back

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.