August 2011
2 posts
We're Moving
Well we’ve been here for a little over a year. It seemed like it was working fine - but you start to feel limited - constrained after a while. We have had more visitors than I thought - but that’s not really the reason to move. We just need a bit more…well - space.
so as of NOW - we are shifting over to:
www.pardonourfrench.com
This site will remain up - but new posts will be...
July 2011
9 posts
June 2011
8 posts
May 2011
6 posts
The best dog we never had
Last week there was some sad news around our house - our neighbours lost their dog.
They were on holidays down south - and (what we seem to have understood) is that they were out for a walk with friends and they came accross a big-horn sheep (??) and Zola took after it, and never came back. Zola was a hunting dog by training. The Ribo’s had her for 9 years, but Jean-Paul told me that...
April 2011
9 posts
Education...for the real world
Yesterday the kids had some sort of ‘cheese tasting’ at school.
It was supposed to be a few weeks ago - but somehow got bumped to this week. Now, this is not to be confused with the chevrettes [baby goats] that are coming to the school later for the kids to learn about, play with - and then taste goat cheese.
Of course - as is par for the course - we really have very little...
March 2011
10 posts
Tis True.
For those who have not yet heard..we do have some very exciting news…We are in fact expecting. Yes - that’s not some tricky code for something else…Susan is pregnant
The little one is due mid-September (this would be a good time to NOT remind Susan about 35 degree days in July and Aug here)
We told the kids last weekend and they are pretty excited.
Lots of questions - from...
I thought we already had that.
So today we have done the last step - en principle -to get our carte de sejour. That’s right - we may actually get a visa. We are one step closer to not being illegal immigrants! What a thought.
The last step was just to pay for them. For some reason the kids have 1-year renewable visas that were issued in Vancouver - so they’ve been fine since before we got here. I will get a...
I just don't get it
Sometimes - scratch that….. often, things happen here that I just don’t get. That’s just what happens when you live in a culture other than the one in which you were raised. I get that. However - it seems with our kids in school - this happens a lot.
Perhaps it’s because they still don’t really get what’s going on - plus we don’t really get...
February 2011
10 posts
Elevation
It’s cool and rainy here today. Well, at least it is here at our house, it’s snowing just a little bit up from us.
That difference is one of the things that struck me as truly strange when we first arrived here - how important elevation is to your daily life.
Pretty much everyone who lives up out of the city (on any of the three mountain ranges around Grenoble) can tell you the...
Learning quite well
The other day Micah and I were driving home having dropped the older two off after their (two hour) lunch break.
As we approached the village boulangerie he piped up from the back seat “papa - stop at the boulangerie and I will get a baguette all by myself”
Wow.
How much he’s learned already.
His grasp of French is already good enough that he has confidence to go into the...
WatchHow did we get cover the nearly 1200km for a round trip to Paris and still make it worth while to only be there one day.
This is how.
The TGV. Train à Grande Vitesse- literally “Train at Great Speed” no kidding.
This would be meeting another train heading in the opposite direction.
Us leaving Paris travelling at about 300km/h + train Paris bound travelling at around 300km/h =...