Le weekend

No new pictures to add this week- it's been raining non-stop which isn't so conducive to snapping photos left and right! But we've been busy and had a very full weekend so the rain hasn't stopped us from getting around (we've just gotten quite wet in the process). The weather has been mild, temperatures during the day in the mid to upper 50s and if it weren't for the Christmas decorations everywhere I think I'd forget that it is December. Unfortunately some heavy winds blew away the first beautiful sky we had this morning and I think slightly cooler weather is here at least momentarily. La Rochelle apparently has lots of wind in the winter that can be quite fierce. Funny huh, moving from one famously windy city to another!

Miette had a birthday party yesterday afternoon which was great fun for her- face-painting, treasure hunting, bead-making, and the usual festivities. We had to get there in the rain which was funny- we took a bus partway and then since the other bus that would have brought us right to the girl's house wasn't leaving for 20 minutes that we'd get there just as soon if we walked. But since Julian was with us and can be a wuss about walking if he decides he doesn't want to anymore (or worse, since all the stores and buildings are decorated he wants to stop and tell me about each thing he sees and it takes us 15 minutes just to cross the street). So I decided to borrow a free bike that from the public bike "depot" located at Place de Verdun. This is the central plaza where all the buses arrive at the end of their routes. Anyone can check out a bike for 2 hours free of charge and they have them with baskets and child seats as well. So I checked out the one with a kid seat on back, strapped Julian in and walked him in the bike next to Miette to the party. After we dropped off Mimi at the party I biked with Jules to the Ludotheque and got drenched on our way there so first we had a coffee and hot chocolate in the little cafe upstairs to warm up before heading in to play. It was nice to have this little time together there to play and then we left, biked around for fun because the rain had stopped and he fell asleep in the seat! Then we took the bus to get Miette and got another bus back home. All of this led to me to realize that though it is easy to get around in La Rochelle, I need to get a good raincoat so we can also circulate in all kinds of weather!!! (Maybe that should be the one and only item on my Christmas list, and maybe a matching rain hat! Or an excuse to finally buy myself the beautiful one that I've coveted from Boden!)

After the party, I had an evening out to look forward to. I got a new babysitter, a 17 year old girl named Felixe who is a friend of the daughter of my landlord. She was super nice and the kids took to her immediately - I think she's a keeper! I headed out to see a concert (only my 3rd evening out alone since we've been here) and met a group of 4 friends to see KerenAnn at La Coursive, a concert venue/cultural space on the port in the center of town. As soon as I saw a poster saying she was coming, I made up my mind to go because I love her music- which I discovered from Mom who gave me one of her CDs for my birthday. She sings in french and english and I think for that is well-known here. Her performance was amazing. She did 2 encores and one of those included a funny story about her traveling in the States on a tour heading to play next in Tennessee. She basically ended the story by saying that we all had a little Tennessee in us and then played the Tennessee Waltz. This was especially funny for me to be here in France hearing someone tell a story in french about the U.S. and then play the song that I danced to at my wedding! After the concert we all got a quick bite to eat (I finally found somewhere that sells falafel) and we found an amazingly cool funky little bar where we hung out for a couple more hours. It was great to get out, hear amazing music and taste the night-life of La Rochelle.

Today we were invited to the home of a guy and his daughter who we had met at the park a few weeks ago. He has another friend with a son of a similar age and all of our kids were having a blast together at the park so we made plans to go to this rope-climbing place together. When the day came to go there, we found out that the place was closed for the season. So we finally got together today to make sushi with the kids at their house. The kids got along very well again, had fun making sushi, playing in their backyard and watching movies. We spent all day there, arriving home just for dinner, phone call to daddy, shower and bedtime.