Versaille

An early morning start, prepurchased tickets and a midweek date, was not enough to beat the crowds in Versaille yesterday. As we arrived, so did the buses!!!! Accompanied by another mom and her children, we pushed our way through the many grand rooms of the Chateau. Unfortunately, the children’s only interest (besides food) in our tour was getting to The Hall Mirrors. When we finally arrived at the Hall of Mirrors, it did not disappoint. The girls forgot their stomachs for a few moments and made space, by twirling and dancing amongst the 357 mirrors and 20 glass chandeliers in the spectacular room.

After a short visit to the Chateau, we headed out to the beautiful Versaille gardens and spent the rest of the day, admiring the fountains, picnicing by the canal, feeding the ducks and hours of walking around the canal. It was great to breathe the fresh air and give the kids an opportunity to run. A return to this unbelievable estate in the very low season, is probably in order for the future.

twirling in the Hall of Mirrors

fun in the jardin

The "ça va" moment

Each day after school, the girls and I go to the tiny park across the street from the school, on the Seine. There are four park benches on either side of the park and in general the French parents/caregivers sit on one side and the English on the other.

Yesterday, we were the second family to arrive. A French Mother with whom I exchange smiles and occasional Bonjours, was already there. I decided, enough with the French/English division and sat down right next to her. I opened the conversation in French and she immediately switched to English (which was much better than my French) and we chatted sporadically for the next hour.

Today as all the Parents and caregivers waited at pick up, I said to The French Mom “bonjour” and she responded with “bonjour, ça va?”. “Oui” I responded in surprise “ça va”.

Early on, Rupert’s French Tutor explained to him some basic survival tips for daily greetings. The golden rule is, greet EVERYBODY individually with at least a Bonjour. There is subtle nuance when you want to acknowledge someone as more than just “anyone”. These people you acknowledge with “ça va?”. Rupert says “The minute somebody throws YOU a ça va in group setting, magic energy passes between the two you and you are acknowledged”.

I don’t know about magic, but this was my first ça va outside of my tutor and I was pretty happy to receive it.

A courageous moment, a small cultural gap closed and a personal barrier broken:).

Enchanted Meetings

At least two or three times a week at school pick up, we stop and admire an elaborately dressed princess and her handsome prince, being picked up in a chauffeured driven Mercedes. The girls never bore of delighting in the spectacle, which is, one of the 200 Japanese couples that get married every year, in the church where P& D go to school.

After watching these weddings for a couple of months, I did a little research and found that this is all part of relatively lucrative business. “Our” church is apparently picked from a catalogue of fantasy weddings for the Japanese.

These couples apparently are heading to Paris (and elsewhere) for a wedding, because back at home, they are required to ask their friends and relatives to come to the ceremonies. A party with the family costs on average about $30,000, while they can pay about $10,000 for an entire overseas wedding, complete with rented wedding dress, photographer and travel.

My kind hearted friend who feels so sorry for these weddings without family and friends, always showers the newlyweds with “you look beautiful… congratulations…best wishes” as she walks by on her way to pick up her kids. Despite her pity, the couples are always glowing.

A number of times, while a couple were having their photos taken on the church steps, hords of kids after a day at school, streamed out around them. I am always so curious how these newly weds feel about this addition to their fantasy wedding.

Poisson D'Avril

April 1 - April Fool's day, or as the French call it Le Poisson D'Avril. The concept is the same - play tricks on your neighbour, but the real focus here, revolves around putting a fish on someone else's back. According to the kids, this is hilarious! The girl's carefully hand crafted fish were "secretly" put on our backs a number of times this evening, followed by an outburst of laughter. We played along, ha ha ha, but wondered.... at what age (if at all) in France does this stop being funny?

Finally Family

I was thinking about crediting our visit from cousin Andrew Ritchie and girlfriend Silvia as the first family visit, but it occured to me, that in fact, Jeremy Allen was our first family guest, and we forgot to post his visit. So here is a quick two in one family visits Paris update.

First Jeremy, travelling through with work, from site visits in Rome and Tunisa to scout film locations came by for dinner. We enjoyed a great evening of lively discussions, and wonderful family memories, and yes, the "Allens do know best"... yours truly included. In the end we drank lots of red wine (a Jeremy signature) and my head was tight the next day. He stayed over. Thanks for coming Jeremy. It was really great.

As mentioned above, our second family visit was from Andrew & Silvia. They came for the weekend. We saw lots together including the huge Waterlillies (Nymphéas) at the "Musée de l'Orangerie " It's a perfect sized art exhibit for me (less than 1hr) with works from Cézanne, Matisse, Modigliani, Picasso, Renoir and of course Monet. We squeezed a lot into a short weekend including a dinner at a local restaurant Les Cocottes where even French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been known to dine. Paris is even better when you can share it with family.

Sorry for the small picture...I pinched it from Andrew's Facebook

Une Tradition, S'il Vous Plait

Lately we've been actively trying to supplement the girls French, as we have realized that a Montessori (Bilingual as it may be), with its philosophy of choice, where the child can choose to speak to the English or the French teacher, is not necessarily the best place to learn French.

One of the small things we have added into our routine, is sending the girls in to buy our daily Tradition (our prefered type of baguette). The girls go into the boulangerie all on their own, wait in the queue (sometimes for 10min), order and pay.

The women behind the counter just melt everytime our little anglo angels order "Une tradition s'il vous plait..... merci... au revoir." The girls walk out empowered with their coveted bread in hand and quite often an extra treat.

Scotland Part I of II

A last minute chance encounter by Rupert, with a key Canadian embassy employee allowed us to renew D’s passport in time and shove off for the second week of the girl’s school holiday. An even more last minute change in plans, switched our destination from Rome, to Scotland and we were off.

Home base for our six days was Steve & Paul Ritchie’s house in Collieston, a small seaside Scottish village, just north of Aberdeen. Steve and Paul are Mark’s (Rupert’s Stepfather) father and brother - we could have not have dreamed of better hosts.

The clean air, spectacular scenery and a dose of family was just what the doctor ordered. Our days were filled with long oceanside walks, castles, scotch, haggis and Mark Knopfler playing in our heads.

A view from our Steve & Paul’s house in Collieston

D at Hackley Bay

P admires her daily haul of shells, at Hackley Bay

We made the rabbit avoiding pilgrimage to the seaside village of Pennan, the location of the family favorite movie, Local Hero.

P makes a call to Mr. Happer. No answer

Collieston is conveniently located just a stones throw from the Whiskey triangle. Ru, P&D amongst the stills, at the Glenfiddich distillery

D with Errol castle in the distance. The castle is thought to be the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Making paper in Paul’s very cool studio.

The BC’s and the Ritchie’s outside Seaview

Scotland Part II of II

The last 24hours of our vacation was spent site seeing in Edinburgh. We toured the very cool neighbourhood of South Queen’s Ferry, the Royal mile, Edinburgh castle and had good old Scottish pub meal.

Outside Edinburgh castle

Before we set off for the airport, an ambitious Ru suggested a hike up to Arthur’s Seat, a small piece of highland landscape, smack dab in the middle of Edinburgh. Our uneducated choice in route proved to be quite steep and extremely windy. The girls had to stay low at the top, or risk being blown off.


Our trip definitely had its influence on the girls. In a game of “restaurant”, shortly after our return, D ordered a scotch from her server.
Note to reader – NonLocal Hero fans may find this post occasionally confusing

Fun with the Millepattes (hockey sur glace)

Finding hockey in Paris was really tough, but it was really worth the effort. The Colombes Millepattes practice 10:15pm on Monday's and Thursday's and play many Sunday nights in a friendly interclub format. The team is 2-2 since I joined, and until last Sunday, most were close games. Last Sunday the score was 23-2, the most lop-sided game I've ever played. I only had 2 goals and 5 assists, but another Canadian had a triple hat-rick. The hockey is fun, with a good mix of experinced skilled players, and a handful of novices. The hockey is helping me stay in shape, practice my French, make friends and play a sport I love. Mary Jo said no one would be interested in my dumb hockey news:), so this one is for James, and me when I read the blog in my old age.

Colombes new version of Nick Lidstrom

Wanna buy a Castle?

A new real estate agency opened up next to our building last week, that specializes in selling Chateau's. I can't help but stop and look and the tens of Castles displayed in the window every time I walk by. What's even more amazing than the number of French Chateaux on the market, is the prices - many less than an average sized apartment in the middle of Paris. Apparently the upkeep is the killer.

When four little girls were asked "which castle would they like to buy", all four responded, "the white one" (bottom right). Not my first choice, but who can blame the Cinderella loving cherubs.