Help us choose an apartment!

This week I have made it my mission to solidify a beautiful apartment for us in Fontainebleau for when we return in September. I am now very informed about the price/quality discrepency here in Fonty and am not going to fall victim to it again! I have scoured the accomodation websites here and have narrowed it down to 2 choices:

Exhibit 1: A beautiful suite in Montigny-sur-Loing, that is in a 300 year-old restored barn on the site of a HUGE chateau. The garden and grounds are beautiful, and the property is right on the rivers' edge. The downsides are that it is in the middle of nowhere - we would even have to drive to get to a bakery! And it is a 25 minute drive to school on a windy road through the forest. There are 5 other suites in the building that may or may not be rented to others students. (So it could get verrrryyy quiet). Plus sides are that it is BEAUTIFUL and has a modern and fully stocked kitched! There is also a train station here that goes directly to Paris.

 

Exhibit 2: This next cottage is ADORABLE and is in Samoreau, which is a small suburb of Fonty and only a 10-15 minute drive from school. My favourite couple lives on the next property over, and apparently there is a delicious bakery right down the street. This property also has a private patio and grassy area, but it is small and quaint!

Additional Info: Both places are the same price, and require that we have a car. Please vote for your favourite asap as I will be emailing the landlord between now and 48 hours from now!!

 

Moi et toi

Now that we have been in France for almost three months, things seem to have gotten into a rhythm and feel more, for lack of a better word, normal. I no longer check the backs of all the groceries looking for the english side; french onion soup, french manicures, and french doors are just onion soup, manicures and doors; I can sing along to the two main french pop songs that play repeatedly on the radio. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLNr3_YNeJc and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1bY3lU4jj8 - tell me this guy doesn't look like an older french JT). I've also started teaching children's music classes in the school's family room (on thursdays I lead a circle time for 2 - 5 year olds, and on fridays I lead a mom and baby group!). It's super cute and I have even learned some of my favourite songs and rhymes in French, Spanish and Hungarian from the moms who participate. The club activities have continued, with the cooking club (more aptly called 'eating club') drawing 10-15 of us together every week, regular thursday night yoga classes, and french/english conversation exchange going strong. Here's a pic of us at the latest (masquerade) chateau party, and one of P sneaking nutella into our shopping cart at Carrefour. (He's gone through 5 mega-tubs in 2.5 months).




It seems kind of strange now that in 6 weeks we will be packing up and moving around the world. again. There's too little time left in Fontainebleau to learn how to run 10K, too little time to learn how to speak french, crepes are the only french dish I can make with any success, and my thesis? well...... I dont want to talk about it. The frustrating part is that i have just finished the administration duties of getting set up in France recently (phones, rent, insurance, car, bank account, visa), and now I'm having to figure it all out for Singapore! While I'm at it, I'm on the hunt for a nicer apartment in Fontainebleau for when we return in September, and will check out a gorgeous place in Montigny-sur-Loing on friday. In the meantime I'm salivating over our new place in Singapore.. especially the last picture:

Cleo!

Meet Cleo, our beautiful little Renault Clio who joined our family a little over a month ago! She is tiny but swift and though i can't drive her yet, she has been a lifesaver! She has made our commute to the school a DREAM at any time of day, and grocery shopping is a breeze! So back to this little problem of not being able to drive... I may have mentioned this earlier, that when we first arrived in Fonty I had a list of possible things for me to do in the year that included, but was not limited to: writing my thesis, learning how to speak french, learning the art of french cooking, spending more time doing art, writing a blog, running 10k, and learning how to drive a manual car. When we first got Cleo, I was super excited to start! P drove her out of her parking spot so that I wouldnt hit anyone, and then gave me my first basic lesson. I stalled three times and then we were moving! I switched into second gear and, too afraid to slow down and risk stalling again, I took a quick left hand turn and drove down our entire block very happy with myself. I stopped responsibly at the stop sign and waited for the other cars to go by. By this time, a black sports car revving his engine had pulled up behind me. It was my turn to go so I put the gas on and stalled. Then stalled again. And again! The driver behind me in the sports car strated revving his engine even harder and honking his horn so I got super flustered and after a few more unsuccessful tries, made P switch with me! As P got out of the car and walked around the back of it, the mean driver in the car behind us thought he was getting out of the car to fight or something and so he opened his door too! Then I got out and gave the driver the dirtiest look I could muster, and then walked to the passenger side. P thankfully drove us safely away! We drove to the empty Carrefour parking lot (everything is closed on sundays!) and I practiced driving around and around in circles, until once again I stalled 5 times in a row and the clutch started to smoke. Defeated, I made P drive us home and decided that I would never drive our little Cleo afterall. It took a few days and one more practice try to realize that the two times that I had stalled repeatedly, I had been trying to start the car in third gear! (which feels mysteriously similar to first gear!!). Realizing that it was a misjudgement by me and not my complete inability to function as a driver of a manual vehicle, I drove P all the way to school the next day with only one stall! So now that Cleo and I have a friendly relationship, I feel a little bit better, but I need a lot more practice to feel confident driving her around here! The streets are narrow, the drivers erratic, and the roundabouts are 3 lanes wide with giant trucks, buses, and a million other speedy little Clios in them! Because P is at school most hours of the day, he doesn't have the time to practice with me (and I think he prefers to be the sole driver anyway!) and so I have resigned to the fact that I may have to scratch this one goal off of my Fonty to-do list.

30 days, 8 flights, 3 countries, 2 births, 1 exciting visitor, a very bad cold and some big news!

It is unbelievable that it has been almost a full month since I have written a blog post, and also oddly believable because so much has happened since then. The beginning of the month gave me one week of rest after a whirlwind trip of sightseeing in Paris, Rome and Geneva with Tiffany, and then I was off again to Vancouver to meet my brand new niece, Sadie. I loved the ten full days at home, and treasured painting and playing with Hannah, cuddling Sadie, squeezing as much as we could into 3 short days with my parents, meals with my in-laws, wine with the girlies, and as much sushi as I could ingest! I was also lucky enough to see my childhood friend become a mother and meet baby Willa who conventiently made her debut into the world on March 10th!

Leaving Vancouver (again) was hard, but I (unexpectedly) also missed life in Fontainbleau and was even (I still can't believe it) happy to see our tiny little musty Avon apartment. I think it was probably just the relief after the long flight :) Luckily, that night Mira arrived in Fontainebleau too after a 2-week jaunt in Israel with her family! For the next three days we stayed out of P's way as he madly studied for his 6 exams, and discovered some new and delicious areas of Paris that I had never seen before, and enjoyed the many "partner" activities in Fonty such as homemade lunch for 15, and a whirlwind visit to the Chateau!

We briefly celebrated the end of P's exams on Wednesday, March 9th and then made our way to Beauvais airport to catch our flight to Barcelona! I had found a cute little apartment for us in the L'Exiample district, which turned out to be pretty great and celebrated our very late arrival with a bottle of spanish wine! We spent the next few days exploring the sites. Sagrada Familia and the giant market in Las Ramblas were the highlights and we loved soaking in the sight of Gaudi's fantastic architecture, and tasting the insanely fresh seafood, tapas dishes and fruit that came straight from the market!

We also made sure to sample the local Sangria by the pitcher-full (deeeeelicious!) and homemade cava at Can Paixano and El Xampanyet -  two incredible (and PACKED) restaurants known for their cava and their ambience! Thank you to P's classmate for the recommendations! We said goodbye to Mira just before dawn on Saturday morning as she headed back home to Vancouver, and woke up at noon to a torrential downpour that lasted all day! We decided to make it a "museum" day, but soon realized that it was sunday and museums closed at 3pm! Instead we wandered through the gothic Cathedral, had another amazing meal at the market, and bought tickets to a Flamenco show at the famous (and gorgeous!) Palau de la Musica Catalana. We spent our last morning on top of Montjuic for a spectacular view of the city before finding our way back to the airport and home to Fonty.

Oh, I almost forgot about the exciting news! We heard that we will definitely be going on exchange in the third semester to the school's other campus in Singapore! We will be there for all of May and June. I am very excited for the sun, the heat and the food! In the meantime I have found us a very cool apartment, shared with another couple attending the school (from Greece), and complete with a guest bedroom, swimming pool, gym and a tennis court (This would be the time to visit, people!!)!  I am also working out the details for P2/P3 break as we have both decided that we are finished with travelling in big cities for now, and are looking into beach huts on tiny islands nearby for some good R&R. This definitely provides some distraction from the cold and rainy french weather and the near constant smell of mould in our apartment.. not to mention my thesis which hasn't been writing itself...

Until next time.. Ciao!