World France Aquitaine Bordeaux

Wanner Family Living Abroad in 2008/2009

Francine's Mom Visits/Bordeaux Feb 17, 2009

Francine's Mom Arrives

Shortly after New Years, we received a much anticipated visitor to our home. Francine's Mom, Antonniette, or Babcia to the kids, arrived from Canada. Antoinette was born and raised in France, in a small seaside village on the Normandy coast, called Dives sur Mer. At the age of 25 though, love took her to Canada to join her new husband, Bruno who also grew up in Dives. After the second world war, and for reasons Antoinette still doesn't understand, Bruno and his parents made the decision to emmigrate to Canada. Once settled and established, he returned to France to marry and bring Francine's Mom to their new home near Saskatoon.

Although the day she arrived in Nice was rainy and blustery, Babcia couldn't stop remarking how wonderful the weather was - after all, it wasn't -30 C. This trend continued as over the course of her 6 week visit, we cannot count the times we heard her ask herself why she ever moved to Canada, with its brutally harsh winters. I'm not sure Bruno, rest his soul, would have been impressed to hear her speak that way. Regarding the weather, a few mornings this winter, we awoke to a little frost, but never enough to really affect anything. Most of the trees retain their leaves and we even have some white roses out front that bloomed throughout January. The lowest daytime highs we would have experienced were 6 C. We didn't receive any snow, although some of the taller local hills, only a 15 minutes drive away, did get the occasional dump when it rained nearer the coast. All in, a much more pleasant winter than we have been used to.

I was excited with her arrival, as I was going to get the opportunity to exercise my newly formed French language skills with a live-in Frenchwoman. We therefore made the decision that while together we would all attempt to communicate as much as possible in the local language. It was a good idea that gradually went by the wayside. I think the turning point when my Mother-in-law got frustrated, telling me my efforts to speak were confusing her and were now making her forget her French. We resorted to more pleasant activities, spending our days visiting local sights in nearby Antibes, Nice, Cannes, and Italy, partaking in those most French customs of long morning coffees and 2 hour lunches.

Cole's Playdate in Italy

Sometime in mid January, Cole received an invitation to visit one of his good school chums for a sleepover. His friend Mateo, lives with his mother Jackie and father Massimo, in Monaco. On weekends however, they go to their second home in nearby Italy to get away from the congestion and the city. We were a little uncomfortable sending him off to spend the night in another country and about an hours drive away, so we suggested that we would bring Cole to their home early Saturday, spend the day ourselves in Italy, and pick him up on the way home. After a little bit of lucky navigating, as their address was not available on our GPS, we made our way up into some remote hills back from and overlooking the Italian Mediterranean coast. With some concern, we found their house perched on the side of this steep hill or what some might call a cliff. Although I had visions of Cole getting too exuberant, losing his balance, and running off the edge of the rocks, we told him to behave, be careful, and let him to his fun. In the end, we had a nice day exploring a couple smaller Italian villages and the larger town of San Remo with Babcia while Cole had a great day playing football with his friends and "handmaking the best pizza he has ever eaten".

Bordeaux

Francine has one aunt and uncle in all the world, and they happen to live in a small village named Mombrier, near the city of Bordeaux. We hadn't visited them yet, as we were waiting for Babcia to arrive and get caught up together. Our plan was to drive to Bordeaux for a weekend visit. Francine, the kids and I would return for the kids' school the following week and then Aunt Monique and Uncle Francois would come out to Valbonne to visit us and return Babcia. One unanticipated problem was that Emma and the cast of the school play were in panic rehearsal mode, as opening night was fast approaching, and from all knowledgeable accounts was desperately in need of more work. Therefore, during January, Emma had scheduled rehearsals three evenings a week and often Saturdays as well. There was merely one weekend the entire time Babcia was here that would allow us to get to Bordeaux and Em had rehearsals on both the Friday evening before and the Monday afternoon afterwards - it would have to be a quick trip. Oh well, we planned on an early start Saturday morning and were successful at getting away around 5:30 am for our 800 km drive. About 1.5 hrs into the trip, Babcia noticed the French radio mentioning a large storm in the SW of France, specifically around Bordeaux. We thought to be safe we should call ahead and see if everything was alright. Well, Aunt Monique confirmed that a major windstorm had hit the area (200+ kph in places), starting around 4 am and that it was stronger than the one that had occurred in 1998 which had caused much damage and even deaths. However, the winds had already started to dissipate and were forecasted to be done by evening. Although they currently had no power, the last time this occurred, power was restored by noon - so by all means she advised - "don't turn around, continue!". Aunt Monique did not mention that their neighbours that live merely 500 meters away did not regain power for a week after the storm in 1998.

Although the freeways in the SW corner of the country had been shut down, they were reopened to small vehicles just as we arrived at their entrance. The French media was still advising people to stay home and off the roads and uncharacteristically, the French actually listened to the authorities. This will most likely be the only time we see the roads in France deserted. I don't think we ever saw more than 6 vehicles at any one time and were often the only car in sight. Although the wind had diminished, occasional gusts were still strong enough to throw the car about suddenly and remind us of the power of this storm. In reality, the only real hazards we faced was dodging the debris piles left over from the hiway workers when they cut up and removed the trees than had fell/blown onto the road. We did notice the damage seemed to get more severe the closer we got to Bordeaux, culminating with a sizeable stand of perhaps several dozen large trees that had been completely uprooted not 3 km from Aunt and Uncle's home. By mid afternoon Saturday, we arrived to a wonderful and warm welcome - albeit mostly dark. Uncle Francois had outfitted the home with electric shutters that did not have a manual override. Because the storm started at night the shutters were down and would need to stay that way until the power came back - something that would not happen until bedtime the night before we left. As a result, during the day we congregated in the kitchen which had a small skylight supplemented with candles for light and a small fireplace for warmth. At mealtimes, we ate in the completely darkened dining room by the light of a half dozen candles, laughing that we now realize why the French have a reputation for romance. Perhaps most amazingly, Aunt Monique served several incredible meals that weekend, using an old propane stove in the garage as her modern appliances in the house required electricity. No one suffered and I think we all enjoyed the experience. We even got to witness a true "French" conversation. Aunt Monique's sister and family came by Sunday afternoon for coffee and within minutes, everyone (French people primarly) were talking at once, continually raising their voices over each other to be heard, and using their hands to make their points. If one didn't know better you would think they were enemies arguing. I felt sorry for Francine's Mom, as the only truly bilingual person there (Francine's Aunt and Uncle do not speak any English) had to continually translate bits and pieces from the din, both French for Francine and I and English for the rest. It must have been exhausting.

Because Emma had rehearsal on the Monday afternoon, our plan was to make a quick trip of this and get on the road by 5:30 am on the Monday. Again, all was going well as we were ahead of schedule when suddenly at noon, our GPS advised the freeway was closed ahead - not delayed, but closed. I have no idea how it gets this information, but sure enough a few momentss later we were directed off the freeway to a single lane road with what appeared to be all the traffic in France. We then crawled and stopped for the next 3.5 hours before being directed back onto the freeway maybe 20 km from where we were detoured. Cutting the weekend short and getting on the road well before dawn was all for not, as we were now too late to make Emma's practice anyway. As it turns out, a truck carrying petrol had overturned forcing the closure of both sides of the freeway. I have no hard evidence to back it up, but my observation of the population at large would suggest he was likely driving too fast. We were angry at first, but once home, after 12 hours on the road, we reconciled to ourselves that to this point with the exception of a couple minor flight delays all of our travel thus far on this adventure had gone seamless and perhaps we were due for the odd problem.

Beauty and The Beast

After months of hard work and rehearsals, the students were ready for opening night of Beauty and the Beast. They were playing 4 nights, Wednesday through Saturday and had managed to more or less sell out all the shows by advertising locally in Nice and getting some patrons unrelated to the school. Emma had advised we secure tickets for the Friday performance as they would still be working out the kinks on Wed and they might be lazy on the final night. We took her advice and arranged to attend with our friends the Priebes whose 16 year old daughter was also involved with the performance as part of the stage crew. What can we say - the kids did great. Lot of energy, great singing, and even a little comedy and romance. Francine also deserves some kudus, as she had volunteered for one of the behind the scenes jobs by assisting with the cast makeup. My favourite Emma moment though had to be during the Mob Scene Song. In this scene, the townspeople are rallying around a local hero to go and hunt down the beast. During part of this piece, Emma being the tiniest cast member, is at the front of the mob waving her rolling pin as only the Baker's Wife can, trying her best to look mad while singing. Em's singing was fantastic and I don't think I would have wanted her to hit me with that rolling pin, however, she had a tough time looking truly angry. We suggested she should just think of her brother at that point if she needed further inspiration. Although, Emma was happy to see the project come to a successful end having been exhausted with all the last minute rehearsals, we think she will miss the comraderie and fun of building it with her new friends. She is already talking of wanting to perhaps incorporate some drama lessons in addition to her dance back home in Canada when we return.

Nice Carnival

Like many other cities around the world including New Orleans and Venice, Nice kicks off lent with a Carnival. Here it involves 3 different parades, each playing several times over a 10 day period in addition to other associated outdoor party events. With our friends the Priebes and Haldanes, we chose the Sunday afternoon parade which involved professionally constructed, large and elaborate floats from around the world with their accompanying "big heads" and revellers. After having lunch at a downtown restaurant, we arrived on the parade route and our assigned seats to this wonderful, festive party. The day was perfect. It was sunny and 10 or 12 C with no wind or clouds in sight. Thousands of people, loud music, dancing, colour, with the young people in costumes and paint energizing the crowd. The whole site was alive and moving. You couldn't help but get involved particularly since there was an abundance of confetti and silly string. If anyone (strangers included) saw you were not covered in the stuff, they made sure you got a good shot regardless of age, as Babcia found out on several occasions. After the parade, we ended the day by taking a ride on the giant ferris wheel where we got a panoramic view of springtime in Nice and the Cote D'Azur as dusk was approaching.

After six weeks it was time for Babcia to return to Canada. As we drove to the airport for her to catch her flight, I couldn't help feeling that she had only just arrived and wishing she was staying longer. Perhaps she was ready to leave though, having grown tired of my incessant questions as to why the French say "x" the way they do and not having to ever answer me again, "Je ne sais pas. C'est comme ca et pas autrement" (I don't know. It's like this and not any other way)1. Although we didn't speak as much French as we had hoped or believed we would, we all learned a little, and had some fun and adventure together.

1 For the record, as a part scientist the above answer never was wholly satisfying - there should be more patterns and rules to these languages. No wonder they are so difficult to learn.