To Grandfathers House We Go!

On Sunday, Christine, Marie, and I traveled to her father's house.  It is in a small village about 2 hours away from our home in Valbonne.  I enjoyed the drive out there, it was beautiful--and Christine and I had some very nice conversation!  Marie slept the whole, like she usually does !

The Village was established around the year 1000.  Wow.  Her Father's house has been passed on from generation to generation.  Her mom was actually BORN in that house.  Talk about REAL vintage.  I loved it.

When the church bells rang, we walked there!  The whole mass was in French, of course, but I did not care!  How beautiful was that church!   During communion, I got blessed by the priest and he anoited my head with oil.  REALLY COOL!   Since this village is so small, hardly anyone spoke English.  I was definitely immursed in French Culture.  Many people at the church tried to speak French to me, and instead of saying in French "I dont speak French"  I often just freeze up, because I am not used to people coming up to me speaking a foriegn language, that I just give this sheepish smile. I need to work on that.  

After church, we walked to Christine's Father's Moms house!  Yes---I got to meet the great grandmother of this lovely family.  I even "bised" her.  Look it up.    This was another one of those houses inherited by each family member.    In the back yard of the Grandmother's house, there was a view of a Castle built around 1000.  Could you imagine waking up every morning, drinking your coffee on the back porch and having a view of a castle...........

Then we went to a restauarant!   Sarah--you would love it here.  All the people bring their little dogs everywhere,  at the restaraunt I was sitting right beside a dog.  Crazy!

In France, lunch is the biggest meal of the day!  I am certainly not used to that. I am used to a sandwich and an apple, and now I am supposed to get salmon salad a dessert and bread all before 2 pm!  Can't do it---yet.  I just got a salad, but it was so delicious.  The waiter couldn't believe someone from America liked the taste of goat cheese.  I am just extra classy, I suppose.


Sunday was Mother's Day in America, but not in France.  It is mothers day in a few weeks here.  Iti was the anniversary of Christine's mothers death yesterday, and we all went to visit her grave.  It was very sad.  It made me think a lot about my mother (especially since it was Mother's day) and how thankful I am for her.  Love you, Mom.

Marie

I am still not sure how to correctly pronounce her name.  It isn't really "Marie" in the senese that we know it, and it isn't really "Mary" either.  It is Marie with a French accent is all I know how to describe it.  The French pronounce their R's very differently.  It is a beautiful name, though!

Before coming to France to be an au pair, I anticipated many things.  Not liking the food, being homesick, not being able to sleep, ect.   None of those things have occured.  One thing I did NOT anticipate though, was how my relationship with Marie would be.  Of course I thought a little about the language barrier, but I did not think it would be too big of a challenge.  In a sense its not...but I did not consider a few other factors.  I am used to children loving me right away--this was not the case!

MY first day here Marie loved me!  Then after a while Christine and I think she got "threatened" that I would take the place of her mother.  Christine even said she did not think about the fact that she has had babysitters before, but never ones who LIVED here.  Whenever I would play with her, and her mom wasn't in sight, she would scream --"Mama!"    We believed that after a few days, she would see that her Mom isn't going anywhere, she would be okay.  And we were right!   Yesterday evening we really connected, and I am so happy.  I think I just needed to watch her a few days and realize how she plays, what makes her smile, ect.  She is such a creative little girl, which I LOVE, so anyway I can help enhance her creativity or playfullness is good.    For example, we spent an hour almost playing pretend on the trampoline.  She CRUSHED A SNAIL with her foot and it splatterd everywhere !! She keep screaming "Escargot! Escargot!!"  I could not help but laugh!

To give you an example of how hyper she is---I have a huge burn on my foot from the trampoline---I had to save her from running off the edge.  And they even have a safety net--figure that one out!

I gave her her bath by myself last night.  I left soaked and with my makeup running everywhere.  She likes to splash and pretend she is a dolphin--Especially after visitng Marineland!  It was my first time to give her a bath alone, so I did not want to be too harsh and I let her splash.   I am not sure if this was a good idea or not--but she was just SO cute.

I already love this little girl!    She even gave me some kisses yesterday!    

She is starting ALREADY to say some phrases in English to me!  It is astounding!