French Riviera Part 2

Full disclosure: I don't have a Facebook account and probably never will. I much prefer this blog as a more intimate forum for sharing our experiences and my thoughts. But Ashley does have an account, which I hypocritically used to steal a whole bunch of awesome pictures from our friends Ben and Ashley taken during our trips to the French Riviera and Tuscany over Labor Day and Thanksgiving weekends, respectively. Indulgent family journaling, no more.

                              

This was taken in Bar Sur Loup, the small town we stopped in on Friday after passing by Grasse and before lunching in Tourettes Sur Loup. Ashley & Ashley fell in love with the "hand" door knockers. I think Ashley my fellow pediatrician recently bought one at an antique market.

                               

Also in Bar Sur Loup. Georgie had been playing in this small piazza and ignoring, typically, our repeated calls to get moving since we were leaving. She took a shortcut out of the piazza and jumped off the wall into my arms.

The Merback family with Tourettes Sur Loup in the background.

The girls of the trip: Megan, Georgie, Ashley, Juliet, and Ashley. We are missing Kate & Brennan (in Germany still) and Charlotte (in the US with Luke).

Is it weird that I find my Ashley really hot in this picture? That's talent, folks.

Cute but not as exciting.

This is an artful shot of the cafe where we had such an authentically French experience with the rude owner-operator. Greg is reflected in the window taking pictures of Tourettes Sur Loup in the background. Who wouldn't want to eat here? It looks open, right? Aren't you just dying to know what is written on that menu blackboard?

                               

Jubie loves "Keg", which is what she called him at this age. In fact, while getting overly excited about our upcoming Thanksgiving trip, at which Charlotte, Luke, and the Edstroms would rejoin us, we decided to plan a talent show. Nothing came of it except a performance by Jubie expressing her affection for "Keg". More to follow in the Thanksgiving Part 2 post.

Didn't have to tell anyone to smile for this picture.

                                    

Our kids' affection for "Keg" is matched only by their affection for Megan. This trip was only a couple of weeks after we had left the kids with the Trifilos for a few days while we went to Switzerland. They didn't really miss us at all.

The view from the walls of Tourettes Sur Loup. Love that Georgie.

Taking a break, eating Gelato, sitting on the walls of a Medieval French city on a warm late August afternoon with great friends. Greg looks especially contented.

Awesome shot. Thank you, Ashley. We sat here for well over 30 minutes, while the Ashleys explored the shopping side of Tourettes Sur Loup, watching these older French gentleman play "petanque." This is want I want to do when I am old.

Back home at the rental house, where we had a lovely outdoor meal that evening after swimming and relaxing. That place was very close to ideal. Great job, Megan.

The next day, Saturday, the girls went to explore Cannes while the boys stayed with the kids (minus Georgie) & dogs. This is a game we invented where one person tosses the ball over the pool and another person jumps from the side of the pool, kicking the ball in mid-air and trying to score a "goal" between the two markers laid out on the ground. The real hazard of the game was kicking the ball over the hedge behind Ben outside the frame. The house was on top of a hill and the ball would roll several hundred yards down the street into the neighborhood below. More than once somebody had to make a shirtless, soaking wet run down to retrieve it. Luckily, in the French Riviera in late summer you didn't feel awkward or out of place.

                                

Meanwhile, Georgie enjoyed her own little aquatic game of watching fish eat the dead skin off of her feet.

That night Ashley stayed with the kids while the rest of us adults went to Monaco. This is an awesome shot of the Monaco harbor. The grand old casino is towards the right of the picture on the other side of the harbor.

And this is nearly the same shot at dusk, with the multi-million dollar yachts and casinos starting to light up. The Gran Prix takes place on that road that circumnavigates the harbor.

Another shot of the $2.5 million+ Bugatti on the left and one of the original Bugattis on the right. You can sort of see our reflection standing in the window in the chrome of the car.

This is the grand old casino (they just call it "Le Casino") at night. This is the casino which we drove in front of in the Trifilos' Subaru Outback with the bird excrement on the window.

The guys trying to look suave. I think only Greg succeeded. Par usual.

Sunday we headed to Cannes and took a boat ride out to Isle Ste Marguerite. Here is our lovely family at the old fort with Cannes in the background.

Great picture from the same spot of almost the whole group. Megan doesn't particularly like museums and old forts, so she stayed outside with Yorba dog.

                                   

Wow. Ashley (other Ashley) found this old door at the fort with perfect lighting and just started going crazy taking pictures of Juliet. I know most parents think that their children could be models but come on, this is ridiculous!

                                   

Isaac needed a little encouragement to pose. He wasn't really in the picture-taking mood.

                                   

Great shot of the kids. I love Georgie's face here. She's at that stage where she thinks that the harder she squints the more she is smiling.

See what I mean? The cannon of the old fort with Cannes in the background.

This is where we ate lunch on the island. Ashley (other Ashley) ordered this plate of fried fish that sounded really good. Turned out to be a heaping pile of whole sardines or some other small fish that was just awful. She gifted it to the kids to play with.

Which they were more than happy to do. I love this picture, with the glasses and bottle in focus in the foreground, the candid shot of the kids and the plate of fish, and Cannes & the Med out of focus in the background. Very aesthetically pleasing. Thanks again for all these pictures, other Ashley!

Jubie and Isaac having a sardine battle royale.

                                   

And we finished up the day at the beach on the island, where Yorba was free to splash about in the Med but not to invade other people's picnics.

Ben is holding Georgie's hand, helping her step through some of the slimy seaweed on the sea bed. It is great having other strong, kind male role models around for your kids whom you trust completely. It takes a village, right? The fortress of Ste Marguerite is in the background. The prison cell of the Man in the Iron Mask would have been on the far left side of the fortress, overlooking the Med and Cannes. Talk about torture.

                                   

So not everything was perfectly idyllic about this day. As we started wading into the warm, salty water, Ashley came across...an old menstrual pad. Mmmmmm...delicious. Here she is removing the not-so-sanitary napkin using the two-stick technique while dying with laughter, wearing two pairs of sunglasses (holding mine for me while I swam), and looking unbelievable in that swim suit. I love this picture.

                                  

My girls, loaded up on the boat and ready to head back to Cannes. Sometimes I can't believe that they are mine.

Adieu, Isle Ste Margeurite.

I think both Jubie and "Norba", as she calls him, had a great time that day and on that trip. It was over four months ago but it feels like yesterday. And to think that Ashley didn't really want to go.

San Nicolo

In Italy, Saint Nicholas is San Nicolo, a very distinct personage from Santa Claus, who is called Babbo Natale. San Nicolo comes on December 6th and leaves gifts in your shoes. Santa Claus comes on Christmas, and they also have La Befana, the good witch who comes on January 6th (La Epifania - The Epiphany) and leaves more gifts. In Caneva, the "county seat" of our little community here, they have a small nighttime festival with San Nicolo every year on December 5th. This year we invited the Joneses to come with us and experience some local culture.

Here are Payton and Isaac with San Nicolo. As you can see there are some similarities with Santa Claus, but as his name suggests he is a much more overtly religious figure. He is sitting in a little carriage which is pulled by a tractor and on which he makes his departure at the end of the evening.

Georgie and Samantha with the patron saint of children. His name is spelled both Nicolo and Nicola in Italy, not sure why.

Jubie and Ashley right as St. Nick was ready to depart pulled by John Deere instead of reindeer.

The kids put their shoes out on the front porch that night and in the morning they were filled with goodies and accompanied by Sparkle, our Elf on the Shelf. We left the front gate open that evening so that San Nicolo could come, but based on the tracks left in our driveway I think he may have traded out his tractor for a Subaru. Thanks, San Nicolo and Ms. Nicolo!

The kids thoroughly enjoyed their goodies the next day. They had the hot chocolate that morning before school and took the oranges as a snack. San Nicolo really came through for them. Until next year!

Gingerbread houses

Last year we had Giovanni and Daniella over with their kids to make gingerbread houses. This year we expanded and added Mary and Katie, Juliet's friends from Asilo who moved in this past summer, Lana and Destiny, Georgie's American friends from school, and Ginevra, an Italian friend from school. 

Here is most of the group with (starting from the foreground clockwise): Emma, Daniella, Katie, Mary, Lana, Tomaso, Isaac, Ginevra, and Destiny. You can see how some of them are making Christmas trees using upside down ice cream cones.

Here are Katie and Mary with their mom, Jen. Katie is Juliet's age but stays home, while Mary is five and goes to the Asilo with Juliet. When Jubie first started Asilo we would ask her who her friends at school were and she would say, "Mary." To which we made faces and thought, "There aren't any Italian kids named Mary." One day, Juliet followed Mary in from morning recess and went to the older class with her. The teacher was puzzled and called Jen asking if Mary's little sister had come to school with her that day. During Juliet's parent-teacher conference, her two teachers were gushing about how great she is and how, even though she plays mostly with Mary, she does play with the Italian kids sometimes and helps Mary to come out of her shell a little bit and participate with the other kids in games and activities. That is the kind of thing that you love hearing about your child. Way to go, Jubie!

Il famoso Giovanni. Maybe this borders on TMI, but I hadn't kissed a man since I became too old to kiss my dad sometime in my pre-teens. That was until I met Giovanni. He doesn't care, he comes in and plants two big fat ones on your cheek every time he sees you. Gotta love Italians. Ashley and Giovanni spent most of the evening together in the kitchen, doing the behind-the-scenes work. His English is about as rudimentary as her Italian, but they communicate very well.

Ginevra was very Jackson Pollock-avant garde with her candy creations. No real discernible structure, just a big jumble of color and texture. Featuring prominently in the middle of the table is the candy left over from Halloween. Which we still have in mid-January.

Lana and Destiny, ages 7 and 9. These girls are so polite, friendly, bright, and even-tempered. They are great playmates for Isaac and Georgie and we have been very fortunate that they live in our town. They both worked really hard on building houses from scratch with graham crackers. Unfortunately, the frosting cement lacked sufficient adherence to preserve their structures beyond the car ride home.

Isaac and Tomaso worked really well together on the roof of the plastic reusable house. Unfortunately, when they were ready to move on to the walls of the house there was no candy left to decorate with (probably due to the Pollock pieces). Which was fine, since they found another, more manly, outlet: beating the crap out of each other with our boxing gloves downstairs. The site is down right now so I can't steal the pictures, but go to Guarda con il Cuore, Daniella's blog about Emma and Down Syndrome, to see her post about the evening. You can use Google Chrome or Translate to read it.

This is where the kids found Sparkle, our Elf on the Shelf, the next morning, trying to finish up the job that Isaac and Tomaso couldn't quite complete. Look at that shingle job they did, though. Way to go, boys.

Can't say enough about Ashley and these events. She brings people together and makes them happen. Most of the time, like this time, I completely forget that we are doing anything and come home from work in the middle of the party. I ride her social coattails and my life is much richer for it. Love you, Ash.

Villach Christmas Market

For the first full weekend in December we drove to Villach, Austria, for the Christmas market. Villach is just over the border from us in the southeastern part of the country and the drive is only about 2 1/2 hours. Although not as spectacular as the markets of Vienna and Budapest that we enjoyed last year with the Petteys, it still featured its share of fun and food. Which, let's be honest, is why we like Christmas markets. Food.

But what is the one thing that can distract kids' attention from hunger? Ponies. Georgie and Juliet saddled up for pony rides while Isaac, having decided that he is too old for that, led Juliet's pony around for a while.

 I love Ashley's face here. Reminds me of the Salzburg picture.

So adorable. 

Georgie seems to be right on the cusp of being too old. I'm glad she isn't yet. 

 Isaac warming his noggin with his cinghiale hat and leading Juliet's pony.

We found some excellent spaetzle, pretzles, funnel cakes, chocolate-dipped fruit, and wurst for the kids. One of the kids was full after eating the wurst so I had the pleasure of finishing off the sauerkraut sandwich that remained. Yum.

There is a free skating rink in the middle of downtown Villach, decorated by a huge canopy of Christmas lights, and it only costs 1.50 euro to rent skates. The only problem is that it is also the hangout place for the entire tween population of the city, all of whom have grown up on skates, completely disregard the normal counter-clockwise flow of skaters, and have no concern for us wobbly-ankled tourists trying to help our young kids learn. Juliet skated between my legs for a while but had a hard time staying on top of her skates. Isaac was not interested.

Georgie was fearless and did a great job navigating the mass of tourists and hordes of menacing tweens. As a reward, Ashley bought her a husky hat, similar to Isaac's cinghiale hat, but with long front paws that come all the way down and serve as mittens.

 Way to go, Georgie!

The next attraction we found was a miniature petting zoo inside a faux-stable set up right in front of the downtown cathedral. This one was likewise jam-packed with young ones and parents but there were enough animals to keep everyone happy.

It is hard to appreciate, but this is a picture of a baby cinghiale (boar). Picking up this one was not allowed, but Isaac wanted to pose for a picture with his cinghiale hat on.

Georgie and Juliet loved the rabbits. To which I was tempted to point out that they had a neglected rabbit at home, but wisdom ruled the day and I remained silent. As you can see, Juliet was also rewarded for her skating bravery with a matching husky hat, only without the mittens as they would likely drag on the ground.

 A little capra (goat) dressed up in a Santa suit.

The Joneses, who had been through a rough day at the Salzburg Christmas market, joined us later on that evening on their way home. We ate more food (shocker) while we warmed ourselves by a fire and listened to Austrian men's & women's choirs singing carols. I'd like to think that we helped rescue their day somewhat. Sadly no pictures.

We spent that night in Bad Klein Kirchheim, a ski town built on a natural hot spring. There wasn't enough snow yet to ski, so we spent the day at one of the thermal baths. It was located right at the base of the ski mountain had a huge indoor/outdoor pool that was warm enough but not too hot for the kids. The pool had waterfalls, a slide, and a "lazy river" current. The kids did polar bear runs around the edge of the outdoor pool several times. Juliet had a great time but resisted any and all attempts at formal swimming instruction. My mother would have been mortified. But she also could have cracked that nut in about five minutes.

The locker room of the thermal bath was co-ed, which was a very interesting experience. There were small changing stalls at the ends of the rows of lockers, but not nearly enough to accommodate everyone if a large group was in there. People were just changing out in the open. Our family started out seeking the shelter of the stalls, but by the end of the day we were following the natives' lead. It was very liberating in a way. Who says we should be ashamed of our bodies? Although, in our conversations with friends regarding fabric-free saunas in Europe, which most of the high class ones are, we feel infinitely more comfortable around strangers than we would around each other as friends. That is fascinating to me.

Best story from the trip: we woke up at our hotel and the kids wanted to sled on the small hill outside. We had left their ski clothes in the car overnight so they were pretty cold. Ashley wanted to warm up Juliet's snow pants for her and did so while I was in the bathroom for about five minutes. When I emerged, the place smelled like burning chemicals, Isaac was yelling, and Juliet was crying. Five fateful minutes. Ashley had tried to warm up Juliet's pants, her brand new snow pants, in the microwave, and of course the pants began to melt and catch fire. Isaac proceeded to yell at his mom for her poor judgement, and Juliet started to cry because her pants were ruined. When I started to say something Ashley cut me off with, "Isaac already yelled at me, so I don't need to hear anything from you!" My dad used to make a joke about how amazed he was that my mom could be so beautiful and so stupid, but I wouldn't dare say anything like that.