South of France

So I didn't realize I never posted this... 

October 20-29

Well in France kids have 2 weeks off of school at the end of October.... Why you may ask? I have absolutely no idea, but it allows them to travel in the off season which I am not going to complain about.

First part of our trip was at their grandparents house in Grignan, which is one of my favorite places, mostly because it's super quiet and there is always something for the kids to do so they don't get bored. The only down side is that it was just myself and the kids there with their grandparents for 5 days. Which doesn't sound bad but it was a little rough.

It went down like this:

Eleonore pushes hippo. (Names can be interchanged depending on the argument) 

Hippo cries.

Apolline screams at Hippo for crying.

Eleonore screams.

I come in.

I (nicely) tell Apo to shut up and stop getting involved in their fights.

She storms off.

I have to pick up either El or Hippo because they are hitting or kicking each other.

The one that is on the ground screams more.

I tell them to stop.

They don’t.

Finally I say I’m going to take something away.

The screaming either continues but turns into a plea not to, or they shut up.

Now it goes one of two ways,

One: They shut up and I make them apologize and they continue to watch the movie or play whatever game

Or

Two: One of them freaks out and screams and goes running to either grandma or grandpa and somehow ends up getting their way and the other 2 are still mad.

It’s rather frustrating.

Anyway, On Friday we went down to a little town outside of Touloun called Sanary something. But it was sooooo cute! I want to live there. It’s tiny little surfing town, it’s just adorable, we stayed with their friends. So there was a total of 3 families there. We were all there because Nicolas, and the mother of the other guest family were going to be the godparents of the host family’s youngest daughter Iris. There were a total of 12 kids… It was a little tough on me. But all the kids spoken English extremely well as well as the parents.

Actually, fun fact… Iris’s mother who’s name I cannot remember was telling me about how she spent a few summers as an exchange student in this little town outside of Detroit. Obviously I asked more about it, yeah so she spent 5 summers in Clarkston. I forgot the name of the people but I know they were super into the catholic church in Clarkston and I guess are always helping out there.  But I thought that was pretty cool, of all the places in the states she could go and she went to Clarkston. (For those who don’t know, that is where my mother’s family is from and still lives in the area. Oh and Kid Rock lives there too)

 So Family number one, the host family had 4 kids. 

Alban 9

Octavia 7

Timothy 4

Iris 18 months I think, their two cousins also stayed at the house but they didn't speak english so yeah... And I just don't remember their names but they were 11 and 13.

Family 2 (the godmother)

Arthur 9

Will 6

Caroline 3

Then our family... so there were a lot of people in the house. But it was a lot of fun and the house was gorgeous and the weather was amazing. 

Our last day there we went to a town an hour or so away and went to over look an old Formula 1 race track... it was foggy so it kind of failed but it was still cool. Oh and after seeing the film Rush i'm totally into that now. Not nascar, but Formula 1. I don't know anything about it but it looks like fun. 

well sorry about the delay!