Escalade

No - not a giant SUV with chrome spinners on the oversized wheels - that’s an /ɛs kəˈleɪd/ - I mean /es.ka.lad/ - rock climbing.

Jonah has been doing rock climbing as his Wednesday activity this year (since kids don’t have school on Wednesday - for more on that see here)









Last week was his first time climbing outside - on real rock, instead of the climbing wall in our village centre sportif.

His teacher is a pretty funny guy   - we were given the following map to get to the climbing site.

Note the “princess in distress” calling out for help from the top of one of the turrets of the chateau (the chateau is actually there) and the warning “Chevaux”  with a little exclamation point - basically “here be horses” I think.

the younger brothers hang out.

while the older brothers climb

Le Petit chèvre de Micah

In school this week Micah’s class had some special guests - some petits chèvres…baby goats.

Last week his class made goat cheese (also confusingly referred to as “chèvre”) at school.  We asked him how exactly they did this - but the response seemed a bit suspicious (hint: it included cinnamon).  I don’t know how exactly one does this - as I don’t seem to recall cheese-making being part of my curriculum when I was growing up in Saskatchewan.

This week someone brought in 3 baby goats. Micah said they played with them, and fed them grass, and pet them, and fed them milk from a bottle because they ‘were REALLY REALLY thirsty.”

herbs

Last Sunday was plant-the-window-box-herb-garden day.  The various plants have already given sacrificially of themselves so that others may live - or at least eat - better.

a little taste of the recital

[youtube ]

Recital - voix et corps

On Friday the kids had their ‘concert’ for their school music program.

They don’t have a regular music teacher at the school.  Both in the sense that there is not a music teacher there on a regular basis, and in the sense that the music teacher they do have is not exactly what most would consider a ‘regular’ music teacher.

His name is Emanuel.  He plays the guitar. And sings. Does some dancing and beatboxing too.  Apparently he hitch-hikes up to our village - so he wasn’t always incredibly reliable for starting on time.  He would smoke next to the school building - where the kids saw him. Smoking the hand-rolled cigarettes that he had just licked shut in the teachers lounge.

Not so much an older woman with a perm sitting at a piano - more like a French-Lenny-Kravitz.

Also very French in the sense that a philosiphical approach is required for even teaching kids choral music   communal shouting.  Before he would even start the concert - he explained to us about how “without silence…there is no music” …. And so for that reason -everyone had to be quiet.  OK.

Then he went on to say that for this reason when want to show our approval and appreciation - instead of banging our hands together to make such a noise - we should wiggle our hands whilst lifting up our arms, because “there is the applause that you hear - and then - there is the applause that you see”  OK.

The songs too were more about anti-war, world-wide love, the fact that we’re all dying - you know, small kid stuff.

Of course - a nation that has produced thinkers like Descartes, Voltaire, Rousseau, Foucault and others did not do so by treating things flippantly.

The thing is - the kids ALL seemed to LOVE him. We’ve never seen a group of kids so excited to sing in a concert. They all loved the songs.  They were so deeply into what they were doing.  They were so enthusiastic.

I guess that’s why they called it “voix et corps” and not ‘music’  - they were definitely using both their voices and their bodies.

Lac Achard

On Saturday we went for a family hike with our friends the Pavey’s.  It was a beautiful sunny day for a hike to an alpine lake.  It was over 18 degrees up at the ski resort parking lot where we started -  so you would think that ski season was over..but nope. We had to dodge a few skiiers on our way up. I guess they feel obliged to keep the resort open for people who booked their ski holiday last summer, and drove all the way from Brussels for their one-week of skiing for the year. But really - there is a fine line between optimism and hallucinating - and looking at that hill and thinking that you can ski …


For the most part the trail was pretty clear, but up closer to the lake, in the shade there was a LOT of snow. There was a hard crust on top that you could usually stay on top of if you were careful.  But kids tend not to be that careful when they’re hiking with friends. There were a nubmer of times that the kids (and the adults) would sink through the top layer, into very wet, quite cold slushy snow up to you knee (plus we were all in shorts).  Or - if the combination of snow and leg-length was right - up to your waist. Of course as you sink through, that hard layer that was almost strong enough to hold you up now is more like a layer of broken glass that your bare calf is dragged against…

Anyway - it’s an amazing hike - not just because of the hike itself, and the veiws - but also because it seems so much nicer when it’s just 20min up the road to the traihead - and then just over an hour (or close to two hours with small children and snow) to get to an alpine lake.  The crocuses were blooming already even as high up as 1800m and above- in some places they were so thick it almost looks as if they have been planted there.

We ate our lunch by the (still frozen) lake - where apparently we got more sun than we thought (bright noon sun + no clouds + high altitude + snow to reflect = more sun) as somehow my right calf is all red up to my knee.

Education...for the real world

Yesterday the kids had some sort of ‘cheese tasting’ at school.

 It was supposed to be a few weeks ago - but somehow got bumped to this week.  Now, this is not to be confused with the chevrettes [baby goats] that are coming to the school later for the kids to learn about, play with - and then taste goat cheese.

Of course - as is par for the course - we really have very little chance of getting any clarity on what really went on.

We got the following commentary from our three kids:

1) We had cheese tasting all day long.  It’s all we did. All I had was Comté.  I ate 15 pieces of Comté.  

2) We were separated into groups and got to taste 3 kinds of cheese.  There were questions and I was the only one who knew that a vache has 4 estomach.  That was it.

3) First we were separated into different groups. There was red, blue, green and orange. I was in the orange group. Then they made boards that had different kinds of cheese on them and we had to answer questions and then sample the different kinds of cheese on each of the platters. When you answer questions correctly your team got points and each of the teams were competing for…..{editor’s note: I don’t precisely recall the rest of this report..but it did go into quite some level of detail, but still rather sketchy and not altogether coherent }

Bottom line: the kids had cheese tasting/appreciation/identification as part of their public education curriculum.  I guess in a nation where the average person eats around 25kg of cheese per year - it’s something that you want to get right.

Now that’s something I don’t mind my  tax euros    money from people who actually have jobs and pay taxes going towards.

Sprung

This weekend we were blessed with fantastic weather. The first really warm days this year.

 We spent most of the weekend outside -  the kids played in the yard, we went to the park twice, sat on patios, went on bike rides, had a  pic-nic lunch, cooked hot-dogs over a fire in our yard, the kids played in a stream.

No real complaints - except for when certain kids (and some adults) had to sit inside and do homework.

Not so illegal anymore.

Notice anythind different about us?

As of Tuesday - we’re legal residents of France. No - not ‘resident’ as in ‘long-term resident’- I just mean that use being here for this year is no longer without any legal standing.

What started with sending documents from Canada to France last spring, a 2500km drive to get us to the ‘nearest’ consulate and back for biometric fingerprinting last June, trips to the Marie too numerous to count, and enough paperwork to keep the pulp and paper industry afloat for a few years -   has finally culminated in a Carte de Sejour.

We have had our dossier’s sitting wating for social security, health care, our family card for reduced train fare etc. - all just waiting for them to arrive. Micah and  I were at le post  mailing off a nice pile of thick envelopes within 24hrs of us receiving them.

To be honest it is a massive weight to be lifted - as not having them has caused us so much grief with so many things. Now we can get our French drivers license, we can get properly integrated into the social security system, we can get a bunch of stuff that should make other stuff easier. And most importantly - we can start getting our documents together to renew our Carte de Sejour in about 9 months.

I’m not sure which of us has the more interesting status here.  I am considered here on “scientifique” basis - on account of doctoral level studies + research for the business school.  Susan has a ‘wife of scientifique person’ - which is recorded on the card as “VIE PRIVEE ET FAMILIALE” - that’s right - she is only allowed to partake in ‘private and family life.’ Which wouldn’t be so funny - if the line underneath didn’t read “AUTORISE SON TITULAIRE A TRAVAILLER” - ‘the holder has the right to work’

hmm.