bonnie savour the smell of 3 day old dog wee along the street (smelling roses would be more romantic, this description is more in line with reality) – special treat that he gets to appreciate maybe one trip in 5.
The last few weeks have seen us start to settle into something that would pass for a routine.
Each morning we are easily spotted making our way down the Cours Mirabeau at 7.30am … 3 primary school girls unstably wobbling down the main pietonale of town on newly purchased rollerblades, often towed by a slightly anxious looking border collie who is constantly on the lookout for skateboards to bark at. We are hard to miss.
The bus trip is now routine, as is the reality of ‘french days’ and ‘english days’ at school.
Homework is increasingly accepted as a part of life, although debates still rage on occasion, especially when Jessie is required to understand, memorise and recite French poetry. We are generally getting into a rhythm and getting through the work… and seem to be reaping the rewards in terms of the girls understanding of French as well as progressing in other areas like English and maths.
The girls are all making and building on friendships at the school. Jessie in particular has really found her feet at IBS and has made a lovely group of friends from Canada, Italy/NZ, Denmark and France. This lead her to announce yesterday that she didn’t want to leave here, a first foray across the bows of what will no doubt be a long and emotional rollercoaster that we travel over the next 9 months. The act of learning French seems also to be helping her motivation to read English, something we’ve struggled with a bit with her over the last few months – so the school is doing something right there. Ellie it seems also has no shortage of friends to hang out with and no shortage of playdates, although there have also been moments of stress at being caught in the middle of 9 year old school girl politics… you can change continents but some things never change! And Sena also seems to have made a number of friends, especially one French and one American girl in her class… so all good there too.
Even Bonnie had a play date this week…..
We are also making headway on the friends front. This week our friends Mattias (amazingly talented photographer) and Corey (amazing all round person) came over to make and eat dumplings. What a treat! I don’t think the girls hated the mini hiatus from bread, cheese and anything else French tasting.
After a slow and chaotic start (including the uniquely French requirement that everyone obtains a medical certificate to join any sporting club), the girls extracurricular activities have also fallen into a decent rhythm.
Tennis at school seems to be a success (fun fact – the school prides itself on its tennis program, which is managed by Thomas Enquvist, previously #4 in the world and run by a number of coaches who are still in the top 1000 in the world. Not sure why you need this qualification to teach our children – or most other school kids – to hit forehands and backhands but there you go), as does dance and the other sports programs. Gymnastics outside of school likewise – Ellie is trying desperately to keep pace with her team in Australia and training 3 times per week, the others once. The all important cricket practice occurs whilst waiting for others to finish gymnastics. Dance on a Friday night for Jessie while Liz does French/English exchange with Sophie (another mum). Weekends free for family stuff. Kids routine sorted.
French courses continue unrelentingly. Liz in the thick of a 1 month intensive (16 hours a week) at Alliance, continuing to discover the beauty of the French language with a group of largely Yemeni peers (and developing a lovely, but strangely Arabic accent in the process). Ant continuing with 3 private lessons a week. This whole learning a language thing is really time consuming but ultimately rewarding, with Liz making great progress and Ant filling in some of the gaps that have been glaring up at him for the last 20 years.
Ant, having got over the initial feeling of imminent death every time he takes a bike out on narrow french roads, has continued to explore the local area on bike making several trips around the area, most notably to the beautiful Acquaduct de Roquefavour and around the amazing Sainte Victoire.
Continuing the exploration theme, he also took a day out to go kitesurfing at Heyres on the Cote D’Azur. The centre’s approach was novel and very effective – setting up and launching the kite in the middle of the bay, giving everyone lots of space and deep water to play in before picking us up several (exhausted) hours later. This was kitesurfing the way it should be done and so much more fun than dodging beginnings around a lagoon like in Portugal.
We also finally made time to do something non-child or shopping related together this week. We went to an amazing exhibition at the Hotel Caumont in Aix. The exhibition was from the Guggenheim in New York and showcased the private collection of the Thannhauser family. It included works from Picasso, Kandinski, Van Gogh, Chagall, Franz Marc and heaps of others – all in a very efficient 5 room exhibition. Interestingly the exhibition included pictures of the Thannhauser family home where, above the couch in the lounge room, hung 3 Picassos. As you do.
We were so impressed by the exhibition that we asked if we could come back with the kids when they finished school. No worries. We brought them back and Ant (whilst Liz was lunching with the ladies, as you do) took them around the exhibition. In and out in less than an hour, focussing purely on what the kids were interested in (we’d just spent 2 + hours in there getting our fill) and pointing out the good bits (yellow cows, picasso pigeons and cats fighting lobsters, Van Goghs (Jessie is studying him at school) and lots of interesting portraits. It was awesome and the kids loved it. Art for kids at its most accessible. So much fun.
For the weekend we drove the 45 minutes down to Saint-Cyr-Sur-Mer where we spent a lovely weekend with Fred, Noemie, Robin, Elfie, Charlie and Magic. As usual when we catch up with these guys we have a wonderful time.
On Saturday we spent the day exploring the Ile de Bendor, owned by Paul Ricard and family (of Ricard fame). This beautiful island off the coast of Bandol (near Cassis) was purchased by Paul in the 1900s (as you do when everyone in France is drinking a nasty (in my opinion), aniseed flavoured alcohol with your name on it every afternoon for apéro). We had a fantastic lunch before walking off pork ribs and rosé with a wander around the island (it’s small enough to do this in an hour) and a final swim for the season in the sea. It was a lovely day, but the wind – and interestingly the water temperature in the Med – suggested that summer was coming to a close and autumn was here. As always it was lovely to see the kids – and the dogs – pick up where they left off a few weeks ago and just hang out together.
On Sunday we spent the day relaxing around Fred and Noemie’s holiday house, letting the kids hang out with no demands, going for a run with Noemie (who’s training for an imminent challenge across Vietnam in a few weeks), swimming and feting Sena’s almost 5th birthday the following day. A lovely, cruisy way to finish the weekend.
We arrived home and unpacked the full carload of stuff we’d convinced ourselves was necessary for the 48 hours we were gone. When we put the kids to bed, Sena, still high from her ‘warm up’ birthday cake announced ‘don’t wake me up until all the decorations are up for my birthday’… we’re not sure where she got that idea from and hoped she wouldn’t be too disappointed when the only decoration she found for her birthday was the cereal boxes on the table….
Joseph Family Adventure 
Okay I’ll confess it was worth reading – sounds wonderful!
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