Marmots are everywhere. Mathieu really liked them.

Our home for the night. The owners were very nice and we the dinner was superb.

View from refuge. Mathieu is happy to be out of the baby carrier. We have finally arrived at the refuge.

Off in the distance you can see the refuge. It doesn't look to far but this pic is deceiving considering the fact that there is a large drop off just up ahead. Here we are still about 1 hour away.

Mathieu giving daddy's back a break.

Parc de la Vanoise

"Val and Mathieu in front of the small lake we encountered just after starting our hike."

Last weekend we spent a night at a Refuge called Entré Deux Eaux in the Parc de la Vanoise. The Parc de la Vanoise is a national park in Savoie (not to be mistaken with Haute Savoie where Val’s father lives) about 2 and ½ hours from Lyon.

The refuge is located up at 2300 meters and there is still snow on the ground in some areas. We weren’t quite prepared for this seeing as we were both wearing running shoes (opps). However, it wasn’t enough snow to stop us especially when you see views. It takes about 2 hours normally to get to the refuge from the parking area. However, we managed to get lost adding an extra hour and we ran across a waterfall that we could not cross so we had to turn back and find another way down.Coming back up was difficult but shorter since we knew what not to do.

It's Already Over - US Annual Trip

Today I am suffering from post vacation/ jet lag blues.. Depressed, very depressed… We got back home at 8pm on Sunday night after a grueling 15 hours of flights. No time to acclimatize since we both had to work Monday morning so we dropped our bags did a tiny bit of unpacking and went straight to bed.

Well, today is Tuesday and I feel completely exhausted. Mathieu slept all day yesterday and of course was wide awake at 2am in the morning. My guess is that he will sleep all day today as well and be awake again at 2am. The good news is that we have a short work week thanks to a holiday on Thursday. We are going to make it a long weekend and head to Ardeche a bit south of Lyon. It should be fun and allow us to recuperate a bit from our vacation : ) Nothing like the French life style…

It was really difficult to leave this the US this time. Probably because the apt exchange that we did (once again a success) couldn’t have been better. As I mentioned in a previous blog we stayed in Oceanside. Well, the apt lived up to all expectations and Oceanside was a lot more fun than we expected. The complex included a pool, spa, gym and a view of the ocean from our balcony. On top of that we were no more than 100 yards from the ocean. It was definitely one of the most relaxing vacations we have taken.

Each morning consisted of surfing, pool, gym and/or all the above. Mathieu spent a ton of time swimming and jumping of the edge of the pool into daddy’s and mommy’s arms. He definitely preferred the pool over the beach and ocean. The afternoons consisted of the usual SD hotspots: PB, downtown, Del Mar, La Jolla and several margaritas, chips and salsa.

We were a bit disappointed that we couldn’t eat a burger at Hodads though. We stopped by one afternoon around 3pm and there was a line down the street thanks to a recent ranking putting it in the top 5 US hamburger joints.

We broke up the vacation with a short weekend in Sac. My Mom had spent the week with us in Oceanside so the visit to Sac was to see the rest of the family and to meet the newest addition Sarah Coolican who was born 2 months earlier. It was great to see everyone and we can’t wait to see most of the family again here in Paris in July.

Here is a quick update from a previous blog. If you follow the blog you know we had a problem with getting a car seat for Mathieu. We didn’t want to pay $160 to rent one. Well, we solved the issue by finding a local Target about 5 minutes from LAX. Yes, we had to take Mathieu there without a car seat. We bought the car seat for $59 and used it throughout the trip and then returned it on the way out. Not very ethical I know, but extremely effective and cheap :)

Annual US Trip

A Little Update

An epic snowboarding season is coming to an end. This year’s snow fall was exceptional. Although we didn’t get to do the Vallée Blanche as planned due to bad weather on both the weekends we tried to go, we did get plenty of snowboarding and skiing in. I even skied for the first time in about 10 years. It felt like riding a bike. I lost a bit but not a ton. I can still manage the bumps pretty well. There may still be one more weekend of boarding left but I am not holding my breath. Depends on how Valerie feels when she gets back this Saturday.

Valerie had an extra week of vacation so she took off to Italy with her father and Mathieu leaving me at home to work. It is the first time I have been away from Mathieu this long. I definitely miss seeing him in the morning and the evening but on the other hand, it is nice to have a week to myself.

On a side note, I am devoting this week to kicking off the process for getting French citizenship. I am now eligible so I just need to fill out the dossier and printing out about a 20 copies of crap that prove that I am married and living in France and am not a criminal. Of course, typical to the French administration, if I forget even one copy or don’t sign in the right spot I will be turned away so I am really concentrating on make sure everything is correctly filled out and exactly in the order required. Other than having my U.S documents translated into French the hardest part will be obtaining my FBI background check.

Once, the dossier is complete it takes about a year. In that time, my wife and I will be required to meet with the administration to prove we are married and I will have to meet with the police where they will give me an oral test to prove I can speak and understand French.

Hopefully in a little over a year I will have dual-citizenship just like Mathieu! I will keep you all updated.

P.S. We are looking forward to seeing everyone in California next month…

Couple of more pics from the wkd

Snowshoeing in Haute Savoie. This was fun but next weekend we are going to have a fondue at the midpoint. I am looking forward to that.
















Oscar is happier than Mathieu.

And the winter continues

Yes it is still winter here. Mathieu and Oscar are enjoying it and so are we.

This was last weekend so we are looking forward to skiing this weekend (yes I will be skiing instead of snowboarding). I haven't skied in about 8 years and we are planning to ski the Valley Blanche in Chamonix at the end of March which is supposed to be one of the most exciting out of bounds descents in the Alps starting at 12,500 ft. The hardest part is getting down to the area for skiing since you must walk along a ridge that drops off 1000s of feet on either side. Unfortunately, snowboarding the valley would require a lot of walking so I am going to ski a couple of days and hopefully I will remember how everything works before we go.

Annual US Trip Planning is Under Way

We are heading to SD and Sacramento again. Well now that we have our trip booked and lodging covered, albeit not in San Diego but in Oceanside. It wasn't easy to find a couple to exchange homes with this year due to the current economic climate, however, we did find a willing couple and they have a place in Oceanside right off the beach. We will be about 5 minutes from Carlsbad and right near the Oceanside pier. I am looking forward to waking up in the morning and going surfing. It sounds like it is going to be a cool place to stay.

Anyway, there are a couple of things still up in the air. We still need to rent a car in LA and drive down and with the car comes the baby seat issue. We do not want to carry a baby seat over from France. We will already be carrying 2 big bags and a couple carry-ons. So I looked at the price of renting a car seat from the car rental place and it is $10/day.

Hmm, 16 days x $10 = $160. Can you say RIPPPPOFFFF!

So now I am looking at other options. I have checked Craigslist but so far there is nothing and anyway it is too far out. I have also looked at Ebay, once again too far out and nothing in the neighborhood. That leaves us with one last option assuming neither of those works out, and that is to buy one at the nearest store. I have found a Walmart nearby (within a few miles) that I can order the baby seat online and have it delivered to the store for in-store pickup. The cost: $65. Total savings $95. Personally, I am willing to run to the store, pick it up and then come back and get Val and Mathieu if necessary.

This of course, leaves one problem which we still have not figured out. What do we do with the car seat once we return the car? Well, there is always the possibility of Craigslist and meeting the person near the airport. But being a bit devious, I am thinking that maybe it would be possible to return the car seat… Hmmm, maybe, just maybe…

A little update

We went up to Metz 2 weeks ago to celebrate the 80^th birthday of Valerie’s uncle. On the way up there as we passed the toll booth just outside of Metz, the temperature registered 10 degrees. “Welcome to the Arctic”. Yes, it was cold, fricken cold! Metz is a beautiful city but I have trouble understanding how people can endure winter there. I know it doesn’t get as cold as the midwest of the US (especially recent temps in the Midwest) but come on how do you live in this weather. I guess California weather is ingrained in me.

We didn’t spend much time outside since it was so cold but we did manage to get out and buy a few things since January in France is “Les Soldes” meaning “Sale time”. Valerie and I both managed to find a couple of things to buy plus everything is generally cheaper in Metz than in Lyon which makes it easier to find good bargains.

News from Mathieu

Mathieu is starting to talk. He is blabbing about everything saying mama and papa for the most part to the right person and he is saying “doudou” which is the French term for “preferred stuffed animal”. When he arrives at daycare in the morning he runs over to the “doudou” wall, finds his doudou and says “doudou”. He even says “toutou” which is the slang term for dog.

He is really easygoing. We can take him anywhere and he just seems to get along with whoever is there. Last night we went to dinner with some friends and we left him down at the end of the table in a high chair. He was having a blast with throwing his arms up in the air with our friend Irvin for half the night.

Anyway, we were up in the mountains last weekend with friends but we didn’t get to go boarding but we are heading back up this weekend to board. We did take Mathieu out on the sled. I will post some pics in the next few days. He is not sure about the whole sled and snow thing yet. I think we are going to have to wait until next year.