Provence...in Detail: Cassis and Marseille

We spent a warmish day in Cassis, a lovely town on the Mediterranean Sea between Marseille and Cannes. The sun was shining in the promised Provençal style and we even were able to take a boat ride! Here we are in the town and on the rocky beach. It didn't matter that it was too cold to swim. Everyone still at least stuck their toes in and played on the beach.

We took a 45 minute boat ride to the calanques, which are gorgeous coves. The ride would have been fantastic if it were 20 degrees warmer and less windy. The kids all really loved it, in spite of the weather!

Here I am before turning as green as my shirt. The boys however, declared it to be "the best boat ride EVER!"

Our friends, the O'Briens, and the rest of my family enjoyed the ride. Only I got a bit seasick. Typical.

We left Cassis mid-day and took a scenic drive well above the sea along some rocky cliffs. We had amazing views of the sea and surroundings. As soon as I can get pics up on Facebook, this one will be my new profile pic!

We headed into Marseille for dinner. I was on the hunt for boulliabaise but didn't want to pay top dollar. We visited little North Africa where I bought my tagine and then we ended up here for dinner.

Not exactly what I envisioned when I dreamed of Provence. Oh well, Lainey sure loved the ribs!

Provence...in Detail: Aix-en-Provence

Aix was more of a big city than we thought. It reminded us of Paris, but miniature. Lots of shopping and cafe culture. We wandered all through town, took a little train ride (my kids find these EVERYWHERE), and most importantly I found a Gap! I stocked up a bit on my favorites, but still the prices there when compared to the US makes me ill. I so cannot wait to shop this summer in the US!!! I will personally do what I can for Michigan's economy. But, I digress...

Aix is known for it's hundreds of fountains and for being the home of Paul Cezanne. He painted hundreds of pieces here and of Mount St. Victoire in the distance. One of the many fountains of Aix.

On the Cours Mirabeau, said to be one of the most beautiful shopping streets in the world. I can only imagine how beautiful it is when these trees are in bloom and form a canopy over the street.

The largest fountain in Aix at the entrance to the Cours Mirabeau

We left Aix to see what else was around, but unfortunately the areas surrounding Aix were just commercial areas and highways. The kids wanted ice cream because they'd gone at least 1/2 a day without treats of some kind, so Jason found a fast food place that had milkshakes. We figured we could manage ordering milkshakes in French since on the menu it said "milkshake" and all we had to say was how many and the flavor. Jason ordered "duex vanille milkshakes, un fraise milkshake, and un banane milkshake". I thought he did fine, but apparently the workers couldn't understand. He repeated himself at least four times, each time getting louder, but with a worse accent. Finally, the one worker calls another one over who tries to understand him, again with no luck. Then the guy says, "You speak English?" and Jason accidentally answers "Ja" (German for yes) just to confuse things even more! I was crying laughing and we couldn't stop laughing long enough to even order in English. Finally, we calmed down and got our 1€ milkshakes. At least it was a bargain!

The other excitement that night was the kids helping Jason build a fire. It was like they were scouts earning their firemaking badge. For the rest of the week, when we needed them out of our hair, we sent them to the backyard to collect sticks and pine needles. They were thrilled.

Provence...in Detail: Easter Sunday

We made it into the Aix area where our villa was on Saturday afternoon. After meeting up with our friends, checking out the villa, and a bit of grocery shopping, we put the kids to bed and began planning our week over the first of our many, many, many bottles of wine. Our first morning, was Easter so of course the kids were super excited to see if the Bunny found them and what he left for them. The crazy Bunny hid eggs inside and out, even though it was raining early in the morning. The kids rushed outside in raincoats to hunt for goodies when it was barely dawn!

I'm not sure if the Bunny or the kids left this trail of eggs...

A sampling of the 4 overflowing baskets left:

Lainey and Lucy didn't find as many eggs as the boys. Being younger and having wild-child hair makes it hard to keep up. But, luckily the boys were willing to share (after only a few hints from the parents)

Aidan sliding in to score an egg:

Happy and high on sugar!

Once all the Easter Bunny hoopla was done, we decided to see what sights were open. We went into Castoullet where the Lavander Museum is. There was also a really nice market going on. In Switzerland, the whole country shuts down on any given Sunday, but in France most things were open even on Easter!

In a few months this field will turn from green to amazing purple as the lavender blooms. Too bad for us...

While in Coustellet, we decided to have lunch at a cute little restaurant. We couldn't translate the menu completely, but we figured out that one of the menu items was rack of lamb. The other, we weren't sure about so we asked. We knew it was stuffed something, but didn't know what. The man said poisson which is fish. So I asked, blanc poisson? meaning "white fish?" He nods and says oui. So each couple ordered one of each meal, since stuffed white fish is usually really yummy. Not so much when the white fish is SQUID!!! I swear it stunk and looked like a condom stuffed with God only knows what. But, men being men, took one for the team and let the ladies eat the lamb. Jason and Damian ate most of the squid, but I don't know how. Even typing about it a week later makes me a bit nauseous. They managed to keep down the squid and we set off for St. Remy.

St. Remy was one of my favorite towns. Cute old town area, great shopping, beautiful architecture, and a carousel for the kiddos.

Look closely at all the teddy bears on the window ledges!

Lainey on her favorite ride anywhere!

After a bit of shopping and gelato for kids, our friends headed back to the villa, but we crazy American tourists kept going. We headed for Les Baux, which is a beautiful maintained ancient walled village. We drove up a windy road and stopped for a picture of the city up on the hill.

It was hard to get pics inside the walled town because the walkways were so small, and set up in a tiered fashion. We enjoyed walking around, and wished we had more time to visit the actual castle and watch a joust or something cool like that.

Provence...in Detail: Annecy & Avignon

Here we are in Annecy, France. Annecy is just over the French border by Geneva. It's a really pretty town with lots of yummy crepe and gelato stands! French food in restaurants may not be my favorite, but you can't go wrong with French street food! Lainey discovered goat cheese and tomato paninis here. She loved them! Gelato break on the river leading to Lac Annecy

The ancient Palais D'Ile

We only stayed in Annecy a few hours and overnight to cut our trip in half. We got up the next morning and headed to Aix-en-Provence with a 2 hour stop off in Avignon.

Avignon is known for the Palais de Papes. In the 13th or 14th century, this part of France was under Roman rule and the Pope decided to rule the church from Avignon. The Papal Palace is to date the largest Gothic palace in the world.

Avignon is also known for the famous bridge that for some reason was never completed. There is even a song that all French children learn as a nursery song about dancing on this bridge.

Avignon is not known for Kentucky Fried Chicken, but somehow one popped up there anyway! How un-French ;)

KFC on the way to Avignon

The Pont d'Avignon

Palais de Papes from a distance

And the palace up close!

A Good Week

Inspired by the movie, A Good Year (the one with Russell Crowe who inherits a mas in Provence) we decided to go to Provence for our Easter break. We rented a villa, not quite big enough to be considered a mas with our friends from London.

I'll be posting more details and pictures later, but I thought I'd jot some thoughts down while we are still in the thick of lavender, goat cheese, cotes du Rhone wine, Van Gogh, and Cezanne.

We spent our first night in Annecy, France, just over the Swiss border. A very pretty town with good shopping, but a bit of a tourist trap.

The next day we drove to our villa and drove through Avignon on the way. We stopped there for lunch and saw the broken Pont d'Avignon, but we didn't dance. We also saw the Palais du Papes, where the Pope lived in the 1500's or so.

We met our friends in Fuveau, which is just south of Aix-en-Provence. Our villa is quite nice, 4 bedrooms, a playroom and large backyard. It is so nice to get back together with our friends who now live in London, but who used to live in the same apartments as we do in Switzerland. Our kids were ECSTATIC to see each other again, and we adults love the fact that we can put the kids to bed and still hang out together at night without having to go to bed at 8pm too.

We figured that most things would be closed on Easter Sunday, but we were surprised to find many things open. We went to the Musee de Lavande and to a village market and even ran into another family from Aidan's school there! All of these markets have great foods and some art and other bric-a-brac. We also went into the cutest town, St. Remy-de-Provence, and did some shopping. I wish I had bought more there, but I figured all the rest of the towns would have the same stuff, but so far, they haven't. We rounded out the day by visiting the ancient town of Les Baux. Les Baux is an amazingly restored Roman village. Now, it's full of quaint shops and cafes and a castle with reinactments. Even better, it is high above the other villages of Provence and we got some amazing views to be posted later.

We spent Easter Monday in Aix-en-Provence, the closest town to our villa. Aix is more of a big town than I expected. It's not what I pictured when I thought of Provence. Most of Aix was closed on Monday (a European holiday), but we managed to do a little train tour and even better I found a Gap store that was open and had a big sale! I was satisfied :).

Yesterday, we had a great day. We went to Cassis, a small town on the Mediterranean Sea. We went on a boat ride to visit the calanques, or coves, along the sea. The ride was crazy rough-cold and windy. I got a little seasick, but everyone else had a great time. The sun was bright and the sky was blue. What more could I ask for? Well, maybe a little heat, but other than that it was gorgeous. We took a scenic drive that was not for the weak-hearted and ended our day in Marseille.

Marseille might as well be Northern Africa. It was really shady driving through France's second largest city. We were on a tiny street in the middle of the city lined with Morrocan this, and Lebanese that, and Algerian everything else. At one store, we saw a huge row of guns in the window. Needless to say, I was really relieved to see the end of that street which led to the main port area! We had wanted to try the boulliabaise fish soup that Marseille is famous for but trying something new at 25 Euros a dish was a bit more than I wanted to spend. So we wandered a bit and Aidan found the Marseille football team store and bought himself a soccer ball. I braved into the North African markets and got an authentic tagine and lovely spices. A tagine is a pottery upside down cone that is used to make Moroccan stew. I've had the stew a few times and it's and really good, so now I can make it myself. I feel like I've now seen North Africa, and in all honesty, I'm good. I thought I wanted to go to Tunis or Morocco, but not so much now. I think I've had my fill.

Actually, the funniest part of last night was our dinner. We avoided the boulliabaise but couldn't decide on anything else in Marseille. So as we were driving home, we found an interchange on the motorway that could have been on I-75. There were tons of fast food, shops, and other restaurants. We found one called Buffalo Grill, which I can only describe as a French Texas RoadHouse. We walked into pinball machines, balloons, and a menu on a paper placemat. Not exactly haute cuisine, but it was yummy. We had Texas baby back ribs and chicken nuggets. Hilarious. Lainey devoured some ribs. She's a true American, that little carnivore! As I sat there overlooking the highway, I could have been sitting in any American roadside restaurant, save for the French writing on the sign.

Ah, Provence....more to follow.

Easter Eggs

Last weekend, we decorated Easter Eggs. Besides doing the basic coloring, I tried to teach the kids the way my mom and aunt do eggs. They have been doing Russian style eggs since they were young, taught to them by their aunts and mother. My mom does really fancy ones, that I don't have the right equipment for, not to mention a steady enough hand. But, my Aunt Toni does these cool ones using melted crayon wax. These are what I tried to do with the kids. I, myself have never been really good at them, but they are kind of fun and a nice tradition to pass down to my kids. Aidan wasn't so into it. It's hard until you get the hang of it. Plus, this was the day he started feeling a little sick. He did one egg and was done.

Lainey, though loved it! She worked for almost an hour and made 4 or 5 eggs. Hers don't look like Aunt Toni's, but they are pretty in their own way. (Side note- please notice how it was warm enough on Sunday for short sleeves and sundresses, then read the next post)

Lainey in all her artistic glory.

The finished basket! She even made the basket at school last week. She loves arts and crafts.

"My Name is Christine"

I think I need to make a list like Earl, in "My Name is Earl". Apparently, Karma and I are not getting along. Yesterday, my birthday, my friend Kirsten and I were supposed to go to the spa and get massages. I had booked this a month ago and was SO looking forward to it. Our kids are on Easter Break, but the spa has a child care center so everything should have been fine. I even asked about the child center when I made the appointment so they'd know we'd be bringing 4 kids.

When we showed up at the spa, we paid for our massages and the time in the child care. Then, we took the kids to the child care center. The woman working there informed us that the center was closing in 10 minutes! What??? Apparently, those working the registration desk are not privy to the working hours of the child center. They had no problem making us a 1pm appointment when I phoned. So, long story short, we had to leave without sauna or massage.

Later the day just got worse. Aidan hadn't been feeling well, but seemed okay yesterday. We decided to meet Jason in the city for dinner. He left work early and we went to this amazing steakhouse. No more than 2 minutes after the waitress dropped off our sizzling filets, did Aidan throw up. Thankfully, not on the table, just all over himself and the floor. I had eaten just 2 bites of my filet. So, I took him to the bathroom and asked the waitress to just box up our food. Jason paid the bill, left a nice tip to make up for them having to clean up vomit, and we got the heck out of there. I'm sure those around us were so happy to eat their dinner after that! Luckily, the way this restaurant works is that they bring you out a raw steak and a really hot stone that cooks it at your table. So, we just brought our 1/2 cooked steaks home and finished cooking them later. They were still really good at home, but some of the "shine" of the dinner was gone.

So, this morning takes the cake. I woke up on April Fool's Day to snow! Not just flurries, even, but multiple inches on the ground. We needed boots and hats and gloves. I can't believe it. Mother Nature sure pulled a big prank on us. I am so done with winter. I had to repack for our trip tomorrow...Provence will be warmer, but I'm guessing we won't be needing shorts and sundresses now.

Grr...Karma. I guess I'd better figure out what I did to deserve these last 2 days and start making my list.