Fishy Mercredi

The Wednesday we returned from vacation, I only had Marie-Césare as Gaspard was at his mother's house for the week.  I decided we would do something fun because the weather was beautiful and Marie-Césare was in a great mood.  We have been talking about going to the aquarium for months now, so after art class I put a bottle of water, a sandwich, and some carrot sticks in my bag and off we went.  That metro ride was a little longer than what we are use to, but I've learned that if you just shove something in her mouth and keep it coming, she's normally pretty good.  ha!  The aquarium we were going to was next to the Eiffel Tower.  There is a better one out in Vincennes, but that metro ride would have just been a little too agonizing for a 3 year old.  We passed the police on horses and she went nuts!  We stopped to stare at les chevaux for at least 10 minutes.  Once inside, we got our tickets and went to look at les poissons.  It was very dark inside and she was a bit scared.  I don't know what she was expecting, but it wasn't until the end that she would even get close to the glass.  This aquarium was nothing like the Chattanooga aquarium, in fact, I definitely wouldn't pay to go back.  The fish were quite dull in color and species.  They didn't have a huge variety.  There were some sharks (not huge), and some octopus, "pieuvre" (which she was most scared of) and one pond where you could touch the fish.  It wasn't' huge, and there weren't a ton of fish....but I guess it is the highlight of the entire aquarium for French children.  

She loved it.  We stayed there for about 30 minutes just seeing how many different fish she could touch. We took our time and weren't in a hurry and also made a quick stop by the gift shop on the way out to buy nothing other than a pink fish necklace.  

Just across the Trocadéro there are a couple of carrousels, so of course we did that.  C'est nécessaire!  At 2.50 a ride, we only rode twice but of course she chose the horses both times.  

Since her parents never take her to see the Eiffel Tower and find it quite a nuisance (much like other French citizens) she wanted to walk under it so bad.  (She also wanted to go up but I told her that wasn't possible since we had spent so much of mommy's money already that day.)  We walked down through the Champ de Mars being careful not to let our hands go of each other.  The best part of the day was yet to come.  Barbe á papa!!!

Yes, she ate this entire thing by herself.  I had just a little bit as she wasn't so keen on sharing her barbe á papa.  I perched her on the Pont d'Iéna as she munched away at the candy floss.  She just kept stuffing it in as fast as she could.  Maybe this makes me a bad au pair, but I didn't care...we were having SO much fun together!!! I don't like taking her places where she has to sit for long periods of time, i.e. the doctor, restaurants, etc.  But where we can just wander and do what we want all afternoon-its great!  It's times like these I am thankful I just have one kid to look after and not two or three!  Its much easier to take just one!  

This is what we ended up with at the end of the day.  A cotton candy beard basically.  I couldn't help but laugh out loud...Marie-Césare too.  We both rolled out laughing when we saw the picture.  Most parents were looking at me crazy that passed by, but I just didn't see it as a big deal.  We got her hands and face cleaned up for the most part...at least to hold her over until her bath that night.  

She came home a crashed into a nap on the couch while I finished reading a magazine.  We played and painted the rest of the evening and talked about our wonderful day.  I couldn't wait to show Chloé the photos...I knew she would be a happy mom.  Marie-Césare has grown up so much since I've been here.  I've become normal to her, and its great to have a little one so excited to see me each day!!! 

French Riviera

We got on the train to Ventimiglia (the last Italian stopover before you get to France) and the train was jam packed.  After the first few stops, a couple of seats opened up so we jumped at the chance.  An hour or so later, we arrived in Ventimiglia with a French man's phone number and a little less sleep than we had hoped for.  Since Italian trains are never on time, and French trains are always on time, we just missed our train change to Cannes.  So naturally, we got on with our new found Parisien friend, Stephan, and a wildly outgoing elderly French lady who sat next to us.  She heard us speaking French/English and so she just jumped right in our conversation with a little English.  Stephan practically jumped out of his seat when he heard her speaking such good English...it is very uncommon for the older population here to speak English.    We had a crazy fun time on that train ride, as she had a lot of spunk.  Turns out she was an English professor here in France.  

We arrived in Cannes and after a few bus "issues" that Kerry had, she finally made it.  While we were waiting on her we stashed our luggage at the train station and walked along the beach, looking at all the posh stores we dare not enter and sat along the beach to do a little people watching.  There is some excellent people watching in Cannes.  We also tried to find a bathroom.  Even in the train station you have to pay 50 cents to use the bathroom.  Okay, we had put all of our change in to store our luggage.  No big deal, we bought a sandwich to get some change.  No 50 cent pieces though, just one euro and two euro pieces.  Turns out the rest of the bathrooms in Cannes require exactly 50 cent pieces and won't take one euro pieces even if you are willing to pay more.  Ugh.  We finalllllyy came upon a bathroom with an actual lady to take my one euro piece.  At that point I would have given just about any amount for les toilettes.  

There is only a small stretch of beach that is public, the rest you have to pay to use.  Paying to use the beach?  Seems like a foreign concept to me...but, this is France, and....this is Cannes.  

The weather turned a bit windy and chilly so after we finally met up with Kerry we decided to just head back to her house.  She lives about 40 minutes away from Cannes in a small village called Mandalieu.  We took a bus to her station then took her car back to her house.  It was weird to be in a car with friends again.  It's always weird to be in a car, but without my host family was so different!  Her house was such a cute, French, country house with horses, dogs, cats, and a pool.  

Meet Bruno and Dior.  

Saturday we woke up at 6 am ready to get a head start on the day.  We woke up to cold rain.  Bleh.  But, seeing as how we were only here for a couple of days, we trudged through.  We started in Monaco/Monte Carlo and at the Prince's Palace of Monaco.  

We didn't take a tour of the castle, as there was maintenance going on and too expensive to just see a few rooms.  So, we explored the other streets on the top of the cliff very quickly as we thought we might blow away up there!  

They were also already setting up for the Grand Prix of Monaco which is just over a month away.  The preparation which was going in to all the grandstands, streets, and pedestrian areas was crazy!  

We walked around the marina and took a look at all of the massive beautiful yachts.  There were thousands of them!  All with a staff of at least 5 people waiting on their employers to get there.  

We were meeting Charlotte (another au pair from Paris who's family has a house in the south) in Nice at noon, so we decided it a good chance to break from the rain and get back on the train to Nice.  Our trains arrived at nearly the same time so we didn't have to wait long.  We got all the way to the "Old Ville" Nice before it began to rain again.  The market in the center of the Old Ville was absolutely beautiful.  

The beach in Nice was deserted because of the weather, no naked sunbathing beauties like on normal days.  We climbed the cliff to the château, looking for another great view.  

Pebble beach instead of sand!

The view of the city would have been better in the sun, but it was still beautiful!  I had no idea how big Nice actually was, but the view of the rooftops proved me wrong!  

After Nice we stopped at the small village of Antibes, but I didn't take any really good pictures as it downpoured the whole time.  In fact, all we did there was pop in a little café and have some tea to warm us up!  Our clothes were drenched and we were all shivering from the wind.  We said goodbye to Charlotte and got the train once again, to Cannes.  That night, we turned on the Wii to play a little Dance Party.  It was hilariously fun.  

We danced to a little Proud Mary, Lady GaGa, and 80's hits and were beat by another long sight seeing day.  Easter Sunday we woke up, went for a little swim, a walk down to the lake, and played with all the animals.  It was great!! We left for our flight out of Nice around 4 pm and after a long evening in the airport we got back to Paris around 11 pm.  It was good to hit the ground in Paris and we were immediately thrown back into a busy city with lots of people.  It is really nice to get away for a week or so, but is always nice to come back home.  Paris.  Yes, I can now call Paris home.  And it feels that way too.  Its nice to get back to familiar people and places and shower in my own shower.  

Huge thanks to Kerry for being such a wonderful hostess!  She is a fabulous cook, and made us feel right at home and welcome.  We miss her here in Paris, but I think she fits right in with her family in Cannes and hope she gets the chance to enjoy the countryside for the summer!  

Vernazza, Italy

Why is Vernazza my favorite village of the Cinque Terre?  It is close to the sea, has great rocks to lie on, is still a small, colorful, Italian village, and has every type of typical Italian food you could ever want.  We discovered a place that sells these little gems, that remind me of something from my childhood that I can't place a finger on.  The pastry was crunchy, buttery, and crumbled to bite and the chocolate on the inside was creamy and rich.  

 Oh yea, and the view isn't so bad.  

We entered Vernazza at the very end of our first day rather tired ready to rock through the last two villages.  Well, no!  We took so many photos here and decided to walk along the edge of the rocks and have a quick nap.  It was fabulous.  It was warm but not hot, and the water felt just right to sunbathing toes.  The water was so clear and blue you could see straight to the bottom, not to mention a great little swimming hole.  We decided that if we had any time left the next day we would most definitely be back here.  

We took the train back to Levanto for yet another beautiful sunset and a little exploring of the town.   While exploring I found a small shop that sold various Italian aperitif type items so I bought some olives and fresh mozzarella.  I had stashed some limoncello and plastic cups in my bag so we popped it open on the beach.  HELLO. YUM.  Best olives I've ever had in my life.  AND the freshest mozzarella.  I could have seriously just had this for dinner...but, Ashleigh doesn't like olives too much and can't have too many soft cheeses, sooooo.......

We stopped to eat dinner at a small café where we could go in with our shorts and t-shirts.  I ordered a pizza, and wasn't sure what the "a" word was on the menu, Ashleigh either, and instead of asking I just went with it.  Turns out, anchovies it was.  I don't hate anchovies, but I can't say I've ever given them a chance.  So, I decided to give them a go.  It's not that they were terrible, they were just SO salty.  Capers AND anchovies?  It was like a salt lick on my plate.  

The next morning we woke up early for our breakfast of fresh fruit, focaccia, salami, and soft boiled eggs.  We headed out to Monterosso al Mare, the last of the 5 villages.  There is new town Monterosso....

And old town Monterosso...

Besides the focacceria in the new town, we preferred the old town.  Monterosso seemed very "resort" like and more for those who want to come and enjoy the beach.  There were very nice hotels and restaurants and the entire span of the city was on the sandy beaches.  We climbed to the point between the two "towns" and decided to explore the old town a bit more.  There was a market going on and I saw these amazing creatures.  Dried fish, as well as several kinds of salted fish.  

We wound ourselves through the tiny pathways they called streets and found ourselves on the other side to the trail back to Vernazza.  The trail was closed unfortunately, but we walked as much of it as we could before hitting the train to Vernazza for the rest of the day.  Since we had explored Vernazza the previous day, we went straight to the sea to claim a good rock to lie on.  We settled on one a little far from the water, but I like to be just close to the water so we moved once a good one became free.  I got bored, and even though the water was absolutely FREEZING I creeped in up to my waist.  Ashleigh was not so keen on the idea and rested on our rock.  I keep thinking to myself, okay, here I am in the Mediterranean Sea and I am NOT going to swim??? Pleasseeee.... I swim any chance I get and this will be no different!  So after a delicious lunch of rosemary focaccia, olives, and mozzarella....

I decided to just go for it.  No one else was in the water and I looked like a complete freak but I just didn't care.  I wandered out to a huge rock in the middle, but could still touch the bottom most of the way.  (Ashleigh photo documented the entire process for your enjoyment.)

On the way back I just decided to go for it.  I swam out a little further into the clear blue water being careful not to step on any sea urchins and just did it.  

Turns out, it wasn't so bad once you were swimming around and I suppose your whole body is numb.  And 3 others jumped in about the same time I did so I didn't look like the only crazy swimmer!

After a wonderful two hours lying in the sun and being Italian, we unfortunately had to pack it up and get on the train.  I am so glad we had that time just to sit and enjoy the beauty of everything but we were ready to see Kerry for the weekend!  I grabbed a Nutella gelato on the way out of Vernazza and it was the best yet!  Most of the Nutella gelato I have had was just vanilla or something mixed with Nutella.  This one was seriously as if they just scooped out Nutella and put it on a cone....just look at it!  Its glistening!  

Our hotel let us change clothes downstairs and we grabbed our suitcases and were off to yet another great Italian city, Genoa/Genova/Gênes depending on which country you come from (which by the way, is 100% confusing).  We didn't get there until 6 or so and we stepped out into quite a big city.  I don't know if we just weren't expecting a huge bustling city, or that we had just come from this quiet, quaint village but it was a shocker!  We checked into our B&B and the hostess was so disappointed we were only staying one night.  I hated to admit that the only reason we were staying at her B&B was because it was the closest to the train station for under 100 euros. ha!  She showed us a great map and so we set off to just sort of explore on our own.  We wandered down the main streets seeing just about everything that was on the points of interest map without even realizing it!  

It was a very pretty, Italian metropolis but nothing I would hate to miss on my next trip to Italy.  The Easter pastries on the other hand, were absolutely the cutest things I've ever seen! 

The last photo we found quite interesting.  It is apparently Easter bread, and you make these pastries/bread with the raw eggs and the eggs cook at the same time the bread cooks!  How cool is that?  This may be very common back home but I have never seen it before!  We were amazed.  It was getting dark and we had a early train to Cannes the next morning so we just had dinner, my last glass of Italian wine, and went to bed.  The next morning breakfast was waiting for us right on time.  We were the only ones up so early, but it was nice to eat just the two of us.  We were presented with this hilarious buffet that she had put together, full of salami, cheeses, some sort of chocolate bread, berry tart, toast, and biscotti.  It definitely wasn't our breakfast in the Cinque Terre, but it had to do!  What I loved most about our breakfast?  The table.  

It was very lovely, and each place had a chocolate egg for Easter.  It did however look like it came out of Fran Drescher's mom's house in the sitcom "The Nanny."  And yes, it was covered in plastic.  

I am so behind on blogging but I feel as if too much information in one post is just overwhelming, so I will keep being behind it my posts until I get everything caught up!!! I have had a great past couple of days with Marie-Césare to tell you about!