top this charlie brown!

Well, our tree was more pauperly than I would have actually liked, (and we had a fire scare while attempting to pop popcorn to string... that's another story) but a combination of factors made it the one that worked for us, and in the end, it really doesn't matter relative to simply wonderful fact of being together as a family for Christmas this year. Basically the best christmas present ever was the miraculous fact that Ryan's travel plans went exactly according to schedule so that he was in fact here, at our apartment in La Rochelle, in time to walk around the corner and wait for Julian and Miette at each of their schools to greet them as they finished their last day of school before christmas break. Ryan missed the terrible weather that blocked air travel by one day, made it to Paris on time to catch his train here, and from the station here caught a cab bringing him to the correct destination in la rochelle completely on his own. I met him downstairs in the dentist office where I had left the keys to our place 2 minutes after he arrived! I had my last afternoon of work that day and didn't think I'd be able to meet him before I got off (especially because I missed a day the week before when Julian was sick) but it turned out that I was done early because of holiday celebrations and could run home to check and see if he'd arrived in time. So in fact we got to walk together to pick up the kids. This was a big deal to me because otherwise he wouldn't get to see the whole school thing- the other parents and kids, the classrooms, their teachers, Julian's first school ever! Miette got to take him in and give him a little classroom tour.

So far our vacation has been lots of slow mornings at home with various little outings of different sorts each afternoon. Of course, we had to show him our beloved Ludotheque the day after he arrived before it closed it's doors for the holiday break, and another brief stop at the Mediatheque. Then we had dinner together here with our friend Stephanie before she left town to do some vacation traveling in the UK. The next couple days we walked around town to check out the Christmas village at Place de Verdun, to see the main market, do a few last minute errands and window shopping.

Christmas day we stayed in and played with new toys and started on some of the building/project gifts that Ryan, urhmm, i mean Santa, brought. We ate a hybrid pancake-crepe thing for breakfast with nutella and bananas, later had peppermint hot chocolate and cookies (store-bought:( we'd already finished the ones mom sent!) and for our Christmas dinner we bought sausages for the boys and I made mashed potatoes, garlic bread, and broccoli. Unfortunately either the food or a bug made Ryan sick in the night and he had to take it easy the next day- he stayed home and napped it off and I took the kids to see a french film called "Le Renard et l'Enfant".

Yesterday we visited la Tour de St. Nicolas and la Tour de la Lanterne which were absolutely amazing. These are the towers one sees in every postcard of La Rochelle and they are situated on the port which borders the center of town. The Tour de St. Nicolas was built in the 14th century and has stone walls 3-5 meters thick. It feels labyrinthine. There are 2 spiral staircases which are intertwined like DNA (without the ladder rungs). You can go out on the top and see the entire city and the sea from above, and you can actually feel what it might have been like back in the day when they had to keep the city safe by guarding the harbor from these towers. I'll take it over the Sears Tower any day. I could go on and on, I didn't really want to leave. The other tower is cool (but not as cool as St. Nicolas) and it's interesting feature is "grafitti" carved into the stone walls from the many prisoners it held over the years- their names and the dates they were held captive, a couple had etched tally marks, there were various different carvings of large sailing vessels, and there was even a hand carved chessboard in the floor. The tower walk there was practically intolerable for me- The wall is about waist high, the walkway is extremely narrow and there is nothing between you and the sea or ground far far below. Ryan walked around with Miette but I wouldn't let Julian do it, just thinking about it makes my stomach lurch. I got the view but quickly returned back down with Jules leaving Ryan and Miette to enjoy the view.

Today we planned on doing a self-guided bike tour of the city (you can borrow bikes free for 2 hours at Place de Verdun) but as soon as we headed out we realized that it was too chilly to really enjoy being on bikes for long so we switched plans and went to the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle instead with a coffee afterwards at the gorgeous Café de la Paix nearby and then browsed the Friday afternoon market that sets up by Place de Verdun. We bought some tartes salées (one salmon and one tomato-goat cheese), a little apple cake, spicy olives, pickled garlic, and wine to bring home for dinner.

I'd also like to mention that I finished a mystery novel already and am ready to start (and finish) a second, which has been something I've not been able to do since I've been here- not for lack of time but because I get too scared to read them when I'm here alone!

NOTE: As Ryan is reading and editing over my shoulder, commenting on my excessive run-on sentences and lack of proper use of semicolons and commas, I would like to state for the record that I DON'T CARE! and I have no pretensions of being a great writer!!!!!! This is a purely informative blog!