A Few of our Favorite (Marseille) Things

Realizing that our Marseille days were quickly winding to an end, I finally took the camera out to take pictures of some of the banal, day-t0-day things that we enjoy here. I definitely didn't capture even a half of the things I would have liked, but here are some of the little things that we won't forget. Jaxon riding the carousel at the vieux port. We loved frequenting the vieux port of Marseille, with the fish at the fish market jumping around and the boats coming in and out.

This hadn't been around for all that long, but there was an artsy globe exhibit taking place and these globes littered the city. We (especially me and Jaxon) had a fun time checking them out.

One of the places that we liked getting pizza "au feu de bois" at Noailles. It was super cheap and delicious

Our favorite permanent olive stand, conveniently located in our "Little North Africa." These were the cheapest olives we found, but they were great. We are really going to miss consuming as many delicious olives as we were able to in the south of France.

The daily fruit and vegetable market at Noailles.

You would not expect it, but this little pizza van located just next to Daniel's work produces the best pizza in the world. Really. The kids and I would go meet Daniel for lunch from time to time and take advantage of it.

Here we are enjoying smoked salmon and cream pizza, au feu de bois. We also loved the goat cheese and cream and the roquefort and cream pizzas.

Daniel in front of his office. I don't know if it should make it on "a few of our favorite things" post, since really his job was the only thing we didn't like, the only reason we decided to leave. I think the expression on Daniel's face captures it; is it an expression of disgust? Of pain? Anyway, it is too bad!

I really should have gotten more pictures of our friends as we were hanging out with each of them for the last time. We made such great friends in Marseille and we are going to miss them so much! Luckily we will not be too far away and we can go visit. Soon.

This shouldn't be on our favorite things post, either. It felt really surreal to see our little apartment empty and this van ready to take all of our things away.

We loved our time in Marseille and we are really going to miss it. I have never loved living in a place as much as I loved living in Marseille. It is such a unique city. You have all of the benefits of the Côte-d’Azur but without the bling-bling. The people are incredibly open and welcoming and even without speaking the language when I first got here they helped me feel integrated almost immediately. I love Marseille, grit and graffiti and all. I hate to leave, but Geneva should be nice, too...

Stinky Smuggled Snail's British Adventure

So Aurélie brought this up in her comment about our trip, so I guess I should tell the story. I suppose I am still a little worried about getting chased down by the British police. Here it goes anyway...
If you know anything about Jaxon, you know that he loves any sort of creepy-crawly. If doesn't bother me and they keep him entertained for hours so it works well. When we walked out the door to go to catch our flight to London he grabbed two snails out of the flower pot where I have him put all of his snails that he finds throughout the day. I was supportive as I knew he would be fully entertained as we made our way on the tram, then the metro, then the shuttle bus. When it came to getting on the plane I didn't think anything of him bringed them aboard since we were travelling to another EU country. And as Aurélie said later, "What are they going to do to a French snail that crosses over the Belgian border? Stop him so he can't come in?" I figured they share most everything, except a currency in this case. The first time it occured to me that maybe it had been a bad idea to let him bring the snails was when we were standing in the passport line and one of the customs ladies said dryly as he was playing with them (still hiding in their shells from the flight), "I hope those aren't real." Not knowing what to say, I just didn't say anything, but ordered Jaxon to stuff them in his pockets when we were just out of earshot. I was definitely feeling a little nervous and it didn't help when the passport control guy barely let me into the country because I didn't have my residency card. I hadn't brought it for two reasons: 1)they have never asked me for it, and 2) it was expired (that is another story, but basically has to do with the burdensome of the French administrative system). I was a little shaky when I got through it all, but we all made it in the end; that is me, Aurélie, my boys, and two little Marseille snails ready to see the big city. Not wanting them to drool all over our hotel room, we had Jaxon find a home for them outside in some bushes. We thought that would be the end of the story, but no, the next morning Jaxon found one of his smuggled snails and wanted to take him along for the ride. Here Jaxon is creating a home for his little snail in a plastic container he found in the sandbox at our first stop of the day, St. James' Park. That little snail travelled everywhere with us for a good part of the day, until a fateful moment on a double-decker bus. Jaxon had been putting water in with the mix of leaves and grass in the little snail home. When we were on the double decker bus going from Trafalgar Square to the Tower, Jaxon started saying, "It's stinky." And sure enough, I caught a whiff and it was really stinky, it reeked. Jaxon packed up his little snail home when it was time to get off the bus. I led the way and he followed behind me down the bus stairs, gripping the railing with one hand and the snail habitat with the other. While carefully making our way down the stairs, the bus came to a sudden stop and Jaxon lost his grip. The next thing I knew a whole bucket of snail nastiness was flying on my head and in my hair. A stench filled the corridor of the stairs. Of course I was boiling and Jaxon was freaking out. I hurried to put the snail in the plastic box, leaving all of the trimmings behind. Once off the bus I ordered Jaxon to very quickly find a home in the nearest bush across from the Tower of London. It was a sad parting for Jaxon, and apparently even for Aurélie, who told me it broke her heart. But I felt no remorse. I carried the stinky remnants of that snail in my hair for the remaining part of the day...

Goodbye London

Daniel had to spend the last couple of weeks in July in London for work and I couldn't resist the urge to go with him and visit the city one last time. It ended up being an especially fun trip with my friend Aurélie coming with me for several days and my brother-in-law, Rick, who happenned to be working in Holland at the time, flying up to spend the weekend with us. Aurélie and I spent our first full day in London visiting all the major sights, all of the "must-sees." It was her first time there, so I was worried about her missing things that she might regret later. We covered a lot of ground, though, starting with the changing of the guard, followed by some time spent at St. James' Park. We then did Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and the Houses of Parliament before heading over for a picnic at Trafalgar Square. That was followed up by a drive-by of St. Paul's then the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. We finished with a visit to the Museum of London Docklands before heading back to the hotel to meet Daniel for an Indian dinner.

Our next day was a little more relaxed. We started at the Victoria and Albert museum then spent some time at Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park. After that we wandered around Notting Hill. It was a fun, relaxing time. It was so fun for me to have Aurélie there. I always enjoy being with her. I am sure she thinks that I am crazier than ever now that she has travelled with me (yes, I still put my two-year-old in a snuggly and my 5-year-old in a stoller when they start slowing down, and yes, I take food from the free continental breakfast to snack on throughout the day), but oh well!

Aurélie left Friday morning and Rick was flying in to meet us that evening, so I had one day to fill with just me and the kids. We first went to the Museum of Childhood then headed over to the Bank of England Museum, which was a first. Jaxon got to touch a real bar of gold.

After that we headed to the Museum of London and enjoyed their wonderful new exhibit of modern England, that would be England since 1776.

I was so much fun to see Rick. It had been over a year since I had seen him and we were so happy that it worked out so well for him to come meet us in London. We did mostly boy stuff, starting with the Imperial War Museum. I say guy stuff, but that actually is one of my favorite London museums. Daniel and Rick took the boys of so I could check out the Crimes Against Humanity exhibit (no underage kids allowed)

After that we visited a bunch of the major sights. Here they are after having climbed up one of the lion's at Trafalgar Square.

Enjoying a real treat for us at Gourment Burger Kitchen: a REAL milkshake! I wish I could have had more; the kids chugged it down.

We spent the whole next day at the science museum. After dinner, Rick headed to a hotel located near the airport so he could catch his 6:30 flight (yuck!). But it was so nice of him to make the sacrifice to come out and see us.

At Mudchute City Farm. The kids had a fun time feeding these goats something that they had found on the ground.

At Hackney City Farm

At Spitalfield City Farm. We kind of went on a city farm spree.

Going in to Spitalfield Market

We spend one whole evening enjoying the seven floors of Hamley's toy store. I have never seen a toy store like it.

Jonas fell in love with the Elmo Live, giving them all kisses. It was very cute, but definitely not 75 pounds cute to bring one home!

Our last day was spent at the unmatched Natural History Museum. Here Jaxon is in the butterfly house. It was a good last trip. I guess I can't complain after having been five times now. This time I didn't even use a map. And I was the one giving the other tourists directions. Well, goodbye London!

Bastille Day/Apartment lease signing party

I guess we really haven't addressed this on our blog, yet, but a couple of months ago Daniel accepted a job transfer to Geneva, Switzerland. I had mixed feelings about the move, it seems like it will be a better work environment for Daniel but I hated to leave Marseille, however, my biggest reservations stemmed from the difficulty of finding an apartment in the area. There is a severe housing shortage and we had only heard horror stories of people having to live in temporary housing for months while visiting and applying for every apartment posted, and finally taking whatever they were accepted for. We made a trip out there the middle of June and managed to set up 7 visits (it is required that you visit the apartment before submitting an application). Our fears were not assuaged when talking to the current tenets of the apartments and finding out that there were between 15 and 50 applicants for each apartment we were looking at. The regie, some middle man organisation which we still don't fully understand, makes the final decision very subjectively. It is a difficult process to describe because it is so foreign from an American persective, but to say the least, it was very discouraging. However, we prayed really hard and fasted and the day after we submitted our applications we were accepted not only for an apartment, but for our favorite apartment! we consider it a huge blessing. We had to pick up the keys the middle of July, so we built that trip into the 14 Juillet holiday.

We broke the trip up a little bit and tried out the 4 star camping experience that we usually make fun of, thinking it would be ideal for the kids. I found one with some waterslides and was convinced. We spent the Saturday before at a waterslide park and the kids loved it so much I wanted them to have some slides, even if they were miniture. We actually really enjoyed ourselves. We spent a lot of time in the pool.

The kids also enjoyed jumping around.

Chilling out in the hammocks

I'm not sure who enjoyed chiling out the most, but probably Daniel

Enjoying some pizza from the restaurant

Trying to catch frogs; unfortunately they proved to be a little to quick for us. Apparently they are faster than the frogs we were used to in Texas

Jonas always wants to do everything himself now, freaking his mother out. We even lucked out because they had their 14 Juillet celebration that evening on the 13th with a concert and fireworks. Four-star camping treated us well.

The next day we heading up to Annecy to celebrate the real 14 Juillet. It was a very fun experience participating in all the festivities.

Dipping our feet into the surprisingly warm alpine Lake Annecy. We enjoyed some concerts and a great fireworks display and got back to our new campsite maybe a little too late considering the early hour we had to be at our new apartment to sign the lease and get the keys. It was worth it, though. They kids had a blast. The most exciting part for me and Daniel was definitely the apartment business. Now I can say I really am excited to move to Switzerland!

Jaxon's school year in review

Jaxon had his last day of school on July 2 and they send him home with a CD full of pictures of the year. I just wanted to post a few of them. I have absolutely loved Jaxon's school and am going to miss it so much. They do so many fun things and the teachers are just great. Here are some of the things that they did, in no particular order:

Here they had a spectacle with a marionette show. They love marionettes show here. It just seems so French to me.

After an Easter egg hunt.

Making a "Galette des Rois." I loved having Jaxon experience the French traditions at school.

The brave teachers took all the kids to the circus. It just so happenned that Daniel got free tickets to the circus from work a couple of weeks later, so Jaxon got to go twice. I asked Jaxon whether he liked going with his friends or us better and without hesitation he said his friends. Oh great, it is already starting. He already likes his friends more than us. I am kidding. We have a great time as a family, but I am glad that he has been able to make so many friends and do so well socially.

They made regular trips to the library that is located right across the street from us (I LOVE our library) which Jaxon loved. They asked for volunteer parents to accompany the class, and though I couldn't go because of Jonas, it did work out for Daniel to go one day, which was really fun for Jaxon. And Daniel. I think...

We have gotten to know the librarians really well so Jaxon always got "bisous" from them when he went with his class to the library.

One day they had the farm come to them. They were able to be up close and personal with cows, goats, geese, ducks, chickens, bunnies, pigs...

and everyone got a pony ride, to boot!

Jaxon was Robin des Bois for canival, thans to the costume that my friend Aurélie gave him as a gift. He is so handsome.

Jaxon celebrating his birthday at school.

He really had a great school year. On his report card his teacher said that he had made huge progress in French this year (good thing) and that he is very well behaved. I would never have thought that he would turn out to be the well-behaved kid when he was two, but I am happy about it!