First Day of School, Learning French, and Paris

The kids started school the first week of September and so far both are doing great! It's wonderful to see them making friends and getting more acclimated to their new home.

 

 

 

       

 

Both kids have the opportunity to learn French at their schools. At their age they are sponges and everyone says at some point they will speak it better than us.  In fact, Travis commented the other day that my accent when I speak French sounds "weird!" Nice.

 

For Ryan and I it is a challenge to learn the language. I took French in college but that was many, many years ago! Ryan has never taken French so for him it is even harder. We have a French instructor who comes to our house weekly for lessons.  Many expats give up on language lessons but we feel that is very necessary for living here to understand it. In other parts of Europe, particularly Scandinavia, up to 90% of people speak English. Where we live the number is closer to 35%.  Every time I have had any kind of repairman come to our house they have NEVER spoken English and communicating what is needed has required a lot of pantomiming on my part! I have found that if I know the context of what someone is saying and pay attention to the tone I can understand quite a bit.  For instance the washing machine repairman lectured me about not reading my manual and breaking the door of the washer and I understood him clearly(Swiss people like to lecture). 

 

When we booked our trip to Paris, Ryan was looking forward to my getting "schooled" trying to speak French but we found the majority of people there spoke English! Another funny aside-our first meal there was at an "American" restaurant called the Indiana Café. It was decorated with Native American pictures everywhere-it is interesting to see how other countries interpret our culture. 

 

The purpose for our trip to Paris was to see family-Ryan's brother Brandon, his wife Autumn, and daughter Avery were visiting Paris and London. We had so much fun visiting Notre Dame, the Musee D'Orsay, and other great sites with them. Unfortunately we spent much of our time there under umbrellas!

 

  
The kids under the Eiffel Tower where we got engaged!


It was so great to see our family and I particularly enjoyed getting to snuggle Avery! Eventually they left for London and we took our kids to a park with rides and the biggest rabbit we have ever seen-this picture doesn't do him justice!

 

 

 

 

A final and unrelated note-back home we had a bumper crop of peaches! I never could get my peach tree to bloom in Texas so it was a nice surprise! I am loving this mild climate!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parents visit to Switzerland and Mallorca, Spain

It's been a month since I blogged last-August was a busy month! For 2 weeks my parents visited and we showed them around where we live. 

 

 We enjoyed a visit to Gruyere, home of the cheese as well as the Caillier (Nestle) chocolate factory. Naturally there was fondue and chocolate enjoyed by all! Gruyere is a medieval walled city on a hill with a chateau at the top, and the hike helped us work off all that cheese!

 We took the "wine train" through the vineyards of Lavaux, which is a UNESCO protected region. The land is very steep and built on terraces that go all the way from Lake Geneva up to almost the top of the mountain. Switzerland produces a lot of wine, particularly white wines, but only exports 1% of it. The rest is drunk here-the Swiss are very loyal to their own products!

 We all went to Zermatt for the weekend, home of the Matterhorn. It was such a beautiful typical Swiss village. The Matterhorn really was spectacular particularly because it was one of the few mountains still covered in snow. We took a train ride up to a vantage point and got some really spectacular shots. The Alps are definitely the most beautiful mountains we have ever seen.

We had to do the tourist shot with the St. Bernards :) Huge and gentle dogs!

 

 Mom and Dad..

 In the old town of Zermatt. There are at least a 100 hotels/condos here as well as a wealth of great restaurants. Looking forward to returning for skiing sometime.

 After returning we took the boat across Lake Geneva to Evian, France. I enjoyed some good cheaper shopping(never thought I'd say that about a European country, but Switzerland shopping is $$$ and limited!), and we also saw the original Evian pump room.

There were odd driftwood scultpures all over town as well-I think this one is supposed to be a cat..

 

We all really enjoyed Mom and Dad's visit and were very sorry to see them go!

 

 

 We went to Mallorca, Spain the last week of August for a beach vacation. It was our first time to try an all-inclusive type of place. We have determined it's not really for us-too much temptation to eat/drink too much, but it still was a very relaxing trip. Our hotel catered mostly to Brits and Scandinavians, the latter which are particularly casual about their beachwear! I haven't included any photos  :)

 

 Very important in a beach vacation-the kids club!! Fortunately kids really enjoyed it and it was nice to get a couple hours break every day.

 Travis is a fish and loved playing in the waves and the waterslides! 

 

 My favorite part of a beach vacation, relaxing on a lounger with my beloved Kindle..

Ryan and I enjoying some tapas..

Brother and sister...enjoying some bonding time..

 

Hope everyone is off to a terrific beginning of the school year!