La Roche Verte

The house is in a hamlet, not a village. One side there is a road, that isn't busy but when cars go by, they go by fast! We have also seen countless cyclists. Tour de France material.

The entry side of the house is on a quiet square that also contains the boule court, the school and the church. The garden has 2 ponds and 2 levels. Lots of space for the kids to explore and lots of interesting things in the pond to catch.

This pond is a little deeper and 2 of the kids have fallen in. Luckily it is not over anyone's head but still scary. The lily pads and flowers are beautiful. The things the kids have found in them have provided hours of entertainment and Show 'n Tell items for school. They've found tadpoles galore.

Dryers don't exist here and with the mistral we don't really miss it. In fact, the clothes dry so quickly that it surprises us. It is kind of soothing to be doing it the french-way; hanging our clothes to dry.

The school at St. Vincent

Our kids have successfully transitioned to the Ardeche school thanks in large part to their teachers from FISW, the standard curriculum of the french school system, their competence with french and last but not least, the welcome they have received at the Ardeche schools. We live incredibly close to the upper school (grade 3 - 5 equivalent) but the younger kids (kindergarten through 2nd grade equivalent) take a bus to their school which is about 5 km away. It is a bus reminiscent of the film Être et Avoir.

Included is some art that I saw in the class....I've seen it somewhere else! (I think French teachers get their ideas from each other!). The play yard is through a covered area and is very stark compared to ours in North America. It is a fine gravel with tires on the ground to play in. No swings, no slides, no climbing structures. And you know what? The kids make up their games and enjoy the yard. Maybe we spoil our kids in NA play yards! The kindergarten school yard is even smaller but they have a small park that they walk too. The library is very small. It is open Tuesday nights so everyone is welcome to check out books.

Ron's Favorite Day

This was absolutely my favorite day during my two weeks in France. We got up Saturday morning and after a typical chaotic period of getting 8 people fed and ready for an excursion, interspersed with several games of catch with Sammy, off we went to the Ardeche river and the Pont d'Arc. The Pont d'Arc is a natural stone bridge that flys high over the river, it is a mecca for swimmers, kayakers, rock climbers and all sorts trying to reconnect with nature.

We went kayaking, through mostly flat water but there were a few small "rapides". We made it through unscathed!

Following the kayak ride we went exploring along the edge of the river and came upon this terrific small rock to jump from - it's only about 6 feet above the water - but as you can see from the camera friendly yet parent terrifying mid-air twists to get maximum camera expsure - the kids liked it.

Not to be outdone - Dan and I scaled the cliff on the opposite side of the river to make an even more daring leap into the water - ok, Sam insisted we go, and he did crawl through a tunnel to get to an even higher spot than Dan and I jumped from - but this is the old guys time to shine - here we go, ready or not.............

Truly, the only bad part of this day was that it was my last in France with Jan and Jean and the kids. I will be going back for a few more weeks in July, and hopefully on a business trip before then. I can't imagine having more fun than we did this day, discovering new areas, enjoying adventures and no stitches required.

A weekend in Le Lavandou

You can't argue that the French work or study too hard. in line with the 35 hour work week it seems there are a lot of school holidays, especially in May. With Wednesday being a half day and Thursday and Friday the 17th and 18th of May being holidays, this represented a chance to explore more of the south of France. Off we went to the mediteranean and the lovely city of Lavandou.

Staying in a nice house only 200 meters from the beach meant lots of chances to hike around and not much need for driving.

There were lots of chances to hike trails between the house and the marina or the house and the beach.

Here are a couple of more photo's - largely of the kids on the beach. Apparently the water was a little chilly but OK once you got in - as if kids care. It is funny to watch Sammy though, he's always the first one in, but the little guy is so skinny he winds up shaking like a leaf pretty quickly!

The photo below is just too cute of Claire - she is turning into quite the little comedian!

Here is a photo of the marina and what I believe is the house/hotel, I say believe since this is Ron writing the post and I was home earning a living in Bellevue, while the rest of these layabouts were frolicking on the Meditaranean.

The Swimming Hole!

There is an excellent swimming hole about 10 km from the house in St Vincent. The kids (especially Sam, no surprise) really enjoy it. Jean, Madeleine and Claire walking to the swimming hole along the stream bed - I almost said riverbed but who's kidding who.

The swimming hole was created by an industrious soul who dammed an area where there was a waterfall. It's quite popular with the locals. It's fresh water as the waterfall feeds it and is warm enough to stay in for awhile.

Playground Antics & Consequences

Great Playground...lots of spinning things. Different from US items but maybe for a reason.

Madeleine's tooth met its match on this giant half sphere. Sphere won so we spent the better part of a day in a dentist's chair. Luckily the end result is a new tooth that you'd be hard pressed to tell had been broken. Not a nice way to arrive in France but... an adventure to remember.

Le Louvre

The closest thing to our hotel was the Louvre. Sam saw the "triangle" the first night so insisted that was going to be our first stop. The kids did amazingly well and we saw all the important things. I was impressed that the Mona Lisa has a separate viewing area for the kids so they don't have to wait for adults to move along. We also saw some religious paintings so got introduced to saints like St. Sebastian who always has countless arrows in him. We saw the Venus de Milo, Winging Victory, The Marriage at Caan and Louis XIV's crown. We ate at the Cafe and the kids enjoyed un citron presse.

Arrival in France

We arrived in France and stayed close to le Jardin de Tuillieries. C'est bon! And they had great breakfasts and a pool. A nice way to get acclimatized to the culture and the time zone.