Times are a changin

Following my new French driver's license, I am going to receive French nationality. I have to go to Lyon on Tuesday to pick up the document that says I am French. Oh, and you might have noticed that I said "going to Lyon". I no longer live in Lyon. Well, technically. I started a new job in Geneva Switzerland about 1 month ago and things are going pretty good, except for the fact that I have lost 1 month of French holidays. In France I had 2 months, now I only have 1 month:(

Val is still in Lyon working for the time being. But, oops, I don't think I have mentioned that she is pregnant! Yep, number 2 is on the way. So much too talk about and so little time to talk. Val be moving here after we sell the apt in Lyon and she goes on maternity leave. All will hopefully occur around December. That way she will have plenty of time to work out the details since she will benefit from a good portion of her salary without having to work for a couple of years. Gotta love France!

Anyway, at the moment I am staying at Val's father's place in the upstairs apt. He is also allowing me to borrow a car for the moment until I buy a new one which is hopefully soon. His car is 20 years old and has already broken down twice, once crossing through the border check and a second time right after passing through a toll booth. Both were really shitty timing but what can you do.

So to sum it up for the first half of 2010. French driver's license, check. French Nationality, most likely complete on Tuesday, check. Pregnant, check. New job in Geneva, check and hopefully towards the end of the year an apt in Lyon sold and a new house near Geneva.

By the way the photo is from today. We went hiking at Les Houches. I definitely recommend it. The view on top is incredible. The Mt Blanc and 3 seperate glaciers. In addition, the mule made life easy for me.

I also added some new photos on the left in the Photos on Picasa section.

Bali Pics now available

Lots of monkeys, lizards, chickens, pigs, fish and cows. Not to mention lots of great surfing, snorkeling, kayaking in the rain, swimming and even renting a scooter for the 3 of us. Mom, don't look at those pictures. The people just loved Mathieu. Everywhere we went they all wanted to touch him and take pictures with him. Even with their limited English they would always ask him "What is your name?" and "How old are you?" Midway through the trip he started to get the hang of the questions and answered back. We were having such a good time it was difficult to comeback to reality.

Our trip started down in Balangan Beach, a small seaside village where I got to surf overhead waves on a 5'11" surfboard which is way to small for me. The next day I found a bigger board. The only time we got ripped off was here. I guess you live in learn. We did a trip to see the Uluwata Temple and to have dinner at Jimbaran Bay and we paid way too much. Dinner was really cool though. You get to pick out your fish and then go sit right on the beach and they serve you dinner. Not bad.

Then we headed up north to Pemerutan and Lovina where we snorkeled and kayaked. We went kayaking in the national park. Mathieu didn't want to get into the kayak so we had to leave him behind with our driver. Apparently he was quite happy staying behind. He loves boats but apparently not small boats. Anyway it rained the whole time we were on the kayak. Luckily it was still hot. Overall the north wasn't that exciting, partly because it rained the whole time, and the fact that there isn't much to do besides kayaking and snorkeling. We only stayed 2 days up there and then moved on.

From there we stopped for a swim in the hot springs (can't remember the name) on our way to Mt Batur, the volcano. The hots springs were a nice stop off. The volcano is actually 6000 ft high and there is a beautiful lake at the base! We couldn't see the top though due to the clouds and rain. We only made a short stop there and then headed down to Ubud, a town in the center of the island known for shopping, the Monkey Forest and Balinese dancing. Mathieu loved the Monkey Forest and the dancing along with all the dragons that came out at night on the streets (the kids dressed up as dragons and paraded around the streets).

We did a day trip to Sideman to see the "Terraced Rice fields". At lunch Valerie ordered fresh coconut juice and they actually climbed up the tree and cut down the coconut. It was pretty cool to watch.

Next we were off to Amed. This was one of our favorite spots. It is a very quiet seaside village with beautiful coral reefs just off the beach. Needless to say, we did a lot of snorkeling. We also rented a scooter here (Only 4 Euros a day). We all hopped on and drove from beach to beach to snorkel. There is very little traffic in this area so it wasn't dangerous. We were there during the Balinese holiday. During the morning all the Balinese go to the temple with their family and then they celebrate with food. The basket of food that the women were carrying looked really good. Unfortunately, tourist are allowed to join in.

Our final stop was Seminyak, Legian and Kuta. We tried to avoid these spots for the most part since they are big tourist areas. We were right to do so. The first night we stayed in a hotel with a bunch of Australians getting loaded in the pool. Might have been fun if I were 20 with no kids but that is not the case. I went to another hotel the next day to see if we could move there but he was completely booked. However, he had a friend with a hotel not far away and suggested that. He actually took me there on his scooter helped me get booked and then returned me, all for free. We ended up loving the hotel. It was small and quiet, with a big pool, no drunk Australians and perfectly located. Sometimes people can be surprising. I would have loved to pay the guy back by using his taxi service or staying in his hotel but we had no need for either.

Anyway, in this area we got our fill of sushi, surfing and swimming and then regretfully took our flight back to France.

Easter in Sète

We went down to Sète last weekend for Easter to escape to cold of Lyon. Séte is located in the south of France, on the Mediterranean, close to Montpellier. It is a beautiful little seaside town with long boardwalks and sandy beaches. Valerie’s cousin’s daughter was nice enough to give up her apartment for the weekend.

Mathieu did his first Easter egg hunt on Sunday. Of course, with the age range being from 3-8 Mathieu didn’t have much luck finding eggs. However, we came prepared. We brought chocolate eggs and hid them as we went so Mathieu could experience the sensation of finding eggs. He loved it!!!

Mahé, Mathieu’s semi cousin came over on Saturday and they both had a lot of fun playing together. I say semi cousin since it the boy of one of Valerie’s cousin’s daughters. He is the same age as Mathieu though.

On another note, Mathieu moved into a big boy bed. We got him new beds for grandpa’s house and our home. The transition was simple and he is really happy being in his new gigantic beds. I have added a couple of pics for entertainment.

Christmas morning in Ft Lauderdale. Gotta love our Christmas tree. You have to give up some things when you vacation over Xmas. No complaints here.

Family in Paris

Last weekend we met my family in Paris. Let me say first, it is hard work to take a group of people around Paris especially when you are not getting paid!, but we still had a lot of fun. Below I have posted a couple of pics from the trip.
This is my favorite picture taken at Chateau de Versailles.

Mathieu charming anyone and everyone who is willing to look at him.

My grandfather who is approaching 94 years old is still travelling the world like he was in his 20s (just a bit slower). I don't know how he does it.

Mom, Aunt Karen and Papa heading to Versaille on the train.

Uncle Ralph and Aunt Madlyn hiding from the family on the train to Versailles

Annual US Trip

New York and Boston

We just got back from a trip to the US. Other than the baby jet lag we are back to normal now. The trip was everything we expected and more. We decided last May to do this trip because Air France/Delta started offering a direct flight from Lyon to NY in August and Valerie had a free flight.

Before the flight day we were a bit nervous because Mathieu had recently had ear problems. In fact the night before he didn't sleep. We aren't sure if it was because of the ears but it made the flight over that much more difficult.

During the flight he did better than we expected. We were worried that he was going to be as difficult as when we took our first flight to the US back in May to California. During that flight we spent 15 hours trying to calm him down. Sorry passengers.

Once over in the NY we visited some family about an hour north of the city. We had a wonderful time and they all loved meeting Mathieu for the first time.

Following our family visit we headed up to Boston. Neither of us have been up there before and I have an old college friend who I haven't seen in over 10 years living out there. We did a home exchange in Boston which once again worked out perfectly. We stayed in Cambridge and had the chance to do the freedom trail, Harvard, MIT and spend a wonderful evening catching up with my V.J. and his wife. We traveled down south to visit the Cape but neither of us were overly impressed. We were expecting ocean views throughout the drive but the road goes down the center of the Cape and there is no ocean views unless you find a private road off the beaten path and we didn't have a ton of time to explore. However, we did like P-town. We were there on Election day and there were a bunch groups out pushing their opinions on the street.

We found the north of Boston to be much more interesting. We visited Gloucester, Marblehead, Essex, Salem and Rockport. These beautiful fishing towns were exactly what we wanted to see.

From Boston, we headed down to NY where we did a second home exchange in Brooklyn. This needs a bit of explaining. The couple from NY had already stayed in our Lyon home back in August while we were up in Brittany.

It was the first time we have been to Brooklyn and we will definitely be going back there if possible. It is known by New Yorkers as the place you move to when you are ready to have a family. The whole town seems to be taylored to kids and the home we stayed in was heaven for Mathieu. They had more toys than a toy store! On top of that I found a beer and sandwich store down the street that was my heaven.

In NY we visiting the Empire State Bldg, Central park, and of course Brooklyn. We also spent some time with a couple of my friends Gabe and Sarah who live in the city.

Of course, I should mention the shopping. If you are ever in NY or Boston, it is a must to stop at Filene's Basement. This store has everything at outlet prices.

Well, now we are back in France already thinking about our next vacation.

Nimes

They stole our baby.

Matt and Mahe

Fun in the tub and who will get up to the top of the slide first.

Carcassonne (11th century village) Valerie and her cousin