10 October – 20 October 2019
Fresh off Adam and Zoe’s visit, we were keen to have a quiet few days to recover and were excited to be having a weekend ‘off’ – that is to say no events on either Friday or Saturday night of the following weekend.
It’s amazing how excited the whole family can be about a Friday night dinner in (pretty sure whatever it was came out of the freezer (courtesy of Picard), out of it’s box, and into the oven), a glass of wine and a PG film. I guess it’s not the stereotypical image projected by Peter Mayles ‘A Year in Provence’ but there you are. And there we were. All 6 of us (apologies to the landlord, but let’s face it, Bonnie spends significantly more time on the couch than we do) clustered on the couch around an ipad (whose screen is actually larger than the TV in our apartment, and it also speaks English, much to Sena’s delight). Much needed downtime. And surely even Peter Mayle wore ugg boots once in a while.
On Saturday, we made our habitual trip to the Saturday morning food markets (we are in the main market town of Provence after all) to buy fresh, local (mostly! – but hard to justify those Ivory Coast bananas) produce, meats and cheeses (clichéd? Tick! Awesome? Tick! And all the locals are in there with us). This has become a tradition and one of the numerous benefits to not piling activity on top of activity on top of sporting event each weekend (we have placed a complete embargo on regular weekend activities whilst we are here).
Side note: Bonnie, of course, joins us, and has become fairly well known around town (we’re not sure whether it’s because he is handsome or because he has become more than a little psychotic in his old age, but either way, he is recognised). He has also been a useful way for the family to learn french phrases and to spark up conversations with random French people (who are generally very open when it comes to dog-admiration). Some of the more regular phrases we are greeted with more or less each time we walk down the street:
‘Il est magnifique!’
‘Il est trop beau!’
‘Il est un ours en peluche’
… often proceeded with ‘Puis-je le caresser?’ (Can I pat him?), ‘Il est quelle race? (What breed is he?) or ‘Il est jeune/toute bébé! (He is young/he is a baby?… No, he’s 11)
‘Il me fait peur… mais il est magnifique! (said by a woman who was surprised by Bonnie as he walked out of a shop)
‘Agghhh!’ – from skateboard riders and occasional car drivers that Bonnie launches himself at in a psychotic haze as we walk down the street
… and one of our favourites… ‘Voila le plus beau chien d’Aix qui vient!’ – as we were walking past the market stalls
These are all useful French phrases that we would not know was it not for our constant 4 legged companion.
OK, back on track now…
On Saturday we broke our ‘no organised sport on the weekend’ rule for Ellie to have her first gym comp over here. This was a fairly casual affair where her club hosted another club from Grenoble and the gymnasts showcased their routines in preparation for the more serious stuff that happens in the new year. (Another side note here – at least in our experience so far, the gymnastics here is not at the same level as in Australia. The girls start older and train less – but get to try different and more challenging skills more quickly. In Australia they start earlier, train more and are held back from more advanced skills until they have nailed the foundation ones. As a result of all this, Ellie has a higher skill level than the other kids her age at the club and is now given the opportunity to train with older French kids and try skills that she hasn’t done yet in Australia. She does not hate either of these things.)
Back to the comp, where Ellie, inevitably nervous, was to do an adaptation of her floor, bar and beam routines from Australia, with additional sneaky French moves thrown in. We all piled down to the club on the Saturday afternoon to support (including Bonnie who was allowed into a gym for the first time in his life… needless to say he has a strong preference for cricket and netball). Ellie nailed all her routines, her team won, and she landed the highest score (and biggest trophy) of the day. The result was one very happy Ellie, with a foot high trophy now pride of place in her bedroom.
Sunday was spent in all day playdates – first with Lauren and Clement, a French/Australian family we met courtesy of gymnastics with 2 girls lining up with Jessie and Sienna; the second at Diane and Ben’s – a French couple with a girl in Jessie’s class. So much for the quiet weekend!
The following week was relatively ‘normal’ – school for the kids, French lessons, bike rides, gymnastics and of course Wednesday afternoon cricket practice.
On Wednesday evening Ellie joined us for a date night to the Jeu de Paume theatre which is literally next door to our house. This beautiful 500 seat theatre was originally built in the 1700s and restored in 2000 – to what is now a stunning small theatre which seems to be constantly booked out. We were lucky to get tickets for a showing of a narration of Le Petit Prince by Antoine Saint Exupery with including beautiful illustrations and orchestral accompagnement. Having just read the Little Prince (in English) and spent the time relaying the story to Liz over pre-theatre Kirs, we were able to thoroughly enjoy the show despite the obvious language impediments! A quick stop at a local brassiere for crème brulée and tiramisu was a fantastic end to a great evening which had us hunting for other opportunities to get to the theatre whilst we’re here.
On Friday night we headed up to the hills east of Aix for dinner at our friends Otis and Elizabeth’s house in the beautiful, heavily wooded area of Bibémus before heading back home to welcome Matty, Ale, Dan and Dulce the Yorkshire Terrier who had come across from Geneva to visit us for the weekend. We had prepared well for Matty’s visit. The kitchen shelf was groaning under the weight of wine, the fridge bursting with cheese. We were excited to be able to spend dedicated time with Matty and Ale, the kids were excited to see Dan again after meeting him in Italy in July.
Bonnie, on the other hand, was none too convinced at the prospect of having a Yorkshire Terrier as a house guest (was she staying for tea, for the night, forever???). Bonnie is generally uninterested in small dogs, but spent the first day or so with a perpetual, low, throaty, semi growl emanating from the back of his throat. Dulce, still a puppy, did not seem to mind.
Friday night was spent denting our wine and cheese stocks and making us wonder whether our erstwhile excessive looking supplies would indeed be sufficient for the weekend.
Saturday morning was spent showing off Aix and the bustling Saturday morning markets (and restocking our cheese supplies).
Saturday afternoon it was off to the local trampolining centre for the kids (and adults) to show off their skills on various types of trampolines, foam pits, ball games and tower jumps. Needless to say, the kids loved it. Unfortunately Matty, attempting to wind back the clock to 1998, was an early casualty, pulling a muscle in a convincing but all-to-brief display of athletism that had the kids in awe. Only the wine, cheese, ‘typical provençale food (read: mince stuffed tomatoes) and apparent U turn in relations between Bonnie and Dulce (from prowling and growling to frollicking like besties) seemed to ease both the physical and emotional pain that ensued.
We spent Sunday morning introducing Dan to the joys of rollerblading and bike riding down the Cours Mirabeau before spending the afternoon rock climbing at the nearby Decathlon Village (is there nothing this company can’t do???).
Overall a great, action packed weekend.
As always, it is fantastic to catch up with such good friends – something that we feel so lucky and grateful to be able to do this year…. And we’re looking forward to returning the favour and heading to Geneva in the new year… once the snow starts falling!
… next stop Périgord!
Joseph Family Adventure 