Blaye

We went to see the citadel in Blaye yesterday. Blaye is on the bank of the Gironde estuary, after the Garonne and Dordogne rivers meet. It's about an hour from Bordeaux. The citadel was built in the 17th century as part of the defense of Bordeaux.

We visited the Grotte de Pair-Non-Pair along the way, perfectly timed just as Fiacra's motion sickness was setting in. We were the only visitors to the cave so the tour guide gave a very kid friendly tour. The  engravings of animals are amazing.

One of the engravings

This is a picture pulled from the internet. Fiacra had paid great attention to the 'interdit' sign. No smoke and no cameras, apparently. The 6 year old police were out in full force. For some reason, I was deemed high risk. I managed to restrain myself and lit no fires and took no photos while in the cave. 

We continued on a small road along the Dordogne river into Blaye. The road is lined with beautiful old houses.

 A carrelet along the Dordogne. The fishing net is drawn up regularly, no bait is used.

We spent about two hours walking around in the citadel. Fiacra and Ailbhe loved it. We were almost the only people there. 

 The entrance to the citadel

The outer walls of the citadel

 Fiacra and Ailbhe at the entrance

 A view of the estuary from the citadel

Fiacra excavating in the Blaye citadel, a UNESCO world heritage site.

We had a wonderful day. No need to mention the part after we got home and Ailbhe was hyper-giddy, Finian and I were tired, Connell was first gone to pick up our washer-dryer and then installing it with only French instructions. Fiacra, to be fair, just wanted to sit and read Astertix but Ailbhe was having none of that and insisted he join in the giddy fun. 

Friday Lunch

Just Ailbhe, Finian, and I home for lunch today, Fiacra had lunch at school. From when I picked Ailbhe up from school to when I dropped her off again, she never stopped talking. When Fiacra is talking like this, he asks constant questions, often questions that require thought to answer. Ailbhe is different, she just needs an occasional "mmmm", "wow", "I see" to continue for hours.

A lot of her chat was about her plans to build a boat. Most of our friends in Canada and family in Ireland are included in the building plans (be warned), which seems to be taking place at the Orchards'. I admit I tune in and out but was paying enough attention to pick up two nuggets of conversation today.

The first, "I don't see far distances so well anymore." Anymore???? Yikes - may need a trip to the optometrist.

The second, "My class is like Emmanuel, the big class is like JK." Emmanuel is the daycare Ailbhe went to last year. She's completely right. The first two years of Ecole Maternelle, which includes 3 and 4 year olds, seems to have a big focus on pre-writing and pre-reading skills. Ailbhe hasn't done any actual writing practise at all. So in a single year, "the big class" of Ecole Maternelle, go from not writing at all to script handwriting. This seems like quite a big leap.

Meanwhile, Fiacra is enjoying his school lunch. He described it to us over dinner, "there was meat with dots in it, we had to have 2 slices, I tried it but didn't like it. There was meat with gravy. It was a type of meat we don't have at home. I ate it but didn't really like it. I ate all the carrots and my yogurt."

Before bed, I looked on the schoolboard website to see what the menu was:
Saucisson + beurre
Sauté de kangourou sce venaison
Petits pois carottes
Yaourt vanille Bio
Fruit de saison
Chocolatine

Saucisson is a cured sausage, I'm guessing this is the meat with dots. I'm not sure why butter is mentioned. Kangourou is, as you've probably guessed, kangaroo and is probably the meat we don't have at home.

To deflect from the meat, I asked Fiacra what the "fruit de saison" was today.

"An orange"
"Was it peeled?"
"No"
"Was it a mandarin or an orange"
"It wasn't a mandarin, it was an orange"
"Were you able to peel it?"
"No, I just hacked at it with my knife, and got some pieces out"

The kids now have two weeks off school, but I'll be eagerly awaiting the April school menus.

Feed Me

Time to start giving Finian some solid food. I haven't found a baby cereal here for him. For some reason, I don't want to start him with caramel flavoured cereal, so we'll just stick to fruits and veggies for now. We tried carrots first.

 Ready to begin

Trying some 

Not too sure about it

 Fiacra wanted to try some too, about the same reaction as he had 6 years ago

Finian did okay his first feed but since then every time he sees the spoon, he keeps his mouth clamped shut. We've tried banana too. Sweet potato and pear on the menu next. We'll see how he does.

Leaving Canada

We had a pretty hectic morning the day we left Canada but we managed to take a few photos. We were allowed to check-in 8 bags, each with a maximum weight of 50lbs. Most of the morning was spent moving stuff around to make sure no bag was overweight. Of course, when we got to the airport, the person who checked us in said she would give us a break and just assume the weights were fine.

Fiacra and Ailbhe were excited and eager to get going. They haven't looked back since.

      Most of our bags

Best friends

 On the airways transit bus to the airport

 "What, you're serious, we are actually going????"

France vs Pays-Bas

Fiacra and I went to a soccer game today. It was an under 19 game between France and Pays-Bas. We had seen posters for weeks before I figured out that Pays-Bas was the Netherlands and not the Basque region of Spain.

The game was fun. There was a big crowd and when they played the national anthems, it reminded me of Casablanca when they played La Marseillaise at Rick's.

The final score was 1-1. Both goals were scored on free kicks. The Dutch tied it with about two minutes left in the game and everyone up for the kick. A few of the players seemed quite good. Maybe they'll play for the senior teams in a few years.

Say "Bonjour"

I was walking past a fruit shop when I noticed a table outside with some mandarins on it. I put a bunch in a bag and entered the shop, noticing some bananas at the back. As I went for the bananas, the woman at the counter launched into some French that was too fast for me to understand, although I could definitely tell something was wrong.

I went over and she said something more which I also didn't get. I apologized and said I didn't understand. (I say this a lot!) Then she seemed ... not apologetic, but more relaxed. She checked that I spoke English and then searched for the right words in English but couldn't find them.

In French, I made sure that it was okay that I bought the mandarins. (It was a fruit shop after all.) And bananas too. Then I spotted some grapes and grabbed them as well. As I paid, she asked if I would understand if she spoke slowly. I ventured to say "Oui", although it was far from certain that I would.

Then it came out (calmly now) that I had failed to say "Bonjour" when I entered her shop. I gathered that it had been impolite of me - and she felt justified in reprimanding me for it. It was her shop after all.

I remember being told, years ago, about this difference in the customer-shopkeeper relationship. In Canada, we tend to think of the shopkeeper as being involved in the service industry and is there to help the customer, being rewarded with a sale: the customer has money and the shopkeeper would like to get it. In France (I was once told, and this experience seems to confirm it), it is the opposite: the shopkeeper has some wares and the customer would like to get some.  Of course, in both countries, it's win-win when you buy something.

Relaxing Sunday

The weather was beautiful on Sunday, sunny and about 15 degrees. I went for a run in the morning. Once I got back, Connell, Fiacra, and Ailbhe left for the pool. This was their first time going to the pool so Ailbhe was very excited. We arranged to meet downtown for lunch.

About an hour later, I got a "Failure to Swim" text from Connell. Ailbhe was not impressed. The swimming pool has very exact standards for swimwear, swim shorts (what all guys wear in Canada) are not allowed. All swimwear must be tight to the body. Connell and Fiacra will be speedo shopping this week. Will they have speedos for Finian?

We met up on the tram to downtown and went straight to the riverside promenade. The pathway is just over 3km in length and is very wide and smooth so the kids were eager to scoot there. There is a market along the path on a Sunday and lots of outdoor cafes and restaurants.

Fiacra and Ailbhe on our way from the tram to the river

The riverside path

Lamposts along the path

The boys 

Ailbhe practising before setting off

Fiacra and Ailbhe scooted the whole 3km, most of it way ahead of Connell, Finian, and I. They had a great time. The pathway and all the outdoor patios were busy, lots of people out enjoying the sun. The path ends at Cap Sciences, a science museum. Fiacra was very eager to go in but we are saving this for a rainy day (there haven't been very many of these since we arrived).

Fiacra in front of Cap Sciences

Ninja time

We will be doing this again many Sundays I think. The kids were hungry at dinner, we had roast beef, Fiacra's new favourite.