Stick Shift and Exploration

Ahhhh – What can be better than a drive through Provence on a Saturday morning? The beautiful hills, the bleached white rock cliffs, the beautiful green forests, small windy roads begging for a high performance Panda to hug corners and cruise the countryside. Since we’ve been in Aix, we’ve spent most of our time either exploring the city or driving to the coast or far out of town to see the sites. We hadn’t spent any time exploring our immediate neighborhood – so we decided to cruise around and check out some of the sites.

       Since our rental agreement on the Panda was up and we couldn’t bear (‘scuze the pun) to part with him, we headed down to Europcar and renewed our car for a week. We also added Ann to the contract, eliminating all the barriers to her having to drive stick shift.

She was scared. Terrified. The Panda was too much for her. The performance was intimidating, and the fine Italian racing machine had more squirrels than she was used to. Still, we pressured her to drive, and she sucked it up and climbed into the drivers seat as we strapped into our racing harnesses, put on crash helmets and settled into our neck braces.

Ann did beautifully. We cruised out of town, smoothly shifting between first and second gear (Ann declaring that First was her favorite gear) and headed up into the hills to go exploring. Since she’s going to be on her own for a week while I return to Seattle, we decided it would be best to head up towards La Pistache so she could get an idea of where things were situated. She wouldn’t drive up to the house though – that was too much for Ann on her first drive in the Panda, so we headed down the road out of town to explore. Our first destination was St. Marc-Jaumegard  (clearly the name was perfect given that it’s French. As with so many other words, we quickly established that extra letters like “Jaumegard” are pronounced entirely silently).

When we were looking for schools for the girls, there were three options we considered. The local public school (which seemed a little too “rough” for the girls, Jeanne d’Arc, and the public school in St. Marc (Jaumegard). To get in, we needed to petition the Mayor’s office, get an exception, and then apply to the school. We wrote a long, heartfelt letter, sent it to them, and never heard from them again.

It was nice pulling into the town. It’s beautiful – the kind of place we’d love to live if we moved here permanently. It’s tiny, picturesque, and only about 10 minutes out of town. The school yard was large and lovely – and Ann immediately wanted to go talk to the mayor to see if we could get the girls to go there. We discussed it briefly, and passed – given that the girls were already introduced to the teachers at Jeanne d’Arc.

We climbed back into the Panda and headed out further into the wilds of Provence, cruising small roads. Practicing starts on hills, and generally pissing off other motorists who believed the speed limit was 130 despite the clearly posted 50 speed limit signs.

We took a turn and headed up a hill and arrived at a reservoir which feeds much of the Provence region. We parked the Panda and followed a well paved path down to the Dam holding back over 14 million cubic meters of water. As we approached the concrete structure we kept our eyes open for signs of the military, homeland security and tanks. Clearly an installation like this would need to be hardened against terrorist threats. We scanned the skies and saw a small black dot. Clearly a drone (or a hawk) was keeping an eye on us.

   

As we stepped foot onto the broad concrete road leading over the dam, we were confronted by a single sign and were stunned to realize that it explained the history of the site. Built in the 1950’s, the structure took almost 10 years to complete and supplied water to much of the region. There wasn’t even a notice informing us that it was illegal to bring explosives onto the structure. People were walking across the dam, enjoying the views and taking hikes through the countryside. They were completely unaware of the terrorist threat which our finely tuned American senses detected.

We decided to relax and enjoy the view and walked across the dam. It was breathtaking – beautiful gorges, lush green forests, white cliffs, beautiful blue water, the mountain above us… it was incredible. The road over the dam led to a series of hiking paths which would enable us to scale the massive and see the whole countryside. While we were game to go do this, the girls really weren’t and we had places to be – so we took in the view and headed back to the car and drove back into town. The hike up the mountain would need to wait for another day.

 

Boulangerie

A dirty little secret in France is that the quality of their pastries (Croissants, Pain au Chocolate) have dramatically declined over the years. You used to be able to find delicious butter-filled pastries which were perfectly baked – crisp and flaky on the outside, melting with butter on the inside.

That was then, this is now. As it turns out, there is such a bakery in Seattle – Café Besalu. If you know us, you’ve heard us rave on and on about how amazing the pastries are there. They’re all hand made fresh on premise and they’re all perfectly baked. They have become our gold standard for French pastries. A good croissant should make you silently cry as you sip your coffee while angels sing and dance around your plate.

Arriving in France, you’ll discover a few things about boulangeries. First, they are everywhere – you can’t throw a rock without hitting one. Second, they’re not all created equal. Some have excellent pastries, and some use frozen dough which they purchase from large manufacturers. Frozen dough has some advantages – you don’t need to spend the time getting up early in the morning, making it from scratch and baking them – you just pop them in the oven and voila! The sad truth is that about 90% of French pastries are made this way now. As they say in France “A good croissant is hard to find.”

 

Growing up, I remember my father driving for 30 minutes to get to a good bakery. The croissants were amazing there – and I fondly recall gobbling these down by the half dozen at breakfast every weekend.

There are boulangeries which make their own dough. These carry a special designation and are called “Artisanal” bakeries. These make pastries in the traditional way – by hand and fresh everyday – but even then the quality can sometimes vary quite a bit. You might end up with a perfectly crisp croissant, or more likely you’ll end up with a doughy mass that’s quite “bready”.

Since we love pastries, we’re going to sample every single boulangerie in Aix until we find the best croissants. Think if this as a sacrifice we make for you on the chance that you come visit and want some great pastries.

I’m creating a new section on this blog “Boulangerie” which will rate the ones we try.

Coffee in Aix!

Lazy day today.

We walked around Aix – Ann was dressed to kill – adopting the hottest Parisian styles and I looking like a Microsoft geek. The girls looked beautiful as always, striking poses in front of stores and generally looking cute. We wandered our way over to the market, passing many beautiful things. We stopped at a boulangerie and sampled their croissants and pain au chocolate) – they were pretty good. More on that later. 🙂

We then purchased produce for tonight’s dinner (vegetables, sausage, strawberries, etc.). We navigated the market like pros, feeling very at ease. it was nice. Across from the market is a Brulerie (a coffee roaster). We stopped in, had an espresso, and then wandered back to the apartment. The coffee was good, but I miss Café Vivace. Pretty low key all in all, but relaxing and nice.

   

Touring l’ecole Jeanne d’Arc

Today we toured the girl’s new school. It is a semi-privee school in downtown AIX. It follows the French public school curriculum with 100% French instruction but it is a Catholic school. This means the class sizes are smaller (20 kids a class) and they have a better funding and infrastructure. We chose this school because we spoke with the Crow family from Vancouver, Canada who lived at La Pistache a few years ago. They have bilingual kids and they sent them to the local reference school. They strongly encouraged us to find another option. Erin recommended the Semi-Privee system which is not tied to your home address. Luckily the Jean D’Arc school had a place for Chloe and as a result, Josie moved to the top of the wait list. We received confirmation of Josie’s placement at the end of June. The school is reasonable, less than we spend on public school fund raising in the states. The lunch is a sit down meal where the kids are served a multicourse meal in the cafeteria. The girls were relieved to learn that neither horse nor rabbit are on the school menu.

When we arrived at the school, the girls were terribly nervous. Mme Vidal greeted us and reassured us that the girls will have no problems coming into the school with no French. The school has welcomed a handful of non-French speakers and within a few short months the kids were speaking fluently. I was surprised by how genuinely kind and nurturing the staff were at the school. The girls were given a tour of the playground, classrooms, cafeteria and bathrooms. One marked difference with home is that the playground is a small parking lot. There is no play equipment, just an asphalt courtyard with a couple of plastic tires. This is common in France. The school is tiny, one class of 20 kids per grade.

This picture was taken from their website. Apparently kids can learn to have fun without playground equipment.

When we arrived for our meetings, the teachers were at school preparing for the return of class on September 1^st . While the staff speaks limited English they are genuinely kind. They had compassion for Josie , who was really scared and crying. The teachers reassured us that they will make sure the girls have a smooth transition. They are prepared to assign the girls buddies, they will have customized homework until they are fluent French speakers and they will be in constant communication with us on their progress.  The administrator of the school kept telling Josie that while she can’t speak English she can understand it and is there for her anytime. Josie kept going over to her and hugging her like a life raft. She hugged Josie back as if she were her own child, it was very touching. I arrived totally anxious and left feeling completely confident that the girls are in capable and compassionate hands. All in all, a huge sigh of relief. That does not change the fact that the girls are still adamant that they are not going to school on Monday.

Jeanne D’arc and New Friends

We were walking around the city looking for the school we’ll be sending Chloe and Josephine to a few days ago. I was forging ahead, trusting in providence that we’d find the school located near a large Lycee on the edge of town. I was pure male, headstrong and determined. Ann was smarter. Being female, she has the ability to do things I can’t – like ask for directions.  As we walked down the street, a woman and her daughter was walking in the opposite direction. I looked away and kept walking. Ann, with determination in her eyes, engaged.

Turns out she had met a fellow Anne. They started chatting, and pretty soon the woman with her daughter in tow proceeded to walk us to the school (which apparently we had passed – I give myself 30 points for having “found” it first, and -100 for having missed it). Ann started firing questions at Anne, and pretty soon she had the skinny on schools in Aix and had made a new friend. A few seconds later she had her phone number and had promised to call. Have I mentioned how amazing my wife is? She’s unbelievable.

We walked back to the apartment (turns out the schools Is about 3 blocks away) the girls in tow. They cried all the way home about how they wouldn’t go to school, they’d never make friends, they didn’t want to learn French, etc. We reassured them that everything would be OK and proceeded with making dinner and getting them to bed.

The next day Ann gave Anne a call and was pleasantly surprised when she suggested they meet after work for a quick drink. Ann headed out at 6 on her first date. I was left in the apartment playing the house-husband with hungry children that were tethered to their ipods. With Ann out whooping it up on the town, I started thinking that maybe I should start stopping random guys in the street and ask them for their phone numbers so we can go out and get drinks later…

Ann got back from her “drink” and proceeded to give me all the details. Anne had 3 kids, a husband, and were architects. They had moved here from Paris a number of years ago for the quality of life. They chatted about schools, jobs, living in Aix… All in all it sounded like they had a great time and really connected.

Yesterday we got a text from Anne inviting us to a picnic at “Anse de Grand Mugel” in La Ciotat. This is about 40 minutes from Aix, and is a small bay on the coast, so we piled into the Panda and gave the squirrels some turbo-nuts. We screamed our way down auto-routes, stopping in the toll booths and flooring the poor Panda like it was a racecar. The Panda didn’t disappoint – it broke 130 kmhs once.

The Panda. Complete with heavenly rays of performance.

We stopped at a hypermarket (way cooler than a supermarket) on the way and picked up some lemon tarts. I managed to mess up the cash register at check-out, by swiping my card upside down, then right-side up but backwards, and then the correct way. This resulted in a total crash of the system which then had to be rebooted. Impatient customers behind me were diverted to other registers, and the cashier smiled nicely and commented that it was a nice break seeing that she was working until 9 that night. We became friends.

We piled back into the panda and cruised down to La Ciotat. There’s a huge naval shipyard right next to the beach. For me this seemed like an odd place a picnic, but it was quite scenic because the heavy industrial center was hidden behind a bluff.  The beach was small, covered in rocks (no sand here!), and had cafe’s right up on the beach. All in all, it was quite scenic and pretty. It wouldn’t have been a spot we would have discovered on our own.

We were greeted warmly by Anne, her family and their friends. The girls experienced kissing strangers for the first time (it’s customary to give a new friend a kiss on each cheek as a greeting) and giggled as they kissed the boys!

We put our towels out on the beach and friends, went for a swim, and shared the food we had brought. At first the girls were extremely shy, but when they realized that the French kids spoke about as much English as they did, they started to relax and play. Soon they were running around with the other kids, participating in their games and looked totally at ease. Josie adopted a teenager, held her hand and got personalized lessons on how to skip stones.

 

This is a really freaky picture, but it’s the only one I have.

I lied. I found a few others.

While the girls made new friends, we chatted with Anne and her sister. We learned more about Aix, and Ann picked up a few new phone numbers. People were super nice and inclusive. We felt very welcomed, even if it was a little awkward.

Wine flowed, beers were drunk, and dusk settled on the small French beach. A band set up their gear in one of the restaurants on the beach, and soon were blasting 1970s-1990s US pop tunes across the bay. Especially memorable was Prince’s “kiss” sung in falsetto with a heavy French accent. It brought tears to my eyes as my ears bled. “you daun’t haavve to be reeech to bee me girrrrl”.

Actually, it was a lot of fun. Anne was so nice to invite us, and it was an extremely pleasant evening and we were fortunate to have the opportunity to go. People sang, danced and the girls played. Eventually it got dark, and at about 10 the children started to get tired. Our kids started pulling on us and asking us to leave, the French kids however just found a towel, made themselves cozy on the beach and fell asleep waiting for their parents to be done.

It was time to go, so we hiked up through the dark streets to the waiting Panda and piled in. We made our way back home (the Panda feels like it drives twice as fast at night – it must be the ninja-like paint job) climbed into bed and fell asleep. It was a great experience for us, and an especially great one for the kids as they finally realized that it wouldn’t be too hard to make friends here.

Cassis in 30

About 30 minutes from Aix-en-Provence is the Mediterranean Sea. On the Mediterranean sea is a small port town of Cassis. This has to be one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to. Gorgeous little streets lined with cafe’s and tourist traps, a charming little port with wooden boats painted white, blue, red, orange, and green. A pebble beach with turquoise water and a castle clinging to the Cliffside. It was unbelievably beautiful.

    

The water was clear and refreshing (e.g. much warmer than the Puget Sound, but still requiring willpower to get into). Small waves crashed on the beach, and the girls threw themselves repeatedly into the surf to exfoliate their skin on the pebbles. We hung out on the beach, observed the local attire and generally looked like American tourists with out NE Seattle and Microsoft baseball caps and tennis shoes. Yay!

Ann longed for her Hawaiian beach blanket – but as with all things American, this would have been equivalent to erecting a skyscraper in the center of Aix. There just isn’t enough room. People were packed in like sardines, but everyone had a good time. Of course our girls could be heard from kilometers away.

I write this like we were classic loud American tourists… and we were a little. But we’re getting to be more assimilated. The girls are desperately trying to learn French now (they realized that school is only a few days away, which it turns out is quite a bit of motivation for them), but we’re super-proud of them and they are learning quickly. They are going to soak up the language like a sponge.

We stopped by a café on the way out and had a glass of Rose. This was the first time that I really appreciated Rose and understood why anyone would bother making it. On a hot sunny day, a chilled glass of rose may be the single most refreshing thing on the planet. It’s the perfect wine for the south of France.

We drove back after four hours on the beach in our wonderful Fiat Panda. All three squirrels ran their hearts out as I swerved around trucks which spontaneously merged into our lane as they desperately tried to go the speed limit. The girls keep asking me to feed them Turbo-nuts. We all scream as we exit the toll booth and I quickly shift my way through the gears to maximum throttle. It’s a glorious time. Ann only passed out in fear once, which is a significant improvement over past trips. (Can you tell that I secretly long for the A5 s-line which had more power in the radio volume control than this stupid Panda has in it’s entire engine. A small piece of me dies every time I drive the Panda).

On the subject of driving, we forgot to mention a wonderful little detour we took yesterday when trying to find our way back to La Pistache. It turns out that we zigged rather than zagged and headed up a one “lane” road which really should have been classified as a black diamond ski run. We made it to the top only to find a locked gate and very little room to turn around (even with the Panda). I decided to give it a try anyways, backed into the embankment, managed to get into the bushes, and had to restart the car on what felt like a 45 degree slope (stick mind you). Needless to say that we left beautiful black skidmarks on someone’s concrete, and sent fluffy clouds of burnt rubber floating up into the pristine aquamarine sky. As it turned out, we couldn’t turn around, and had to back down the hill – all while Ann cried and the girls cheered me on. It was epic.

So a brief note to those who wish to visit… The Panda seats four (and no more. Four is generous), so you’ll likely need to rent a car. You may wish to brush up on shift-stick driving, possibly on Queen Anne Hill in rush-hour for good measure. Really.

Finally, I should comment that while I am poking fun at our experiences here, they really have been amazing. The people here have been warm and welcoming, and have gone out of their way to help us over and over again. It’s wonderful being here, and while it doesn’t feel like home yet – I hope that it will soon enough.

A trip to the Store

Many people think the French are quaint. Little shops with little cheeses. They sip wine in their cafe’s, eat pastries and smoke cigarettes. They are also the originators of the “grande surfaces”, or stores which would make Walmart blush in terms of size, quantity of items and quality of goods.

Unlike their American cousins, stores like Carrefour have high quality merchandise and lots of it. The stores are simply huge – with more checkout lines than you can imagine. On the weekends, they are zoos.

Looking down Carrefour avenue the store extends towards infinity.

Erin came with us to Carrefour. She was a person Ann met through some friends in Laurelhurst who moved to Aix about four years ago. She’s been extremely helpful getting us set up in France. Today she was kind enough to come brave the stores with us to help us collect the page long list of items the girls would need. Protractors, pens, notebooks with cool lines, graph paper, colored pens, pencils, fountain pens, etc. It was an impressive list and Ann had been stressing out over it for some time.

While she did battle with school supplies, I decided to check out what Carrefour had to offer… I won’t give you a full rundown of everything in the store, that would take too long – but I did want to highlight things you could find in the store that you wouldn’t normally find in the USA. These include some of the basics you’d expect from the French; Cheese, Chocolate, Wine and Lingerie.

Cheese

We all know the French love cheese. They like round cheeses, cheeses with holes in them, cheeses that are fuzzy, cheeses that are blue. They like cheeses made from goat milk, cow milk, sheep milk, yak milk, sheep-dog-cow milk, etc. If it lactates, chances are there’s a cheese that uses it’s milk. The cheese department (and I don’t use the word department lightly) was pure awesome. Rows and rows of cheese. beautiful, smelly, tasty cheese. It wasn’t like the US – one lame little display… it went on for miles.

 

Chocolate

Chocolate is another essential. While not as essential as cheese, the selection didn’t disappoint. A whole aisle was dedicated to chocolate with a ton of different varieties. As I looked upon the glorious vista I made a simple pledge to myself – I will sample them all.

Wine

As in any civilized society, wine is a critical part of the social fabric. In France it is the fabric, with a few other things (like cheese) woven in for good measure. As a result, there were four aisles (not small wimpy QFC aisles mind you – but long, boulevard-inspiring aisles with wine fountains and small pools in which to refresh yourself); One for red. One for Rose. One for White. and One for Liquor. Ah la France! I silently made a new pledge to myself. I will try them all, with cheese and chocolate.

Lingerie

Ahhhh. What trip to the grocery store would be complete without a quick stop in the Lingerie department? What with all the wine, cheese and chocolate, one surely would need to freshen up their wardrobe after shopping. So yes, of course there was a lingerie department. Not with granny undies, but with frilly, lace lined thongs fit for the most distinguishing Victoria Secret’s model. I made a silent vow for Ann…

Of course, with carts and carts full of these fine products, one would imagine that checking out would be a nightmare. Oh Non! Au Contraire! Customer service was wonderful, and there was an infinite line of cash registers waiting to take your money from your incredibly hard to open French bank account. This is the perk of having a French bank account. You can buy things from it. Like Cheese, Chocolate, Wine, and Lingerie.

Vive la France!

 

Pont de Guard

Today we decided to take an excursion outside of Aix. We heard from our friend Robin that this was one of her girls favorite activities in the south of France. It was a wonderful suggestion. Pont du Guard is a huge Roman Aqueduct build around 19BC and it is a protected Unesco World Heritage Site. It is about an hour and a half outside of Aix. Marc navigated the roads in our little car like a pro. Once off the highway, there were roundabouts every mile where nobody uses turn signals. Our three squirrel Panda sped around corners, causing squeals of glee (and tires) as we sped between roads.

Once we reached out destination, we rented kayaks in Collias and paddled about 4 miles along the scenic Guard river. The river is a class 1 river so it is worry free with kids. That being said we did help rescue one family who breached their canoe on a log. The river came down a shoot and right in the middle was this dead tree. The families canoe tipped side ways, filled up with water and rapped around the tree. We waded out and helped grab their young child and belongings before pulling the boat free. Rivers are powerful, even in slow moving water!

The girls loved the outing. The water was refreshing and there are many little rocky beaches to pull over and picnic. It is a state park so the river bank is lovely, protected and unspoiled. There are a handful of rocky outcroppings where you can cliff jump (8 feet or so) and the girls had a great time jumping into the water. There were a lot of tourists on the river but it was magical none the less to pass under this magnificent ruin and see if from below, in the water, while kayaking lazily down the river.  All in all, a super fun day!

 

To the Market!

We headed into town for the farmer’s market today. We wandered through the twisty roads until we came out in a square filled with merchants and their fresh produce. Lots of cool things to see along the way – including fountains, beautiful streets, an accordion player, and old town squares.

Markets happen daily in Aix most of the year, so there’s always a source of local fresh produce. You need to carefully check it out though – not all of it is created equal. We ended up purchasing some salad that was a little sketchy and an onion we had to throw out because it was rotten. That’s our fault though – we were caught in the moment.

The market has a huge selection – fresh vegetables, locally made sausages, fresh cheese, herbs and spices, fruit, home-crafted breads, etc. It was beautiful to behold and quite reasonably priced. We purchased food for breakfast, two dinners and two lunches for about 30 Euros, which was quite a good deal in my mind.We also bought amazing local sausage, oodles of vegetables, some fresh cheese. All of it was amazing.

 

On the way back we wound our way through the streets, generally aiming for our apartment but stumbling on new and beautiful sights. We came across a gorgeous square which is in the middle of being restored. Apparently it’s an American university of some sort – but it’s absolutely magnificent – complete with a fountain and cobblestones.

Later in the day we ventured out again and headed over to the local Cathedral. The girls though it was huge, but I explained to them that it was small by European standards. We’d be seeing Cathedrals which would not only impress you, but make you say “Oh! My God!” when you walked into them (by design) when we went to Paris and some of the other bigger cities.

Regardless, the cathedral was really impressive to them. We lit a candle for grandma, and explored it further, discovering that the main cathedral was built on top of a roman ruin built in 500AD. The girls couldn’t quite compute this – but seemed impressed. Let’s just say it’s really, really old.

 

We headed home, made dinner (chicken with an improvised crème-fraiche, garlic and red wine sauce – ah oui!) and went to bed – exhausted from jet lag and a fun day of exploring. All in all, a great way to start the week!

 

 

 

Cars, Driving, and Lunch with Rebecca

The day after we arrived Rebecca invited us up to La Pistache for lunch. Since we hadn’t yet picked up a rental car, we walked through the old city to EuropCar. The walk was beautiful. The buildings here are all from the 1700s (or older), and have incredible facades, carvings, and old wooden doors. Walking through the city is a treat in itself.

We arrived at the rental car agency to pick up the vehicle Ann had rented. The Woman took pity on us when she saw we were four people and that Ann had only rented a 2 door car.

“I think you need something bigger, yes? I’ll upgrade you for free to a four door.”

What was “bigger” was a fiat Panda. It was clearly the highest performance car in the fleet. To shrink the size of the car down to meet European standards, they had  to lob off the engine compartment and replace it with a cage containing three squirrels hooked up to a running wheel. While this car is small by US standards, don’t be deceived. It can achieve top speeds of 130 Kmh, “comfortably” seat four, and have room leftover for 3 grocery bags. It also has an advanced multimedia system consisting of a cable (not included) which you can connect to your ipod to play music. Of course there’s also the radio which plays a mix of popular accordion music blended with US Top 100 hits. They also repeatedly say “Michael Jackson” on the radio – mostly because they like the sound of it. Ah… France! 🙂 I jest, but it’s charming.

We made our way up to the Intermarket in the Panda where we were to meet Rebecca’s husband. To get there, we consulted the map, and established a plan to move clockwise around the city to get to our destination in the most efficient way possible:

We didn’t have GPS (our data is off on our phones because we’re too cheap to pay for it), so we spent the next 30 minutes consulting the map, driving, hitting one way streets, turning around, circling, explicating, and repeating the process. At this point we were committed, so we forged forward, taking detours through the old city, getting familiar with the Panda, and cruising through the streets of Aix which most US SUVs would have found impossible to navigate.

We finally emerged at our destination a few minutes early and I consulted the map again to see if I could figure out what had just happened. As it turns out, Aix has a road which runs around it. It flows counter-clockwise, enabling you to easily circumvent the maze of one-way streets and reach your destination efficiently. Go figure. Sometimes it’s easier just to go with the flow.

Rebecca’s husband arrived on time and we followed him up to La Pistache. We had been warned that the road was treacherous, and Paul had recommended that the just put the car in First and drive up the hill at the end without stopping. We cruised around the switchbacks on the gravel one-lane road (one-lane for a Panda mind you), and made it to the top. I’m pretty much sure I passed the required training for rally car drivers. By the end of the stay I intend to drive it blindfolded.

Lunch was fantastic. Fresh tomatoes, wine, a provencale tarte, and melon with ham. Rebecca and Paul were absolutely charming. We talked about schools, politics, jobs while the girls got to go for a quick swim in their pool. We then took a tour of La Pistache (our new home). It’s a beautiful 3 bedroom house with a full kitchen, charming living room, and an amazing view of the valley below. I’ll post some pictures of the inside when we move in.

We drove home and headed to the local grocery store and picked up supplies for dinner. I will say that the wine selection in the small supermarket was quite good and very reasonable. Our diet is likely to be 90% liquid.

All in all it was a fun day – We had some great driving adventures, started to learn about the quirks of the city, and met our landlords.