From Koegas To Paris

Paris, paris, paris

ButterflyHands — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:38:29 +0000

I met a friend in Paris last week. We went to ‘Hoërskool Prieska’ together and that is exactly the last time we saw each other. So quite a strange place to meet again: ‘See you at ten at the Sacre Coeur.’
But we met there in -5°C… and we thought that Prieska had cold early mornings. : )

After warm coffee we discovered the fabric area around the Sacre Coeur. Enjoyed crêpes nutella (of course) and I tasted my first macaroons with Maresa and Gawie.

…and we just strolled through the streets of Paris.

She and her husband are doing a nice Europe tour at the moment.
It was good to see you again, Maresa. I know you are having a wonderful time in Europe…

On Saturday was the regional gymnastics competition in Clamart, a suburb of Paris. Still extremely cold, but in a nice warm hall. Franci competed and came 9th out of 60 girls. Next month she will compete in Elancourt in the Zone competition. …and again… pretty girls and friendly coaches… so special…

After the competition the girls wanted to go to the material shops for leotard material. Danie felt very courageous and said we will just quickly drive there… from Southern Paris to Northern Paris, right through the middle of Paris.

…and he found a parking space right at the bottom of the Sacre Coeur. We found lovely leotard material and realized you have to look around before you buy. We saw material for 59€, which was a bit much and bought the same material at the next little shop for 7€! Thanks to our afrikaans speaking GPS we were home again after a long day in Paris.

A full, nice, white week-end.

ButterflyHands — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:07:50 +0000

We had three birthdays in our family last week, with the twins on one day and Franci the next. There are advantages in having three birthdays in two days. For the boys and Danie, who has train cards for a year, they receive a free Eurodisney ticket in the week of your birthday. Danie could use his for Franci on her birthday. Because he missed it the previous time, Danie went with the birthday three.
They had fun… or as much fun as you can have in minus 5 degrees. They had nice stories to tell, but all followed with: ‘Its the coldest I’ve ever been.” The lake, fountain and everything to do with water was frozen, but there were still so many people that they had 40 minute queues at some rides… but it was good.
Sunday morning we woke up with 5 cm of snow and still snowing. Big excitement for us South-Africans.

…but we had to leave early to the gymnastics competition and was quite nervous driving in the snow. We had to go really slow, all the roads were still covered.

The gymnastics competition was nice again. This time in Soisy-sous-Montmorency, a team competition… and Mandi’s team came first! Franci’s team came fourth and they all go through to the next competition in March.

Our friend, Pieter from South Africa had a one-day stop in Paris on his way to Marseille, and spend the day with us. He had to sit through the competition, but we could have a quick lunch before he left again.

Then we went out to explore the snow. Came back with frozen toes and fingers, but a lot of fun and photos.

around our house…

I smile when I read back in my blog. I first wrote that it is now really getting cold, 15 degrees, then it was really cold with 5 degrees. Now we had two weeks of -4 degrees! Lets hope it does not get any colder than this. : )

La compétition

ButterflyHands — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 09:11:31 +0000

To do a post about our first gymnastics competition in France does not make much sense, because it was almost the same as what we knew in Cape Town. We sat long on hard seats and the program ran late. The parents were friendly, we drank ‘tuckshop’ coffee and we ran around with our cameras. One difference was that the ‘tuckshop’ sold croissants and pain au chocolat… with the chips and chocolates. All that was really different was that the hall was WARM (with 6 degrees outside). We were remembering sitting under our blankets in Oudtshoorn or the Velodrome. : ) The gymnasts walked around in their leotards and Alfie did not hang his big jacket around their shoulders before they compete.
They played lively music for the gymnasts to march on, but the judges didn’t get any mention or music… that they can learn from South Africa.

This was actually a very relaxed competition, don’t know if they get more serious later on. France has 26 regions, which are divided into 95 departments. Our region is Ile-de-France and is divided into four departments of which Paris centre is one. We are number 95, Val d’oise. This competition was for Val d’oise only and to qualify for competing in the Ile-de-France competition. The girls did well. Franci was first on beam and came 4th overall. Mandi was first on floor and came 8th overall… fell off beam twice : )

the girls were pretty and Fred the coach was his usual calm self…

...and just as the ACS coaches would do… tells you with a smile that something was bent, but it is OK…

…a nice day in Goussainville, close to Charles de Gaulle airport.

Cergy’m club won 14 medals and the next competition is in two weeks time. A team competition where the club will compete as one team.

The ‘chick’ from Versailles

ButterflyHands — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:55:39 +0000

My niece and her friend visited us for the weekend. A relaxed, happy time spend with them. Young people. They woke up late, played monopoly and spend time on computers. : )

On Saturday we did the tourist thing and went to Château de Versailles. A lovely sunshine day, but only 5 degrees. So, geared with gloves and scarves we went.

The buildings are beautiful, gold, marble, and more. The gardens are so big you can call them parks. A four hour walk and we didn’t see all of the gardens. We will have to go back in summer. I am sure it will be covered with flowers then and the fountains will be giving their displays.

And to quote my young niece, Marleen: “This is the chick who lived here.” : )
(aka Marie Antoinette…)

Let’s tackle 2012.

ButterflyHands — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:53:30 +0000

It feels strange to start a new year, but all activities are actually halfway already. Obviously, because the school year in France starts in September and finish end of June. The schools reopened again yesterday after a two week break over Christmas. The school calender in France has three terms, with a two week break in the middle of the first two terms. That means 4 two week holidays and two months in July and August. Not too bad.

We are still waiting for the snow. It would be unfair to let us be so cold and you don’t even see snow! : ) It is the coldest month now, I’ve heard, and can feel! Mostly about 5 or 6 degrees in the day, but we do get a lot of sunshine. At least then it does not ‘feel’ so cold, as when it is a grey day. But we know that spring is coming next! I have daffodils flowering in my garden already!

The first gymnastic competition for the girls is end of January and another one beginning of February. And the competitions carry on till June when it is the France finals, but that’s for later. The girls had to learn a whole lot of new elements in their routines. Mandi said that she’s probably one level up and Franci almost two, so we will see how it goes. It will still be exciting to see how things work here.

We also want to move closer to Danie’s work end of June. Where, we still don’t know, but we’ve started to look around over week-ends. The girls would love to stay at their gym, the boys want to stay at their school, and Danie has to stay at his work : ) The only problem is that those three things are in three different directions. I think in the end we will just consider the travel to work and start in new schools and a new gym. But, that also, we will see what happens.

And, I am trying to be really organised in the house. : ) There will always be bread (baguettes) in the morning to pack for the boys and Danie, never run out of milk, and I won’t have to go to Carrefour every day for whatever is needed… ok… So, I did my first ‘drive’ shopping at LeClerc. Buy on the internet and say what time you want to pick it up, then you just park at a ‘scanner box’, scan your bar code and in a minute or two someone comes and load your shopping in the car. Nice. That’s for all the boring things you have to buy every month, toilet paper, washing powder, and so on. Now, my weekly list is much shorter. First week went well, so let’s see!

…and just some interesting things…

parking in Paris…

you mess, you clean up…

‘traffic’ signs in the river for the boats…

pictures made from post-it cards in office blocks…

graffiti is everywhere in Paris…

and for those of you that watch 7de laan, a bookshop with this name…

2012

ButterflyHands — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:23:09 +0000

Thank you for enjoying our first six months in France with me. It was good to share our experience with you.

May 2012 be a wonderful year to everyone.
Hopefully with some trips to France. : )

Christmas day in Paris

ButterflyHands — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:23:02 +0000

We thought that on Christmas day everyone stays at home, and we will have Paris for ourselves. : ) Maybe they do, but there are enough tourists to fill the streets. Traffic was quiet, so we went by car and parked around the corner from the Arc de Triomphe. We had sunshine and a mild day at 10 degrees. Nice to walk around in Paris. We walked to the Eiffel Tower and strolled through the Christmas Market. For the winter period there is an Ice rink at the Eiffel Tower, but too many people and too long qeues.

We tried the ice rink at the ‘Hotel de Ville’ also, but there were even more people. As it is dark at 5pm already, we could appreciate the Christmas lights.

and decided to go on the big wheel at the bottom of the Champs-Élysées. A christmas treat!

Christmas eve

ButterflyHands — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 17:19:17 +0000

We had a lovely family Christmas. Everything inside this year, and no swimming with temperatures of about 5 degrees, but nice and cosy inside the house. I bought extra surprise gifts this year to make up for having no family around. I ordered something for Jaco on the internet and was still holding thumbs for it to come on Saturday. I know the postman deliver the parcels at home, because I’ve received some for the neighbor when he is at work. Just before twelve he still wasn’t here, so I opened the postbox with the hope that perhaps there is a slip to say I must fetch it at the ‘La Poste’, but to my surprise there is the box in our ‘locked’ postbox. Still need to figure this out, I assume the postman has a key to open all boxes as they all look the same. Well, all the gifts were here and we were ready for Christmas eve.

We played our new World edition monopoly, the one with credit cards. ‘Vorder tot by Roeland straat, as jy by begin verbygaan, vorder R200 in : ) only now it is 2 million rand : ) and Paris and Cape Town are part of the green cards. …you can see who won!

…leg of lamb for dinner… no foie gras! Maybe next year.

Its Christmas!

ButterflyHands — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 08:46:43 +0000

To everyone from Koegas to Paris (and everywhere inbetween) may you have a blessed Christmas!

Small differences

ButterflyHands — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 22:31:40 +0000

The christmas lights along the streets are on. Very pretty, but mostly white and blue. No red father christmas, red nose reindeer, green christmas tree or angels! Only patterns in white and maybe some blue added, well this is what it looks like here in our town. It is pretty, but different. One evening I will be brave and put on my scarf, jacket, etc. and take some photographs.

We bought our christmas tree just before 1 December. It was new for us to see the whole ‘christmas tree selling’ thing. So many trees and they are geared for ‘packing’ your tree. The shops are filled with so many decorations to choose from, but our french tree stands here with all our old decorations, collected over the years… no new french ornaments. : )

…homemade, LinkLadies craft evenings, Edgemead Market, one from Germany, etc…

As the lights are different, there are other things in France that are not the same as what we’re used to. Little things, for example: Q20 is called WD40, but it works the same! : )
One big difference that took me a while to realise and cost me a few euros was the fact that airtime expires. Yes, Use By… really. : ) When we came here I just bought 5 euros airtime for everyone and then a few days later we were out of airtime and knew we did not phone that much, but its finished! The kids thought that Mixt is really expensive in France, because that is all they used their phones for.
It does say on the recharge card that you buy at the shop: ‘valable 10 jours.’ Well, I knew that ‘jours’ are days and the ‘valable‘ sounded a bit like valid, but how could that be, so I just ignored those words. Probably for two months I kept on buying 5 euros every ten days till I had to admit that perhaps airtime really has a use by date! The end of this story is that all the kids now have contracts which actually works out cheaper with some youth specials. I still buy the ‘use by’ airtime for me, only now I buy some that can last for three months.

And something else: All children (and adults) write on ‘graph’ paper. All the exercise books for school are either big or small blocks, no lines, really! Danie realized this in his first week at work. He went to get a writing block from the stationary cupboard and could only find ‘graph paper’. So he asked the assistant if they don’t have ‘cheaper’ blocks, he just want to write on it. : ) She could not understand what he meant. That was a long debate till Danie realized that this is normal scribble paper. Even the cursive writing is a bit different. The letters are more curly. But the girls are already used to this and have changed their handwriting to curly french letters. Mandi finds it rather funny that the big boys in her class also write with these curly letters.

‘Grands carreaux, Petits carreaux’