Our town: Baden

Baden is a nice, little town. It has a church at the center like most towns here. For the first 2 weeks, Jean and I were convinced it was a Presbyterian church as there was no sign to indicate either way and there was a sign for "Presbytere"...which is the church's resident. It is Catholic church!
There is a Tabac that is handy for lots of little things including Post Cards.

Most of us have had our hair cut at the Salon

This Crêperie is a very kid-friendly as much for selling great crêpes.

Kerascoet

We went to this tiny hamlet that Patricia Wells, our faithful tour guide both the Ardèche and here, had mentioned was "magical". (She wrote a book in 1984 about restaurants and cool gastronomic products in different towns in France.)

It was very cute with all the thatched roofs that you could see upclose. The roofs are very thick and made one wonder about the building process, how long did they last, were they fantastic insulators, what was the fire hazard...all those question one has when there is no one around to ask and no Google accessible!

Because it is almost spring the flower boxes interest me. This with the lace curtains, the Breton blue and the thatched roof was very photogenic.

In Pont Aven (which will be described in a later blog) we saw a painting by one of Paul Gaugin's followers that showed a communal oven and traditionally dressed Breton women.

A further comment on Brittany is all the little hamlets that we drive through and miss if we blink. The letter "K" and "P" are so common and the names; we have no idea how to pronounce. The language is Breton and is a Celtic language. We've already butchered French!

Suscinio Château

Suscinio is a castle built right on the ocean. It has a moat that is filled with sea water. It has been renovated over the last 30 years so it seems like tourists don't know about it yet it is fabulous. A perfect destination for our Wednesday off. I admit I didn't get much of the history as the just-8 year olds were more interested in seeing how fast they could get to the top then finished! The beach in front of the castle is fabulous although the water was sooooo cold. A little early for swimming! We went to the little town nearby Sarzeau where there was a market. Not much of a market but there was a guy selling hot dogs, hamburgers and American (which was a burger on a bagette!). We enjoyed our lunch in a little park nearby.

Hair cut

Madeleine got her hair cut. Always interesting to do the common thing in another country.

La grève

Jean and I went to Rennes to get another rental car. It was the day of the National Strike. What a mistake! We thought we had avoided the strike impacting us as the public school was cancelled but not our private Catholic one. Little did we realize that the center of the strike would be at the train station....the same train station where we needed to go to return our rental car.


It was a series of wrong turns that resulted in dead ends or the angry crowd. At one point we turned off the car, got out our groceries and tried to make a lunch. We had no idea how long we would be sitting at this dead end. We did not want to get in the middle of the angry crowd. We wanted to return the car and we needed to be back in Baden to pick up our kids which was a 2 hour drive away. How long would this go on?

Finally, we drove the wrong way down a one-way street, got onto a main street and drove as far away from the station as we could to regroup. We needed gas. We talked to the gas station guy who gave us some directions back to the train station. All traffic seemed to be moving smoothly. We thought as soon as there was a problem we would turn around and go back home ...but we kept driving and arrived at the train station. There was not a striking crowd. Had we dreamed it. Unbelievable! The crowd was gone. Oh! It was lunch time in France. The French can't miss lunch so the strike was over. The police were still there though..with full crowd control gear. I was afraid to take an upclose photo as one reads about the foreigner getting thrown in jail for taking a photo when it is not allowed.

L'Isle Berder

We took a walk around a small island near us. It is accessible by a pathway that is covered by water at high tide. It was a nice walk around the island that took about an hour. We made it back over the pathway with about 45 minutes until high tide. We then watched with many others, the town's daily entertainment as the tide rose and covered the pathway. Several people ended their island walk by wading through the water on the pathway. The last women actually were carrying their babies and a Safety guy was telling them to go and take the ferry but they persisted and they finally made it. The "audience" actually clapped.
During our walk we saw people harvesting oysters, kayaking and sailing. It was interesting to see oysters being farmed. They use things that look like low tables but instead of a solid table top there are mesh envelopes that hold the oysters.

Once we were finished our walk and "waiting for the excitement of the tide rising", a wedding group in cars drove by -honking their horns - the cars were each decorated with blue and gold ribbon. The reception was being held on the island and the guests were shuttled over in a small boat. The bride was in white but she had some red toile ribbon woven into her dress as well. She also wore red tennis shoes, not typical of a bride but very useful for getting into a little boat. We also saw individuals harvesting oysters, kayaking and sailing.

Teeth LOST!

Sam has been waiting a long time for his 2 front teeth to fall out. He was the last one in his class yet within a week both have fallen out. The tooth fairy or le soursis des dents pays him in euros!

First one, then the other! The 2nd one Jean pulled out for him between courses of mussels overlooking the Atlantic.

The house ...trés funky

This is our house from the back. We face the water. It has shutters in typical Breton blue. There are 6 bedrooms so room for visitors!

This is the front of the house. There is a little window just the right size for little kids....to fall!Sam says it is his "sad spot". There is also a ping pong table in the front. We are getting some practise. So far no tournaments as we are not very good. Inside there is a big living room.

Of course, the DSs are constantly in motion. Not great for learning french but kids will be kids. They don't see the big picture nor understand what an opportunity this stay in France is. One day, they will start to appreciate it.

The kitchen is pretty small for the proportion of the house and not part of the living area which is what we are used to. The bathrooms are strange as sinks are a room away from toilets so washing hands is not easy. They have a toilet that "grinds" which can only contain #1. We have figured most things out and it works now but initially it was interesting.

As you can see we have Internet but even that was a struggle. We bought our own wireless box and moved the access from a point in a back, cold room so now we can access and work more easily.

The school

The kids are going to the Private Catholic school. Trés cher...a mere 12 Euros per month!

The kids have a long day from 8:45 to 4:30 every day except NO SCHOOL on Wednesdays. So they barely go to school half the week!

Their French is great so homework is pretty straightforward. We are still getting the whole story on the differences but there are so many similarities that it is like being at home.

Like all kids, there is a mad rush to get out at the end of the day. Parents stand to the side so as not to be trampled.

Our kids are all smiles and also happy to be done. Posing is their forté.

The trip

We caught a flight from SF, changed planes in Heathrow and managed to make the TGV with time to spare, miraculously. Sounds like a great trip, eh?



First Madeleine vomited 9 times. The first as soon as we took off and then for the rest of the flight. We made our connection in Heathrow. I dragged Mad through the terminal to the Train station thinking the whole time..If we miss the TGV, there is always tomorrow. We did afterall have a hotel reservation. Here she is looking a little better on the train.
Little did we know that the stock market had broken 7,000 and there were 2 suicides and one collision with a car on the line that we were traveling. Our 4 hour train ride became 8. We arrived in our small town with no one at the station. Finally got an unhappy taxi driver roused to take us to a house that the address was not known. With tired french, explained all that was known about the house and a 3 a.m. arrival. Mad was much better in the morning and went to school at 8:30!
Should I tell of Jean's trip with 3 kids 3 days before ours. None of the kids slept a wink on the flight as they were so mezmerized with movies and games in their seats. Then when Jean got them on the TGV train for a 2 hour ride, Sam went to sleep 30 minutes before they arrived at their destination and was impossible to wake up. A comedic departure from the train!

Grand Prix - San Fran

Our ballet school sent this group of girls to the competition. They performed to Don Quixote and did very well. It was a lot of hard practise!

Here is Madeleine warming up. Great form, eh?

It was a busy way to start our voyage to France. Now a week later, I think it was worth it but made for a rough trip here. We spent the first day watching the competitors. Sunday, the girls had workshops where they were worked very hard. Then a quick bite to eat and celebration and off we went to the airport to fly to Paris!