School Schedule

We thought we would be able to move Ailbhe to the Ecole Maternelle at Fiacra's school, but it's full. So Fiacra and Ailbhe have exactly the same drop-off and pick-up times but in two different locations.

School is from 9 to 5 each day with lunch from 12 to 2 and no school on Wednesday. The kids can stay at school for lunch and eat in the canteen, or can go home for lunch.

This is how we have worked out the school week: Connell drops Ailbhe to school on his way to work, Finian and I walk with Fiacra. On Monday and Friday, Fiacra stays at school for lunch. On Tuesday, Connell comes home for lunch so that we can pick up both kids. On Thursday, Ailbhe stays at school for lunch. Connell picks up Ailbhe on his way home from work, Finian and I collect Fiacra.

Lunch in the canteen is 2.70 a day which is great. Both Fiacra and Ailbhe are enjoying it and trying new food.

Le Pain

We love French bread. Here are our favourites so far.

La Bichette - this is my favourite. It's from the bakery close to Fiacra's school. The ninja turns into Fiacra the Impaler when he gets hold of this.

La viennoise - this is Ailbhe's favourite and is from the bakery closest to our house. It's very soft and delicious with jam for breakfast. Connell holds the record of 6 minutes, 35 seconds for round trip to the bakery in the morning to pick this up. I thought I was close this morning but the lady in the bakery is so friendly, she slowed me down. 

Le sarmentine - Connell's favourite, also from the bakery closest to our house. It rarely gets home with both ears intact.

Our House

We have started receiving bills so I know we are really living here now. We love our house, it's not big but will work well for us. How did we do on the IKEA Challenge? Could we entirely furnish a three bedroom house for 5 people for less than 1500 euros? No, we couldn't, but excluding the fridge and oven we weren't too far off. I think Connell has almost recovered from his IKEA adventure.

Our House

The kitchen half of "The Room"

Fiacra and Ailbhe's Room

Connell and My Room

Finian's Room

The Bathroom

The sitting room half of "The Room"

A Short Break

We are getting settled in our little house now. There are a few things to adjust to.

They have smart meters here for electricity. It costs about 8 cents (Euro cents) per kiloWatt hour between 10:30 at night and 6:30 and the morning and about 12.5 cents per kiloWatt hour for the rest of the day. So, they have a switch on the fusebox (breaker board, actually) for the hot water heater. You can turn it on or turn it off or put it on automatic, in which case it only heats water during the cheap hours. Of course, if you take a few long showers at 7:00 in the morning, then you can run out of hot water for the day. We could turn the hot water heater on and pay the expensive rate, but that seems like cheating - we will try to avoid that.

The house we are in is new. So new, that there is no phone line connecting the house to the road. This means that we don't have home internet yet. (I'm posting this at work.) The internet should be hooked up on Monday, at which point Fiona will post loads of stuff.

Panhandling

Ailbhe and I were sitting outside on the steps of the nearby church this afternoon, watching the trams come and go, and looking out for a man laden down with IKEA bags. Ailbhe had a little basket with her. "Maybe someone will come and put some money in my basket" she said to me. "Really?" I asked (as I do). "Yes, people do that you know, one time Grandad gave money to a man in Waterloo."

I know we are very dressed down by French standards, and particularly so today, since Ailbhe was wearing tights with nothing over them (we had a long battle about it but she was adamant) but at least no one mistook us for panhandlers.

Success at last

We have the keys to a rental house at last. In fact, we have many keys to a house, 6 in total (outside gate, garage, front door, door from garage, one to open the mailbox from the street, one to open the mailbox from the yard).

The more keys the better, we are very security consience.

The house is small, one room downstairs, which is the kitchen and sitting room combined, and 3 bedrooms upstairs. I think it will work well for us. The kids say they love it and were ready to sleep there tonight despite the fact that there's no furniture.

Connell is going to IKEA tomorrow with a long list. You can rent vans at IKEA to drive your furniture home, so no IKEA wine for Connell tomorrow.

The house is close to Fiacra's school. Ailbhe will have to move schools but she doesn't mind. It will be great to have them both at the same location.

Finian is 6 Months Old

Finian is 6 months old today. Fiacra and I tried hard all day to get a photo of him smiling. Fiacra would make him laugh but as soon as he saw the camera, his lovely laugh would turn to this:

Eventually we called in the big guns (Daddy) and recorded a smile.

Finian now has his two front top teeth which surprised us last week. He can roll over even when wearing his boots and bar. He likes nothing better than being manhandled by his brother and sister.