Oui, le vin est bon!

The room was packed, and people of all ages crowded on benches and leaned on tables. The smell of couscous and lamb mingled with the aroma of wine and sweat and rain. The band played over the laughter and conversations, and suddenly I heard the beginning of Chevaliers de la Table Ronde, a song I actually knew (courtesy of Madamoiselle Sullivan and my high school French classes in Colorado).

From the first verse:

Chevaliers de la table ronde/ Knights of the round table
Goutons voir si le vin est bon/ Let's taste and see if the wine is good
Goutons voir, oui oui oui/ Goutons voir, non non non/ Goutons voir si le vin est bon

through the tenth and last:

La morale de cette histoire/ The moral of this story:
C'est à boire avant de mourir/ Drink before you die!
C'est à boire, oui oui oui/ C'est à boire, non non non C'est à boire avant de mourir!

the crowd of people at the open house of a neighborhood winery sang, and drank, and laughed, and danced, and at one point (in between singing the "oui, oui, ouis" and "non, non, nons"), I looked around and just marveled at what I saw, the people, the music, the laughter, the wine. It all seemed so...French... and so very, very fun. I wished I could somehow bottle up that one moment and take it home with me, because it captured so much of what I have loved about our time in France -- friends, food, joy, wine -- and although we tried to get some pictures, I think we will have to rely mostly on our memories most for this one.

It was a great weekend from start to finish. After my quick market morning, we spent Saturday afternoon celebrating Penelope's 2nd birthday at our house. Kate and Liv absolutely adore Penelope (and Jack loves playing with her big sisters, Lauren and Claudia) and they had decorated the house with balloons of every color. After a few years of being the youngest, I think they are VERY happy to have someone else take on that role; they proudly showed off their mature, nearly-five-year-old-girl skills (like helping Penny put on her shoes, and picking up whatever she dropped).

And all five of the kids spent part of the visit trading Pokemon cards (Jack, Lauren and Claudia most seriously, although Kate and Liv got into the game). This is a mixed bag for a parent... the next morning, Katie proudly showed me a card and said "I traded my strongest card for this one because it's just so cute!" Hmmmm... she was happy, so that should have been fine, but we are wondering exactly how you teach a child to barter, bargain, and bluff, too (Jack had no trouble learning these skills). Not an easy task!

At any rate -- after the gouter (snack) and delicious birthday tarte, we all headed to Claire Naudin's, of Domaine Naudin Ferrand in Magny-les-Villers. The local winemaker, a friend of Franck and Laura's (and mother of a classmate of Jack's), was holding the annual winemaker's "open house" in the next village just one kilometer away.

As usual, John and I had no idea what to expect. And as usual, we had greatly underestimated just how great it would be. I think I had pictured it being a time to sample a few kinds of wine, and then we'd eat mediocre food prepared for the masses.

Instead, we arrived to a room filled with wine, yes (from seven different winemakers) but also crafts, locally grown food and specialty items (homemade jams, spice breads, salt), hot crepes, music (the band played off and on the whole evening and into the  night), and a craft corner and facepainting for children. The couscous dinner was delicious, and the wine was, of course, divine. We saw many people we knew -- one of the perks of living in a small village! -- and had dinner with Geraldine and Thomas as well as the parents of Laurie, a "big girl" who Katie has labelled as her best friend.

 

And the music and singing really capped the whole fun evening off. Aside from a Christmas carol or Auld Lang Syne on New Year's Eve, I can't recall a dinner where people starting singing (with great enthusiasm) drinking songs! Clearly something else we might need to bring back to Canada...

We all slept in on Sunday (which means til about 8 a.m.!) and although it wasn't officially Mother's Day here (in fact, it seems I will miss Mother's Day this year... it is at the end of May in France, was in March in England, and was yesterday in North America), John and the kids doted on me all morning, bringing coffee and food to bed, and leaving me alone to indulge in the weirdly addictive Twilight Series (why oh why did I start these vampire tales?).

We took a walk after lunch and came back to prepare a tarte aux fraises (strawberry tarte) for the gouter with my host parents, Denys and Christine. They LOVED the village and our France home, and marvelled at the beauty that surrounds us. Liv seemed to instantly bond with Denys, and spent much of the visit on his lap. I had asked Christine if she would bring her recipe for my favorite gateau au chocolat, and she took me through the process, step by step.

This is what we ended up with. Pas mal, n'est pas?

Denys also brought with him a painting he had done of me, from a picture I had sent them 17 years ago. It is black and white watercolor, and just amazing to see in real life. I am amazed at anyone who can create things with their hands (art, music, food) and will treasure this gift always.

And we returned back to regular French life this morning, with school for the kids and a work trip for John. The kids and I stopped for croissants on the way back from the train station since we were a bit too early for school, and I had to brush the crumbs off all three before sending them into their classrooms. They certainly have taken to French bread (big surprise there, eh?)

This afternoon, the girls (for who knows what reason) asked to hear the lyrics of O Canada on the computer. That led to a good half hour of listening to national anthems from around the world. If you find yourself with a bit of time, it's pretty interesting to read all of the lyrics as well as listen to the songs. The U.S.'s anthem, besides being r-e-a-l-l-y difficult to sing (Livie was NOT impressed with my "lan-and of the freeeeee!"), is SO focused on battle. I rarely thought about that when singing it growing up -- it just always did and still does give me chills when I hear it -- and often makes me cry. But I had never spent much time actually listening to the words (and who knew there were four verses?). Anyway... my other problem is that I always want to end it with an enthusiastic "Play ball!". I wonder if that instinct will ever go away!

France's anthem, La Marseillaise, always brings to mind that wonderful scene in Casablanca, but I had never read the English words until today. It is also a very bloody, bloody song. As the national anthem website explains:

The lyrics, speaking of bloody battles and a call for citizens to take up arms, have been debated endlessly whether to alter the words to suit the more peaceful times that France currently enjoys, but the original words, capturing the spirit of the French revolution, remain. This is probably due to the fact that "La Marseillaise" is now inexorably linked to France in the mind of the world.

The first verse of England's anthem is all about the Queen (later verses touch on everything from confounding the politics of its enemies and frustrating their knavish tricks). Croatia's is all about the land. Poland's anthem speaks to its tumultuous history of partition and preservation (Poland has not yet Perished). And Canada's anthem, which is so wonderfully easy to sing, has such different words depending on if you're singing it in French or in English.

Such interesting stuff.

Tomorrow should be a good day for Kate and Liv -- their class is going to ride ponies. And it will be a stressful (but hopefully satisfying) morning for me -- another haircut. Fingers crossed that it goes as well as the first one!

"Je suis la!", and other updates

The days seem to be slipping by faster than ever -- I ran into Geraldine at the school drop off this morning and she reminded me we have just 18 days left in France! How did that happen?

There is no big news to report -- the week is happily just full of work and school and laundry and life -- but I do have a few fun updates.

* Maitresse Maud mentioned that Katie spoke French spontaneously in class Tuesday. And just what were the first freely spoken (i.e. not prompted by Mama or Daddy) French words out of her mouth?

"Je suis la!" (I am here!).

I don't know if that is incredibly deep and meaningful (some kind of existential awareness of her place in the universe) or simply a response to the roll call. At any rate -- we're pleased with her progress.

* Both girls have been singing a LOT these days, both songs that are recognizable, as well as those they make up. Today, at lunch, Livie was sweetly singing one that started like this:

"On your birthday, it's hard to be twins..."

I tried to get her to expand on that thought, but she slipped off into another song about how you have to be kind to Santa. Ah, the brain of a nearly five year old...

* I had a great talk with Jack's teacher on Friday. She said that she and the whole class would be so sad to see Jack leave -- that he has really become a remarkably integrated part of the classroom fabric (or something like that).  She also said they would all -- ALL -- cry when he left.

She also mentioned that she thinks he will be VERY bored in school next year, as he is easily picking up concepts that are difficult for any student, whatever language they speak at home. In some cases, I think she will be right. For example, his class here has blazed through the past, imperfect, future, and conditional verb tenses... and he gets it! I don't think they even start some of those until next year at his French immersion school. Of course, there will also be a few (several!) gaps... he still hasn't learned how to conjugate "ir" or "re" verbs (something they hadn't started in Canada when we left but had already finished here), and who knows what else. I am sure we will encounter many of these gaps when we return. Thankfully, he seems to pick up these concepts so quickly.

And the best thing of all (even better than him bringing home a good mark on a test none of us even knew was coming up, which also happened this week) is to listen to him speak French with his friends. It just comes so naturally... so easily... so fluently. I don't know when or how or in what context he will use the French language later in life... but I do know he has a fabulous grounding in it at this point, and both John and I feel that is such a wonderful gift (especially since the process of learning it was so much fun).

* John and I had petit-dejeuner at our favorite cafe this morning. The topic of conversation -- just how the heck we can come back to Burgundy some day. Yes, it is going to be hard to leave and you can expect some emotional and possibly pathetic postings (very pro-France) over the next 2+ weeks!

* Here's just one of the things I'll miss... how French people seem to touch each other more than North Americans. I love the French cheek-kiss thing (faire la bise), and every time it happens I feel like this is a very sane and wonderful society. The owner of the restaurant in Nuits-St-George where we go for galettes every two weeks or so came out when we stopped by with Mom on Monday, and before I knew it, he was kissing my cheeks and then Mom's before explaining and apologizing that the restaurant was closed for a private function. A cousin of Franck's who lives in our village (and who we see at the school drop-off) nows greets me with both a warm bonjour and a quick cheek kiss. John gets a handshake -- it seems that men only kiss men who are family or very old friends -- but otherwise, it's kisses all around. Jack's friends kiss me, my friends kiss me, I kiss my own kids... what a wonderful way of life.

No, it's not always quite so amazing

The last few posts have been a bit larger than life, and I realized that it may look like our existence right now is made up of big sunshiney trips to Paris and seven hour gourmet meals every day.

It's not.

In fact, a lot of our life here looks much like it did in Lethbridge. So much of the day is focused on the routine and admittedly boring (but necessary) jobs of preparing meals, cleaning up from meals (marveling each time at just how messy the floor can get -- it never got that messy before kids, and without a dog, it is worse than ever), doing laundry (which we do quite often as we didn't bring that many clothes), keeping the house clean, getting groceries, doing our work, driving kids to and from school on school days, emailing or calling  family when possible, paying bills (almost all of them online, thankfully), and the countless fun and not so fun jobs of life with three kids (wiping bums, helping wash hair, trimming nails, resolving (or avoiding) sibling conflicts, taking walks, helping with homework, trying to help them write thank you cards, finding favorite toys, building Lego, reading books and more).

But as much as I love the rhythm and routine of these parts of my daily life, I woudn't want to write a blog about it -- and I am not sure that anyone would want to read it!

In addition to the mundane, there are parts of life here than are, in fact, less than perfect.We just found out today that Lauren, the eldest daughter of our friends who came to play Sunday, broke her wrist when she fell running down from Coconut Mountain with Jack. It didn't swell up and she was able to move it some on Sunday, so everyone (me included) thought it was just a sprain. But one trip to the ER this morning after it continued hurting, and Lauren returned home with a cast, some pain medicine, and a good story to tell.

Another less than perfect part are the language struggles. It is 1000 times better for me than it was in Japan, and for that I am grateful. I take every opportunity I can to practice with real French speakers (the nice matron across the street who was gardening while I waited for Jack's bus, the grandfather walking home from dropping his grandchildren at the bus stop, the baker at the boulangerie, the parents of Jack's friends, the kids' teachers, just about anyone) and I have found I can keep up with quite a bit of any given conversation.

But there is a big difference between quite a bit and all... and what happens in those missed parts ranges from the amusing to the possibly serious. For instance -- I know for sure that I agreed with the grandfather walking home today that the Quebec accent is quite difficult to understand (I found the same thing to be true). But I may have also agreed that Canada's prime minister, or maybe it was France's prime minister, was a horse's behind. Or perhaps simply that one of them was riding a horse once. I'll never know, but I was nodding enthusiastically.

On the less amusing side -- Jack came home from school today and reported that his teacher said there were two men wearing sunglasses and driving a white car in the village where he goes to school who were possibly kidnapping children. But as soon as those words were out of his mouth, he added that he wasn't exactly sure about that. He doesn't think anyone HAD been kidnapped -- yet. It may have just been a lesson in not talking to strangers, and then two men in sunglasses *could* be riding around the village looking to kidnap children. The teacher, Jack added, did tell them to not talk to strangers.

Ah, such clarity for everyone. We will be asking the mother of Jack's friend who is coming to play tomorrow exactly what the teacher said -- and in the meantime, John kept all three of them in closer range this afternoon when he took them up to Les Chaumes to play (just in case!). While they were there, John reports, three of the four cars that passed by happened to be white -- including one that looked especially sketchy to newly paranoid parents. (As John stared the car down, Jack reassured him with exasperation and a smile that "it doesn't mean they're ALL criminals, dad!")

Also on the less-than-fabulous side is that things are very expensive here. Aside from baguettes and wine, almost everything here seems to cost more than it does in Canada, and much more than it does in the U.S. (We are especially aware of this as the girls' shoes are getting tight and replacing them will not be a cheap endeavor). But a blog complaining about that would quickly grow boring (I think), so we just do our best with the budget and figure we'll have lots of time in Lethbridge to build our savings account back up.

There are other parts that are less-than-perfect. I think we have all at one time or another had moments of being lonely or homesick or exhausted or frustrated or annoyed and more. But thankfully those have been just moments, and not days (or weeks or months!) -- and when they happen, we try to remember that even if we had stayed in Lethbridge, we would have all had moments of being lonely, or bored (and wishing we were travelling), and exhausted, frustrated, annoyed, and more.

It might be because I'm definitely a glass-half-full kind of person, or maybe because I like to write the kinds of stories I also like to read (the funny stories, or the unusual stories, or the French stories) -- but at any rate, you can be sure that in between the burning of straw bon hommes, between trying smelly and stupendous cheeses, between making the kinds of friends you want to stay in touch with always, and seeing great sights... there is a lot of regular life happening here.

Or at least as regular as life in a small French village can be. Did I mention how, on my way home from a run yesterday, I met a man walking his tiny dog and his ugly donkey down the street?


Really. And that's just not something I'd ever expect to see at home.

We're back online

Just a quick note to say we are back online (but I plan to continue reading books anyway, regardless of the state of our wireless connection). Huge thanks again to Franck for figuring it all out.

And... it goes to show... set the bar of expectations low (I planned for it to take weeks or months for France Telecom et al to fix whatever "it" was), and voila -- life is good!

I will post pictures tomorrow from the maternelle class trip to Dijon today. An amazing time was had by all -- the kids (and teachers and some parents) enjoyed a morning at the museum, a picnic lunch in a kind of classroom in a different part of town, and an afternoon at the theatre watching a dance-pantomime-performance that enthralled young and old. Moreover -- the experience of helping make sure more than 40 preschoolers have time to "fait pee-pee" during a six-hour outing left me in awe at the perpetual patience of preschool teachers.

Bon soir!

Weekend update

I wish I had taken a picture from our house on Thursday night. It would have shown John on Skype, talking on to Franck (one of the owners of this house), who was on his computer in Canada and who then did a conference call with his father at his computer in a house in our little village, who was (thankfully!) talking on his phone to Monsieur France Telecom about our telephone and internet woes. It was an impressive feat of technology – trying to solve our technological problem.

Apparently, it is a problem with the line to the house, and France Telecom will need to fix it. Now, we’ve only been here two weeks, but already I know enough to not hold my breath that France Telecom will be able to do that any time soon (I figure if you set the bar of expectations VERY low, you can only be pleasantly surprised). And I am so grateful to Laura and Franck for arranging a native French speaker to talk to French Telecom on our behalf. I am feeling pretty OK about my language skills for most conversations (and am remembering so much more French every day), but the telephone is SO hard. So three cheers to Franck's father!

And no one knows why we still can get Skype when we can’t get a dial tone on the phone or a regular internet connection – but we do seem to have Skype (lisnjohn1) if you need to reach us urgently, and a French cell phone if the schools need to reach us. I figure it’s a bit of a safety net to keep us connected to the world, and I'm not going to complain about it even if no one understands why we are getting it.

In the meantime, Franck and Laura have hooked us up with an internet connection at another location, where John or I go (briefly) once or twice a day to check in with the outside world.  It’s working for now – and one unintended consequence is that instead of turning to my usual daily must-reads (The New York Times online, The Globe and Mail online, etc.), I have looked instead to the many wonderful books in this house and started devouring those.

Oh yeah, books! I remember you! First I enjoyed a fluffy and fun read called Entre Nous about finding your inner French girl (full of lots of useful tips including how you can’t really buy coffee to go in France (no kidding!), advising buying fewer items of clothing but the best quality you can afford, and extolling the virtues of sayin "no" (or "non") from time to time). Then, I picked up the wonderful writing guide/inspirational tome by Anne Lamott called Bird by Bird. You know how there are books you need to read at a certain place and time? Well, this is one of those books. She strikes just the right note of teacher/friend/editor/fellow writer sharing the lessons learned... and it was just the bit of inspiration I needed – the kick in the pants to get back in the habit of writing *something* every day. We’ll see how long her pep talk lasts – and feel free to email me and encourage (harass?) me as I try to get back into the world of writing again.

The kids had a good end of the school week, although we had more snow which meant that the bus for Jack was cancelled Friday (he had taken it for the first time on Thursday and loved it) and that the kids are not properly shod for the moment. I had considered long and hard what winter wear to bring and, it seems, I made the wrong call on this one. France is generally more temperate than Canada (I can't help laughing a little as a write that -- most places in the woirld are a bit more temperate than Canada!) and often there are winters with very little snow. This, however, appears NOT to be one of those winters. So we have been putting the kids in lots of layers (which works) and sending them to school in their rain boots and two pairs of socks (which mostly works, sort of). I know I could go buy new snow boots – but what if it doesn’t snow again?

We braved the snow and bad roads to go to check email briefly Saturday morning and then (more importantly) to head to the Beaune market. At several points I thought we should turn around and go home – the roads were quite slick and it was looking worse by the minute. But when we arrived at the market, I swear you could almost hear the harps of heaven strum and the angels sing as the grey skies broke and the sun and blue skies cascaded down on all the market goers! Clearly we were meant to be there -- and we had a wonderful outing. The kids and John returned to the carousel (bien sur) and I did a quick tour to pick up a few things we needed. It wasn’t as big of a haul as last week, but still pretty good considering how little time I actually spent there (we wanted to get home as we didn't think the blue skies would last long -- and they didn't).

 

 

Pictured above, you can see the haul: six apples, eight pears, four avocados, four containers of strawberries (on special this week because the vendor wanted to go home), tapenade, walnuts, hazelnuts, dried apricots, dried strawberries, olives, a new cheese of the week (again, I didn’t catch the name... I need to bring a pen next week!), salami dried with goat cheese (DELICIOUS!), a quarter of a roasted turkey and some French beans, a Florentine baguette, the most delicious tomatoes I have ever had in January (grown in a nursery in the south of France), an umbrella, and local honey. Pas mal, n’est pas?

(Oh, and Katie and Livie are in tank tops because we were doing their laundry and pretty much EVERYTHING else was dirty.)

And a few other observations from the week:

* We passed by a high school at some kind of morning break and were surprised (although perhaps we shouldn’t have been) at the number of students smoking. Crowds of teenagers, all wearing black and grey jackets, of course, but also school backpacks, were huddled in the cold, smoking, smoking, smoking. It feels like the U.S. and Canada are quite different in this area... even when I was in high school (way back then), you wouldn’t have seen this kind of number of students with cigarettes. I wonder if they are taxed as heavily here? It would be interesting to find out if there have been any changes in who smokes (and how much they smoke) over the last few decades.

* Like in Lethbridge, it is not always easy to get details out of Jack about his day. But we did manage to ask just the right question the other night to elicit a response about the behavior of kids at school. He said the kids are wilder on the playground but calmer in the classroom. He said he’s been a little surprised at some things – seeing kids (boys and girls) throw snowballs at each other, fight, kick, wrestle, pull hair, etc. – but all of the kids involved seem to *want* to be wrestling/fighting/throwing snowballs, etc., and no one seems to be upset about it. He said none of it’s been directed at him, either, and that he’s been happy to be playing tag, hopscotch and other games with boys and girls. He added that the students are unsupervised for most of their breaks. The flip side is that he said things in the classroom are very, very calm. There has been only one time where one student was acting out in a way that Jack noticed this last week and where the teacher had to raise her voice a bit. His own classrooms in Lethbridge have been pretty calm, I think (when considering have twenty children together in a confined space), so for him to comment on this is pretty telling, I think.

* On Thursday, when I was waiting for Jack to catch the bus, I was talking to a girl in his class. She told me (unprompted... I had only asked how old she was and hearing she was almost eight, asked if she knew Jack) that Jack is a quick learner and hard worker... that there is something he doesn’t understand one day, and then he does the next. Bravo, Jack!

* We pushed our luck a bit with Kate and Liv and had them try heading back to preschool for an afternoon on Thursday. The afternoon program sounded wonderful – lots of time spent reading books and painting and playing. While they were fine, they were SO tired when we picked them up.  So for now, we will have them go only in the mornings. They both are having so much fun there. We are feeling VERY lucky about how well it’s all going for all three kids at school.

* On Monday, I will get to accompany Kate and Liv on a field trip to Dijon. In the morning, the class will go to the museum. They will have a picnic lunch, and then see some kind of puppet show (I *think*... I could be completely wrong about all of it, too!). They are very excited about this, and I am excited to get back to Dijon.

*  Speaking of the beautiful city to our north -- I have exchanged emails with the Harmels, the family I lived with in Dijon in 1993, and am going to try to get together with their daughters (who have many children) this week and with them in a few weeks (they have been travelling quite a bit lately). I am so excited to see them -- I look back at my time in Dijon and so many of the wonderful memories took place at their apartment, at the kitchen table with Christine, as I learned about France, French, and more.

* Two of the kids (Jack and Kate) have picked up the cold I heard actively in both classrooms when we went to visit our first week here. Sigh. I know it's inevitable (between travel, weird sleeping schedules, and new germs they haven't encountered before), but I don't like it anyway! Kate had a rough night but seems to be a lot better this morning. Jack had a rough night and seems to be about the same today. Neither has a fever,  headaches, or body aches, and Jack's doesn't sound like it's tranformed into his asthma cough (and he says it doesn't feel like his asthma cough)... so I am hoping it's just a regular old cold.  Fingers crossed for their quick recovery!

And I think that's about it. Sorry for such a long post... and apologies, too, if you email and we don't reply right away... we are mostly just checking in and making some travel plans (Jay and Judy are coming to visit next week!), and hoping for the best for France Telecom to fix the phones.

A view of our village

French schools are closed on Wednesdays, which suited us all just fine. The kids got a very good night's sleep at last (and slept in a bit, too), then lounged around this morning, watched French cartoons (which feels both culturally and linguistically worthwhile!), ate, played, and hung out.

This afternoon, we walked through our village to Mont-Saint-Victor, home of  a 12th century Roman chapel and a cemetery. The walk started in village, took us past the Mayor's office (he who was required to sign so many papers for the kids to go to school), and went straight up some wooden steps to the top of a beautiful hill. Tall trees and a sunny day made the hike take on a bit of a magical feeling, and all five of us walked home agreeing it was a great walk.

 

 

I love old cemeteries. When I worked at the Philadelphia Inquirer all those years ago, one of my favorite stories I did was on old graveyards in New Jersey. Just as I did back then, I wanted to know all of the stories behind the tombstones and people buried below. One of the tombstones showed at least three (and maybe more... the etching had worn off) members of the same family who all died in 1915. Was it an illness? A fire? Really bad luck? It couldn't have been the war -- not all of them seemed the right ages for that.

 

 

 

And there are so many stories that could be told from this place -- and not just the ones found in the cemetery. When I wrote earlier that this village seems old, I wasn't kidding. The village is mentioned as early as 761 AD! Laura and Franck have left a bit of a history of the village (and in English) and I am just going to go and quote most of it to let you know a bit about our new (and temporary) hometown.

 

According to Laura and Franck's history, the village "has long served as a natural gathering point. No less than five Roman roads converge in the village and its surrounding area. In 761, the village is mentioned under the name 'VILARE' which signifies 'rural habitation'.

"The word 'FAYE' became associate with the village due to the trees in the surrounding forests, known in local parlence as 'FAGUS'. In 1200, the village was referred to in written documents as 'VILER LA FAIE", which then evolved to its modern name of 'Villers-la-Faye' by 1740.

 

"The Mont-Saint-Victor which dominates the village used to go by the name the 'Mont de Villers.' This hilltop has known a long and varied history, and has over the years been the home to both a Gallo-Roman village and a fortified house in the Middle Ages. In the cemetery at the top (which was our destination during our walk today), you will find a little Roman chapel from the 12th century. A statue of Saint Abdon (one of the many patron saints of Villers) from the 15th century is still to be found in the chapel's edifice.

 

"From the deck of La Maison des Chaimes, you can see a round stone tower which is one of the remaining vestiges of the village's chateau (that was the Rapunzel tower that Katie and Livie liked so much).

"The Knights of Villers, a very eminent family of knights in the Middle Ages, built a large castle here in the beginning of the 15th century. It consisted of three large buildings flanked by four towers (the only one remaining is the one you can see from our deck, Laura wrote -- and is the one we walked by on Sunday), a chapel, and of course, a grape press. The whole ensemble was protected by a deep moat and drawbridge. If you walk down there today via the rue du Chateau (which is where we walked on Sunday), you can walk along waht used to be the moat wall (Jack REALLY liked that idea... and just wished the moat was still here).

 

"Traces of Roman and other ancient inhabitants of Villers can still be found all around the village. Laura wrote that many winegrowers in the region would find old Roman coins in their vineyards but kept it quiet because nobody wanted the government to expropriate their vineyards and start a dig... after all, she wrote, "Then what would they drink?"

It's a pretty village, too. John and I drove around a bit yesterday and actually found some scenery in and around neighboring villages that WASN'T breathtaking and beautiful. We returned home feeling even luckier to be perched on the side of our hill, surrounded by vineyards and forests and old stone houses and history everywhere you look.

Arriving at La Maison des Chaumes

Well, the kids are asleep so it seems to be a good time to catch up on posting. Here are some pictures of arriving at our new French home. Again, these are taken with John's camera -- we'll get some more pictures of him in the coming days! First -- the taxi that brought us here.

Jack peeks in the front door window.

 

John prepares to bring ALL of that luggage in.

  

 Getting the key.

Jack discovering a treasure trove of children's videos.

 Kate and Liv love their new room.

 

The wonderful wine and information  that awaited us.

 

Putting away groceries and making dinner the night we got in.

 

A wonderful way to keep track of what you need.

 

On Saturday, we all slept in (a wonderful treat) but woke too late to get to Beaune's Saturday outdoor open market. We went to town anyway, and saw the remnants of the market (and hope to be done with jetlag next weekend to be there first thing in the morning). We then had chocolat chaud, un cafe creme, and then a bit of lunch at a Beaune brasserie.

 

 

The kids found a park nearby where they ran around for a while (we had to put off going to a play park until we could get everyone rainboots. It's pretty muddy right now!)

 

 

 

And in addition to a LOT of groceries today, we got slippers for the family and rain boots for the kids. Tomorrow, we'll all walk to the boulangerie in our village for a baguette, and hope to make it to a play park for some much-needed play.