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.

Competition de Snowboard

Yesterday afternoon the kids and I drove up to Chamrousse to see if we could watch any of the Snowboarding festival.  I was skiing up there on Thursday (side note: hard to beat skiing with a friend who has an extra ski pass) and we saw this massive snow park that they had set up.  I looked it up online -and found some rather sketchy info, with very little details - but it was a beutiful day to be outside, the kids finished their homework in the morning, and Susan was at a retreat all day - so we figured we’d give it a shot.

We drove up - and found out that we were allowed to hike up the hill to the snowpark.  Sounded easy enough - walking uphill in soft, slushy snow apparently can wear down small children.  But when we got there it was quite impressive. There were dozens of competitors - in what seemed like it was more of a ‘friendly festival’ than a real competition.  Tonnes of people sitting around, music pumping out (pretty sure my kids heard more english language gansta-rap over an hour or so yesterday than they have cummulatively thus far in their lives. Also pretty sure if it was an english-language environment -you wouldn’t get away with playing those lyrics in a public setting….)

We sat in the sun watching these guys - who came in teams of four - and some of them were quite amazing.  It was +10 up there, and the sky was crystal clear - so it was a pretty nice day just to sit and watch.