Desks

 I bought a vintage desk way back when we lived in Sanary which now is in Alexis' room. I miss having a desk at home, I work better with one...
While visiting our local thrift shop a couple of month's ago, Alain found this desk to take its place that we snapped up, perhaps they didn't manage to sell it quicker due to its size, it's huge.  It came with its original keys and has a  secret compartment too!!!
We placed it up against one of our sofa's and gave our square table (thrift again) to our neighbour.

 Since buying it, our children, especially Alexis, have commandeered it. This wasn't supposed to happen.  Alexis can be found sitting there, morning and evening, his workbooks cover it and are usually stored under it.  It's only now, during the festive period that I have managed to move him and his stuff from my desk....
Now I have just got to get rid of Gaby's math, Marie Kate's Furby (scary creature) and other kids paraphernalia....wish me luck (photos date from ages ago).

Local(ish) Library

Marie-Kate's apple and salted *butter caramel crepe

We live in a small village outside Paris.  In the village, there's a town hall (like everyplace in France), a nursery and primary school, a 12th century church that was partially destroyed by the English in the hundred year war and a couple of parks, tennis pitches et cetera... My bugbear is that there's isn't a baker's shop, and how I love French bread...So we make it most of the time or go the nearby town that has at least  six boulangeries! That's another story though because there's a place I like to go often and always have and that's libraries. There's one here in our bakerless village and it's really great but is only open for two hours on a Wednesday and a Saturday, so I hardly get down there.  However nearby, over on the other side of the Seine there's a mediatheque and this place is amazing and beats hands down our old media library in Sanary.

My dandelion (pissenlit..love the French word for this) jam crepe

It's got everything Sanary has and more, because here there's a creperie/salad bar and tea shop all in one. It's a great incentive to get the children to read books.


Talking about books, you can borrow up to twenty five books at a time on one card....enormous.  We bought sixteen books back for everyone but Charlotte and Marie-Kate is ready to go back again this weekend.


*salted butter caramel crepes here are to die for...the dandelion one was great too but I love love love anything caramel.

Nutella and a book and our old house

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.

What have I been doing?

Well a lot of reading. I am a sporadic reader, and I'm definitely in reading mode at the moment. Yesterday I picked up another couple of new books at the supermarket (miss my favourite bookshop in Sanary, Baba Yaga), and finished one in the afternoon titled Le Fait du Prince by Amélie Nothomb which I liked immensely for the first three quarters of the book, but frustrating from there on in and as for the end, so rushed.

Other books I've been reading :-

Molloy by Samuel Beckett

Skin by Mo Hayder

L'Enfant Allemand by Camilla Lackberg

Bonne Nuit, Mon Amour

La Métamorphose by Franz Kafka (borrowed from Gaby's bookcase)

Library of the Dead by Glenn Cooper

Stitches by David Small

The bedside table is one of two, that Mr H left, the one who we bought the house from, he said he didn't want them and besides they weren't worth anything, just plastic!

Well, I bit my tongue and smiled internally, because I wanted him to leave them, and I certainly wasn't going to tell him that they were Joe Colombo boby carts, these ones dating from the early 70's when he bought the house....I guess we were lucky.

Our bedroom is the last one to paint, we're off to get some F & B paint tomorrow.

Cat

Gaby's cat drawn in Art class, she got a 17, I think she did great.

Qu'en penses-tu Dédee?

La Voile/ Sailing (Gaby's class)

Our little town by the sea

I have been busy lately with helping out at school with different activities, one of which is the sailing class, an easy job which consists of walking the 400 metres from the school to the sailing club, taking photos for the class blog and hurrying the children up at the end, to get changed so they get back to school for lunch or home-time (this isn't so easy, these kids talk a lot).

These guys are lucky to sail in spring and not the autumn

Just next to the sailing school I found this. Apparently this boat has been in this position for a year after a big storm caused it to tip over. Now, it's blocking about twenty boats that can't leave quay! The boat's owned by an association and they can't afford to have it rescued.

The class on its way back after two hours of sailing.