Where The Wild Ones Grow

Alexis' TEN today Part I

2012-02-08T12:02:00.001+01:00

Alexis had a bad night with two of his sisters who didn't stop coughing all night long, hence his face on the photo.
Ten years old yet it seems like just it was yesterday.

Alexis cheered up when he opened a couple of his presents. He'll open a couple more at lunchtime (with his Papa unable to be there) and the rest tonight.

From Alain and I, Alexis has his first chemistry set (since opening it, he has being dissolving egg shells using lemon juice, vinegar and citric acid). Some lego too.

When Alexis was small he wanted to be a marine biologist but in the last couple of years he has showed an interest in Architecture and thinks he'd like to be any architect one day.
This is the present he liked the most (so far) and he built it fast.

So if you ever need to know what to buy Alexis for Christmas or whenever, you can't go wrong with Lego Architecture.

Marie Kate helped me with the first of Alexis' birthday cakes, this one is a nutella and pear roulade (supposed to have been chocolate but someone has taken the 200g bar from the kitchen between last night and this morning...I wonder who)

And finally a present from Granny in the UK, after the lego this wasn't what it had hoped for, but it will keep him warm when is -16°c like yesterday.

Snowy Sunday

2012-02-06T10:05:00.001+01:00

Marie Kate was in charge of the camera yesterday and took lots of photos of us fooling around in the snow.

There aren't any photos of Oliver because he was in a bad mood and stayed sulking in a corner

Alexis on the other hand enjoyed himself.

But Charlotte got pushed over by Oliver (when he moved from his corner) and she wasn't a happy bunny.

Afterwards we all had some yummy brownies (Jamie Oliver recipe).

Light Book and thrift shop find

2012-02-05T08:54:00.000+01:00

I just love our new lamp, designed by Hervé Langlais. It's just perfect for my book tower as it's held in place by just placing a pile of books on top of it.

Last time we went to our favorite second hand shop, Alain saw this chest of drawers.

It had just arrived in the night before and we were lucky enough to be there early and grab a bargain for 80 euros. I did think about just cleaning it and not painting it, but we've got a bedroom that hasn't got much colour (apart from red curtains and orange bedside tables) so I thought once again I'd use some Charlotte's locks to give it a bit of spunk.

I didn't like the handles at first, but they're growing on me

First snow of 2012

2012-02-05T08:20:00.000+01:00

Meteo Paris got it right, it's snowed during the early hours of this morning and it's still falling.
Not good news for the girls though, who had hoped to go clothes shopping at La Defense this morning

I might just put on my trail shoes and go for a run (with Alain in toe...if I can get him up)

La dame de Pique and Musée international d'art naïf

2012-02-02T15:10:00.000+01:00

Our thermometer's reading this morning was -9°c and with the wind it was more like -15°c...apart from taking Marie Kate to school I haven't set foot outside, even now with the sun shining it's a freezing cold -7°c. Marie Kate went to school well wrapped up ready for here school outing to Vicq and the International museum of Naïve Art. She's been so excited about it, they are going to do lots of workshops and eat a picnic.....just hope that they ate somewhere warm inside in weather like this.

We booked to go to the opera is Paris tomorrow, reserved ages ago, so we are just going to put on our winter woollies and brave the cold. This will be our view point from where we will be seated (I like the national Opera website), can't wait.

Off again...Kristiansand

2012-01-31T14:28:00.000+01:00

The problem with Alain's business trips is they happen a lot and he tells me at the last minute, like today, well at 11.23 via email. He's just left and it's tough on family life and children's routines....Yes, I am feeling sorry for myself.

Finally, mudroom finished

2012-01-30T10:15:00.001+01:00

After fifteen months of living here I am happy to announce that we have finished our mudroom. You'd think that a small room like this just wouldn't make a difference to the organization in our home, well that's what I thought, but no. Now we have freed up the entrance, no more muddy shoes to trip over, everything has its place, it's so much tidier too.

I have commissioned Gaby to complete a canvas (see above) that depicts what one might find in a mudroom and when she's finished it will be placed in front of the electricity meter which is rather ugly.

The two trail shoes here were drawn by Marie-Kate, Gaby wasn't too happy when MK actually smeared some soil from a plant pot below them, but in reality it looks great.

Gaby's work a long with a mouse that she says is a rat.

This is the door to the MR that's leads off the entrance, a lick of Charlotte's locks to liven it up a little

I used chalk board paint so we could write memos down, especially for stationary shopping as the children always need stuff and tell me after I've been shopping!

I bought some sky planters for the window (see the blinds have gone), I really like these.

I made the coat rack you can see, initially I wanted to just an old pallet (I think I talked about this in another post) but in the end opted for new wooden planks, two different sizes that are screwed onto a wooden frame. I used all of my left over Farrow and Ball paints (Charlotte's locks, Arsenic, Brinjal) and one yellow paint

And I bought some new plastic baskets for gloves, hats et cetera...

This is where the children hang their coats, unfortunately coatless today as they're all at school

There's a door behind those shelves that we never use, but rather rush and block it completely, we've insulated it and put some tongue and groove in front and then shelves. I need to find a little mirror or something for the space above the last shelf.

Next to the shelves is cupboard where we keep all the backpacks (for now), the doors have been painted with chalk board paint too. If you turn after the plant, you'll find a welly rack and then the door for the basement.

Well that's it, our tiny 5 square meter mudroom finished and crossed off the to do list.

Time for me to rest, I'm sick with a sinus infection and am feeling very sorry for myself. I did manage though, before becoming ill to run 8 kilometers, it was really muddy and very cold. Alain came too and I used a i phone application called Runtastic that is great and for one of my split I ran an average of 19 km per hour, this is fast for me.

Thursday in the mudroom...found a bench

2012-01-19T15:48:00.000+01:00

I've been thinking about making a bench, no let me rephrase that, I thought about making a bench....but considering the amount of time it has taken me to cut wood for one wall (and a bit) in our mudroom, as well as a shelf and little bits and pieces like that, I gave up on that idea yesterday. Since then I have been debating between a vintage bench or a modern one like above(Atlas). I didn't think I'd find a vintage one, so I was getting ready to tell Alain that 280euros wasn't so expensive for a mudroom bench.... (he's back for Korea tonight last I heard)

Then today after picking Gaby up from school, I decided to pop into my local thrift shop, this place is amazing, especially since Christmas, I just keep finding things, even today I found an amazing bridge chair (photos to come) for 12 euros (Gaby has since, taken it and it's now her desk chair, this wasn't the plan, but she can keep it. I'm in a good mood because I found the ideal bench, and it will fit perfectly into the mudroom once finished.

A 1960's vintage school bench and it was a steal, priced like the chair( 12 euros).

I'm not going to paint it, just leave it as it is, minus the chewing gum still stuck underneath.

Tuesday in the Mudroom

2012-01-17T17:32:00.000+01:00

I've almost finished screwing and nailing the tongue and groove wood, this proved to be difficult because of the walls and angles.

I have put up a shelf (that's straight) below the window. this will be painting in Farrow and Ball's Skimming Stone along with all the wood, mainly because it's the only eggshell paint I have enough of left (I'm going to try and paint the room just with paint colours I have left.

Now I have three F & B colours left for the wall leading into the room and I think I prefer Charlottes' Locks (the orange one) although the Hardwick white is fine too. But the Brinjal looks too dark I think. And yes my Charlotte's Locks is only in estate and so that would mean I'd have to buy a 2.5 liter pot.
(5.30pm update 3 children prefer the orange and Gaby's vibrant and colourful friend loved the purple. Just Oliver and Charlotte to ask, I bet that Oliver choses the grey and Charlotte ...not sure, depends on her mood, and that changes all the time.

I found via Shelterness this coat rack and if I can find a pallet I shall do this with it for sure

Potato clock

2012-01-16T22:00:00.003+01:00

Marie-Kate has been making a big effort in English recently (only passive speaker in the family until now) so we treated her while we were at the Palais de la Decouverte to a potato clock.
She has been also carrying out some experiments with seeds.
And soon it's going to get messy in the kitchen as she wants to experiment with corn flour.

Alexis' first term

2012-01-16T15:55:00.004+01:00

One B for using computer software (everyone had a B for this), otherwise A's for everything.

Alexis loves school, so much so that he watches the clock from before 8 to be ready to leave at 8.16 on the dot, yes this boy has a routine that he sticks too without fail.
In March he's going with his class to the Auvergne region of France for 10 days!
Thinking of the number 10, Alexis turned ten on the 8th February, my little boy is growing up fast.

Mud Room...bit of progress, just a bit though

2012-01-16T10:48:00.000+01:00

This room is the second smallest room we have in our house, and it's proving to be a hard room to get done, it's such an embarrassment now, that we have to finish it and quickly.
Here's a view from above the room, half the window is on the first half landing and the other half in the dreaded mud room.
I probably won't keep the blinds when the room below is finished.

Last week I starting filling in all the cracks in the walls (still not finished) and yesterday Alain started the wood that you can see here. We *I am going to carry on the wood under the electric counter and then stop.

This is the wall look up and towards our entrance, the marks you can see are where I've filled in many holes with plaster. I was thinking when it's done to paint it in Charlotte's locks and then put this coat rack here, see below (yes why here? well my kids are lazy, and I reckon that there's more chance they'll hang their coats up just inside the mud room, than having to go down 3 stairs and walk half a meter.

I find this rack pretty awesome, it's called "slastic" and was designed by Ana Mir and Emili Padros and what is so good about it is that you are allowed to draw on the walls with it, well when ones hangs ones coat, thanks to the five colored pencils it comes with.

Here's a close up so you see what I mean. You can put a sheet of paper behind on even a canvas...I try in with paper first, and when a lot of mess has been made (which won't take long, as they are going to just love it) I thought I'd take in down and then get them to complete it, then frame it.

Back to the hard reality of this room...this is the wall and door that leads down to our basement. No photos, it really is worse than ever with all the mess that's been stashed away down there.

* I'm on my own this week (as of this morning) Alain has abandoned ship and flies off to South Korea this lunch-time....the question is, am I am to finish it on my own?

New find at our local thrift shop...before and after

2012-01-15T22:16:00.000+01:00

This is the piece of furniture that we bought for our house in Sanary, it was great there, it held most of our crockery (one side) and art stuff for the children and our English club on the other.
However since we've moved, this piece just hasn't felt right and I've been looking for something a bit more rustic or 60's style ever since.

I didn't find what I was looking for, but Alain didn't do too bad. Probably 1950's, in oak and just a perfect fit for between our two windows.

I did think about painting it, but I think I'll wait, I like seeing the contrast of wood against mizzle, it warms this area better.

Bad photo, but better than nothing. We moved the picasso (ebay find) above and the Italian oil painting has been put it's place, next to our computer (not on photo). I like Alain's bronze next to Picasso's flute player, they belong together.

Paris...Le Palais de la Decouverte

2012-01-15T18:50:00.000+01:00

Things have been rather hectic here of late, hence the lack of being able read blogs (that I love) and blog. Yesterday, though, we did manage to visit Le Palais de la Decouverte in Paris, but not before our 5 km trail run in record time. Oh yes, I forget to add, it was really cold, minus 3°c.

This place was great, and I preferred it to La Villette, maybe it was something to do with the architecture which is just amazing.

There were lots of activities to keep Marie-Kate amused...
Here she's trying to guess by smelling, which rabbits belong where

She was good and got it right fast (unlike Alexis and co..see below)

Zapping back, you see what I mean about this place.

Alexis and co....Alexis and best friend Jeremy, they had a great time and love the planetarium. We have been to quite a few, in the Uk and in France, and this one was by far the best. We've all learnt a lot, even Alain who now knows what a "lune gibbeuse" what that means in English, well I'm not sure myself.

The boys had a race to see how quickly they could cycle up Montmartre in 30 seconds...Jeremy managed 86%, Alexis less and Alain 100% (show off)

We have a year pass to visit as much as we'd like, and we'll be going back soon, next time with Gaby and co (she didn't come yesterday as she went to a party, as for Charlotte, she stayed over night at a friend's house and then hit the sales, while Oliver revised).

Official First Run

2012-01-06T09:10:00.000+01:00

Our names are down on the list for our first run (since school for me), and as it's close to Saint Valentines, we are doing the couples race.
Alain checked the best couple's time for last year and it was around the 19 minute mark...before seeing this, we had planned on doing it in less than 30 minutes (yes that slow) but now have revised it, and hope to do it in less than 25 minutes.

We're going to do the Eco-trail de Paris, ~~unfortunately~~ fortunately there wasn't any places left for the 30 km trail so we are down for the easier 18 km one and this one is not a timed race, so I'm less stressed.

After our New Year run

2012-01-01T12:32:00.000+01:00

we beat yesterday's time by a minute, but I found the last 100 meters uphill at 17% really tough

Alain trainers ~~are~~ were brand new, mine aren't , and they aren't really adapted for cross country running..but maybe someday soon I'll get a new pair

Gaby likes taking photos from strange angles, I think this one is really great.

Happy New Year Bonne Année 2012

2012-01-01T10:58:00.000+01:00

Hello 2012
Happy New Year. Woke up late, still dark outside at 8.30, and since then we've been waiting for the rain to stop so we can go and ~~run~~ jog, and now it's stopped, off we go for another 6 kilometers mainly cross country. Maybe we can beat our time from yesterday which was 43 minutes (8.4 km per hour, our goal is 9 km per hour...but probably not today)

Three(eight really) French Hens

2011-12-30T16:36:00.000+01:00

While in London, we found and bought a lovely book(signed too) for MK for Christmas titled The Twelve Days Of Christmas by Jane Ray. The illustrations are just beautiful and the girls were inspired to paint their own hens

Here's a crazy hen

And even a picasso hen

There are more to finish and after I think they'll look fun in the kitchen

Christmas Present for us..Hang On It Coat Rack

2011-12-29T10:35:00.000+01:00

We had a late Christmas present delivered this morning here at the crack of dawn, something just for Alain and I, something useful but so lovely and it's pink.

I just needed a drill and a screwdriver (note for Alain...tidy up your tools please)

And put it between the stairs and bannister, just enough place for it. It's by the designers at Normann Copenhagen and comes in several colours, and for some crazy reason pink just appealed and I'm so glad it did

Only room for five or six coats, I have three I wear a lot and Alain just two, one of which he's wearing today and the other one is with all the mess in the mud room....arghhh

Off to the DIY shop this morning to get sand paper and wood for mud room. Yes I'm motivated.

And Alain has been to the town hall and will now be able to vote in the next election here in France....we even have appointments for the children to get all their vaccinations up to date...

yippee.

To do list

2011-12-28T07:02:00.005+01:00

Sometimes (most times) we put things off doing things, and of late this is becoming problematic. So I thought, maybe if we write what we want or need to get done down (or type in this case), and tick them off as or when we get things done, it might just force us to actually do it.
Here goes with our list of things to do before the 1st of January

~~write to or phone loved ones( that I haven't had time to do..shame on me)~~ DONE and happy

buy knobs for Alexis' chest of drawers (poor boy has a hard life opening these drawers~~Done~~ took ages too

read at least one book

run 5km in less that 25 minutes (not on the flat..so far got it down to 27minutes)

Finish mud room ( highly improbable) started again but need more sand paper etc so stopped

buy frames from Ikea

~~Put up Charlotte's remaining present on wal~~l 10.35 going to find hammer, but Charlotte is still sleeping....DONE and she's awake

phone bank and cancel direct debit (we've finished paying..yippeee)

~~Get Alain to get out of bed and go back to work after a longish Christmas break~~ Done and missing him already

~~Read my emails and text messages~~ Done phew, that took some time

~~Change beds on top floor (gaby, alexis, mk~~) Done

London: Somerset House and Covent Garden

2011-12-28T06:27:00.000+01:00

After spending our first day in London shopping, the next two days were to be spent doing the usual tourist thing.

All seven of us walked from the hotel till Somerset House. It took twenty minutes and a quick stop at Boots on the way (one of Charlotte's favourite shops now....in London they're dotted all over the place)

Somerset House was beautiful, sitting on Thames, with a lovely open air skating ring there over the festive period...that was fully booked when we tried to reserve via internet.

The children found the visit boring, and we too, were disappointed, but

we did get a nice view upon leaving of The London Eye, and later on, after Covent Garden, that's where we were going to go.

Despite the fairly mild weather, Covent garden had a very Christmassy feel.

Just because the weather wasn't freezing cold, it doesn't mean that you'd want to strip down to your underwear like this street entertainer. We left him to it, with his funny Father Christmas boxers and his knife juggling, and we went to eat round the corner and Wahaca (Mexican Restaurant) that we'd been to a couple of years ago and liked it, only this time it just got better and better.

Belated Merry Christmas

2011-12-27T13:33:00.000+01:00

Wow, things have been crazy around here and I've got a couple of minutes before I have to dash out.

We were lucky enough to spend a couple of days in London before Christmas.

This tree was built using Lego bricks, it was awesome. You'll have to get yourself off to St Pancras if you want to see it, before it's dismantled...I wonder how they do that?

First mince pie, photo isn't great, but the mince pie was yummy...New favourite place for cakes " Peyton & Byrne...

MK preparing for two more crazy days in London. The Ridgemount Hotel just gets better and better and really reasonably priced too.

Charlotte au Chocolat blanc avec Monsieur biscuits

2011-12-15T21:35:00.002+01:00

Remember I talked about the magazine, Papillote? Well here's that Charlotte I planned on making, it's a little late, but I did it, moreover Alexis and I did, because he had no school today as his teacher was on strike (many teachers aren't happy with measures that will allow heads to assess them, giving them less or more in terms of pay rises).

First we melted some white chocolate and then incorporated a juice of an orange, whipped up so cream and added some chocolate marbles (that incidentally melted...wasn't supposed to happen)...Oh yes, I forgot that we added some gelatin.

We put some Monsieur biscuits around a mold, then some shortbread biscuits for the base.

Poured the white chocolate mixture into the mold and left it to set for several hours.

And then these poor little men didn't last for long, especially this one,which fell into the hands of Charlotte

ànd here's Charlotte sporting a new hair colour (nothing to do with me) I'll talk about this another time.

And it between making this Charlotte and eating it, guess what? The older ones played Cluedo with the younger ones....This happens only once in a blue moon.

Christmas Wreath...homemade and fast

2011-12-15T20:49:00.000+01:00

Your eyes aren't deceiving you, my wreath isn't quite symmetric, but I wanted something fast to dress the front door, until perhaps I find something better. Lets hope it doesn't get blown away tonight as apparently a big storm is on its way.

Rainy day

2011-12-13T16:40:00.002+01:00

Despite what people might think, especially friends in the South of France, it doesn't rain here much, well not since we moved up here last year. However, during the night and this morning, we have had quite a downpour along with gusty winds of up to 100km per hour.
You can tell I'm English, because I love it, I love rain (not everyday of course) but just sometimes, especially when I am safe and snug at home.
The photo was taken about 9.30 am, it was so dark outside. You can just make out our neighbours house opposite, she has an enormous house with an attached barn too. Next year the barn is going to be converted into a micro creche, she'll have the right to take care of up to ten babies (along with help). She already has a similar set-up not far away, but for fifty babies! Thankfully, it's only for up to ten here!

La classe de 5.4 Gaby's school report

2011-12-13T10:37:00.001+01:00

I don't normally write about school results and all that, but as I did for MK this year, I thought I'd have to do the same for my four other sweeties, even if one or two didn't do as well as they'd hoped (or we had hoped).

Today the turn of Gabrielle. She's 11, and she's in her second year at college (year 8 in the UK).

She is in the elite class (terrible to say that but so true), why? Because she chose options this year and last that group children together, those who aren't scared of a little extra work. She's in a section called bi-langue which means she does English and German in tandem (mostly, from year 7, children learn just English and from year 9 they choose a second foreign language, usually Spanish.

I can't remember if she has three hours or four of English per week and the same for German this year, but that was the case for last year anyway.

This year she took the option Latin. She wasn't over keen, but we kind of pushed up a little, and she knew if she didn't like it, after one year, she had the right to stop. Amazingly, she loves it, and for now at least, doesn't want to stop...yippee.

Ok in her class they are twenty eight children and twenty one of these are in the "bi-langue" class. Most of them either do Latin or Theatre as an option.

On Saturday we met her form tutor in order to get her long awaited first school report for this year. And we learnt the following that out of twenty eight pupils

10 had felicitations, which like the highest honor you while in college

3 had compliments which is basically very good

3 had encouragements which means you are trying hard and we've noticed, and carry on it's good.

2 had been sanctioned for lack of effort.

The average of the class was a fairly high 13,70 (in comparison with what we've seen in the South of France, which was mostly between 10 and 11)

And eight pupils got an average more that 15, this is really good, the competition is at a maximum.

And guess what, Gaby, who is the youngest in the class (she skipped a class ages ago) was first of the class and first of her school year for that matter...big headed? no! Proud? Yes, proud as punch.

Sixty one tests since the beginning of the year, she managed to fight her way through them all and get averages over 19 in Math, English, Latin and Art and as for the rest, still amazing. Just under 18 of average is just awesome.

L'arbre Roux...class book and Marie-Kate's first term report

2011-12-12T14:05:00.000+01:00

Marie-Kate bought home a book that her class had put together, after watching a play called L'arbre Roux in the village hall.

She has really worked well this year (as usual) still a little too shy but so was I, and so are her sisters.

Her school report opens up to show at least 7 pages of marks and 1 with teachers comments (as seen above a little snippet)

She got all A's, apart from for participation where is got a B and another B for sentence construction, which are apparently too long.

Very happy for my little girl who loves her school and to do the very best she can all the time, except when it comes to playing chess with me, because there, she's a sore loser.

Sunday afternoon walk down by the River Seine

2011-12-11T16:57:00.000+01:00

Our house in the middle of a small village not far from Paris. If you walk down the hill, you will find the River Seine.

Today, we walked down with Marie-Kate. It was spitting a little, but still nice to get out, and great to spend some time with MK.

There are some lovely houses that border onto the river, but we ruled out buying one here because of the flood risk.

Alain reckons that these geese are destined for someone's Christmas table..

A grey day but still nice reflections and some autumn colours lingering on

Time to climb the hill and head off home.

New additions to our bedroom..Bookworm and Sapiens book tower

2011-12-11T16:33:00.000+01:00

For a very long time we've been longing for a bookworm(especially Alain), the idea was to get a long one, but we changed our minds , when we came across a ptolomeo book tower while surfing on the Conran site. Far too expensive, but we still put the bookworm on hold for a while. Then while visiting one of my favourite blogs door sixteen I saw a sapiens bookcase, a lot like a ptolomeo but a hell of a lot cheaper....fast forward till last week. I found out that you could buy a Sapiens at Habitat here at La Défense. So we could get the two, a bookworm for Alain and a Sapiens for me, and all for less than a 5m20 bookworm.

A sapiens ready to be taken out of it's box

Christmas has come early and my book tower is full, whereas Alain needs a dozen or so books, mangas or graphic novels to fill up his bookworm

Rarebit and Speculoos biscuits

2011-12-11T11:27:00.000+01:00

We baked some speculoos biscuits fpr the first time on Friday and they were yummy.

Gaby is a big fan of icing sugar, even in the morning for breakfast, she'll whip up a little bit of icing to go on biscuits, cookies or even with fruit...

Charlotte adores nutella and if you leave her with a 750g jar, she'll finish it within 24 hours.

I bought yet another cookbook, this time, Hugh fearnley's Vegetable book, and I love it. I'd never made a rarebit before, but for lunch on Friday, Alexis and I had some tomato ones for the first time and they were really good. The bechamel sauce was amazing.

Marie Kate and Alexis in the Newspaper

2011-12-07T04:35:00.002+01:00

Ok, they're only in the local school newspaper, but still, Marie-Kate is even on the front cover (she's the one with the light blue coat in the front line near the middle).

Her class are here again, this time after watching a piece of theatre in our local village hall

Oui suis-je? Here, you have to find your child's eyes (and mouth on another page), this was hard....bad mother huh

After the theatre her class wrote some review, here's Marie-Kate's(middle and to the left)..if you can't read it, she wrote "I liked it when the squirrel threw nuts at the woodcutter.

Meanwhile, in Alexis' class, they have been working on liquids in science. They had to layer as many liquids as possible on top of one another, that didn't mix up. Alexis' group did 11, but another group 13.

Last up was photos and a review of their visit and workshop with a local sculptor (Alexis is pictured on the far left and the boy on the far right is his best friend, Jeremy.

We a really lucky to have live in a small village, with such a dynamic school.

Papillote, a cooking magazine for children

2011-12-06T14:12:00.000+01:00

There's an amazing choice of quality magazines here in France, for both adults and children. Our children receive quite a few magazines each month that are just brilliant, for example Virgule, a French literature for 10 to 15 year olds that's fantastic.

It's appealing from the outset, extremely ludic and richly illustrated. We love this magazine, and it's one we couldn't go without. Enough about that, because I wanted to talk about a brand new magazine called Papillote that's just been published and it's super....why did someone wait so long to come up with the idea, I mean a cooking magazine for children in France, it just has to be a success, no?

With over seventy pages of recipes and info, this magazine is adorable and everything looks yummy. This is the first one out and timed perfectly for Christmas, with emphasis on chocolate, salmon and foie gras and much more

The White Chocolate Charlotte above, is the first recipe we're going to try out tomorrow.

This sweet potato recipe could be served up in a starred restaurant

There's even a recipe by a Michelin starred chef to boot

A bit of science

A yummy foie gras Christmassy recipe

and orange tarts to die for.

At the end of the magazine, there's a list of ingredients and children are asked to come up with a recipe using them and send a picture or drawing in, and the best one will be published...such good fun... and all this just for 3.60 euros.

We whall certainly be cooking lots of recipes from Papillote between now and the new year.

Lunch with Marie-Kate, her berry fruit nems

2011-12-05T13:30:00.001+01:00

Marie-Kate can be rather bossy and she certainly knows her own mind and my, she loves to eat, especially pasta and she's crazy for cheese. This lunch-time, if she had eaten at school, she would have had cervales sausages (pure pork one spiced with garlic and coriander) for starters, followed by caramel beef with couscous and a petit suisse and some fruit to finish off with...but she eats at home on Mondays and Tuesdays and today she had pasta with a tomato pesto sauce, rocket and parma ham salad and an omelette. Before eating she insisted on rolling up her berry nems and put them in the oven....she ate everything apart from her vanilla ice-cream, too cold for her teeth she said.

Next Thursday at school, Christmas lunch will be served and this is what they will be eating

LUNDI	MARDI	JEUDI	VENDREDI
Pâtes du soleil	Carottes râpées	Apéritif de Noël (boisson)	Salade composée
Rôti de porc sauce charcutière	Pané moelleux Toscana	Terrine de saumon	Beaufilet de hoki sauce brunoise
Chou-fleur	Purée	Escalope de poulet sauce aux marrons et Pom'pommes	Haricots verts
Tartare ail et fines herbes	Yaourt sucré	Camembert	Petits filous au chocolat
Spécialité de fruits pomme-vanille	Fruit	Bûche de Noël	Fruit

If only I'd been able to eat food like that when I was at school in the UK. Lucky children.

Astrance, amazing restaurant in Paris

2011-12-05T10:02:00.000+01:00

Last Thursday, Alain and I got to eat at Astrance. The table was booked in October, we had intended on eating there for our anniversary, but the restaurant was booked up for lunch until December, so instead we ate at the cinq, and although the meal was good, I think it's reputation is way over hyped.

This was going to be our last shot in a starred restaurant, mainly because of our experience at the Cinq, but after eating at the Astrance, we've been blown away by the food, the service and the incredibly relaxed atmosphere that we're going back in February (booked till then) and I just can't wait.

As soon as I figure out how to transfer the photos on my phone to my computer, I'll put some photos on the blog of what we ate, however the food was so amazing, there aren't many, I just didn't want to spoil the experience by taking photos of every course, amuse bouche et cetera.

To be updated soon

Christmassy

2011-12-05T09:25:00.000+01:00

We bought our Christmas tree on Saturday, the biggest one so far, measuring over 2m50.
Every year, one of the children get to put the angel on the top and this year it was Alexis' turn.
Charlotte made this angel when she was almost 5 and it's been part of Christmas ever since.

Alexis had a little help to get up so high.

And voila, there she is.

Gaby decorated some cookies so they looked like melting snowmen and Charlotte took millions of photos of them, but here's just two.

Scary/Messy Mudroom and basement, so embarassin

2011-11-29T06:41:00.001+01:00

This room is so untidy and dirty, I really hate it.
There's a window that looks out on to the garden, one door that leads into the entrance hall and another that leads you outside (under the studio) next to the where we park. See the horrible wall, well after cleaning it up, I'm going to put tongue and groove over it and then paint it in skimming stone. We haven't yet decided if to make a fitted shoe storage system with bench or just buy an Ikea room divider and pop it against the wall.

Oh yes, nearly forgot, there's a third door that leads the way down into our basement.

There are three rooms down there. One is a wine cellar (messy), one a children's toy stockage room which is very big and has a window which looks directly onto the street (small and full of cobwebs usually, but the room is tidy) and a third room which is where Alain keeps all his power tools.

At the bottom of the stairs it's bad too, bags everywhere, books to give away too. I did manage to give all of my Gordon Ramsay and other cookbooks I hadn't used since we've lived here to friends (thanks Cedric and Cecile) so just a few hundred books to go.

Ikea lamp and cushions

2011-11-28T18:37:00.001+01:00

Last year, we bought some expensive cushions and cushions covers from The Conran Shop. The children used them sit on, flopping down on them, especially when you are a 17 year old who weighs over 80 kilos can kill a cushion cover, that's what happened here. They just gave away at the seams, such a shame. One lesson learnt, no more expensive ones, instead a trip to Ikea and two new covers that cost 5.99 euros. Alexis choose them, I preferred the orange velvet ones, though they were double the price. Marie-Kate chose the lamp, and I love it. I kept my Tse Tse garland in the same place and our tv room cosier now with two light sources

Marie-Kate, Miss Geek, at her favourite place, in-front of the Mac. Lunch-time at home isn't that bad, she told me today, especially when two boxes of chocolates arrive from the UK for Christmas and she gets to eat two before I hide them.

Landing wc finished

2011-11-28T13:51:00.000+01:00

A very small room, our downstairs wc, well on the first half-landing is finished at long last, yes, I had been procrastinating about finishing the painting for months but last week I decided to take the bull by the horns and finish it before December arrived.

We kept the tiles, the sink and the toilet and just bought a couple of things from Ikea.

With some Sophie Blackall prints, a 1945 Alexandria water colour (that's been on the top of my wardrobe for ages ...lots more to frame where this one came from) and one of Marie-Kate's paintings the room is so much nicer. I used White Tie on the walls and Down Pipe behind the shelves and on the door.

Now I've attacked the mud room and I've got my work cut out in here. I am doing it now as I've enough paint left over from other rooms, it's going to look good I hope, painted in Skimming Stone and Charlotte's Locks.

Fast Food and Meringues

2011-11-28T13:22:00.000+01:00

Meringues are very popular in our house at the moment, we make some a couple of times a week. Usually I just dollop big spoonfuls on a baking take like above,but last time I decided to be less rustic and use a piping bag. They looks great and I never got a chance to take a shot of them.

We don't eat at Mc Donalds, Quick or KFC but I recently found a fast food sandwich here that has been a big hit here at lunch-time. All you need is some Dijon mustard, some ham, cheese, a handful of potato chips and some pickles (or spinach ) and you assemble it all, then squash down another slice of bread and warm it up in a skillet with some butter and serve it with a salad. Yummy

Alexis' homework and cat

2011-11-16T09:24:00.001+01:00

Alexis is in CM1 (year 5), and he's loving every minute of it. He has the head of the school as his teacher 3 days a week and Mme D once a week and it's working out great. His teachers are motivators, and boy they get a lot of work done and even manage to do sport everyday (this was never the case in the south of France, nor in the Uk for that matter.

Alexis will get his school report at Christmas, one with averages out of 20, his first like this. The other day he got all of his tests out and calculated his average, bearing in mind his worst mark this year was an 17 in dictation. So he's doing just great with a 19.68 of average overall. He's one happy chap and we're proud of him.

He gets lots of homework, it seems that he has more than his brother who is in terminal S (last year of high school or sixth form), but Oliver is lazy. At least once a week he has a good hour of homework, but most days in 20 to 30 minutes.

It's a dream year, Alexis loves sport, he likes to work and he's very competitive. What else do they find time to fit into 4 days of school per week? Well lots of art and sculpture with a real sculptor from the village, and don't know about you, but I just love the cat he brought home.

Soon as you enter our house, it's the first thing that greets you.
I yes I nearly forgot, Alexis' class are learning to play the harmonica and the recorder, too, hats off to Mr B and Mme D, they are just amazing.

Still talking food

2011-11-14T22:17:00.000+01:00

The evening ended with a apple, pear and fennel salad served with a cider vinaigrette served with some smoked salmon the Alain had brought back from a recent trip to Norway (recipe taken from Cannelle et Vanille)

But earlier on, the tea-time treat was highjacked from the beginning by Marie Kate

After double dipping using milk bread as the double, after fried, then

20 apple doughnuts were ready

And then gobbled up at a wink of an eye (recipe taken from Joy the Baker)

Lunch for Marie Kate who isn't hard to please..most of the time

2011-11-14T14:43:00.000+01:00

Marie-Kate comes home for lunch on Monday's and Tuesday's and she tells me in advance what she'd like to eat, and usually I try to comply, and luckily today I had to go shopping. She asked for vegetables and fish....mmm ok. I don't often look at food blogs, well not since moving here, but that's changed as of today. I found sites I loved again, like Smitten Kitchen, Joy the Baker et cetera.

Well getting an idea from Smitten Kitchen, Marie- Kate and I ate roasted aubergine(MK's was topped with some mozzarella too) with a tomato, onion and caper salsa and some tempura
coated cod (from Brittany).

Did she like it? Well she ate it all up and said it was yummy but her favourite bit was the tomato salsa.

Even though I cooked it and I critic my cooking a lot, I have to admit that this lunch was good, the aubergine, meaty and the salsa great, and I'm crazy for fish.

Tomorrow, she's back home for another 2 hours lunch break, and this time I'm going to get her to prepare the topping for two home-made pizzas, that should be fun:)

As for tonight, we'll be eating this, but I doubt mine will look anything like it.

But before that, my children will be eating Double Dipped Apple Doughnuts that I found on Joy the Baker

You see what happens when you eat at Verjus, you just want to cook, cook cook....

Corners of our almost tidy bedroom

2011-11-14T07:00:00.003+01:00

Our room is seldom tidy, but it's tidier than our five children's bedrooms.
Amazingly,even though only slept about 3 hours last night(Saturday night), due to a gremlin alarm problem on my phone, I still managed to tidy one corner of our bedroom and half a wall.

You see the small pile of books, well there are piles more here and there around the house to add to them...so many books to read and now a tidy corner and some spare time (hopefully) before Christmas, so who knows, I might just attack that pile as of today.

I started Christmas shopping a couple of months ago, especially after seeing these cool posters via Door Sixteen that I ordered from Pop Chart Lab. We have already a couple of their posters (the beer and the super powers posters) and now we have three more for the children for Christmas...I'm waiting for the Candy Bar one for Gabrielle, which hopefully will arrive this week and the Monsters poster for our room and finally a beer ti-shirt for Alain.

cooking for children after Verjus

2011-11-13T17:14:00.000+01:00

Cooking after last night was a tall order and our children ate take outs last night, so to bring them back to reality and certainly to real food, they ate caramelized meatballs with a radish and carrot salad along with one of Alexis' famous vinaigrettes from our all time favourite French cooking book "Soeurs Scotto". This book is so amazing, with a mixture of French cuisine mixed with Italian and Japanese influences that make it so special.
Our family favourite recipe from this book is a veal blanquette with vanilla.

Alain and I ate (diet after yesterday), gambas in a light tempura with stir fried ginger and garlic veggies

We eat with chopsticks the majority of the time, sometimes the colours don't match but that's fine as long as it tastes good

Verjus (ex Hidden Kitchen) A must

2011-11-13T09:41:00.000+01:00

I have read a lot about this underground restaurant called Hidden Kitchen via different food blogs and I've always been curious about learning more and eventually perhaps eating there.

Braden and Laura, the people behind this idea, came from America to open up a private supper club, where once or twice a week, they would host elaborate 10 course meals in their apartment in Paris. Globetrotters, lots of Americans, Europeans and French would share the same table and enjoy the one of the ultimate food experiences one could ever wish for.

They have been so successful, Hidden Kitchen is no more, instead they have opened their very own restaurant and wine bar not far from the Opera Garnier in Paris.

A couple of days ago, I received an email from Laura to tell me she had two places available to eat at Verjus, of course we eagerly accepted, and last night was the big night, and boy it was awesome and one couldn't have wished for better company.
We dined with some great people, ate the most exquisite food with perfectly paired wine.
For the amuse bouche we had a spring roll with mussels with a shot of caramelized fennel soup, what can I say, just perfect and the mussels were divine.
Next, we were served a charred sweet onion with a millet and quinoa risotto and citrus. I loved the risotto but wasn't that keen on the sweet onion, that for me, just wasn't sweet at all and hard on the palate.
The butter poached langoustine with red cabbage tortellini mint and caper was excellent overall, the langoustine tail was a little too small, but the amazing red cabbage tortellini made up for that. The texture of the red cabbage was almost meaty and a real delice.
Next up was the house smoked salmon with celery root, buckwheat, mustard and roe served with the best wine of the evening. This was one of my favourite courses, and I definitely want to try to smoke our own salmon at home.
The Veal cheek turned out to be veal shoulder served with pine nut butter, nori, salsify and fried herbs was excellent but a tad too salty, however, the pine nut butter and the fried herbs were to die for.
Ok even though it's only 9 am, this course makes me want to run back to Paris and have more, now, and lots of it. Beer braised pork belly with white miso labne, raw beets, kimchi vinaigrette was just delectable or as Alain would say le petit Jesus en culottes de velours.

To finish with, we had a dark chocolate ganache with pineapple and rosemary (not habenero) sorbet, banana and hazelnut. I'm not a big sweet tooth and I am hard to please, and although this dessert was good (probably great for others), it just didn't do it for me, the sorbet was good and the banana and hazelnut too, but the ganache was not that dark, with a lack of intensity.

photo not taken from restaurant, I ate the whoopie pie before thinking

But guess what, just before leaving the table, we were treated to a whoopie pie that just was so scrumptious, and we'll be making some of these today.

If there's one place in Paris I really can't wait to go back too, it's here. And in the bar, we got to taste some Japanese whisky that was heavenly. Next time we'll try the fried chicken at the bar that's something not to be missed.

Note; It would have been nice to have some good butter to go with the bread, butter similar to that of Le Cinq, now that would be something.

Nutella and a book and our old house

2011-11-02T20:55:00.000+01:00

Charlotte 15(almost 16) who adores shopping, loves eating but doesn't cook much anymore, nor does she pick up a book often has been making an effort this past week... she kind of baked (made) her nutella special that consists of smothering nutella all over bread, then pouring over a eggy mixture and then spooning even more nutella over the top and then popping it in the oven for 20 minutes.

I got a shot of the before photo, but alas not the after one as it was eaten fast.

Another thing that has happened this week, is that Charlotte has read a book that I chose for her from the local library, she actually read it all and liked it and that's made me curious enough to actually read this one myself, especially as Alain is away in Norway and I have a couple of hours of calm now the children are either snugged in bed or at least in their bedrooms.

Bonne nuit:)

I yes before I forget, the house we sold in September 2010 is on the market already, can you believe it, apparently, they use it as a holiday home and had hoped to rent it during the holiday season, but things haven't gone to plan, so they have it on the market and want to buy a studio instead in Sanary and a upgrade from their house near Paris to a bigger one in the same area.

Chateau de Versailles

2011-11-02T08:58:00.000+01:00

After living in the suburbs of Paris for just over a year and only 20 minutes from Versailles, we thought it was high time to visit the Chateau.

Despite arriving early, the place was heaving with people, but it was a beautiful morning and the queue was still reasonable and we had printed out our tickets at home (getting organized). The good thing about the chateau de Versailles is that it's free for under 18's, so all of our children could visit and it would (and did) only cost 36 euros (18 each for Alain and I). However, getting a 15 and 17 year out of bed was am impossible feat, so we went with just three out of five children.

The children really enjoyed the visit, and Alexis proved to be quite an expert on everything "Versailles" under the reign of Louis XIV, perhaps having played and finished his two cd roms on the subject (Enquetes à Versailles), which I highly recommend.

Towards the end of the visit, the children were feeling in need of something sugary and they found the answers to their prays in the form of these delicious cakes, oh and boy, the chocolate ones were to die for and worth every centime (6.50 each).

We had planned on visiting the gardens afterwards and eat out picnic, but the rain put an end to that and we ate our home-made chicken wraps with avocado in the car while queuing to leave.
Still we had a great day and plan to visit again, next year in the spring.

Halloween

2011-11-02T06:28:00.000+01:00

Alexis got invited out by his best friend (and his mum) to go and trick or treat for Halloween in our village. Normally we don't celebrate Halloween, no candies for children who call, as we always forget, but not this time. We even made a pumpkin and chickpea soup.

Alexis came home two hours later with a bag full of sweets and he has been forced to lock them away in a safe place because Charlotte and Oliver just can't resist stealing when the opportunity arises.

Le Cinq à Paris...anniversary meal

2011-11-01T16:33:00.000+01:00

On Sunday, Alain and I went to Le Cinq in Paris to celebrate our anniversary, just the two of us. To be honest, we had planned on going to L'Astrance but it was fully booked for lunch till December, hence our reservation for the 1st of December... so back to Le Cinq, great choice for us as we wanted to eat lunch rather then dinner and we only had to reserve one week in advance.

We arrived a little early and waited while seated on some comfy sofas, however, we were disappointed not to be offered an aperitif, despite the fact we waited over twenty minutes to enter the restaurant.
The restaurant itself was beautiful, and the service was second to none, but, yes I am going to complain and I am probably in the minority, but the food was hit and miss.
we had the Dejeuner en liberté autour du marché and we just weren't enamored with this menu upon eating it. The wine was great, the champagne expensive, especially a Lançon rosé glass that cost 32 euros (if Alain had only known in advance....)
The beurre aux algues (seaweed butter) was just exceptional (from St Malo), the red mullet, just perfect but veal tartare with oysters, I was really disappointed with this starter.
I will not bore you further, but Alain will be posting reviews on Trip Advisor and Internaute sometime soon.
Just to reiterate once more thought, the service was fantastic and the surrounding too, but I by far preferred the food at L'Amphytrion in Lorient...

You have to take a deep breath before looking at the receipt, scary really, but the Chablis was worth every centime.

Fête de Fromage/ Cheese Festival

2011-10-09T11:23:00.002+02:00

The town hall in Meulan

Once a year in the nearby town of Meulan there's a cheese festival that's held over the second weekend of October, and this year we went...in fact we braved the autumn weather and walked the 2km down the hill to visit it.

There were lots of people and the rain held off just until we decided to walk home

While the different bands played, some people danced.

Lots of great cheese and other yummy things to eat...shame for Alain and I, who are trying to get fit.

But Alexis and Marie Kate were able to enjoy probably the best waffles ever, with freshly melted chocolate sauce.

and some "fresh" milk.

Hubby Back and Montmartre

2011-10-08T15:30:00.002+02:00

He's back and I'm so happy...he arrived Thursday morning and he took me to Paris.. We planned on eating in a Japanese restaurant, but it was closed (only open in the evenings) so

before walking up to visit the Sacre Coeur

We ate here. A new restaurant, that was really a great place to eat and not expensive to boot.

This was the view of Paris when we left the Sacre Coeur, a bit cloudy, lots of tourists, but great view.

Oh yes, behind Alain (on the first photo), you can see tents that had been erected, they were for the la fêtes des vendanges, that was due to start the next day:(

Où se trouve mon mari...

2011-09-25T16:28:00.002+02:00

I just received a photo from Alain, who took this photo of the FPSO Usan, probably from his Flotel nearby..;Mooring hasn't begun even though he's been there since Wednesday:(

Fitness and my dip station

2011-09-25T15:03:00.004+02:00

Charlotte likes taking photos of everything and thankfully she cut off my head on this one, but you can see my new dip station, and that's what counts.

For the last 7 weeks Alain and I have been on a fitness drive, eating less (snacking I mean and cutting out butter, sugar , processed food et cetera) and doing sport when possible, and I'm happy to be back at a more acceptable weight.

I have been following Zuzana on Bodyrock tv, and have even bought a dip station, and I just love it.

Next up, I just have to get a sandbag, but maybe not in pink, so that Alain can use it too.

I still have a few kilos to lose, but maybe by the time Alain gets back from his FPSO in Nigeria I might be half way there...

I won't mention how much I have lost, because it's kind of frightening, but a lot, and I like it.

Home alone with five children

2011-09-21T21:10:00.002+02:00

You see on the map the small triangle with Usan FPSO, well that's where my husband is, well will be as of tomorrow morning. Tonight he's in a secure Total compound until he flies by helicopter in the morning to join Usan. And twelve mooring lines later, he'll be back. This could take weeks though, so I'm just going to have to get on and cope the best I can.

Procrastinating less

2011-09-21T11:00:00.005+02:00

our problem, wires, concrete and grey

We kind of finished our kitchen in the spring, but were left with a problem of flooring. Mr H had tiled the kitchen in the 70's and only tiled up until his cupboards and under the these there was (is) some concrete screed. Now I don't let the tiles, but we'll have to put up with them for now, besides we don't know if we want some cork flooring in the kitchen or something else.

I had originally wanted to hang some kitchen wall cabinets off the ground in the sitting room, like over on Door 16, then I thought about doing it in the kitchen, however this wasn't possible if we wanted to hide the horrible floor, so we opted for this option, Ikea kitchen cabinets placed on a wooden base. You can still see a little bit of the grey, but it's better, beside we couldn't place it better because none of the walls in this house are straight.

I really wanted to have a space downstairs to regroup the children's school books, for two reasons, firstly so they work downstairs, instead of pretending to work at their desks upstairs and secondly, because our children are lazy and if they forget a text book upstairs, the last thing they want to do, is climb over 40 steps to go and fetch it.

So five cupboards for five children, each with a colour different apart from the end two doors.

This area is working out so well. Alexis and Marie-Kate work happily at the kitchen table, Oliver likes the square table in the other room like Charlotte, and as for Gaby she still prefers the sofa but at least I can see what she's doing. For now we're using post-its to remind me and them what tests (or assignments) they have coming up, this is great for me as I know I have to allow time to check. For example Gaby, has a Latin test today, music tomorrow and Civic Education on Friday. Marie-Kate just a poem left to recite one more time, Alexis has finished everything and lets not even start Oliver's and Charlotte's list.

We bought everything Friday, and finished everything apart from the wooden top for 5pm, just giving us time to get showered and off to see Salomé at the Opera de Paris(Bastille).

What a night...more later

back

2011-09-21T08:03:00.005+02:00

So many things going on here, I haven't had anytime to post and when I did have a spare couple of minutes, guess what, my camera cable plug snapped!

So what's been going on here....

Back to school has been easy to deal with, the children are all happy despite the amount of homework they have each night, yes, even Marie Kate aged 7 has written work and reciting to do, everyday.

This morning, after I've finished here, Alexis has two assignments to do, plus some History etc...

Changing the subject, almost two weeks ago, I had to go back to the UK for the funeral of my auntie. I went on the Friday(funeral day) and came back on Sunday, so not much time, and rather sad.

I did manage to buy some clothes for the children from T K Maxx and George (Asda) and pick up a copy of my favourite English cooking magazine.

Marie Kate helped me make this supposedly delicious lemon butter icing cake, I didn't taste it as I have a couple of pounds to shed.

I found a couple of cookbooks at the airport that looked good and later ordered them on Amazon, one's by the Hairy Bikers (Mum knows best...I think), great book with lots of yummy recipes. Marie Kate made these Empire Biscuits, this time I got to eat one and it was delicious

Tasted a lot better than they looked, we had a problem with the icing

Home made Compass

2011-09-06T09:11:00.003+02:00

Alexis has been busy this weekend baking his famous jam thumb print biscuits and yummy first time meringues. He also made a compass to find the magnetic north using a wine cork, a needle and a magnet.

Back to school 2011/2012

2011-09-06T08:32:00.005+02:00

They really were happy to go back to school, just not happy to have their photo taken

Alexis and Marie-Kate went back to school yesterday. There were some last minute changes with regards to Alexis' class which was supposed to be a mixed level CE2/CM1 class, but three new pupils changed that and his class is now just a CM1 class which I'm pleased about.

Marie-Kate's ce1 class has a couple of new children in it too. In fact there are 21 new pupils in all that have joined the school this year, so many that a new class has been created, amazing.

Gaby went back yesterday, but just for a couple of hours. She's in 5eme 4 with the the same classmates as last year as hers is the only bi-langue class (English/German) and this year she has all the pupils that have chosen Latin as an option which totals 7,( 3 already do German).

Camera shy Charlotte

It's Charlotte's first day at Lycee this morning. She'll find out which class she's in, and which option she's got between here two first choices, either Lab Science or Philosophy.

Oliver started back yesterday too, this year he's in his last year of Lycee and he's in terminale S speciality Math.

TIny bathroom

2011-09-01T07:31:00.004+02:00

We have a tiny bathroom on our first half floor landing, it really isn't very nice and has just enough space for a toilet, sink and built-in bookcase. There's a little window high up that you need to use a pulley to open it. This is the one window in our house that stays open virtually all of the time. The room's wallpapered, but I've started stripping it.

Just look at the colour difference between where I took off the wallpaper border and the wallpaper. I can't hardly imagine that this room looked so white before, instead of this dirty grey

I still have no idea what colours to use when it will be ready to paint, but not white.

I've been reading a little about Feng Shui in bathrooms and as this room is in the north east corner of our house we should apparently paint it green...

We are going to change the sink for a new on from Ikea and probably cover over the oak floor for hygiene reasons. Finally the girls have requested another mirror for here, what a surprise, so I'll be visiting our local thrift shop or getting on from Ikea.

Hopefully I'll get the room done by next Thursday (a part from the sink) as on Friday I'm off to the UK for the funeral of my Aunt.

Our Street

2011-08-28T09:04:00.004+02:00

We live right in the centre of our village, just a stone's throw from the local primary school. It's really quiet here, apart from when the children are dropped off for school.

You can see on the above photo where Marie-Kate is riding her bike, the village hall (salle des fêtes) , the bottom half is in stone and the top half rendered wood. There's quite a lot that goes on here, from plays to mini opera's and of course the annual Christmas Fair.

The house the children are in-front of here is enormous, and only two people live here! The owner is planning on opening a mini creche in the future some where within there.

The only thing we need now is a boulangerie or a local delivery service that delivers fresh baguettes, croissants, even if it was just once a week it would be wonderful.

Riding a bike at last

2011-08-26T17:49:00.005+02:00

Mind that bottom, she still adamantly squeezes into her 6 year old leggings even though they are far to small.

It's been quite a difficult year, with the stress of selling our house in Sanary and moving to the Paris suburbs, then getting the house renovated (still lots to do...).

We managed a short break all together and that was great, now we're back we are trying to make more time for the family. I've been taking Marie-Kate out so she could at last learn to ride her bicycle that she had for her birthday. She had been reticent about riding it, since she didn't want to fall off, but as of this week she can ride her bike and she loves it.

The photo was taken in the Vexin countryside in a little village called Jambville. We were there to pick up Gabrielle from a sleep over at her friends.

Cité des Sciences...unplugged Sunday

2011-08-22T17:16:00.004+02:00

We did manage a whole day without connecting to internet, instead we visited the Cité des Sciences in Paris. It was cheaper for us to buy a year pass for the 7 of us (72 euros) that allows you to visit as much as you like, the Palais de la Découverte during the year too, so great value.

Charlotte having a conversation with Mona Lisa

Ok, it's not like a long hike going here, but it's a start, right? And this weekend coming we are going hiking, with the children...(15 kilometers, but they don't know that, yet..)

We have to unplug more often, especially since even Alain has become hooked on his new Apple friend, too.

Center Parcs

2011-08-22T16:56:00.005+02:00

For the last holiday weekend in August we went to Center Parks which is a about one hour and a half's drives from here. I have to say, I was surprised how good it was. The kids loves Aqua Mundo, tree trekking and just having the freedom to do as the wished in a safe environment .

I forgot to pack the charger for my camera so I haven't got many photos (however Charlotte has) so this is all for now.

Gaby took a couple of nice photos of ducks that were just outside our cottage.

And Alain turned 37 and we couldn't bake a cake because I can't work with microwaves, so Charlotte made some pancakes

Ok she didn't manage to toss this one perfectly, but she got there in the end and after our awful meal in a center parks restaurant, I much prefer to eat one of her pancakes any day.

Ferme de Gally

2011-08-08T12:04:00.005+02:00

Saturday, we went to pick our own fruit, vegetables and flowers and La Ferme de Gally which is about a 20 minutes drive from where we live. Boy, this place was really busy, despite the frequent downfalls of heavy rain.

On the way to the farm, you can see the Eiffel Tower in the distance

The farm isn't organic, however, they don't use pesticides unless absolutely necessary.

As it was our first time and it was rather late in the day, we didn't buy much, but we'll be going back for more soon.

The children moaned a little (they always find something to complain about) but they enjoyed picking their own fruit, especially raspberries.

Flowers are sold by the kilo and this was Marie-Kate's flower harvest.

Marie-Kate hiding in the weeds next to the cabbages... well I think they were weeds

We were supposed to go to explore the farm's mazes afterwards, but never had enough time, glad really as it didn't look that good and was expensive, and would have cost us over 26 euros. We have certainly seen better mazes, like the one a Thoiry and Cormatin ...

Unplugged Sunday

2011-08-05T17:35:00.005+02:00

I have noticed that Oliver and Charlotte spend far too much time plugged, be it, on their mobiles, watching dvds, and especially on internet (Facebook), it's quite worrying really.

I have been wanting us to switch off and have time together doing family things, playing board games, going for walks, or just talking. So as of this Sunday we will be disconnecting for the whole day, no tv (well no-one watches French television here) no internet, no texting, no phone calls that go on forever and as for Angry Birds, I think I'm going to ban it from being played in this house!

Maybe we'll just hang-out at home and cook and just be together, or maybe we'll go and visit the Orsay Museum. I'll let you know next week.

My churros and Charlotte's photos

2011-08-05T16:51:00.006+02:00

Since coming back from her holidays, Charlotte has rekindled her love for photography.

Today she took about a million photos of me making some Churros for the first time (thanks to my new cookbook "Mexican Food Made Simple).

They were really easy to make and were gobbled up by my five ever hungry children.

This week we'll be eating Mexican a lot, it brings back memories of my good friend Adrianna, who showed me how to make the best guacamole ever.

And of course London and that great restaurant Wahaca, run by the author of my new book.

Bon appétit!

17

2011-08-04T04:48:00.005+02:00

This year for the first time, Oliver didn't celebrate his birthday with us. He was still in America and had his birthday (and cake) at the Hard Rock Café, and then spent most of his birthday on a flight back to France (via Frankfurt).

On Sunday, we all sat down to lunch and birthday cake with one seriously jet-lagged Oliver.

The next day, Oliver was ill and I had caught an awful cold, but we are getting better, however, Oliver who is a creature of habit is having a hard time sleeping and waking when he should. Alain thinks it will take him more than a week to get back to normal, until then, Oliver is one jet lagged boy.

Brittany in a kayak and Port Louis

2011-08-03T18:50:00.004+02:00

On a whim we bought a kayak, we always wanted one when we lived in Sanary but never got round to actually buying one. The first day we went across to Port Louis for a picnic, we had the whole beach to ourselves which was great.

On the subject of Port Louis, a little seaside town I love, I was disappointed to see that our favourite bookshop there is closing down. We always buy books from this place and it's sad to know it will not be there, next time we go.

Something new to see in Port Louis. Elephants. There are lots dotted around the town, but I just got a shot of these two.

Brittany on the beach

2011-08-03T18:37:00.005+02:00

Alexis and Marie-Kate love spending time on the beach and they are lucky enough to have grand-parents who live within 50 meters from one, so they spend a lot of time there.

After the first week, we joined the children and eventually made an appearance the day before coming home

Kinder liked it most when the tide was low.

oliver and facebook

2011-07-31T19:55:00.002+02:00

Oliver, Charlotte and Gaby have a Facebook and I have pseudo which allows me to keep an eye on them. Usually there's nothing to look at, especially when it comes to Oliver's one...well that was until now. Photo's galore

Back 3

2011-07-31T19:37:00.004+02:00

When Charlotte came back the first thing she did was eat and then go and see her friends. Only today has she got round to emptying her suitcase (Gaby too). Most off her group were composed of expats (like Ol's and Gaby's). She'd like us to become expats, too, but that's not on the agenda at the moment.

Tonight she's staying a her friend Marine's house, and I'm missing her already.

Back 2

2011-07-31T19:21:00.003+02:00

Gaby was homesick for the first week, we were ready to go down to Cassis to pick her up, but she settled down after a few phone calls and funny letters sent between us.

The camp has given Gaby more confidence and she met some great people (that hopefully she'll keep in-touch with). One friend (2nd from from the left...Gaby far left) is an expat based in Rome, where having a 15 of average makes you 15th in the class, that's what I call competitive. Being 15th in Gaby's class would probably give you a 10 of average!

Gaby hated the food, apparently the choice was either rubbery chicken or tuna most days, so she's happy to be home.

back

2011-07-31T14:53:00.003+02:00

Oliver celebrated his 17th birthday with new friends at the Hard Rock Café in Los Angeles (oliver far left). Now he's back and so are his sisters. We are a family again. Happy birthday Ol;)

En Bretagne

2011-07-22T10:47:00.003+02:00

Five children and these two are the youngest and the two (this time) I worry the least about, maybe that has something to do with the fact they are safe and sound with their mamie and papy.

Cassis and Gaby

2011-07-22T10:40:00.003+02:00

Gaby is camera shy, so she's not on many photos, this is the best on I've found. She's not the girl in blue, Gaby is behind in pink. we haven't had much news via the blog which is a shame, especially as she's only 11. I just hope she's having fun.

15 and having fun

2011-07-22T10:30:00.003+02:00

We can check out via a blog, what the children are up to while on vacation.

I just checked on Charlotte this morning and I'm posting some photos.

Charlotte is the one in the middle

Charlotte on the beach (on the right)

Charlotte's group, going to a night club for the very first time..yikes...The night club was booked just for their group and two others...that makes be feel better

Les filles at Rancho, before dancing the night way.

Home Alone

2011-07-22T09:36:00.006+02:00

For the first time in over a decade, we are home alone. Unbelievable, no?

Oliver is visiting the west coast of the US (Los Angeles, San Fransicso, Yosemite National Park......et cetera

Charlotte is having a whale of a time in Corsica, and next week Sardinia. She on holiday with at least 15 boys and only 3 girls, what a group.

Gabrielle is down in the south of France, staying in Cassis and only a 20 minute drive away from our old home in Sanary

And finally Alexis and Marie-Kate are with their grand-parents in Brittany.

While we've been at home alone. We did plan on a hiking holiday, but the weather has been capricious, so we took a raincheck on that one, and instead haven't done much at all, which has been wonderful.

We have managed to eat out once, despite the pouring rain in Paris at a good bistro called Le Vin de Soif.

And visit the Rodin Museum which wad just fantastic.

We bought few books, including this one

and have been cooking and eating recipes from it

This split pea and ham soup was just so good

and some cheese souffles, yummy

and an onion tart before going into the oven. Unfortunately, it got a little burnt, but was still good

And yesterday, we went to Ikea and bought a couple of things, including these spice pots and metal board. No more bending down now.

Yesterday I started painting oliver's room (he didn't like the colour I chose...before I discovered F &B, and I agree with him) So I am doing the room in Charlotte's Locks and white tie, but have been stalled as I have run out of the latter. So I'll carry on with that next week sometime, because we have far more interesting things to do this weekend.

old garage falling down

2011-06-27T09:30:00.007+02:00

At the top of our garden, there is an old garage, well it's supposed to be one, however as there's not enough space to fit a car through the entrance. It's quite big though, at least 40m2. I think it was used to house hens, but way back, well before Mr H lived here.

Our neighbour Edith told me it was there when she moved back here to look after her parents, in the early 50's, and probably was over a 100 years old.

Sometime recently (didn't notice at first), one of the beams gave way and we have had to take off the tiles that were hanging precariously, ready to fall at any time.

Now we have a dilemma on our hands, either to redo the timber and re-tile or take it all down, sell or give the 40m2 of very old terracotta tiles away and put something like this in it's place

Not in the same colour and not exactly this model, but you get the idea.

Oral over

2011-06-24T09:53:00.005+02:00

Oliver just called, he'd just left the Lycée in Le Vesinet where he has just passed his oral French bac. The good news is, he had Candide, the one we worked the most on (along with Paul Verlaine's poems) and he feels quite confident that he did well. The examiner wasn't strict, so maybe that's a good thing too. We'll know soon.

Back after the Bac

2011-06-22T11:39:00.006+02:00

Busy helping and organizing my son's work so he's ready for his French Bac (A level) oral this Friday at 8.30, only 6 sequences with 3 themes for each one to master, this boy has his work cut out.

He is way behind on the sequence on Manon Lescaut and last night things were so good when he was tested on Candide...

Other possible sequences he might be tested on are

Le Cid bu P. Corneille

3 Poèmes saturniens by Paul Verlaine (Mon Rêve Familier, Angoisse, Effet de la nuit)

Don Juan by Molière

Le Père Goriot by Balzac

results due the 11th July, the day he leaves for a 3 week trip to the USA

Sunshine and Showers Fête de l'école

2011-06-20T10:26:00.010+02:00

on the way down to the school fair

After months of blistering heat, the weather has returned to normal, not hot, just warm, and lots of well needed rain.

Saturday was a typical sunshine and showers day and also the annual Fête de l'école.

Alain and I helped set up the stands and we returned later with the children who were performing with their classes.

Marie-Kate's class have been working on Africa during this term, so what better way to end the year, but by an African dance. Marie-Kate who is very shy, forgot she was, and really had great fun with her class, in-front of at least 100 people!

A little later Alexis' class performed two dances, one from Portugal and the other from Vendée. Alexis remained serious throughout. He had been showing us the moves for weeks before, and it was really great to see him dancing with his partner.

After the children had fun playing fair games (it did take ages to get MK to stop being shy and have fun)

This is the first time I have seen this game, it's called tire à la ficelle. There are lots of strings attached to donated cuddly toys, and the children have to put on a string and on the other end, up and through the pipe, one cuddly toy will get pulled up, for them to take home. This was MK's favourite game by far, she bought home at least 5 new cuddly friends.

Back at home, I tried twice to get a nice shot of Alexis in his nice clean white shirt, but I didn't manage...maybe next time.