Adventure in Normandie

The thing with half-timbered houses is that they require a fair amount of maintenance! My final job is painting and painting. And then cleaning up from the painting!

The weather has stayed remarkably warm and there is much discussion of changed weather conditions. 23 today in Normandie! The petrol problem seems to be almost resolved and the school holidays are only two days away.

The autumn leaves are everywhere now. Yesterday driving along near one of our local chateau, that of Robert le Diable, the colours were lovely.

We also saw a big ship on the river which is pretty common but still impressive.

It’s crazy to think how quickly two months can go but we have done a lot and had an amazing experience!

Success! I got some petrol for the car today (well diesel). I was recommended an app to check for local petrol supplies.

I am spending this final week getting the house back in order for Airbnb guests, with some improvements! I had a great meeting with our caretaker and we came up with many plans.

Lidl had some more plants and mulch on sale.

The heather comes in many colors which is pretty amazing. The grass seed I have sown is starting to grow well too. It is so green in the garden.

I ordered some new photos on canvas for the house and they arrived via UPS today and I spent some time putting them up.

Time flies when you are having fun and Seb certainly made the most of his visit. Today he had to go back to his school duties and take the rather long way home via Hong Kong!

I ended up spending a lot of time on trains today but we made it safely home to Normandie.

Of course we had to sustain ourselves for the trip😁. Crêpes are a favourite, I had ham and cheese and Lavinia had Nutella and banana.

As much as I love Paris, it was lovely to get home to the clean, green fields of Normandie. As Louis remarked, Paris has a certain smell 🤨.

As convenient as the metro, trains and trams are, I got tired of being squished on them. We passed a lot of people heading to Nation for a big protest against the cost of living increases. There is talk of a general strike on Tuesday.

No petrol at the station on the way home from the train 😩.

It was less rainy than yesterday in Paris. We had a lovely brunch in the 11th with Estelle. When I say brunch, it was brunch food but most brunches in Paris start at 12.00 😁

Louis ran into one of his favourite players in the metro!

Just when I was starting to get worried about my half a tank of fuel the situation seemed to be resolving.

However, when we passed by again tonight. The empty signs were back up! 😬

We had a little visit to the Eiffel Tower. I wanted to walk up but the lines were too big.

Every year at the end of summer the grass in front of the Tower called the Champs de Mars is ruined by all the people and visitors sitting on it. This year the drought caused even worse damage. It looks as though some serious work is going on to replace it. There are also some new buildings at the end of the champs. For the Olympics the beach volleyball is going to be held here.

We passed by the Australian Embassy, not the best photo but had to take one! So many hours spent in these buildings.

We had a lovely dinner and catch up with friends. So nice to rediscover friendships unchanged after a few years absence ❤️ Merci.

We’ve come to Paris for a weekend and to farewell Seb at the airport on Sunday. Time to be tourists in Paris!

There is a huge worksite going on around the cathedral to fix the fire that occurred in 2019. It’s amazing to see the size of the worksite and the planning that has gone into the repairs.

Louis on the island namesake.

We got some navigo cards for the metro. Paper tickets are being phased out soon so time to get a plastic card for 2€ that you can recharge.

We stopped for an aperitif.

People often ask us what we miss about France. There are many things but food is definitely one of them. Fresh baguettes, lovely patisseries, soft cheeses! So many favourites. Here are a few photos.

I bought some plants to put around the garden. It’s always hard to know what will survive. After 3 years and a fair amount of neglect, only roses, lavender and rosemary survived!

Normandie gets pretty cold, no snow but pretty cold during the day so not all plants survive. During spring people put in a lot of seasonal flowers. I bought a few kinds of flowering heather which look very pretty right now.

Seb and I added a screen to the ceiling of the fireplace. It will keep the warmth in when the fireplace is not in use and also keep the flies out! So many come in search of warmth and die in the house!

I was busy at the end of the day and didn’t get to the bakery. Luckily the baguette machine was stocked and ready to do go in the next village!

Meanwhile, Lavinia and Louis have been going to school. They have been doing very well and learning a lot about many subjects, how to organise themselves and having lots of tests. It has been a particularly big change for Louis going from year 6 and primary school to the second year of a high school ( middle school) set up.

One of the big changes has been getting up about an hour earlier than in Australia and having to catch the bus.

Most nights there is some homework and there is a big focus on revision to ensure you have really taken in the lesson. One of the teachers explained that you learn about 70% in class but at home when you revise you get to 100%.

My observation is that things seem to be more structured and follow a definite pattern. You will get a ‘ note’ if you don’t have the right books or materials or did not do your homework. 5 notes and you get detention.

This is all excellent learning for Louis who is known for being forgetful and not tracking what he needs on a particular day for school.

The kids’ French has been excellent and they have not any problems due to that. They are regularly complemented as not having an accent.

I think the topics and subjects taught are at a similar level to Australia but perhaps there is more breadth. Louis is doing three languages, French, English and Spanish. Lavinia, is doing four with the addition of Greek.

They both have physics and chemistry as a subject that is separate from a kind of biology/ sustainability/ social impact subject.

Louis was proud to finish his scale château for maths homework.

Lavinia has been learning about the First World War and Verdun, a topic close to my heart.

We have been enjoying some lovely weather this week. Cool and foggy mornings but then eventually lovely days of 20 or so.

We went for a little walk to the river last night.

I have been cutting and cutting the overgrown blackberries with many injuries. So sharp! Tonight we had a sneaky bonfire to burn it all 😁.

Yesterday I drove past this field and amazed at the straight lines of cut grass. Today they had been balled up into bales. I am not totally sure but think it might be chaff or silage.

We had a steak haché with camembert baguette to celebrate!

I took a risk and used some precious fuel to drive to Le Havre for a Sunday outing. It was a beautiful sunny day.

Le Havre is a big town and the second biggest port after Marseille, but the biggest for shipping containers.

Le Havre was pretty well destroyed after bombing in 1944 and had to be rebuilt. The rebuilding work was undertaken by Auguste Perret who was a huge fan of, and one of the first to use reinforced concrete in large scale construction. I have already come across Perret because he built a famous tower in Amiens that looks over the town and is called la Tour Perret. Looking over the town of Le Havre it is easy to see Perret’s concrete fascination.

The beach is quite pebbly, but there is some sand at high tide.

The port was pretty enormous and a big ferry came in from the UK.

We had a lovely Sunday lunch.

There are many sculptures and interesting architecture around the town.

This is the volcano.

We visited the ‘hanging gardens’ which is a lovely garden area set in an old fort atop the town. It was quite amazing how they have used the fort as a garden and you can walk up and down and around and it was free entry.

There was an even an ‘Austral’ garden!

A gift from the Belgian people to the French.

On the way home we took the Pont de Normandie, an amazing piece of construction.

It is where the river Seine meets the sea and it spreads out amazingly.