A Much Appreciated Package!

When I got home Tuesday night there was a GIANT box by the front door.  Sylvain's grandmother sent us a SLEW of presents for the girls.  Whenever anyone in France asks what the girls need, I say "BOOKS!  Please send us some French children's books."  And we've received quite a few over the years, so our stash isn't puny by any means.  But HOLY COW!  This was the French book jackpot!  We are SO GRATEFUL to Mamie Josette!  Check out this haul:

Fnac: the big entertainment superstore in France.  What pretty paper!

Sensory books for Margot and princess books for Sylvia!

Charlotte aux Fraises (Strawberry Shortcake)!

Merci, Mamie!

Margot loves touching every inch of her new books!

Does anyone else remember these guys?

They're in FRENCH!  Sylvia has a whole set of these books AND a card game to help her learn her shapes, colors, clothes, feelings, expressions - you name it!  She also has a set of fairy tales, so she's read Raiponce (Rapunzel) about a zillion times since Tuesday night.

We are so thankful and so BLESSED to have such wonderful family in France!  Can you tell they want the girls to speak it?  So far, I think they'd be impressed, but NOW we could probably run a French preschool with all of our goodies!  Hmmm....that's not a bad idea......

Pictures!

I posted the link to our shutterfly website on Facebook, but I've had lots of people ask for it who must have missed that post. So here it is in the bloggy blog, in case anyone visits here to find it (does that make sense??) -

www.fasciottosinfrance.shutterfly.com

It was a lot of fun to put together and it was a great way to dump hundreds of pictures on one place for everyone to see. I highly recommend shutterfly to anyone who is trying to accomplish something similar (it would be great for a wedding website, bridey friends!)

Now, in the last hour before my 28th birthday, I'm going to go snuggle in bed with my snoring husband. Ahhhh, life is good!

Saying Goodbye - June 24th

I did a lot of journal writing in France, and here's one entry that I wanted to post as a blog, but alas, the internet was nowhere to be found! I decided I would post it after we were home for a while and after I was able to post about our overall trip. So here ya go...

Sometimes we find ourselves in tears at the most surprising times, at least I do, anyway. And I find that unexpected tears can really tell you something about yourself. We've been visiting my in-laws for over a week now, with a trip to Normandy with my parents thrown in the middle of our visit. We put my family on a plane back to the States on Friday and Chud and I have been shacking up in a cozy cabin in Gien for the last five days, spending as much time with his family as we can. Dinner in the evenings, a badmitton tournament all day Saturday (his sister won 3rd place!), fishing on Father's Day, picking Dorinda up from school - all the little snippets of time that seemed to stretch on and on and on. As an outsider who has to work really hard to undrestand the gist of every conversation, I admit there were times when I was counting down the days until our departure - especially the day I was sick. I've been dreaming of our own time together in the South of France; the romantic respite after two weeks with family.

Tonight, however, I found myself in tears as we drove away from the little white gate in front of our family's house. After we kissed everyone goodbye and I said "Merci pour tous, merci beaucoup!" over and over, we were walking to the car and I caught a glimpse of my Father in Law out of the corner of my eye. He raised his hand in the air toward my husband and said, in a quiet, manly, solemn way, "Au revoir, S--." I thought about that tinge of sorrow in his voice as I climbed in the front seat and before I knew it I was crying! I didn't want to be crying; hadn't I been looking forward to this? Suddenly I realized how heartbreaking it was to watch a father and son say goodbye to each other for the hundredth time, knowing that they'll only get to talk on Sundays and won't see each other again for at least 2 more years. How do they do this? How have they been able to do this for all this time (since my husband was 12 years old!)? I tried to hold back my silly tears in the car so S wouldn't think I was crazy. Finally, I was quiet for too long and he said (that phrase that knocks every tear-holder to their knees)...

"You okay?"

Well, I just let it loose and I sobbed, "I just feel so sorry for your daaaaaaaaaaad...." sniff, sniff, sniff.

"Don't worry, Rach. We've done this lots of times. We're used to it." Long pause....."Why are you crying?"

A very good question.

I had only met this family once before, and I can only understand 1/3 of the things they talk about anyway. Why was I crying? Maybe it's for all of those times my husband had to say goodbye to his "Papa" and because boys don't do enough crying to satisfy me. Someone had to shed some tears for all that heartache, and Lord knows I'm really good at taking on that responsibility. Or maybe it's because we're getting ready to start a family of our own and the thought of separating our future children from my husband is too painful to ponder. Maybe it's because I know, from teaching experience, that kids need their fathers and fathers need their kids. No Dad should ever have to say "Au revoir, S--" the way my Father in Law just said it - filled with years of stolen memories and a heavy heart. That poor guy! We will definately try to see him more often, and next time I won't be counting down the days until the moment we say goodbye.

Adventures in the Land of Love

We began our trip in the bright city of Paris! Here we are at the Notre Dame Cathedral (see us down in the corner?) where we went to an evening service which happened to be in French and Portugese, a special treat for those of us who understand neither language! Our time in Paris was wonderful and we agreed it was a great way to start the trip. Our hotel rooms were small, but clean, and we fell asleep each night to the soothing sounds of motorcycles driving by our windows. We saw all of the big monuments, spent some time in the Louvre, which Mom loved, climbed Montmartre to see Sacre Coeur and the great view of Paris, ate crepes and ice cream, and had an overall fabulous two days before leaving to visit Chud's family in Gien.

We stayed in the Loire Valley for three days with Mom and Jay, during which we visited many great Chateaus and Castles. Renting a car was such a good idea because we were free to go where ever the mood swept us. Fields of bright red poppies flanked us on our way to the regions most beautiful places. Mom and Jay especially enjoyed the French meal we shared with the Fasciottos and I have to say, my heart was about to burst that entire evening. It was so nice to see our families together, enjoying each other's company, everyone being so nice to each other. Mom had mussels for the first time and loved them. They also had their first experience with a multi-coursed meal in which we sat at the table for over two hours!

After our time in Gien with my parents, we took them to Normandy for the last leg of their trip...


Here are Mom and Jay at Omaha Beach, with the memorial sculpture behind them. We stayed in a town called Bayeux, which also happens to have the worlds longest tapestry. We spent the first day getting to Bayeux and making little stops along the way. We had a lovely dinner that first night where Mom had some awesome Mousse au Chocolat (my fav). The next day we went to the WWII museum, Omaha Beach, the US Cemetery (which also had a musuem), a couple sea-side towns, and the old German bunkers. I have to admit, I love history and all, but after a few hours of WWII exhibits I got a little....bored. But Jay and Chud were eating it up, so Mom and I followed them around and took lots of pictures - until they went to the bunkers, at which point Mom and I took a nap in the car. It was delightful and everyone was happy. On our last day we dropped off Mom and Jay in Paris and headed back to Gien for our own week of family visits.

We stayed in a village close to the Fasciottos in a cabin on a little pond. It was absolutely adorable and I was looking forward to some rest after a bustling week of sight-seeing. And rest I got, buddy, after catching a stomach bug and spiking a fever. I didn't get out of bed for a day and a half, but it was nice to know that I didn't have to get out of bed for anything if I didn't want to. Thanks to some good French drugs and a husband who was content to fish all day with his Dad (see above photo), I was back on my feet in no time. We hosted the in-laws for dinner one night at our cabin and ate at their house every other night that week. We went to a music festival, visited some more castles, and enjoyed our short time with family before it was time to leave. On Thursday we headed to Lagnieu, but not before stopping by Bourgoin-Jalieu to visit with Chud's Mom's parents. We spent two nights in Lagnieu with the Fasciotto grandparents, who have a special place in our hearts...

Here is Mami Fasciotto cutting the tart that we ate with our tea after lunch on the last day. She is such a wonderful lady - always bubbly and smiling, a wonderful cook with a great sense of humor. His grandfather is equally endearing. Neither of them speak English, so when his grandfather said something I didn't understand, he decided to say it in Italian instead, hoping I'd get it then! Those exchanges usually ended with lots of pantomiming and laughter.

They live in an old stone house that Chud's great grandfather built with a fabulous garden. No one was allowed to eat the raspberries of the bushes in the garden until Chud and I got a chance to eat them first. His aunts, uncles and cousins had been waiting for weeks to get at those fruits, so when they all showed up for dinner the first night, we picked the raspberry bushes clean together! It was wonderful.

After our goodbyes, Chud and I headed to Arles in the South to enjoy some alone time together in the region of Provence...

Here's Chud at the Roman Amphitheater in Arles. We wandered around the Provencial countryside for four glorious days, soaking up the sun and enjoying our time together. We spent one day at the beach, and if you've ever been to a beach in France, you might now there are many...ahem..."sights" to see. Female sights, to be exact. All over the place. It was fascinating! We spent another day looking at old castles and visiting vineyards. We had a nice, dressy dinner next to the river in Arles, then spent our last day at two museums - the Cezanne/Picasso museum in Aix-en-Provence, then the Lavendar Museum out in the middle of no where. It was a glorious trip!

We finally made our way back to Paris for the last night, then home the next day. No major mishaps or mixups, just lots of memories and good ideas for the next trip.

If you're interested in more pictures, you can see all of them at http://www.fasciottosinfrance.shutterfly.com/.

If you or anyone you know is interested in hiring a native French-speaker and a darn good babysitter for their family vacation to France, tell them to give us a call! We've been told we make excellent tour guides, so we're thinking about offering our services to well-paying customers!

Baby update: not pregnant - but we should win an award for all the trying!

Basic French

As I was avoiding my enormous pile of graduate school work this morning, I came across this link on Melanie Mauer's blog. I've seen lots of stores and shops that claim to have French products, but most of them are super pretentious and annoyingly sophisticated or they're kitchy and not authentic. This site blew my mind, being one of the only sites I've seen that fit neatly in the middle of that spectrum.

The first gasp out of my mouth occurred when I clicked on the housewares section and the first item up was the Cachou Reglisse. My husband, an authentic Frenchman, craves these breathmints (although I don't see how black licorice freshens breath, these tiny monsters make me gag!) and whenever he goes to France he stuffs his pockets with the little yellow tins and savors them when we get back home. His Dad sends him some every once in a while and you'd think it was Christmas morning! I'm so glad I have a place to go where I can buy them for him!

The Petit Pocket Bunnies are another favorite find. On my first trip to France when I was 15, I stayed with a family who had four kids. The youngest, Clement, had a few of these knitted animals around the house and you could tell that most of them were hand-me-downs from the older sisters. Kids can love the heck out of these for quite some time! I was so excited to see them on the site!


Other favorites include:

These willow baskets...

and these Rattan bags, although I bet I could find some similar housewares at Target!

One more item that made me gasp, though - these little wollen slippers!

Sylvain has a pair exaclty like these in a different color and they are so old and tattered. When we went to visit his family for Christmas, they had his old pair at the house (that they wouldn't let him take home to the States) and a brand new pair for me (which also had to stay there)! In France, you have to take off your shoes at the door and everyone has their own pair of house shoes to put on when they get home. The lining is super soft, and since all the floors are hardwood or tile, these little gems make your feet all snuggly and warm when you're at home. Unfortunately, this site only has slippers for children, but if they ever have them for adults, you can bet we're buying them!

So, thank you Melanie Mauer, for linking me to a store that makes me feel like I'm in France! I showed Sylvain the site this morning and he was rather impressed, which says a lot, because he usually turns his nose up at things like this. Silly Frenchman.