Docteur

I had planned to post several photos and thoughts from this past week, but Lilly was up all last night and today has been a "sick day". We have played U-No, napped and survived our visit with the Docteur. There is a docteur in our neighboring village of Montigny. Believe it or not this docteur makes house calls! He showed up with his little black docteur bag and gave Lilly a check-up. She has an inner ear infection. Docteur Piette speaks a little English so that was helpful. It cost me 35 Euro for the home visit. Afterwards Lilly and I drove to the local pharmacy. My French was completely NOT helpful at this juncture. The pharmacist read the prescription, handed me 4 boxes and I paid my 25 Euro and left. When I got home it was tricky. There were no directions on the boxes. I had to read Docteur Piette's prescription and figure out how much medicine to administer. Besides that I had to mix the antibiotic with water and do the prep work. Basically your health care ends up in your own hands. I'm not exactly confident with that...especially when everything is written in French!

Caméra

My brand new caméra is giving me headaches. This weekend I had planned to take several pictures of the grand Château de Fontainebleau, but my caméra only allowed this very blurry photo. Luckily we live only 15 minutes away from the Château so it will be easy to return and document our favorite rooms and gardens.

The day after we purchased our caméra we accidentally dropped it and it has never been the same. Alas, the past three months of our journey here have been photoed in blurry form. Lucky for us my sister Valene is coming tomorrow for a visit. We sent her on an errand to purchase another caméra...hope the new one works.

Thanksgiving

We all know and love the Thanksgiving story of the Pilgrims and the Indians. This however is another story. It is the story of a bunch of crazy Americans trying to make a "traditional" meal in a foreign land. You might think that it would be easy to recreate a meal in France since after all the French are known for their cuisine...well, they are known for THEIR cuisine. OURS took several chefs, stores and adaptations to be complete. The first problem was the teeny tiny cooking facilities. Our oven is about the size of a toaster and it only has one shelf. Our microwave is even that much smaller. Voila! We found a way to adapt.

Two weeks ago Taylor and I ventured down to our local marche on Saturday morning to talk with the Rôtissoire (man who sells rotisserie meats). We ordered four turkeys. He said they were small and would be difficult to find, but he would check around. The next Saturday we checked in and everything was in order. Thanksgiving day Taylor drove 30 minutes to a marche where the Rôtissoire was working so he could pick up the turkeys. Voila! And you thought it was a project to carve ONE turkey! Try four!

It was a hungry crowd for dinner and a good thing too.







Each chef spend lots of time and effort. Tifiny and Janene (Tif's mom) hand whipped cream-no electric mixer, sent Ralph (Tif's dad) on a wild goose hunt for sweet potatoes-the first ones he found were the size of an egg, made banana cream pie in square casserole dishes (no pie tins) and made a giant bowl of mashed potatoes & gravy. Traci Thomas made pumpkin pie with canned pumpkin that she bought at the British bookstore. The small can of Libbys pumpkin was a whopping 6Euros a can! Lisa Frank supplied baguettes-none of us were crazy enough to make homemade rolls! Hillary brought 5 little tiny jars of cranberry sauce that she miraculously found in the "International Section" of the grocery store. I tried to create Grammie Randall's stuffing using three different varieties of "French bread". I went to the market to buy sage and came home with "Estragen". When I told Taylor all I could find was estragen he said we all might feel emotional after the meal! I looked up estragen in the dictionary to find I had purchased tarragon. Tif was brave enough to call her French neighbor who had fresh sage - thank goodness! We fed 22 people: 11 adults and 15 children. We had all the "fixins" plus a few French specialties like foi grass, pate and chocolate mousse cake.


There were three big tables set up. This little group of gobblers had the most fun running around.










Everyone had a friend to share the evening with. Spencer's friend Arthur came. He is French, but lived in the US several years ago and has good memories of American Thanksgiving. We were glad he could join us. After dinner the kids had a big game of bingo complete with prizes. We stuffed ourselves with dessert and ended the evening satisfied to say the least.





No left-overs for us. We pretty much cleaned up on the meal & it was delicious! Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Gratitude

Thanksgiving day is almost over. It's 11pm and as I sit here reflecting on the day my heart is brimming full with "gratitude". We had a regular school day and work life, but this evening was special. Tonight our house was filled with traditional food (I'll write all about that tomorrow), family and friends. A new friend from church put the "icing on the cake" for my Thanksgiving. Her name is Magali and she is a very dedicated wife and mother. She grew up in New Caledonia and has said that the US army left a great influence there since WWII. She has always wanted to live in Utah which is where I am from so she is excited to be friends. Today she delivered this beautiful homemade chocolate cake with a letter that said, "I pray that you and your family will enjoy your life in France and that it will be a good experience. Here is a French desert for your Thanksgiving." This woman who home-schools her four children took time out of her very busy life to bake and deliver a cake for my family Thanksgiving celebration. How could I not enjoy my life in France?! I have been blessed beyond measure and I'm having the most incredible experience associating with some of the most earnest and sincere people in the world.

Chaton (Kitten)

We had an unexpected visitor Saturday night. There was the most pitiful crying coming from the front porch. I opened the door to find a little gray chaton. Of course the kids were giddy with excitement. "He needs a home!" "This little chaton has picked our family!" Well, we fed him some cheese & I made him a bed with a box and an old towel and now I believe this little chaton will live permanently on our porch.

We left three pets behind when we moved to France: A beta fish, a turtle and a beautiful lazy yellow lab. I've been partial to the lab. I'm a dog girl. However, I must admit that it's fun to have a pet and the kids are in heaven with this little fur ball. We do have "House Rules"...the cat is NOT allowed in the house! Whenever someone is having a bad moment I can pretty much count on them sitting on the porch playing with the chaton.

There are tons of wild cats in France. When we first arrived Lilly looked out our back window & noticed a cat with a really beautiful coat of fur. I told her he was wild, but that she could name him and watch him. She didn't hesitate, "I'm going to name him George Washington!" We laughed and laughed about a French cat named George Washington, but his name has stuck. The other wild cats were given names like Van Gough, Henri, etc. Funny thing is George Washington seems to be the "General Commander". The other cats stay out of his way. All cats except this new chaton (whom we have named Felix). A couple of hours after Felix made his debut George Washington came prowling in the front. There was a bit of a "cat fight". We scolded George and he hasn't been seen since!

Apiculter (Beekeeper)

Our village of Bourrone Marlotte has a butcher a baker and a candlestick maker. Well, actually he's an "apiculter" who makes pretty cool beezewax candles. We live four doors up from the Miel (honey) store and factory. They had an open house that we attended. It was really fun & informative.







We got to see all kinds of hives (old and new). I always feel a bit lazy after watching bees work.










The best part of the tour was tasting honey. They have honey made from soooo many different flowers. Flowers from the forest, suflowers, etc. Every Saturday the apiculter comes to the market and sells the different varieties. The kids especially love the honey candy. There is citrus, eucalyptus, mandarin & mint to name but a few.



Come visit us and we'll take you to the honey store for a sweet treat!

Grève (Strike)

Tomorrow morning marks the beginning of the French Grève. All public employees are scheduled to strike against the new government proposal for retirement age limits to be increased beyond age 55. School teachers are required by law to inform parents in advance if they are going on strike. Olivia's teacher will be on strike and all but two of Spencer's teachers will be on strike tomorrow. Clara's teacher is a very sensible and dedicated teacher and rumor has it that she never strikes! This morning when Clara woke up she didn't want to go to school. She posted her notice and we have been informed. Clara is going on strike! We shall see what the morning brings...