Ten Days in Provence

I think here the pictures speak louder than the words.. and so I'll let them do their stuff. Enough to say that we spent 10 glorious days in Les Omergues, where Ben and I celebrated our marriage 4 years ago now.

Let Jack tell you about his life!

Jack is beginning to speak. He only has about 10 words for the moment and those words are fragile, but they are there and can help you have an insight into his daily life!
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'Chaud' was the weather on holiday, every day (almost) which allowed us to spend most of our time outside. In Provence, that's a good thing as you hike along dusty paths and swim in water-lined gorges. Sometimes, though, the Mistral wind blows and causes Jack to blow on his hand in empathy of all things gusty.

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'Gateau' is what he likes to eat...biscuits, bread and cakes are all greeted with a smile and an outreached hand.

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'Kettle' is what 'Maman' puts on before she gets the 'gateau' out.. of course, the 'kettle' is 'chaud.'

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'Papa' is cool. Of course.

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When Papa is not there, Jack wants to know 'Où est Papa?' (where is Papa?).

If Papa is upstairs, outside, in the loo... Papa 'est là bas' (Papa is over there).

When Papa comes in the door he's 'PapapapapA.'

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'Doudou' is two people: it's his teddy and his comforter. They go everywhere with him. (Doudou the comforter has a secret twin brother, just in case).

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'Meuh..Moo' are what he says when he thinks he sees a cow.

'Meow' is his way of talking to cats.

'Urf urf' is the noise he makes for dogs... and he likes to present dogs with presents such as his succette/dummy or 'his' stones.

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'Caa' is his word for car... and he loves cars but not as much as.....

'Boom. Boom' which are the motorbikes which simultaneously delight and terrfify him.

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'Caca' is the poo that he does in his potty, when he has the chance.. which is quite often. Hurrah for the potty!

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'Cuddle' is what his 'Papa' and 'Maman' like to give him!

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'Qu'est que ce que ça?' is his eternal question and is always accompanied by a chubby little pointing finger.'What is that?' evokes responses that are as precise or as random as my mood. He always seems content.. which is a good thing as his lessons in 'franglais' (French and English/ Frenglish) are set to continue for a long time to come.

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'ByeBye' and 'Au revoir' are always accompanied by frenetic hand waving and often by little kisses which are blown in smudges.

Where are you today?

Can I ask you a favour?

ClustrMaps is going to 'clean' my map at the end of this week, and so all the points which indicate where you are reading this blog from are going to ... disappear.

And, I'd love to know before they disappear where you are all from.

So, can I ask you (just this once!) to add a comment to today's blog saying where you are reading from?

I think it would be pretty cool to see the list of destinations because, looking at the map as its stands today, there are people from all over the world (b)logging on :-)

Hugs,
Robyn

Mounte Saint Odile

Yesterday, I went back to Mount Saint Odile with my friend Yvette to continue a walk we'd started last year. This time, instead of only walking for a couple of hours, we walked for four and a half hours and so really had the chance to follow the Pagan wall as it circled around the old monastery. The wall really is a grand old thing - built by the Celts, it stretches over 10km and is made of immense rectangular stones. As we walked through the rowan, birch, and pine forest, listening to the wind rustling through the leaves, and the sad whistle of a lone buzzard, we talked about the mystery of this wall - how it could have been built, why it was built, and who were the people that thought it so necessary to build such a big wall even though they didn't (apparently) build houses or even any type of shelter alongside.

Coming home, I did some research on the Celts and found out that Alsace was once part of the Hallstatt culture of Celts. One site notes: In the central Hallstatt regions toward the end of the period, very rich graves of high-status individuals under large tumuli are found near the remains of fortified hilltop settlements. And, indeed, our walk included a visit to a tumuli grave sites.

When you look at a picture of the site today, with Mount St Odile crowning the hillstop, it doesn't take much imagination to realise why the Celts chose this location. More difficult, though is imagining how they must have lived under those rowan, birch and pine trees where the wind rustles and a lone buzzard sadly whistles.

Chaud and Tell

The weather's pretty hot here in Alsace at the moment. How do I know? Well, not only is the thermometer dancing around the 30*C but also Jack is fascinated by the word 'Chaud' (French for hot). He'll look suspiciously at any food that he suspects is the slightest bit 'chaud'; he'll question if his bathwater is 'chaud?'; and, when we're out walking, he'll look at me and say 'chaud,' as if its my fault that the skies have decided to heat up.

Our apartment, at the same time, has become a cleaner place. Not only because most of the work is done, but also because Jack is a bit of a clean freak. He loves hoovering (he even has his own toy hoover), he wipes the table and the floor; and, when he goes to the potty, he takes off his nappy and then goes running (butt naked) through to his room to put the offensive item in the rubbish.. all while muttering to himself: bin, bin, bin!

Ben's pretty proud of him, as you can imagine. Not only for all the changes that are happening but also because today Jack tried to say a very important word: car!!!

Yep, it's official, our baby's becoming a boy :-)

Hoping you're well,

Robyn x