No more beaver????

I've been gone too long, from Canada, that is.
My loving husband sent me this information and
frankly, Alec and I are shocked!



"The beaver is no longer fit to be Canada's national emblem,
 and should be replaced with the polar bear,
a Conservative senator says.
In a statement to the Senate,
Senator Nicole Eaton said the beaver was an outdated symbol,
and a destructive rodent.
The polar bear - with its "strength, courage, resourcefulness and dignity" -
 would be a better fit, she argued.
The beaver was named an official emblem of the country in 1975.
The senator said it was time for an "emblem makeover".

Well, this statement did come from a conservative member
of parliament.

Alec and I, we vote for the beaver.".

We walk upon skeletons.

Today we walked upon skeletons.
Not far from where we live in Lessy, infact the next
village over in Chatel St. Germain,
we walked upon ground that
has been occupied
since the Neolithic age up  until 1760.



What do you think when you read
"road of war?"  This is a land rich
in history and yet also immersed
in wars.


Archeologists have found 370 graves.

Who was buried here?  Was it a barbarian,
a chevalier, a priest?


Rachel told me that she last visited this place
20 years ago, when the excavations were taking
place, when you could see the skeletons within
the graves.  Today, you can see these same
remains in the The Metropolitan Museum of Metz
one of my favourtie  museums. 

Ludo perched on a wall of the Abbey

Think about this;  we are walking upon Stone Age ground,  2,5 millions  years ago. 

when early hominids began to make tools.  Tools!  

A knight could have walked through this door, Alec
tells me.



A priest definitely prayed in this Abbey.l







Where do we go from here?

In this place 
 there was the "war between friends."


How can you have a war between friends? 
 Our history of today,  
 where is it leading us?
What artifacts will
define our heritage?


Yellows, reds and burnt orrange  
splash 
across the palette of autumn.
   
Today we walked upon skeletons.

Spa, anyone?

Rachel suggested we go to the pool,
or so I thought.
  After her description
about her aqua gym experience with
little water I declined.  Rachel then said,
not pool, spa.

I'm so glad I changed my mind.

Care Package Arrived

Jeff, my wonderful husband back home
and Alec's terrific dad sent US a care
package.  Now you would think that
WE should be sending Jeff a care
package from France.  Jeff beat us
to it and we will never be able to live
this down!

Alec's favourite brand of gummy bears

Tommy
about the British Soldier in WWI

variety of  shai and green teas

German Fortresses in Lorraine

I am sure you can guess who 'scored' on this delivery.


\

les vacances

After six weeks of school with long hours and a crazy schedule,
the private schools (which start earlier than public) have
two weeks of vacation.
"Usually the teachers get sick and the students sleep."  This
is how Rachel described vacation.  What have we done  for
the last two days of the beginning of our "vacation?"  Alec
and I have slept in until 10 a.m. and I have caught a
cold!  


On this rainy Tuesday we are studying French, doing laundry,
cleaning our apartment and catching up this blog.  Hopefully our
energy will return so we can explore this area a little more.

Piper just brought me her ball and is looking at me with
her questioning, dark brown eyes;  'walk?'  A stones throw
away from our door is a 'rue de boullettes, a small lane
bordered on both sides by stone walls.  This rue leads uphill
to a trail that winds through the woods.  There are miles
of walking and biking trails here, a haven for Piper et moi.
Off we go Piper.

Bonjour French Police

           
"Bonjour, je ne parle pas bien française."
I don't speak French well!  This is what I said
when three police officers waved me to the side
of the road to park on the curb.  (There is no
room to park on the side of the road)
Smile! Another smile.
They asked for the vehicles paper and for my
license.  I handed them my international permit and
my Virginia license.  "Vous etes Americain?"
This was the first time I did not correct someone
for calling me an American!  They were very
curious looking at my international permit and
VA license.  I told them I was here for 9 months
after which they said I need to go to the prefacture
to obtain a French license.    Finally they told me
I did not stop at the sign (I know this will not
come as a shock to many).  I acted very surprised,
said, "Je n'arrete pas, c'est vrais??"  One of the
police officers smiled and said in English "be careful."
They were all smiling and didn't quite know what to do with me.
 They let me go with only a "soyez prudent."  I replied
"vous ȇtes tres gentil" and left!  No more California
stops in France!

Happy Birthday Jeff Video

click on the link

happy birthday Jeff

Happy Birthday Jeff

Today is the anniversary of the day
the world became a better place.
Today we celebrate Jeff,
 husband to Jude,
father to Alec,
 human to Piper
brother to Jeannie, Cathy and Jamie
 son to Jean and Raymond
son-in-law to Gert and Dick
brother-in-law to Dick, Marty,Rick,Margie, Jon and Pati
 uncle to numerous nephews and nieces
 friend to many
we love you more than you know

lundi est le jour pour mon art

On Monday afternoons I first go with
Rachel to her art class.  It seems most
people "do their own thing" and Rachel
walks around helping people create
a more personal piece.  I spend my time
making marks with charcoal on paper.




The others seem fascinated by this process;
starting with one mark, stepping back, adding
another mark, stepping back, on and on until
you know "this is enough."  Then I look at
the paper and voila, she speaks!  I see shapes
emerging and I elaborate on these shapes.
Definitely a right brain exercise.  Seems like
numerous animals inhabit my  subconscious.

she reads 

on the way to the opera

  

the many faces of ....

inside looking out

     

And now for my most "normal" one.  This is a photo transfer on canvas with paint.

happy hour

After Rachel's class I follow Brigitte across town to a cultural centre where I enjoy

creating in clay.  More photos to follow.

Alec and I are learning about French culture

Thank you Ludo for sharing this site with us!


http://www.youtube.com/user/NormanFaitDesVideos?blend=7&ob=5

Party at Cathy and Fred's

What do you get when you mix 3 German exchange
students, 1 Canadian, 1 Canadian/American and
about 50 les français plus two bands, champagne
a lots of great food?;  a great party.


"Mom, this is so wierd.  They can't speak
English but they sing in English without
an accent!"

Almost all of the songs were in English,
and from the 70's I think.
Hit the Road, Jack,  Scarborough Fair,
Do You Know the Way to San Jose....
you get the picture.  The bands were great.
Sorry I don't have any photos of our host
Fred, playing the base guitar and Cathy
dancing up a storm.

Christophe, Clemence, Nathalie

Gilles trying to be serious

Christophe and Nathalie




Alec especially seemed to enjoy the food.

gee mom, this tastes good

Speaking of food, especially meat or

poutlty, there is no doubt about

what you are buying.

you definitely know these are animals!

You can see duck heads and webbed feet,

huge beef tongues, animal heads of all sorts....while graphic

it still isn't enough to make me a vegetarian!

Today, we walked to Rachel's, I helped Ludo

with an English assignment and Rachel helped

Alec with his homework.  School tomorrow,

c'est domage.

Large cars, large bathrooms and large swimming pools

When Rachel moved to Roanoke these were her first impressions
upon arriving in Roanoke, VA:   "In the
US the cars are huge, bathrooms are enormous and clean
and swimming pools are large."  Rachel goes to an aquagym class
(water aerobics twice a week.  I think the last time she went may have
been her last;  she ended up fighting (she was in the pool) with
the instructor who was yelling directions from pool side.

this is NOT what Rachel experiences in aqua gym

There were about 30 women in knee deep water in a very small space.
Metz is a city of over 130,000 yet there are very view public pools.
For you lap swimmers, there are only two lanes available for perhaps
50 swimmers.

Regarding public toilets I recently read a post on about.com entitled,
 France, the Bad, the Ugly and Smelly.

This post was basically about the lack
of public toilets and when you
do find one they are rather dirty.
Rachel grew up with her
mom telling her to
 "pee between the two doors of the car,"
the front and the back door, when she needed to.
  Recently, while driving into Metz, I saw a man peeing by the curbside;  lovely.
And in the bathrooms at Alec's private, Catholic School there is no toilet paper
and the toilets are rather disgusting.

Now, what about cars.
 When I first came to France in 1976 I noticed how
small the cars were.  While many cars are still small here I do find that the cars
are getting much bigger.   With the price of gas so high and the village roads so
narrow, this "progress" is an inegma to me.

Perhaps I need to compare the  wine, the bread and the cheese next?

Canadian Cuisine in France, eh?

Okay Alec, you Canadian, let's go to a restaurant.

Gilles directed us toward a Canadian Restaurant.
"No Gilles, not a Canadian restaurant, not when
I am in FRANCE!!!"

"Jude, I didn't think Canadians cook."

Ludo meets a Canadian

Okay, now I'm worried.                                                                                                                               My french family here thinks this is the REAL Canada.  

No one is in the kitchen, 

                                                           I'm really worried.

Hmm, what will we find inside, let's look.

What is that bear doing on the wall?

     Things are looking up.  

                                                                  There's wine, 

                                                                 oh no, it's Canadian!

We survived our first Canadian meal in France.  

Je suis Français, n'est pas?

I love my scarf!

J'aime Rachel!

a scarf and a ball, c'est la vie!

gee if I need to learn from the past  I better go visit Piper in France

Here I am busy embracing French culture while Titus, the St. Francis Dog that replaced me in VA is busy embracing American History.Jeff took Titus to D.C. this past weekend.

so many books at the library of congress