Faire la bise

Bit low of news so far this week, so instead I thought I'd share a few interesting facts about the whole French kissing thing (faire la bise).

So far the only people I've had to faire la bise with are the Bogeys, but I thought I'd read up on it in case I go in for a kiss at the wrong time or the wrong way and end up banging heads or teeth with someone.

So the facts are:

• You normally only faire la bise with someone you know fairly well.  Women and women do it, men and women do it, men and men usually don't and shake hands instead.
• If you don't faire la bise, you shake hands.
• If you're not sure whether you should faire la bise, just go in for a handshake and let le Francais lead the way.
• You only faire la bise for the first time you see someone that day.  It's not necessary to faire la bise when you say goodbye, unless you want to.
• The number of kisses you give depends on the region you're in. Mostly it's two (as it is here in Savoie), but for example in Provence it's three, Nantes it's four and Brest they don't bother at all.
• Left cheek first!
• You don't actually kiss the cheek - just touch cheeks and kiss the air.
• Don't make a big 'mmmmwah' noise, as I did the first few times before I realised that nobody else was. Just a little 'mwa' noise, or no noise will do.

There doesn't seem to be any hard and fast rules, but I think that's the general gist of it.


Bisous xxx

Bonjour les Bogeys

On Wednesday we moved into our new place in La Motte Servolex. 

It's starting to feel like home already!  The Bogey family who own the house have really gone out of their way to help us get settled and feel welcome, including looking after Max whilst we packed up the last place and looking after Luke whilst I went to the supermarché.

The Bogeys live next door - Catherine is a nurse, Eric a furniture maker and they have three children aged 23, 21 and 18, who have all recently flown the nest. They have lived in this region of France all of their lives and speak hardly any English.  This is great for us as it means we're getting to speak French every day. I actually can't believe how quick I'm improving - I'm even doing little shoulder shrugs and saying huh all the time!

Max seems to be a bit confused by the new language though, as every time Catherine speaks to him he puts his hands over his ears! I'm pretty sure it's because he's frustrated that he can't understand her.  She's determined that he'll be speaking French soon though, and  has got him saying merci, jouet and toute à l'heure.

So here's some piccies of the house.  It's a bit smaller than what we're used to, but it's absolutely immaculate and will do us just fine - nice  and cosy.  Most of the furniture you will see has been made by Eric!

On the ground floor:

lovely big porch/dumping ground

On the first floor:

La cuisine

  

La salle à manger/le salon

le salon/le bureau

As you can see the kitchen, dining room, living room and office are actually all one room!

 

 la chambre de Stu, Rach et Luke

la bouanderie

Couldn't get a decent pic of the first floor bathroom.

On the second floor:

la chambre de Lily

La chambre de Max

Max scored for the biggest and best room, as it's doubling up as a playroom whilst Stu works downstairs during the day.  Luke will also be moving up there if he ever sleeps through the night.

la salle douche

Et la pièce de résistance

le balcon

Check out the awesome mountain view!

We've got a busy weekend ahead - bed linen shopping, swimming in lakes, dinner chez les Americaines.  It's a good job that Catherine made me put my feet up all this afternoon in a sun lounger whilst Luke slept in his pushchair under a tree and Max played in the garden...I think I'm going to like it here!

Au revoir les Gaches

Tonight is our last night in the holiday gite before we move into our new home in La Motte Servolex. 

Farmer Gache and his family who own the gite have been so generous during our time here.

Grandma Gache has presented us with endless bowls of freshly picked raspberries, homemade pomme purée and fluffy Savoie cakes.

Madame Gache gave us a bucket of haricots and even offered to mind Luke while we went to Chamonix.

And Farmer Gache let Max take custody of all the toy tractors on the farm, as well as taking him and Stu on the ill-fated real life tractor ride.

I feel bad that I have nothing to offer them in return, although Farmer Gache did have the pleasure of a full body flash in one of those drop the towel or drop the baby moments...

Genuinely lovely people.

Les vaches de Farmer Gache

Salut de Lily xx

Salut! Ça va ? Je m'appelle Lily. J'ai 12 ans. Je suis Anglaise. J'adore ma famille. J'aime faire la danse et jouer le netball. J'ai deux plus petit frères qui s'appellent Max et Luke. J'aime manger le curry et la chinoise. C'est officiel, les Français ont changé mon prénom á Lily Rose.

Ok I give up writing in French now.

RESULT - I have French friends. School is ok I guess, but it is still school. I am trilingual now because I can speak English, French and German. I went to Laser Game yesterday for a party - it is so cool.

Love Lily xx

Les pommes de terre

Potatoes on special at Carrefour this morning. 25kg for €3.50 and selling like hot cakes. Some people even buying two sacks!

What on earth are they gonna do with 25kg of potatoes?!

Une table pour cinq

For most people going to a restaurant is a great way to relax. Now we're a party of five (two being under two) the very thought of it sends my blood pressure rising. The worries are endless; baby screaming the place down, Max doing monster burps, poop incidents, tantrums, food throwing etc.

However we thought we'd brave it last night and went out for dinner for the first time since we arrived (McDo excluding).

The main problem is that restaurants here don't open til 7pm at the earliest, by which time Max is well on his way to becoming overtired and whingey.  We were therefore pretty much banging down the doors of the only Indienne in Aix les Bains at 6:59pm.

The menu was very different to what we're used to in the UK. Not as much choice, multigrain poppadoms, tiny portions,deconstructed onion bhajis and €5 for a bottle of Kingfisher. The food was ok, main courses better than starters but nothing to write home about. Whitley Bay wins hands down for curry!

As it happens, les enfants yet again surprised me with their impeccable behaviour in public (it's always a different story behind closed doors) and we had a nice relaxing meal. Helped I'm sure by the super quick service that saw us back in the car heading home by 8:35pm. We might try it again some time!

Havent' quite mastered the art of eating rice while holding a baby

Nom nom

My French is improving loads by just listening to the language every day. I've managed to send a letter to England, order McDo, tell the story about how Stu lost the car (which isn't allowed to be mentioned anymore after I reversed into a wall on Thursday), talk about Luke's sleeping habits and understand a fair amount of Masterchef France. I still manage to get pretty much every blog post title wrong though, and have Stu correct me.

Luke seems to have doubled in size again this week and is officially not a newborn any more :-(

 

Managed to catch his cheeky grin on camera at last

His usual pose as soon as a camera is pointed in his direction

Stu has been getting lots of use out of his mountain bike, mainly cross country (XC) and downhill. And is loving spending so much time with the boys.

Watching Monsters Inc for the 234,352th time

Lily is  getting used to the long hours at school and seems to be fairly enthusiastic about her work, which makes a change! She is picking up quite a bit of French and can understand a lot of what's being said, but doesn't quite have the confidence to speak it very much. I'm sure that will come though.

We're all looking forward to moving this week and getting settled in our new place. Gonna miss the pool though!

Off to the new place now for café and desserts with the owners ahead of us moving in.

Le train train quotidien

As predicted it's been hard work entertaining the boys so far this week whilst Stu has been working.  It always is when he's working from home but usually we can easily nip out around the town to keep out of his way or use Cbeebies as a pacifier.

The thing I love most about Whitley Bay is having everything I possibly need literally on my doorstep; shops, park, beach, pool, water park, restaurants, cafés, soft play etc*.   It's not quite like that here and I have to drive everywhere, which is a bit of a chore with the two bébés in tow.

I've got it down to a fine art now: Get mobile child (Max) in car and away from road and shut door, walk round car with Luke in pushchair, unclip carseat from pushchair, strap car seat in car, dismantle pushchair, put pushchair in boot, walk round car, open door to strap Max in, realise Max isn't there and he's climbed into to the driver's seat, walk back round car to driver's side, extract Max from driving seat, walk back around the car with Max under arm, clamber into the back of the car, strap Max in, find baby's dummy to stop the inevitable crying that has started, clamber out of car, walk back round car to driver's side, get in car, adjust rear view mirror that Max has kocked out of line, switch off hazard lights that Max has turned on, same with radio, turn key in ignition, stall engine as Max has put the car in second gear, put car into neutral, turn key in ignition, reach for seatbelt, realise that it's on the other side, strap myself in and DRIVE. I did this four times this morning before 11:30 and have it down to five minutes. Add in the mid 20 degree heat and it's pretty much a full body workout.

And if I'm lucky only one of the babies will cry for part of the journey.

La voiture francaise

We're coping with it though and so far this week we've been to three different parks, the aquarium, the port twice, the post office, the boulangerie twice and McDo for frappés et frites. Not to mention having us all up and ready and in the car for 7:45 each morning to take Lil through La Dent du Chat mountain to school.

We're also making a weekly treat of sitting in at La Panière for breakfast after dropping Lil at school. La Panière is basically the Savoie's answer to Greggs, stocked with sandwiches, cakes, bread and pastries but miles tastier. Unfortunately it doesn't sell cheese pasties but its croissants and hot milk are delicious and can keep Max quiet for around 20 minutes. I'm trying to limit croissants to twice a week or else I'll leave France looking like a house end.

News this week:

Lily has been invited to one of her French friend's birthday party this weekend which hopefully confirms she's settling in well at school.

Max is still a bit out of sorts, waking at night and and making me feel guilty by asking pretty much everyday to go to either Grandma and Grandad's house, Niamh's house, Dianne's house or Andrew's house.  He's easily distracted though, which is good.

Luke is clueless to any unsettlement but growing at an incredible rate and looks to be going quite blond.
 

 Not much else to report. Looking forward to moving into our permanent place next week and getting properly settled.

*Obviously what WB doesn't have is the breathtaking scenery, fantastic climate and proximity to some of the most beautiful places in mainland Europe ;-)

A la montagne

We decided to finish up week two with a trip to Chamonix in the heart of the alps to see the Mer de Glace.

Strategic planning around feeds and naps ensured the 1hr 45m journey was as painless and peaceful as possible.

When we arrived at the Montenvers train station, we were unfortunately told that the minimum age for the train ride to the glacier was six months. As we'd come all this way I told Stu, Lil and Max to go ahead without me and the baby and check out the caves.

Luke and I entertained ourselves sitting in the shade of the 29 degree heat, taking in the scenery and watching the crazy parachutists floating down the sides of the mountains. Chamonix proved a great place for people watching; mainly glamorous, leathery old locals smoking fags and American tourists speaking worse French than me. We also got chatting to some Geordie fellas who were planning on climbing Mont Blanc!

The station

A v picturesque wedding

Bored already, mam

Max has been playing constantly with a toy tractor that belongs to the gite. The words "tracta pease" have overtaken "what's that" in things he likes to repeat all day long. So imagine his delight when the farmer who owns the gite asks whether he'd like to go for a ride in his big tractor! Not our Max. I don't have any pictures as he was screaming so much shouting "little tracta peeeeease". For the whole ten minute ride.

 

He quite likes our new boat though:

Stu is back to work tomorrow so it's just up to me to entertain and keep the boys quiet whilst he's working from the gite. This could be fun...

(me and Luke would be happy doing this all day...)

(...however this one has other plans)

Les amies!

One of the worst things about leaving the UK was leaving all my fabulous friends behind.  I love just being able to nip out to meet up for a cuppa and a gossip.  I love having people round the house, I love going out for drinks and dinner, and I especially love it when there's an unexpected knock on the door from someone I care about. The thought of having no-one here at all scares me, so I got extremely excited at the park yesterday morning when I overheard one of the mammies speaking English.

I left Luke with Stu and went to supervise Max, slyly trying to get him to go and play where the English speaker and her son were. After coaching him down the slide in a slightly louder than normal voice to ensure she heard that I spoke English too, we struck up a conversation!  Turns out she is a Californian called Emily and she's also here for the year through her husband's work.  She has two boys aged nearly one and two and a half.

My playground style friend making obviously worked and we've exchanged numbers, the fellas shook hands and we're all going to get together for lunch.  Resultat!

La Rentrée

Yesterday was La Rentrée, when all the kids in France go back to school. 

This year that includes Lily who is attending the Ombrosa school in Bourget du Lac. Although it's a bilingual school, the majority of the children there are from France and she'll receive most of her lessons in French. Yikes.

She seems to like it so far, which is a relief! If that was me at her age I would have been sooo nervous, but she just waved me off, cool as ice :P

The hours are fairly intense; 8:15am - 4:40pm, but she gets a half day on a Wednesday and generous school holidays.

La Rentrée is a massive event here, with pretty much every type of shop trying to cash in on it.'Back to school! Save x% on beds/lawn mowers/fish tanks'.  I'm surprised anyone has any money left to spend on these things after buying all the books and stationery.

Hopefully helping Lil with her homework will refresh my French a bit. I've managed a few more conversations since last update, but nothing worth writing home about. I just find it sooo frustrating. I understand what is being said, I know what I want to say, I just can't get in translates into French and out of my mouth in time.

Me and the boys explored Chanaz this morning, a pretty village on a canal that leads to the Lac du Bourget. It's the perfect place for a relaxing stroll in the morning sun and a cappuccino in one of the pretty cafés that line the canal.  Or it would be if you didn't have a nearly two year old asking "what's that" approximately every four seconds and legging it towards the water at any given opportunity. Oh and an eight week old screaming inconsolably because he hasn't pooped since Sunday. We did manage to afford ourselves about three minutes of peace by letting Max eat the sugar lumps that came with the coffees. 

I've just noticed I've managed to mention poop in all three updates so far.

Les actualités

The last few days we've been busy checking out the local sights and relaxing by the pool.

We spent Friday morning exploring Lac d'Aiguebellette, the third largest natural lake in France famed for its lack of wind and unique bluey green colour, and located just over the mountain from where we're going to be living. 

Max enjoyed being the captain of the pedalo and watching for fishies, while Lily spent an hour jumping off and swimming in the lake.

Today we decided to go to Annecy, where we took a boat across the lake and ate crêpes. The town is absolutely beautiful and only about an hour away from our house. Unfortunately the rain came down after only a couple of hours there so we headed back to the gite. I'll definitely be revisiting Annecy soon though.

In other news, Max has spoken his first French word! We've been saying bonjour to him every time he says hello to anyone and he has been repeating it, but last night he used it in context all by himself to a French 'big boy' who was staying next door. Very impressed!

I'm not doing quite so good. I thought that the B I got at A-Level (12 years ago...) would see me through but I even struggled to order a Mcflurry the other day (the French word for Mcflurry being Mcflurry). I can understand most of what's being said, but by the time I have formulated a response in my head the moment has passed. Hopefully once we're settled in the permanent accommodation I'll be able to practise with the neighbours who we are renting the place from.

Max has also learnt how to lie this week, blaming an imaginary doggy for doing a poo in the middle of the street outside the gite. We were a bit suspicious given that he had been running round naked, we haven't seen a doggy since we got here and he had a bit of poo on his bum. He is still adamant though.

We've spent a lot of time (and money) getting Lily prepared for La Rentrée on Monday. You have to buy all your own textbooks and stationery here, which totally offsets the savings you make from not having to buy school uniform! 

She doesn't seem too nervous about the prospect of being the only English girl in her school and is busy completing a French exercise book in preparation as I type.

Luke continues to be a little delight, full of smiles and sleeping quite well.  He's seems to be enjoying the warmth and has developed a little tan on his face even though he's been in the shade for the full week.



So that's the end of week 1!  Looking forward to another two weeks on holiday here before we move into the permanent house.

Bonsoir de France

I thought I'd use this space to keep family and friends up to date with how we are getting on with our new life in France.

It's taken until day four for me to actually write anything here as our adventure didn't exactly get off to the best of starts!

We arrived in Lyon at around 6pm on Saturday night. However our luggage, including Luke's car seat, did not. After spending more than two hours trying to find out what had happened, we eventually admitted defeat and decided to head to the gite without bags or a car seat.

Stu had parked the French car at the airport the week before so we took the bus around the huge. car park to where he had left it. Or so he thought! The car was nowhere to be seen. By this time it was dark and we were all beyond tired. Me and the kiddas set up camp in a bus stop while he went to look for it. Time ticked by, Max was getting more and more tired, asking to go to Mammy's house and for Mammy's bed and for the baby's blanket (which he likes to sleep with). He used my jacket to make a bed on the ground and lay down with his teddies. I felt absolutely awful and that I was making the worst decision of my life :'(

To cut a long story short, Stu found the car TWO hours later. By this point I was too tired to get angry, but I'll definitely be remembering this for the next time I get grief for losing something!
And as if we hadn't had a shitty enough day, Luke did a huge poo as soon as we got into the car, all the way up his back totally ruining his clothes.

BA continued to mess us about the next day and we finally received our stuff on Monday. They'll be receiving a mighty complaint letter very soon!

Monday and Tuesday weren't much better for various reasons and by last night I just wanted to jack it all in and come home!

But today was much better. I finally feel relaxed. Nothing has gone wrong. We had a great day swimming and playing in the Lac de St Jean de Chevelu. Lily, Max and Luke were all delightful. The sun shone. We had a fab lunch.

And we're now settling down with a bottle of €1.54 wine. Magnifique.