French for a While

1000, the Easy Way (part 5)

2012-01-28T22:01:00.001+01:00

THERE. DID IT.

1000, the Easy Way (part 4)

2012-01-28T21:58:00.004+01:00

ON THIS BLOG...

1000, the Easy Way (part 3)

2012-01-28T21:58:00.002+01:00

TO 1000 POSTS...

1000, the Easy Way (part 2)

2012-01-28T21:57:00.001+01:00

TO CREATIVELY GET...

1000, the Easy Way (part 1)

2012-01-28T21:56:00.002+01:00

I'M JUST TRYING...

La Semaine des Humanities

2012-01-27T22:10:00.001+01:00

I GOT THE chance to do something fun this week at the school where I teach. Each year the CIV puts on something called the La Semaine des Humanities -- a week long series of lectures, films, presentations, classes, and exhibits dedicated to a particular theme with the area of the humanities. This year the theme was Les Lumières -- The Enlightenment.

A colleague and I were asked to do a couple of presentations for the 'fête' and since we both teach in the American section of the school we decided to put together something that focused on an American writer: Thomas Paine. Using his great book Rights of Man as a guide, we tried to illustrate how his ideas about political rights influenced the American and French revolutions. (For example: showing how his essay 'Common Sense' helped spark a revolution in American and 'Rights of Man' helped defend a revolution in France). My colleague is the head of the literature department so she focused on how Paine used language and literature to get his message to the common people and my role was to put Paine in historical context -- talk about the environment in which he was writing, both in American and in France and comment on how and why the political environment shaped his views (including his reaction to Edmund Burke's position on the French Revolution).

But then we went a step further.

We recently met a student on campus who lives in the dormitories and is in his first year of the prépa program (a highly selective post-high school program in science and mathematics). His name is Nabil Ben Youseff and he is Tunisian -- he lives in downtown Tunis. Last January, while many around the world watched Tunisia launch the 'Arab Spring', he was marching in the streets, calling for his president to leave the country. He was, to put it simply, participating in a revolution. He is a very smart kid who becomes very animated and excited when he talks about what his country did 12 months ago. The stories he tells are full of such emotion that you could listen to him all day and not get tired of it.

Well, we brought him in to help us tie together Thomas Paine's ideas from 200 years ago with the feelings of Tunisians in 2011. Our presentation was called: 'The Lights are Still On: Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, and Three Revolutions." We gave the presentation twice during the week and if nothing else, we enjoyed ourselves. Although my Lit. colleague and I did quite a bit of work putting the presentation together, it was Nabil who was the star of the show. His stories (and hand-made cell phone videos) and experiences put a "real" face on what can often be a "history-book-only" kind of topic.

Loads of fun. It is a wonderful week each year and this year I was happy to be a part of it.

Who is to Blame for WWII?

2012-01-20T22:15:00.000+01:00

THAT WAS THE question by 1ere students debated in class today and they did a terrific job. Each student was given a character/organization to represent and they were asked to prepare a 2-3 minute presentation on the following two questions: 1) what role did your character play in the onset of WWII, and 2) why was the war NOT your character's fault. After the presentations were completed, the final hour of class was dedicated to a free debate where students were encouraged to argue for who they thought was most responsible for the outbreak of WWII.

Once again, the MUN-style debate (where students represent other people's views, not their own) worked great. Our characters today included the usual suspects (Hitler, Stalin, Chamberlain, Mussolini, Daladier, FDR) and a few others (Molotov, Ribbentrop, Marx, Churchill, the League of Nations).

Tournament I Champion

2012-01-20T16:00:00.000+01:00

THE INAUGURAL FAMILY double-elimination Wii tournament is now in the books and I have to (somewhat reluctantly) announce the Kerri is the champion. Our first tourney was Wii bowling and Kerri rocked us all, making it through without a loss. (Damnit!)

We're doing one tournament per week and this week is golf. I should be the early favorite, but you never know.

Winter Wonderland

2012-01-19T22:29:00.000+01:00

BOTH KERRI AND I consider ourselves winter-lovers -- and by that I mean that we enjoy cold temperatures and lots of snow. But I have to say, if I can't have that, I'll take what we've had over the past several weeks. It has been absolutely stunning almost every day since before Christmas with temperatures in the high teens (Celsius) and clear, blue skies. The mornings are cold enough to make it feel like (sort of) winter and the afternoon sun makes it possible to open the doors in the house and look out at the sea.

Not exactly a Winter Wonderland in the traditional sense, but a Winter Wonderland nonetheless.

Photo taken from our balcony last week. Over the past few weeks, most days have looked just like this.

Call Me By My Wii Name

2012-01-11T22:44:00.001+01:00

THIS EVENING WE started the first of a series of Family Wii Tournaments on our new Nintendo game system. I'm a little bummed because I lost to my 13-year old son in the opening round of Wii Bowling, but I'm happy to report that our tournaments are all double elimination [props to the double elimination printable brackets I found online] so if I can win the loser bracket I'll be right back into the championship match. In the play-in round (hey, we have to have one -- we have an odd number in the family) Kerri beat Julia and racked up an impressive 194 in the process.

Of course, no Wii tournament can begin until each family member has a Wii-profile -- complete with nickname, and visual likeness. I now present the family Wii names:

Jonathan = J$ (pronounced J-Money)
Kerri - KWow (Kuh-wow, not Kay-wow)
Patrick - PDogg (yes, the second 'g' is critical)
Julia - JuicyQ (the Q is for Queen)
Henry - HennerG (as in energy)

From now on we will answer to either our given names or our Wii names.

Andrew Sullivan's Readers are Awesome, Part II

2012-01-10T22:30:00.004+01:00

READ THE NEXT post for the background, but this a video created by the guy who won this week's View From Your Window contest over at Andrew Sullivan's blog. I'm posting this because the photo in this week's contest is one I took during our little road trip during the Christmas holidays. (Not the photo in the screen shot below, but at the beginning of the video).

Andrew Sullivan's Readers are Awesome

2012-01-10T22:22:00.001+01:00

MY MORNING ROUTINE centers around coffee and the internet. After pouring a warm cup of coffee I love spending a bit of time catching up on what I missed during the night: checking email, browsing news headlines, looking and sports scores, and hitting a few of my favorite political websites. I tend to have a certain order in which I complete this Tour de Web (as we all often do) and somewhere near the top of the list is Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish, a popular blog that generates millions of hits per month and won the Weblog Award for Best Blog in 2008.

One cool feature on Sullivan's blog is a weekly contest called the The View From Your Window where he posts a reader-submitted photo (always a view from a window and always posted on Saturdays) and invites readers to try to guess the location of the object in the photo. It has become a very popular posts each week and readers will often spend hours trying to find the exact location of the photo. Most weeks, it is stunning (dare I say scary) to see how many readers can not only find the location of the photo, but pinpoint exactly where it was taken from. Results are posted on Tuesday afternoons and the person who's guess is the closest gets a free The View From Your Window book (yes, the contest has not become a beautiful coffee-table book).

Well, last Saturday afternoon I was in Nice and I got an email from Sullivan (or somebody at the Dish) saying they were going to use a photo I had submitted a few days earlier for the contest. The photo was from...well, I won't tell you where I took it until you have a chance to see it and try to guess for yourself. The results are now up and can be seen here. Below is the photo I submitted in case you want to give it a shot before you see what Sullivan's readers guessed. If you follow this blog at all you'll remember that I posted it during our trip. I took it down when I was told it was going to be used for the contest, but apparently that didn't matter much because several readers found the location by putting the photo in a google search and this blog came up (even though the photo had been deleted). You'll see from the results that this week's contest was a pretty easy one -- readers found several clues in the photo and had little trouble finding the location. But that has to be partly because Daily Dish readers are so unbelievable awesome.

Anyway, here's the photo. [Oh, make sure you watch the video submitted by the guy who eventually won the contest. It shows how he "found" the location of the picture. Very cool!']

The Final Country

2012-01-09T21:47:00.001+01:00

FINAL STOP ON our trip from a couple weeks ago:

On the Austria-Slovakia border between Vienna and Bratislava

Ahhh...Starbucks on the Danube. Only place we found it on the entire trip was Vienna.

Silly faces, I guess.

Arena in Verona, Italy. Built in AD 30.

The Biggest Surprise of the Trip

2012-01-03T23:03:00.000+01:00

OUR WINTER ROAD trip officially ended at about 6:10pm on the night of January 1, 2012 when we pulled into our driveway at the end of seven days 2954 km of travel. About one minute later we got a surprise that we certainly were not expecting.

As I went to open our front door, I noticed something that looked like a magazine or a newspaper on our front step. Because the outdoor lights were not on I couldn't make out exactly what it was, but I suspected it was something that a neighbor had dropped off and didn't think much about it. Once I opened the front door and turned on the front lights, I reached down to retrieve the item and held it in the light to get a better look. What I saw actually startled me and I was in a bit of a daze for about 10 seconds. In my had was a copy of my hometown (and favorite) newspaper, The Washington Post. That was odd, to be sure, but what threw me for a loop was the date on the top of the front page: January 1, 2012.

I was standing in a small village in France holding that day's morning paper from Washington, DC.

When Kerri came up our front steps I turned and showed her the paper. We both then knew what was going on, though we were not sure how it had transpired. What was clear was that someone had put that paper on our door that day; someone who had been in DC within the last 24 hours.

Yep, Kerri's parents! They were here. They had completely surprised us. They had taken the New Year's Eve flight from DC and arrived in Nice around mid-day on the 1st. We had no idea they were coming.* They had finally pulled a fast one on us after years of us pulling fast ones on them (though, admittedly, not nearly a big as this one). We knew they didn't have a key so we went to the computer and Skyped them. Sure enough, the background that came up when Kerri's dad answered bore no resemblance to their house and instead looked vaguely like a hotel room. It didn't take us long to discover that it was the Hotel Campanile in Chateauneuf-de-Grasse -- a mere 4 km from our house. 20 minutes later they pulled up to our house and surprise was complete.

Well done, Poppop and GiGi!! You got us good.

*Though I should admit the Kerri was a bit suspicious for reasons I won't go in to -- and she kept telling me something was going on. Now we know what it was.

Home...But What A Week!

2012-01-01T23:42:00.000+01:00

OUR NEW YEAR'S Day lunch was in Verona, Italy. We were only in the old-town for about 2 hours, but with the sun shining, the market hopping, and our delicious (and cheap) pizza/salad lunch, it was a fun couple hours.

But it's good to be back home. Patrick and Julia had 'travel books' where they kept information about our trip (km traveled per day, favorite cities, cost of tolls, favorite foods, historical facts, drawings, foreign words learned, etc). Maybe tomorrow we'll go through the books and add up the total mileage, but for now a map and short summary will be enough:

Day 1: Le Rouret - Trieste, Italy
Day 2: Trieste - Budapest (stops in Ljublijana and Zagreb)
Day 3: Budapest
Day 4: Budapest - Bratislava
Day 5: Bratislava
Day 6: Bratislava - Padova, Italy (stop in Vienna)
Day 7: Padova - Le Rouret (stop in Verona)

What a New Year's Eve!

2012-01-01T09:41:00.000+01:00

WE HAD HIGH hopes for New Year's Eve this year. In the midst of a seven-country little road trip we were excited about how we might spend the final few hours of 2011: Listening to Mozart along the banks of the Danube in Vienna? Eating fresh pasta in Verona, home of Romeo and Juliet? Nibbling on panettone in the main square in Venice? We had lots of options, but finally ended up here:

Get ready...

Take-out Chinese at the Padova, Italy Hotel Campanile. Ringin' in 2012 with Style!
Photo: December 31, 2011, 11:26 pm.

Cup of Coffee Road Trip, Day 7

2012-01-01T07:00:00.000+01:00

TODAY'S PLANNED ROUTE: Verona, Italy - Home. About 450 km. Happy New Year!!!

Cup of Coffee Road Trip, Day 6

2011-12-31T07:00:00.000+01:00

TODAY'S PLANNED ROUTE: Bratislava, Slovakia - Verona, Italy. 710km. (Staying in a friend's apartment since he is away for the holidays). New Year's Eve, Romeo and Juliet Style.

[Update: because of our slight change in itinerary, today is going to be a long day. In addition to the drive we're going to squeeze in a few hours in Vienna. Not long enough, we're certain, but enough time to grab a cup of...well, you know.]

Bratislava Loves Satan

2011-12-30T23:33:00.003+01:00

THAT'S MIROSLAV SATAN, to be specific -- and it's pronounced Sha-tan.

Satan is a former All-Star and Stanley Cup Winner who played on 4 teams in the National Hockey League in the States. He was a very good player for about 10 years, scoring 40 goals on at least one occasion. Now, at age 36, he plays in the Slovakian Extraliga for HC Slovan Bratislava and is currently the third leading scoring in the league. I know this because a) I'm a sports nerd who knows stupid things like this, and 2) I saw him play last night. The Exraliga is one of the top leagues in Europe and the whole family went to a game against Dukla Trencin. HC Slovan Bratislava won 3-0.

It was a home game so we're not sure why the team bus was out front.

Seven rows from the glass. Ticket price: 6 Euros.

Watching the action.

The aforementioned Satan.

Jumbo-tron says it all. HC Slovan Bratislava wins 3-0.

I swear this game was purely a coincidence. In no way did I plan our 'Cup of Coffee Road Trip' around the fact that the Bratislava team would be in town while we were. Scout's Honor.

Funny Bratislava

2011-12-30T23:04:00.001+01:00

THIS IS ~~CZECHO~~SLOVAKIA. We'll visit three cities on the Danube during our little trip and today was the second: Bratislava, Slovakia. Though it is the large downtown castle that dominates the skyline (see left), we found the most charming part of the city are the various, somewhat random bronze sculptures that are positioned around the old section of town. We learned that they have become one of the main attractions in Bratislava and the number of people lining up to take photos with the statues sort of confirmed this fact. People love them because they are fun, almost funny (as you'll see).

The streets of old-town are littered with coffee shops and little boutiques and the large square in front of the National Theater has been transformed into...you guessed it...an outdoor public ice rink. That's always good in our book.

Actually, not one of the statues, but a couple of cute figures outside a craft store.

Posing for the statue aptly called 'the photographer'.

This sculpture, called 'Cumil the Peeper', is of a sewer worker taking a break and watching people pass by. Our kids, of course, thought he looked like a "guy from World War I" so they got into firing position around him.

Seem appropriate that we get a photo with 'the French Soldier'.

Oh, look. I even got in a cup of coffee in Bratislava. Why is this guy taking my hat?

Downtown Bratislava

What a fantastic city -- one that is surely underneath the radar of most people traveling around Europe.

Cup of Coffee Road Trip, Day 5

2011-12-30T07:00:00.000+01:00

TODAY'S PLANNED ROUTE: Sort of a rest day again, but the plan is to spend the day in Vienna, Austria. [Update: Switching plans a bit and will do Vienna tomorrow. Today will be spent in Bratislava].

Coffee, Cottage Cheese, and Chocolate

2011-12-29T22:30:00.000+01:00

DAY TWO OF two in Budapest today. Cold, great, beautiful, yummy! First of all, yes, I had a cup of coffee in Budapest so let's just get that photo out of the way:

But the real treats came a bit later at the Christmas market where we tried a few traditional Hungarian food items, such as:

Lángos - a sort of bread pizza. This one is cottage cheese and dill.

Yes, cottage cheese and dill "pizza". Fantastic!

For desert we had a few bars of Túró Rudi -- which is basically cottage cheese (curd, really) covered in a thin layer of chocolate. How is it possible that Kerri and I went 40 years without havingchocolate covered cottage cheese?

The incredible market near the river. Two levels, masses amounts of fruit, veggies, and meats.

The market from the outside. One of the most beautifully decorated buildings we say.

Pretty Amazing During the Day, Too

2011-12-29T22:00:00.000+01:00

YESTERDAY I POSTED a photo of the Budapest Parliament at night. Today during out bus tour we got to see it from across the river during the daytime. Just as spectacular! [Note: At first, I was upset the lady in the photo was in the way -- but Kerri has convinced me it's a cooler shot with her there. She's right].

Cup of Coffee Road Trip, Day 4

2011-12-29T07:00:00.000+01:00

TODAY'S PLANNED ROUTE: Budapest, Hungary - Bratislava, Slovakia. 200 km.

Not Much Rest on our 'Rest Day'

2011-12-28T22:22:00.000+01:00

NO POINT, REALLY, in trying to describe the beauty of Budapest in a short blog post. It is, quite simply, a stunning city -- especially at night. We went full-tourist and got one of the hop-on-hop-off bus tours and it was worth it (as it usually is, we have found). The company we used also had a boat option so we took the night tour along the Danube and the trip was simply incredible. I'm usually not big on superlatives, but 'most beautiful city I've ever seen at night' might fit in this case (a quick search of Google will bring up some gorgeous photos). Of course, we did other things as well:

Certainly the largest ice rink I have ever seen. Six hockey rinks can fit along the width of this skating area near Hero's Square.

Naturally, we had to skate.

Won't use a superlative this time, but I've never seen a better Christmas market.

Already forgot what these are called (someone might be able to help). Basically, it's BBQ rotisserie pastry dough
with cinnamon and/or sugar sprinkled all over.

One of the fantastic bridges that spans the Danube and connects the old Buda with Pest.

My very average camera only got one or two good photos during our night boat tour. This was one of them: the Budapest Parliament building.

Oddly enough, I haven't had my 'Cup of Coffee' yet, partly because we have a kitchen in our hotel/apartment so Kerri and I had coffee 'on the inside' today. But I'll get that cup before we leave tomorrow afternoon.

We Love This Apartment

2011-12-28T21:00:00.000+01:00

ACTUALLY, WE LOVE being in the city. Our apartment/hotel is on a main road in the heart of Budapest and we're especially fond of the view: nothing special, mind you, but just a great city street.

Bedroom 1: Cute, clean, simple, comfortable.

(Photo taken out -- I'll explain later)

Cup of Coffee Road Trip, Day 3

2011-12-28T07:00:00.000+01:00

TODAY'S PLANNED ROUTE: We'll call today a Rest Day. Spending the entire day in Budapest, Hungary. O km. (Scroll down for photos from yesterday).

Proof!

2011-12-27T23:43:00.000+01:00

LOTS OF BORDER crossings today. We got out of the car for a photo at a couple... We've made it to Budapest and are in our cute little 2-bedroom apartment where we will stay until Thursday. After 1370km in two days, we're ready for a day without the car.

We were told these were Croatian specialties. Whatever they are, they were fantastic.

Walking around Zagreb at dusk.

It's Not Called the 'Cup of Coffee Road Trip' for Nothing

2011-12-27T23:20:00.004+01:00

SOME PROOF AND evidence from our trip. All of these photos were taken today...

Trieste, Italy - 9:42am

Ljubljana, Slovenia - 11:45am
(This was actually tea, not coffee. But it was a traditional Slovenian tea that
resembled hot, sweetened iced-tea. Fantastic.

Zagreb, Croatia - 3:30pm

Henry getting in on the action.

Cup of Coffee Road Trip, Day 2

2011-12-27T07:00:00.000+01:00

TODAY'S PLANNED ROUTE: Trieste, Italy - Budapest, Hungary (with Cup of Coffee stops in Ljubljna, Slovenia and Zagreb, Croatia). 440 km.

Auto Updates

2011-12-26T08:07:00.001+01:00

I SEE THE auto-update function is working fine. I've pre-written updates for each stage of our trip in case we find ourselves without internet access. Those updates should appears at 7:00 each morning. Each day the planned route will be posted, and if we find the time we'll try to update the posts with a few photos.

Here we go...

Cup of Coffee Road Trip, Day 1

2011-12-26T07:00:00.000+01:00

TODAY'S PLANNED ROUTE: Le Rouret, France - Trieste, Italy. 745km.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T17:12:00.001+01:00

OURS STARTED AT about 4:45 thanks to the long-standing tradition in our family the children wake up at an hour normally reserved for farmers on Christmas morning. It's a bit harder to do when you are the parent, but after a big mug of coffee, Kerri and I were ready to go and we felt like we were 12 again. (That changed to feeling like we are 75 a few hours later, but that's not the point).

We had a wonderful morning and we hope you did too. Merry Christmas.

Tomorrow we head off for a bit of a road trip so we still have a lot to do before this Christmas day is over.

Cup of Coffee Road Trip

2011-12-24T14:30:00.000+01:00

THIS WILL MAKE more sense if you've already seen this post about our upcoming little road trip. Without revealing exactly where we are going, the following clues might help if you want to guess. Here is some pre-trip information:

We will be gone about one week.
We will cover nearly 3000 km
Including the country we live in, we hope to drive through 8 countries, six of which the kids have never been to before (Kerri and I have not been to at least 4 of them).
We will spend nights in 4 different countries
We will be in some countries only long enough to have a cup of coffee (almost literally) and buy a refrigerator magnet to add to our collection.
We will not always be able to use Euros
We will be attending a professional ice hockey match
New Year's Eve with the Montegues and the Capulets?

Almost too easy, I know. Guessing the direction we will be traveling is probably the easiest part.

Road Trip 2011

2011-12-24T09:34:00.004+01:00

THIS YEAR WILL be the first time we have celebrated the holidays "on our own" since moving to France. Over the past few years we have either gone back to the US for Christmas (once) or welcomed parents/in-laws/brothers (3 times). Since we are alone this year we have decided to make use of the second week of vacation and embark on what we are calling (and by that I mean what I am calling) our Cup of Coffee Road Trip 2011.

As is often the case, I am utilizing a vague sports metaphor to convey a concept or idea; and as is also often the case, the metaphor doesn't really work -- but I'm using it anyway. In professional sports it is common for minor league players to get a chance to play a few games with the top-level club when they are young -- perhaps because a top-level guy is injured or perhaps just to give the young player a bit of experience. This is sometimes referred to as "having a cup of coffee" in the big leagues -- as this completely made-up dialogue illustrates:

Veteran Bill: Hey rookie, life is pretty good up with the big club isn't it.
Rookie: Yeah, it's pretty sweet. But the GM tells me I'm going back down at the end of the week.
Veteran Bill: Oh, so you're just here for a cup of coffee?
Rookie: Huh?

Our trip will sort of follow that same theme: short stays in countries where we have never been (get it: just long enough for a "cup of coffee"?). Because we never really know how long we are going to be here, we decided to just get in the car and go see some things we haven't seen before. Where are we going? Well, that will be unveiled as we go. A few friends and family know some of the details of our trip, but most do not.

Coming up in the next post: Cup of Coffee Road Trip 2011 Guessing Game! Stay tuned.

McDonalds to the Rescue

2011-12-22T11:25:00.000+01:00

ONE OF THE many things I miss about life in the US is easy access to public internet connections -- WiFi. In France it is very difficult to find places where you can plop down with a laptop and get free access to the web. Unless, of course; you are at a McDonalds; one of the few places in this country that opening touts ts Wi-Fi Gratuit policy. I know the need for these kinds of hot-spots are decreasing because of smart phones and iPads, but there are times (like today) when I am not able to be at home and I need to get some things done and I just need an internet connection.

I'm trying to get some research and writing done while Kerri and Julia do some last minute shopping. Normally I would have just stayed home but we wanted to take our car to the garage for a check-up before next week so we had to take both vehicles. But rather than tag along on the shopping excursion, I had myself dropped off at a local Micky D's where I will now ~~surf the net~~ get some work done.

Time to dig into Russia's recent WTO accession. Fun times at McDonalds.

Vive l'Italie?

2011-12-20T20:40:00.002+01:00

EVERY TIME WE go over to Italy, I wish we went more often. If for no other reason, the prices. Just a few minutes from the French border you can find huge pizzas for 4-5 euros and parmigiano-reggiano cheese for nearly half the price of the same cheese in France.

Yesterday was Kerri's birthday so the kids decided "Lunch in Italy" was a good way to spend the afternoon. We went to one of our favorite small villages -- Dolceacqua -- and tried to eat at pizzeria we have been to on a few occasions but it was closed do to the fact that it was...Monday. So, we crossed over the 1st century bridge that leads to the old section of the villages and ate at another little place just off the main square. Three large pizzas, a four-cheese gnocci, salad, bottled water, and a terrific fresh-tomato bruschetta later, I paid the €35 bill and we got ready to present Kerri with one of her gifts: a stop at the local Lidl (a sort of discount supermarket here in Europe). You can get fantastic bargains at Lidl stores in France, but the deals are even bigger in Italy. (Just one quick example: I bought a case [15] of canned tomatoes for €4.35. It was like being at Cosco!).

We gotta go more often. Oh, turns out we'll be going again in less than a week. More on that later.

Photo: arial view of Dolceacqua, Italy -- just 7 km north of Ventimiglia.

Normal Sunday?

2011-12-18T11:48:00.002+01:00

IT'S SNOWING OUTSIDE, we have no heat (the guys who came on Friday apparently forgot to switch something back on), the electricity keeps going on and off, a fire is raging in the fireplace (well done, Kerri), the women of the house are baking Swedish pastries, Henry is roller-blading around the house, and Patrick is dressed like Ebeneezer Scrooge (slippers, robe, flannel pants, night cap, and walking stick).

All in all, a fairly fun Sunday so far...

Join Us for a Free Concert

2011-12-14T22:49:00.006+01:00

MY SERIOUS MUSIC playing days a long over, but I still enjoy getting together for some tunes from time to time. For the past couple of years I've been playing on-and-off with a group from a neighboring village that plays a lot of traditional provençal music. This fall we decided to get a bit more organized (even got a new name -- Cante'Music), arranged for a few concerts around the area -- mostly in village squares, churches, and at local festivals. This Saturday evening we are playing a Christmas concert at the old Chateau in Le Bar-sur-Loup that will feature a lot of different kinds of music: traditional local, Christmas, Irish tunes, even a couple Beatles numbers for fun. The group features people from the U.S., England, France and Italy and songs are sung in English, French, Italian, and provençal. Perfect. (Hint: the two Americans and the Englishman all teach at the CIV).

If you're around and want to enjoy a bit of music, join us at 20h30 at the Chateau de Bar-Sur-Loup -- right next to the church in the old village.

As the publicity poster says: Entrée Libre

Checklist

2011-12-03T08:22:00.002+01:00

OBVIOUSLY, POSTING REGULARLY on this blog is not high on my list -- but there are a few things to do before Christmas. We're going to be in France for the holidays, and for the first time, we'll we by ourselves. We're mulling some interesting plans for the holidays (what a tease!) and the plans are coming together. But for now:

Dig out Christmas decorations for the house (check!)
Put up wreaths, lights, etc. around the house.
Get Christmas music playing in the house 24/7 (check! -- over my mild objection)
Make Christmas lists (check!)
Head to Target, Old Navy, Crate & Barrel, Home Depot, Ann Taylor, Barnes & Noble to get gifts (Oh wait, we can't do that. Guess I'll go to Carrefour!)
Get Christmas tree (that's happening today)
Start baking Christmas treats (Julia is in charge!)

May try to keep up to date for a while on these (and other) items.

A Little Nice Hockey

2011-11-24T21:17:00.005+01:00

WE'VE BEEN GOING to most of the home ice hockey matches this fall, and the local team is doing very well. Armed with a new crop of Finns and Slovaks, Les Aigles de Nice are sitting tied for 2nd place in France's First Division. The local paper even gave some hockey love today. The story talks about the big increase in atendance at games (we can attest to that!) and Sylvain Roy, the guy mentioned in the headline, is the team captain and the coach of the Nice under-22 team. (Note: Jean-Bouin is the name of the home arena).

We've been spending a lot of time at the ice rink lately as I've mentioned before. Henry and Patrick have started the "Hockey School" sessions on Monday afternoons, and Henry had just been invited to play for the Nice under-9 team, something he is very excited about. His first "game" will be in a few weeks near Aix-en-Provence. Because the nearest sheet of ice is almost 100 km away, it looks like we'll be making a few road trips on Sunday's this winter.

Ready for practice!

Tiring But Never Tired

2011-11-03T21:17:00.005+01:00

LAST WEEK I returned from my 35th trip to Geneva in the past two years. Because I have finished all my coursework, I'm only going every few months now -- just to meet with my adviser to review my project and plan the next steps. With any luck, I'll only have 2 or 3 more trips before I finish the program.

While the trips themselves (both the travel and the work) can be tiring, I never get tired of this view. What a beautiful city:

I also never get tired of the lamb kebabs at Cafe Istanbul near Gare Cornavin -- but I didn't take a photo of that so you'll have to take my word for it. Oh, and the 4 Starbucks shops within walking distance of my hotel are a nice change of pace from the very average coffee I normally get near my house.

This is NOT the Film Festival

2011-11-02T21:54:00.004+01:00

ONE THING IS for certain: the G20 meetings that start in Cannes on Thursday should give all Hollywood-types a little dose of humility. The security measures for the G20 make the Cannes Film Festival look like a picnic for children. Total neighborhood shutdowns; motorway closures; airport closures; school cancellations; alternate traffic patterns; 12,000 police; constant air and sea patrols; and that's just for the days LEADING UP to the meetings.

It's really quite a huge undertaking. We've seen a good deal of evidence

for it already -- from the two policemen stationed at every single overpass on the A8 motorway, to the constant hovering of helicopters. Quite a boost to the local economy, I image -- assuming, of course, the 15,000 expected protesters don't recreate the havoc they created at the EU Summit in Nice in 2000 (good part starts at the 8:00 mark).

The security measures are astounding:

Halloween

2011-11-02T21:41:00.003+01:00

I SUPPOSE IT wouldn't be October (uh, November) without a look at how our family celebrated Halloween. It's not a very popular holiday in France, but I must admit that the French seem to be slowly catching on (as evidenced, perhaps, by the Halloween-themed ice-skating session we went to this afternoon at the Palais Jean-Bouin).

But they haven't caught up enough to make trick-or-treating a sure-fire way to get candy -- so we normally organize our own evening of candy and fun (and, as usual when it comes to planning fun things, when I say 'we' I mean Kerri). And we always make sure to get into our get-ups nice and early.

Sports theme for three out of the four. Psycho pumpkin theme for one of the four.

Cupcakes -- and good, moist ones thanks to the Halloween box that arrived from Kerri's parents.

I don't know that I really have much to say about this one.

Intense, sporty fellas.

Attention Dan Snyder: if the Shanahan thing doesn't work out (and it looks like it may not) I have an idea for your next Head Coach.

Big French Sunday

2011-10-22T16:21:00.004+02:00

SUNDAY IS A big day for French rugby fans -- they will compete in the Rugby World Cup Finals against host-nation New Zealand. If you don't know, New Zealand, or the All Blacks as they are know, are the most iconic team in the world of Rugby and they are perhaps best knows for the Haka dance they do before every match. The Haka is a traditional ancestral war cry that comes from the Maori people of New Zealand. It is absolutely incredible to watch and the clip below is about as good as any you'll see. It's from the last time these two clubs met in the knock-out stage of a World Cup -- back in 2007 when it was here in France (though this match was play, oddly, in Cardiff, Wales). Watch as the French team just stares down the All Blacks. The intensity on both sides is fantastic. France went on to win the match in 2007 and will try to do the same tomorrow. (The Haka starts at the 4:27 mark, but there's also a pretty good rendition of the French national anthem at the 3:00 mark. Nothing like 80,000 singing a national anthem).

I can't believe I'm saying this, but...I can't wait for the rubgy match tomorrow!

Corsica in the Distance?

2011-10-11T07:47:00.003+02:00

CORSICA IS 191 km from our house according to GoogleEarth. The great debate is whether we can see the island from our house. We're convinced that we can, though some of our friends seem to think we are only seeing the "shadow" of the Corsican mountains -- some sort of atmospheric mirage. Well, I put together some evidence on my much-below-average-quality camera. Here's a still shot, and some video evidence follows:

First Hockey Practice

2011-10-03T22:00:00.007+02:00

SINCE WE LIVE on the sunny Cote d'Azur it only seems natural that our youngest son wants to play...ice hockey?

We took Henry to his first hockey practice this afternoon at the Palais des Sport Jean-Bouin in Nice -- the only sheet of ice within 100 km of our house . He has been begging for us to sign him up for a couple weeks so we made the 30 minute trip to the rink and got him all dressed in his "gear". He has never really skated before on ice (well, maybe once at a birthday party) so we were a but unsure how he would manage. We thought the hours of roller-blading he has done over the past few weeks would help, but we weren't sure. To make things a bit more comfortable, his big brother and sister took to the ice with him -- resulting in the rather comical sight of two lanky pre-teens skating with a bunch of munchkin 6-10 year olds. But I digress.

Henry had a blast! He hit the ice with the rest of the kids and barely stopped for 80 minutes. The coach (we think he is Czech) had the kids doing all sorts of drills -- backwards skating, circle

s, squats, fall-down-get-up, etc. When the session was over, Henry asked if we could go back tomorrow. We can't, but we will head back on Wednesday evening for the bourse aux equipements where people bring in the used equipment their kids have grown out of and sell it an cheap prices. We'll be in the market for shin guards, pants, shoulder pads, gloves, and sticks. Size = 6 years old. Oh, and also size 12 year-old because Patrick now wants to do hockey as well.

In a related development, I'm in the market for a higher paying job.

The photos below are dedicated to our friends Jim and Dana and their kids: the only Canadians who have come to visit us since we moved a few years ago!!

A few days ago -- when he was 'practicing' on our porch with roller blades.

This afternoon -- getting ready for a few sprints across the ice.

Learning to shift weight from leg to leg. Sort of looks like a young Crosby, no?

Some steady gliding, it appears.

Helmet said "Made in Sweden" on the back. Perfect!!!

If we're really lucky, he'll play Juniors in Oshawa where he can live with Jim and Dana.

The Office - Two Versions

2011-10-01T08:04:00.001+02:00

I MENTIONED THAT YouTube sent a letter about a video we posted a few years ago. They have blocked the ability to 'embed' the video -- but I was able to work around that and embed it below. For those who don't know what I am talking about, we made a silly knock-off video that copied the opening credits to a popular TV show in the States (originally, a show in England). Here is the original from the show, followed by our French for a While version. OK, I admit we totally stole and concept, but isn't imitation the sincerest form of flattery? Take a look at both:

My Letter from YouTube

2011-09-27T15:40:00.003+02:00

IT'S NOT EXACTLY a 'cease and disist' letter, but I got this email from YouTube today:

Cher/Chère frenchforawhile,

Votre vidéo The Office -- A little French for a While version comporte peut-être du contenu sous licence ou appartenant à NBC Universal.

Aucune action ne vous est demandée. Toutefois, si vous souhaitez connaître les effets produits sur votre vidéo, consultez la rubrique ID de contenu correspondants de votre compte pour obtenir plus d'informations.

Sincerely,
- L'équipe YouTube

So our little video that we made two years ago and has, at last check, been viewed by about 13 people worldwide, has garnered enough interest over at YouTube to have them send me what is probably a self-generating email.

Cool! I gotta get started on our 'Mad Men' rip-off video.

Americans in France

2011-09-25T22:07:00.001+02:00

SO, THOSE GUYS over at La Vie est Belle are fun --all six of them. Spent a very enjoyable afternoon with them today.

Memories of Lyon

2011-09-24T17:53:00.002+02:00

HOCKEY HAS STARTED again in Nice (yes, they have an ice hockey team here!) and we're headed to the game tonight. They will be playing against Lyon, who reached the 1st Division after winning the 2nd division last year. The last time Lyon and Nice played it was for the 2008 2nd Division championship. The match was in Lyon...and we were there!! We even made a little video about it.

The trip to Lyon was also our first time enjoying Starbucks coffee in France. And yes, we made a little video about it...

Lead Story Worth a Read

2011-09-18T08:08:00.010+02:00

MY BROTHER HAS the lead story over at a website called Hockey Independent -- a site that focuses on the National Hockey League in the U.S. (screen shot below). He is one of two people at the site who cover our hometown team - the Washington Capitals - and with training camp now underway the site is preparing for its third year in existence (I think I have that right). Each year the site grows exponentially.

So here's a little love for my little brother. Those of you who are hockey-inclined (there must be at least 7 of you) can follow Jeremy all year at his page on Hockey Independent. Neither of us can wait for the new season to start!

[Note: in order to make sure this post is at least a little bit about me, let me share a quick story from last week at school. As I was picking up a sandwich at the place when I saw a student wearing a bright red Washington Capitals t-shirt with the name 'Ovechkin' on the back (except that it was written in Russian -- Овечкин). I couldn't pass it up so I went up to him and asked him about the shirt (and also showed him the front photo on my phone, which is a photo of center ice at the Verizon Center in DC). Turns out he was Russian, in the Russian section at our school, and a huge Ovechkin/Capitals fan. When I told him I was from DC and I, too, loved hockey and the Caps, he was very pleased. Too bad I didn't have this photo of me wearing Patrick's Ovechkin jersey at last years Carnival at school.]

Enough with the Harry Potter

2011-09-13T21:08:00.003+02:00

ACTUALLY, I DON'T mean that at all -- though I must say this summer has been the Summer of Harry. Perhaps I should have expected this since there are 12 year-old twins living in the house, but the lengths to which Patrick and Julia will go to read Harry Potter books is incredible. Just this summer, Julia started and finished the entire 7 book series -- concluding the final book last night in bed. Patrick is about a book-and-a-half behind -- though he is quick to point out that he is "getting more exercise" than Julia and also reading quite a few sports-related books by John Feinstein and Mike Lupica. Fair point.

On several occasions this summer I went to bed at more normal time -- about 11:00 or 11:30 -- only to find the lights on in the P and J's room. Sometimes they were still reading, but more often they were fast asleep, head comfortably resting on the open pages of one of the Potter books. During our trip to England they didn't even pull out the portable DVD players because the books were too good to put down. One afternoon a couple weeks ago, Julia reclined on the couch with one of the books for more than 5 hours, remaining motionless the entire time -- except for the right hand that would extend every couple of minutes to turn the page. That same day, Patrick nearly collapsed as he exited the bathroom, having not realized that his legs were completely asleep after nearly 45 minutes of reading while on the toilet.

By how can we complain? It is really hard to tell a child to stop reading. Both kids are fairly good readers on the whole -- meaning that they seem to enjoy reading Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, etc. -- but we've never seen the kind of passionate reading that the Harry Potter books brought out. That's something new. I know the books have been around for over 10 years and many parents have experienced the 'Potter Effect', but this was our first encounter and it was truly amazing.

School has started now and the first book they are reading is the Diary of Anne Frank. I hope they like it, but somehow I don't think it's going to meet their now very loft standards.

Sunday Night Lights

2011-09-11T20:46:00.001+02:00

ONE LAPTOP COMPUTER. One overhead projector. One subscription to NFL Game Pass.

One great Sunday evening.

(Julia is even watching...for about 2 minutes)

Remembering, Not Reliving

2011-09-11T08:26:00.008+02:00

I WAS SITTING in my office, 15 miles from the Pentagon when the events of 9/11 began. Kerri was at Baltimore-Washington International Airport dropping off her parents for a planned flight to California. My friend Kevin was in downtown Washington, where he said it sounded like explosions where going off -- probably super-sonic blasts from the scrambling jets. We all know where we were, much like previous generations know where they were when they heard about John F. Kennedy's death or Pearl Harbor. It's hard to imagine that it was 10 years ago.

As I have expressed to several friends in recent days, I have conflicting thoughts how the media is covering this important anniversary. On the one hand, I recognize the importance of honoring all those who died that autumn morning -- especially the first-responders who acted like heroes in their attempt to save others. I recognize that 9/11 shook America in a very meaningful way and those few moments when the planes hit the World Trade Center will be frozen in time forever. I recognize that America was perhaps at its best in the days and weeks after 9/11 as we put aside petty differences and came together as one nation, determined to get through the worst terrorist act in our history. I recognize that the global community did the same -- offering incredible amounts of sympathy and support for their American friends.

But on the other hand I don't want 9/11 to define America. The bastards who attacked us must understand that their mission failed and the United States will not be held hostage by the memories of that day. Images of planes hitting towers, people jumping from buildings, and smoke billowing into the air is understandable -- and perhaps appropriate -- in the days leading up to the 10th anniversary of 9/11. But at the same time there is a sensationalistic component -- playing on emotions -- that makes me uncomfortable. It's as if some media outlets see the anniversary not as a time to remember and reflect, but as an opportunity for some huge ratings. Perhaps that is merely a byproduct of the 24-hour news/internet era, I don't know. What I do know is that there is a balance, and we should strive for it. I hope Americans spend today remembering 9/11, not reliving it.

Whatever happens, we certainly will never forget it.

Tour d'Argent and (Almost) Me

2011-09-07T23:18:00.004+02:00

FRANCE 24, THE 24-hour news channel that broadcasts in both French and English has a special behind-the-scenes look at the famous restaurant Tour d'Argent up on their website at the moment. With spectacular views and a world-famous wine list, Tour d'Argent has been a hot spot since the mid 16th century. The audio slideshow on the France 24 website includes an interesting interview with chef Laurent Delarbre.

18 months ago while in Paris for meetings, I tried to get in to the restaurant as a single diner with no reservation. I didn't get in -- but I did take this photo of the nice gentleman who laughed in my face when I asked if I could get a table-for-one overlooking the Notre Dame.

How Do You Say 'Sailing' in Latin?

2011-09-06T21:30:00.004+02:00

TWINS GOT THEIR schedules today for the new year -- 5eme here in France, 7th grade for those of you back in the States. I'll resist the temptation to write a short analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the French educational system (and believe me, both exist) and instead just run through what a typical 12 year old is doing in school in the south east region of France. I'd be curious to hear how this compares with other parts of the world. Here are the subjects our kids have this year (with weekly number of hours).

French (4 hours)
English (5 hours)
Theater (1 hour)
Physics and Science (4 hours)
Math (4 hours)
History (4 hours: 2 hours in English, 2 hours in French)
Latin (2 hours)
Music and Art (2 hours)
Sport (4 hours)
I.D.O (2 hours...and no, I don't know what this is)

Latin is optional and P and J signed up for it this year (and by that I mean that Kerri and I forced them to sign up for it this year) so that should be an interesting challenge. But the part of their schedule that got me most excited was the fact that one of their sport activities is...sailing. They will take four hours each Monday afternoon to go down to Antibes and learn how to sail. Patrick is thrilled about this. Julia, not quite as much.

How Many de's Are in Your Name?

2011-09-06T21:09:00.004+02:00

I JUST FINISHED typing up all my class lists for the upcoming year and noticed that I have an unusually high number of students this year with hyphenated or multiple-word last names. I've always had a fascination with French family names, so I pay close attention to the ones my students have. My favorite so far is 'de Vanssay de Blavous', which I swear, is one last name (Hi Pauline, if you happen to read this). How great would it be to have a last name with four words in it. Some other favorites include 'Mazars de Mazarin', 'Pichot-Nussel', 'de Montjoye', 'de Beauregard', 'Ledoux-Vanex', 'Le Mont Beauquis', and a new one for this year: 'St Gal de Pons.'

All are just family names. Add a Jean-Marc, Pierre-Antoine or Sophie-Ann to the front of those names and you've got a name that would score pretty well in Scrabble.

Meanwhile, I'm stuck with my boring last name. Maybe I should be 'de' in front of it.

[Note: Yes, I know proper names aren't allowed in Scrabble -- it was a cheap reference].

Are We Back Home?

2011-09-04T18:51:00.004+02:00

WELL, THAT DEPENDS on the definition of 'home.' It isn't likely that we will ever call this part of the world home in the traditional sense, but after spending each summer 'on the road', it is always good to be back. Settling back in to our house seems to get a bit tougher each year (more things? more going on? kids getting older? us getting older?) and the first few days are pretty chaotic as we are simultaneously unpacking from our summer trips and unpacking from the storage in the house. This year we had a slight advantage in that we spent the last few nights at our neighbor's house, rather than in some apartment in the village nearby. The house is vacant most of the year since our neighbor lives in the U.S. We're very happy he let us crash for a few nights.

On the way home from the Massif Central we did manage to squeeze in a couple more fun things:

The Viaduc du Millau, the tallest bridge in the world (not to be confused with

the 'highest' bridge, which is something different. By the way, it's the 12th highest bridge in the world).

Yes, there is a rest stop and souvenir shop.

Then my favorite part -- a trip to the famous Combalou caves in Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, home of one of France's most famous cheeses.

Mold...

Thousands of rounds of cheese aging for 3-12 months.

The tour in Roquefort was really great. There are several companies who run these free tours and we chose the Societe tour. They are a giant industrial manufacturer (which has some downsides, I know) but their tour was the most comprehensive. And the tasting at the end was terrific -- although Henry took one bite and spit it on the floor. The only people in our house who like blue cheeses like Roquefort and Bleu d'Auvergne are Patrick and me, but Kerri even found a few varieties that she liked during the tour so I consider it a success.

Anyway, summer is over. We're back to our (still) temporary home. Classes for Henry start tomorrow and the twins start Wednesday. Here we go...

Summer Luge

2011-08-30T09:25:00.007+02:00

THE SUMMER LUGE track in Le Mont-Dore was way faster and way more fun that I thought when I first saw it. Totally surprised by how fast it was (or, more likely, how fast it seemed). Check out Henry's face. In other news, I called the real estate agent who is selling the building below -- it has 12 apartments, is currently vacant, and sits on the edge of La Bourboule. Curious to hear the price. Guesses?

A vendre: 5 floors, 11-12 apartments.

A view of the building from a bit further up the river.

A local cheese shop in town. The Auvergne has several A.O.C. cheeses, including one of my
favorites, Saint Nectaire, which is made about 40 minutes from where we are staying. Cantal and Bleu d'Auvergne -- which I think rivals the more famous Roquefort -- also come from this region.

1886

2011-08-28T21:45:00.008+02:00

IMPRESSIVE BEAUTY ONCE again. This country never ceases to amaze me on that front.

Our four-day little stop over in the Auvergne started with a hike up Puy de Sancey today -- the highest point in the Massif Central. [Note: by 'hike' I, of course, mean 'took the cable car']. To be fair, the le téléphérique du Sancy only gets you near the top, the last several hundred meters are by foot up a very steep series of steps and paths. The Puy de Sancy is at a ski station just outside of Le Mont-Dore, a gorgeous little village about 5 km from where we are staying in La Bourboule. After a quick stop for a picnic lunch, we got our tickets for the cable car and didn't get off until we hit 1800 meters -- nearly 6000 ft. At the top we had a stunning 360 degree view -- 1886 meters above sea level. Not exactly Mont Blanc, but pretty impressive anyway.

Point us in the right direction.

Julia got on her tippy-toes in order to be taller than Kerri.
Soon, she won't have to do that.

As picnic areas go, this ranks as pretty impressive.
As sunglasses go, Patrick's rank as pretty sweet.

Bread, cheese, tomatoes. That's about all we need for lunch.

Near the top of the Puy de Sancy

Um...my shoe during a little break.

A little later on in the aforementioned break.

Trying out the timer. Boy do we need a new camera. 5.0 megapixels is
so 2005.

The last 400 meters were the hardest. Almost like a ladder.

Bet You Have Never Seen This Before

2011-08-26T23:17:00.004+02:00

OH, HEY, DID I show put this photo up yet? Guess where I took it? (Look carefully). We ate here a couple weeks ago. And the other goods news...the Paris store opens in November!

In case you can't make out the sign, this is on Charring Cross Road in the heart of London. The first Chipotle to open in Europe. While we were there we talked for a few minutes to the guy who is heading up all UK operations and he gave us the details about the Paris store (it's going to be at 20 Boulevard Montmartre).

Who wants to help me franchise these a little further south. Say in the Cannes/Nice area?

To the Massif...

2011-08-26T09:21:00.005+02:00

TOMORROW IS OUR final day in the Poitou-Charentes region of France and we will be heading back to the southeast after a four-day stop in La Bourboule -- a mountain village in the Massif Central, the least-well-known of the major mountain ranges in France. While certainly not the Alpes or the Pyrenees, the Massif Central is located in the south-central part of the country (just west of the Rhone Valley) and covers 15 percent of France and has some impressive peaks -- the largest one topping out at over 1800 meters.

After 8 weeks in the flats of western France, the mountains will be quite a change. Oh, and the forecasted evening temperatures of 6-7 degrees (Celsius) is also quite exciting. Nothing beats a cool evening after a hot summer day.

[Note: the school year must be starting soon; this sounded like a geography lesson.]

Rumble Rumble

2011-08-23T21:52:00.004+02:00

KERRI WAS ON Skype with her parents this evening when the picture on her computer started shaking. Here's why:

5.9 Earthquake Shakes Washington - Washington Post

A 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck the Washington area Tuesday, shaking buildings and prompting office workers to pour into the streets of the capital.

The earthquake’s epicenter was nine miles south of Mineral, Va., and 87 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The USGS initially recorded the quake at 5.8 magnitude but later upgraded it to a 5.9. It struck at 1:51 p.m. Eastern time, the USGS said. At 2.8 magnitude aftershock was reported at 2:46 p.m.
A senior Obama administration official said the White House “shook pretty hard” and that employees evacuated onto the driveway between the White House and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Construction workers also got off scaffolding wrapped around the EEOB.

The official knew of no damage to the White House but said paint or plaster chips had fallen onto carpeting inside the executive mansion.

Employees fled the U.S. Capitol, and House and Senate office buildings were evacuated, as tremors shook the buildings for several seconds.

Earthquakes don't hit DC often so I can only imagine how people reacted (kind of wish we had been there...)

French Tour Continues...

2011-08-22T09:46:00.002+02:00

SUMMERS ARE ALWAYS an interesting mix of relaxing and busy for us. Due to the fact that we have to be out of our 'regular' house for 3 months each summer, we get to (have to?) find new places to stay. As I've mentioned numerous times, we try to go somewhere new every year so as to explore as much of the country as possible -- sometimes even venturing outside the country like we did last summer in Italy.

But it's never quite as simple as just finding one place for the whole time because at the end of each summer I have to be back for work a few days before we actually get to move into our house. This summer is no different so we are preparing for two more moves between now and September 3. Yes, two more. Since our stay in the Poitou-Charentes ends one week before we can move in, Kerri did some searching on the internet and found a place for us to stay for four days high in the mountains of the Massive Central -- a village called La Bourboule, which sits at nearly 3000ft. We haven't spent a lot of time in the center of France so a few days there will allow for exploration of a new region -- something that's always kind of fun. After La Bourboule we'll head back home and crash for a couple of night at our neighbor's house (it is vacant as he currently lives in New Jersey) before returning to our place in the first weekend of September.

Four full moves this summer. Plus several nights in hotels during trips with Kerri's parents. Par for the course for us. It's enough to almost make me look forward to the routine. Almost.

Robbed in Paris

2011-08-19T14:46:00.004+02:00

KERRI'S PARENTS FLEW back to DC yesterday and we spent the last couple of days with them in Paris. As you can see, Kerri and I got robbed in a cafe near the Tour Montparnasse just before our return home:

Whirlwind Tour

2011-08-15T08:48:00.005+02:00

OUR TRIP TO England last week included a full schedule: two days in Normandy, a ferry crossing and a Chunnel crossing, a trip to the university where Kerri and I went to school for a short time (and where Les went to school for one year in the mid-'60s), cathedrals, castles, shops, cafes, and a stop in the Loire valley on the way home. Evidence...

Omaha Beach, Normandy

Normandy American Cemetery Memorial

Omaha Beach in Normandy

Mont Saint Michel

Canterbury Cathedral

Our camera battery ran out, so that's the end of the photos. Kerri has already downloaded the photos her parents took in Windsor, and then back in France during our visit to Chartres and the Chateau de Chenonceau.

It was interesting to be in London during the riots. While we didn't personally see any evidence of the violence (despite going through Clapham Junction), it was on the minds of the people. During our lunch at Chipotle (yes, you read that correctly -- there is a new Chipotle on Charring Cross Road) the UK manager for the company spoke with us about his plans to close early if he thought trouble was near. Other shop owners also were ready to close down in a hurry if anything happened. The newspapers were also in full UK-Tabloid mode, splashing huge photos and dramatic headlines across all the front pages. Perhaps the most over-the-top front page compared the riots to the German blitz during World War II. Perhaps a bit of a stretch, no?

Henry Wanted to Ride

2011-08-12T23:52:00.002+02:00

WE'RE BACK FROM a little trip to England and while unpacking and going through photos I'm putting this up at the request of our youngest...he's six.

Two summers ago we put together this from the Alsace region...

Now if I can get our daughter to go more than 1km I'll have a third video ready.

This Earth, This Realm...

2011-08-09T07:43:00.003+02:00

WE'VE HEADED TO England for a few days. Not enough time to see too much, but Canterbury, Dover, Salisbury, Stonehenge, Henley and Newbold College -- where Kerri and I went to university for a couple years-- isn't bad for two days. London still on the docket for today -- and we'll hope the riots stay away. Pretty rough couple of nights for North London.

Depressing Chart

2011-08-01T18:29:00.004+02:00

FOR THE PAST two years I've been paying grad school tuition in Switzerland using US dollars. That's why this chart is so depressing.

See that high point just before the start of 2009? That's when my payments started. Damnit!

The Atlantic!

2011-07-31T12:18:00.005+02:00

AS U.S. EAST-COASTERS, our main ocean playground was always the Atlantic (usually Myrtle Beach, SC). Now we go to the 'sea', not the 'ocean' because we live so close to the Mediterranean. But yesterday we got to experience the Atlantic once again -- this time on the other side, in La Rochelle, France. We didn't swim because we spent the day looking around the city and its gorgeous port. But we'll be back for a day in the ocean soon.

Here's the old port in La Rochelle with two of the three large towers that have guarded the city since the 1300's. The tower not in the photo is just off to the left and is the only surviving lighthouse from the medieval period in all of Europe.

[Fun note: 4 weeks ago a round of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series were held in La Rochelle. The divers dove off...you guessed it...the large tower on the right. A small platform was erected on the top and divers plunged to the water below. Take a look at this great promo clip:]

New Book Out

2011-07-30T10:56:00.003+02:00

REMEMBER VIC'S BIG Walk? Sure you do. Vic is our friend who walked from his home in southern France to the home of his birth in Northern England. Yeah, that's nearly 2000 km and he did it just in 70 days, arriving at his birthplace on his 70th birthday.

Well, now you can read about his journey in a new book which has just been released in digital form. You can order it here. It's available in various forms, including Kindle.

Western France Weather

2011-07-26T12:44:00.002+02:00

WHILE OUR FAMILY and friends melt in record temperatures back home in DC, I had to hit the stores to find a sweatshirt yesterday. 100+ on the East Coast is not fun -- that humidity sucks the life right out of you. Our family is very much into cool summers so the low 70s we are experiencing now is just perfect.

But I feel for those in high heat and hope things get more reasonable soon.

Sky TV

2011-07-26T12:37:00.002+02:00

WE HAVE SKY TV this summer and I've already found a show I simply can't watch: it's a documentary called Beauty Queen at 11 and I got through about 10 minutes before I had to change the channel. It reminds me of what a great film Little Miss Sunshine is.

XIIe Siècle

2011-07-26T12:03:00.004+02:00

THE REGION OF France where we are spending the summer is perhaps most well-known as the battleground between the House of Valois and the House of Anjou in the 100 Years War. It's complicated, but the two feuding families both claimed rights to the French throne after the end of the Capetian line of the kings in the early 1300s. The Anjou, also know as the Plantagenet, also claimed rights to the crown in England and were in fact ruling England at the time so the war involved both English and French armies.

Much of this area was already quite established by the time the war began and we have seen lots of evidence of that already. Every little village in the Poitou-Charentes has a Romanesque church that dates from the 12th or 13th century and they are incredible to see. Many are very small -- with only room for 50 or 100 people -- but to know they were erected so long ago is amazing. Our village church was completed in 1189.

We've been exploring cities and villages (like we like to do) and two of our favorite so far are Angouleme and Poitier. I wouldn't call either 'spectacular' in the way Sienna or Avignon are (to pick cities of roughly the same size), but each has some very nice parts. Poitier, for example, has a gorgeous cathedral that dates from the 12th century and was the setting for one of the rounds of questioning of Joan of Arc in the mid 1400s. It also has a market right next door that has been running (almost) continuously since the 1150s. A market virtually every day since the 1150s!!

Rare family shot in Angouleme.

The Chateau in Angouleme.

As the sun is setting over the Notre Dame in Poitier. Can't see us, but can see the cathedral.

Hotel de Ville, Poitier, France

Just a Thought on Beauty

2011-07-23T10:01:00.003+02:00

JUST A THOUGHT: There may be countries as visually and beautiful as France, but I can't imagine there is one that is more beautiful. Every year the Tour de France reminds me of this. The last two days in the Alps have been incredible.

Les Twins

2011-07-23T09:57:00.003+02:00

I WAS GOING to put up a quick post about digging around in backed-up sewage, but decided to go with a quick video clip instead. The sewage story will have to wait -- assuming I can even bring myself to mention it again. Instead, take a look at Les Twins -- this clip is an impromptu routine that I like even better than they stuff they do more formally (on talent-type shows in France). They really are pretty good.

Top of the Class(es)

2011-07-18T19:51:00.003+02:00

THE SCHOOL WHERE I teach received the best Bac results in our département (Alpes-Maritimes). Just saw the story in today's paper. A whopping 96% pass rate -- and it's one of the bigger schools in the region.

Well done!

Breadmakers

2011-07-15T18:39:00.002+02:00

THE LAZY SUMMER mornings that the kids have been enjoying since school finished was interrupted this morning by a 6:30am wake-up call. After a quick piece of toast each that Kerri prepared, we hoped in the car for the 10 minute drive down to La Ferme de Chassagne in the nearby village. Our mission: to help bakers at the farm prepare the daily bread.

Last week we went to a evening market in the incredibly cute village of Verteuil-sur-Charente. While we were there we bought some bread and cheese from one of the local producers and got to talking a bit about where they were located, how they made their bread, etc. It turns out that they are only 5 km from our house and every Tuesday and Friday morning they welcome visitors to and 'help' them bake bread. As long as you are there by 7:00am you can see the whole process, including how they heat up the wood-burning oven.

The baker and her 'volunteer' -- a very nice young kid from Germany, treated us very well and not only showed us how they do their work, but let the kids have a go with their own dough.

Just a little house in the middle of the farm with a little sign in the window.

Henry has a lesson in how to knead and shape the dough.

Another family came to help and watch as well.

That's 25 kilograms of pain de campagne.

Julia's turn.

La Ferme de Chassagne bakes about 350 kilos of bread dough (and about 10 varieties) two days per week. It is not a large scale bakery so they don't bake every day. In fact, the main goods they produce and sell locally are legumes and sunflower oil. But today was bread day and it was worth getting up early on a beautiful, delightfully crisp summer morning.

USA - France Up Next

2011-07-10T21:19:00.003+02:00

SPENT A COUPLE hours this afternoon watching...get ready...the women's World Cup. This goal by the US in added time of the extra-time session is as good (and dramatic)a goal as you will see on any level. The US went on to win in a shootout and will now play FRANCE for a spot in the final.

Fun for the whole (American) family.

TDF - Chateauroux

2011-07-09T09:21:00.004+02:00

IT'S ONE OF those things we just do. Ever since our first family trip to France in 2003 we have made it a point to go to as many stages of the Tour de France as possible. Kerri actually saw the Tour in person long before I did (she saw a couple of stages while on a summer trip to France back when she was in high school -- and even got a Team 7-11 hat from Raul Alcala, I think), and now we drag the whole family along. Although there is usually only about 1 minute of real action, what the Tour does exceedingly well is milk that one minute for everything it is worth. How? By passing out free crap!

About 1 hour before the riders pedal through, a massive caravan (parade) rolls through with motorized "floats" which throw candy, hats, pens, refrigerator magnets, coffee packets, laundry detergent, key chains, more hats, and even bottled water to the spectators along the side of the road. The parade often lasts nearly 40 minutes and if you get aggressive you can end the day with a real load of things that you really don't need. [Note: to be fair, some items are actually quite useful. For example, we won't need to buy laundry detergent for a while since I think we have about 15 packets 'X-tra' that a guy in one of the cars just threw down at our feet.]

Yesterday's stage finished in Chateauroux and we made the beautiful drive from the Charente in time to place ourselves near the sprint finish. The atmosphere was great (as usual) and the riders were a bit tense after the race (also usual). As we went back to our car we passed the hotel where BMC, Liquigas, and Saxo-Bank were staying and the riders seemed to be in a bit of a bad mood (not unusual, I might add, for Cadel Evans who always seems to be ticked-off at something or someone). Quite a few of the riders had fresh road rash from the spills they had taken earlier in the day.

Yes, we got free Bic pens.

...and free stuff from Cofidis.

...and what everyone needs: a hat umbrella.

Finally, the High Road boys led out a great sprint win for Cavendish.

Not By the Sea For a While

2011-07-07T12:58:00.005+02:00

OUR THREE WEEK temporary stay in Antibes is behind us. Now that we are away from the coast, we have only the photos to remind us of sea. That'll work for now...

Villeneuve Loubet

Henry just ran and jumped, ran and jumped, ran and jumped...

...and ran and jumped...

...and stopped to empty the rocks out of his shoes.

Then ran and jumped, and ran and jumped...

Department Charente

2011-07-05T12:20:00.003+02:00

AFTER A RELATIVELY peaceful 12 hour drive, we arrived in the Poitou-Charentes region on Saturday evening and have begun to settle in to our home for the summer. We are in the Department Charente but are very near the border of the Deux-Sevres. We've only begun to explore the region, but for now we're just enjoying the house (a converted animal barn with massive stone walls), the weather (perfect), the yard (including the basketball hoop), the English satellite tv (Food Network!), and the rolling hills full of either vineyards, sunflowers or giant rolls of hay.

It's going to be a particularly busy summer for me (more later), but my first day on "the job" was productive so I'm off to a good start. This morning I've been sitting by the phone waiting to hear about the bac results at the CIV. Initial reports are fairly good.

That Time of Year Again

2011-07-01T07:37:00.005+02:00

IT'S BECOME ROUTINE: pack up the house, spend a few weeks in a small apartment, load up the family car, drive somewhere, stay for 8-9 weeks.

For somewhat complicated reasons (not too complicated explanation here) we leave this region of France every year for two months. Each year we try to pick somewhere unfamiliar -- somewhere we have not been before, or at least not spent much time. Like I say often: we're not sure how long we're going to be doing "this" so we're trying to make the most of the time we have. This philosophy can lead to minor headaches and inconveniences, but it's always worth it in the end. Always.

Our last three summers have been spent in three distinctly different areas: the foothills of the the Pyrenees in South/Central France, the suburbs of Strasbourg, and a farming village in central Italy. Tomorrow morning we leave Antibes and head west -- very far west -- to the Poitou-Charentes region of France. The house we have rented for the next two months is just couple hours north of Bordeaux near a town called Ruffec. As is our custom, we've found a place that is bit removed from the normal tourist destinations and we've quite pleased about that. We get enough of that environment during the year.

Off we go!

I Wanna What?

2011-06-28T07:52:00.005+02:00

IT'S END OF the year school program season and I missed Henry's because I was away for work. But Kerri videotaped the whole show so I got to see him dancing around in his Washington National's baseball uniform. I also got to see a couple of the other routines by other classes -- including one gem where 4th grade girls performed ballet dance moves to the song "Right Now" by R&B star Akon. As usual (and I have written posts on this before) the French don't always understand the lyrics of the songs they listen to in English. The recurring refrain in "Right Now" goes like this: "I wanna make love right now, now, now." The line is repeated at least 42,000 times in the (admittedly catchy) song -- check for yourself. [Note: You better click now because I promise this is the last time a link to an Akon video will be appear on this blog]:

If I get time to download the video of the show and Henry's school, I'll throw it up. There is something quite comical/creepy about seeing 4th graders ballet dancing to this tune.

Those of you with high cultural IQ's recognized the difference between "now, now, now" and "na, na, na", I'm sure.

Grenoble

2011-06-27T07:44:00.003+02:00

WE'VE BEEN TO a lot of cities in France and have explored quite a few regions, but after spending 4 days in Grenoble last week I'm putting it near the top of my list of favorite 'mid-sized' cities. There are several variables that could be influencing my decision -- including having a great host while I was there who organized meals for our group at several top-flight restaurants. But beyond that I was captivated by three things about Grenoble:

1) the vibrant and very compact old village, with numerous boutiques, shops, and outdoor cafes -- including one I went to that claims to be the 2nd oldest continuously running cafe in France, Cafe de la Table Ronde. According to the sign it's been running since the mid 1700s. The old village is sort of perfect for my taste because it is obviously bigger than a city center in a small mountain village, but clearly smaller than a big city like Paris or even Nice. I just loved it.

2) the modern, up-to-date business district. I'm have always like cities that effectively mix old and new. I love quaint villages that are 500 years old as much as the next guy, but I get bored enless there is evidence of today nearby. In Grenoble you can enjoy a coffee in the old town, walk 10 minutes along the river, cross under the train station and emerge in a 21st century business park that is --by modern business park standards -- quite attractive architecturally. In this area you find universities, business schools, high-tech industries, and the school where I was based for the oral exams.

3) mountains! The scenery around Grenoble is stunning. I took the cable car up to the old Bastille and just admired the view --- including one of Mont Blanc in the distance. From the top of the fort you really get a sense of the history of Grenoble because you can see its development by observing the rooftops: first the old village near the river, then the early 20th century expansion, then the evidence of the '68 Olympic Games, then the modern construction -- including a large IKEA near the outskirts of town. Beautiful.

I don't know where I will be placed next year, but I'd be perfectly happy to go back to Grenoble. It's not the most convenient town to get to from here (evidenced by my two trains and one bus trip home yesterday), but it was worth it this time around.

Most British Headline Ever?

2011-06-24T19:10:00.002+02:00

I'M HANGING OUT with a lot of my colleagues from the British Section of the OIB (remember, I teach in the American Section) while doing oral exams here in Grenoble, and perhaps that is why this caught my attention. Buzzfeed claims to have found the most British headline ever printed -- and it's tough to disagree. Judge for yourself:

Standing With the Intellectual Class

2011-06-22T11:21:00.004+02:00

AS MUCH AS I hate to admit it, I'm with the French intellectuals on this one.

[Note: isn't that phrase -- French intellectuals -- so pretentious that it's almost satire all by itself?]

[Note 2 -- you see what I'm talking about by clicking the link...on the words 'on this one' above].

Dinner and Music and a Few Other Things

2011-06-21T18:15:00.003+02:00

AFTER HAVING READ over 800 pages worth of bac papers in the last week and a half, I am glad to be finished with the marking of the written exams. The last three days have been full, full, full. But now that we are done I will spend a nice long evening enjoying a meal and the Fête de la Musique here in Paris. The 21st of June really is one of the greatest nights in France and in Paris -- as usual -- they crank it up a notch or two.

I did get a chance to have a really good meal last night as well. After a very enjoyable visit with Cécile and Emmanuelle (some of you know who they are -- I'm looking at you, Jeremy!) at a little café near Odeon, I joined the other examiners at a well-known restaurant called the Polidor. We went to the Polidor last year as well (see here), but this year it was noticeably more crowded and the line outside to get a table at about 9:00pm was approaching 25-30 people. Could that be, perhaps, because the Polidor is featured in a major scene in Woody Allen's new film "Midnight in Paris"? I'm guessing it played a role....

Off to Grenoble tomorrow for a few days of oral exams.

Meanwhile, Patrick and Julia officially finished school today and we are very proud of the work they did in what can only be called a demanding year. This French system really gets into gear when you hit middle school -- or as they call it: collége. Summer vacation has now arrived for them, and it coming for me in under two weeks. More on our plans for this summer later.

Doing What Most Americans Can't

2011-06-18T22:58:00.004+02:00

I'M TAKING A high speed train to Paris in the morning. Most Americans can't do that. Not go to Paris, but take a high speed train. I read an article about the lack of train usage in the US and found the following among the interesting parts:

Ohio and Florida—both of which unfortunately rejected rail funding—are about as dense as France, a world leader in high-speed rail. Illinois, Virginia, and North Carolina sit one density level down, but are on par with Spain and Austria, both of which host high-speed rail.

The chart I included is hard to read, but is basically represents this: the top two panels show population density where the darker the shade of blue the more people there are per square mile. The bottom two panels reflect areas where this is a network of high speed trains.

The US is far bigger and spread out than Europe, that is for sure. But it seems clear there are regions that mirror European geography and demographics where rail could be a real solution to the transportation problems that plague many parts of the country. Of course, much of it comes down to culture and we are not train travelers anymore. Much like we do not take buses unless we absolutely have to. What a shame.

I'll be in Paris and Grenoble for a week marking the written Bac and examining students in the oral phase of the exam. Always a very tiring, but fun time.

Bac 2011

2011-06-16T08:25:00.003+02:00

LE BAC...C'EST PARTI! Over 6,000 students in our part of France start the official bac today with the famous/dreaded Philosophy exam -- or as it called here, le bac philo. Almost 200 of those students are from the school where I teach. Bonne chance tout le monde!

Update: The newspaper websites are already printing the subjects from today's philosophy bac. Here they are (students choose one to write on for two hours)

L'art est-il moins nécessaire que la science ? (Is art less necessary than science?)
La liberté est-elle menacée par l'égalité ? (Is freedom threatened by equality?)
La culture dénature-t-elle l'homme ? (Not really sure how to translate this one correctly, but it's something like 'Does culture misrepresent man?')
Peut-on avoir raison contre les faits? (Can we be right about the facts?)

Students also get to comment on an extract from one philosopher they have studied (again, chose one and write for two hours). This year the extracts are from: Gay Science (Nietzsche), Thoughts (Pascal), and Benefits (Seneca).

Geez, my dad is going to love this!

Ahh...Congressional

2011-06-16T07:58:00.004+02:00

THE U.S. OPEN Championship begins today and I'll be paying closer attention than usual because it is being held at Congressional Country Club -- just a few miles from the house we own in the DC area. I've watched professional tournaments in person at Congressional at least 5 or 6 times, including walking two rounds of the both the '95 US Senior Open (where I saw Jack Nicklaus hit a hole in one!!) and the '97 US Open. In fact, at the '97 Open my friend Kevin and I actually worked concessions on the Friday selling lemonade just off the 4th hole. If I remember correctly the largest crowds that day were for the threesome that included Tiger Woods and Nick Faldo. I took my brother to the final round on Sunday and we follwed Ernie Els for most of the back nine, but also got to see Colin Montgomery put his ball in the drink on 17. Needless to say, the crowd went wild when Monte's ball got wet.

In 2007 I took Patrick to Tiger's tournament and one of the best moments was when we paused for lunch -- a juicy burger while sitting on the 9th fairway). The 9th hold is a long par 5 where 70% of the tour players lay-up because of a huge gully just in front of the green (you can almost get the feel of it from the photo, which is taken from the 9th fairway). We sat with our lunches right at the spot where players usually put their second shot. When Adam Scott came through we turned our heads to the right to watch his approach. As soon as his club hit the ball it was clear, however, that he was not laying-up -- he was going for the green. That shot was one of the best shots I have ever seen in person. It started low, arched upward about two thirds of the way to the green, landed softly on the front fringe and rolled to about 8 feet. Scott missed the put, but what the hell, it was a great shot anyway.

Isn't this great, my thoughts on personal golf memories? The fact is, I miss golf. I havn't played since moving to France and don't watch much because of the time change. With some luck I'll watch a bit this year.

Food-Beverage Pairing

2011-06-14T22:08:00.002+02:00

TONIGHT I PAIRED my main course with...ice cold Dr. Pepper. No real reason to mention that except to say that I love Dr. Pepper and I'm happy I can get it from time to time at the local supermarket.

Antiboises For A While

2011-06-11T17:28:00.006+02:00

IT IS THAT time of year again -- the time when we must vacate our house and move into a small apartment for 3 weeks until the school year finishes. In the past we always chose a little place close to our house because the kids needed easy access to the local primary school. But now that the twins are with me at the CIV, we decided to branch out a bit and try something completely different. I'll explain by describing my immediate surroundings right now:

I am currently sitting on the patio of a second-floor (first floor if you're European) apartment in Antibes. The apartment sits above a bank and almost directly across the street from the Antibes Cycles bike shop. About 50 meters to my left is a small Casino (the store, not the gambling hall), a tabac, a boulangerie, and a pharmacy. To my right is a hair dresser and a couple of other small shops. Directly in front of me, just beyond a small block of houses and the train tracks that connect Nice and Cannes, is the Sea. Lots of traffic, lots of people walking around, lots of shops nearby.

Something completely different. The apartment is small, but very cute and charming and has two bedrooms -- an upgrade from previous years. The fact that I can walk to get a newspaper tomorrow morning in the less time than it takes for my coffee to brew is very exciting. It almost makes me want to go to bed right now so that morning will come quicker.

As usual, Kerri found the place, and we're quite happy to spend the next three weeks here in Antibes.

A Very Sad Development

2011-06-09T22:58:00.003+02:00

I PUT UP a post earlier this week about the incredible thunderstorms that passed through the area last Sunday morning. Well, yesterday we had a series of storms that made last Sunday look like golfing weather. For about 2 hours on Wednesday our village seemed to be the epicenter of what people around here are calling one of the fiercest storms they can remember. Unfortunately, the damage from the storm included the tragic death of an 11-year old boy from our village who was swept away in a torrent of water. His name was Roman and he was in Patrick and Julia's class last year at the local village school. Julia told me today that for most of last year he sat at the desk right in front of her. (The story can be read in the Nice Matin here.)

The community is obviously devastated. Roman lives about 600 meters from our house at the base of a large hill where there is a small stream that flows along the roadside. During the summer months the stream that flows along his property is barely 1 ft. deep and the average 11-year old could cross it in a single leap. But when the heavy rains come (as they have recently) the stream turns into a fast flowing river as it crests its banks and flows toward Roquefort-les-Pins, the town just down the road from ours. Roman was playing near the stream during the storms when he fell into the water. Early indications are that he hit his head on a tree which knocked him out. His body was found more than 1 km downstream by a local high school student. The link I posted above has a video clip where you can see the rushing water.

These are the kinds of stories you never want to hear, especially when they involve people you know. Kerri, the kids and I are feeling pretty sick about this one.

Bac Subjects Revealed

2011-06-07T09:28:00.003+02:00

I DO THIS every year, so why stop now. Here are the four questions from this year's History bac in the OIB (American section). The students just got them and are now sitting for the four hour exam. For this test they must choose two questions, one from the History category and one from the Geo category. Which ones would you choose?

HISTORY essay: 'Decolonization: compare examples of British and French decolonization.'
HISTORY document-based essay: 'To what extent did Détente play a role in the cold war from the 1970s to the fall of the Berlin Wall?'
GEO essay: 'Examine the role of Transnational Corporations (TNCs) in the global economy.'
GEO document-based essay: "To what extent is the United States an 'anxious superpower'"

All things considered, I'm quite happy with this exam.

Now That is a Storm

2011-06-05T18:34:00.007+02:00

TO BE HONEST, if its going to rain I want to pour. I don't mind rain in general, but the soft pitter- patter day-long rains sometimes drive be nuts. Today we got something different: one of the fiercest storms I have experienced in quite a while. And it was great!

We've had temperamental weather patterns for the past few days and large thunderstorms are not uncommon in the part of the world, but what we had today was massive by any definition: bright streaks of lightning, window-shaking thunder, multiple power outages, and rain so think we could barely see to the neighbor's house. The storms started at about 10:00 this morning and lasted until mid-afternoon. By 5:00pm (just about 30 minutes ago), the sky was clear, the sea was blue, the air was crisp, and there was, with the exception of the still-saturated grass, absolutely no trace of storm.

Now that is the kind of storm I like.The rain is coming down hard for several hours.

At one point Kerri was worried the water in the pool was going to overflow. It was close.

15 minute ago the view looked like this from our living room. The people on that cruise ship are getting into Nice at just the right time.

So we spent the day indoors. Homework. Cycling and the entire French Open final on TV. Steak fajitas for dinner.

Ça va!

Family Shots

2011-06-02T22:37:00.000+02:00

FAMILY AND BIGGER family. Both taken in Antibes.

The (Really) Big Project

2011-05-29T16:29:00.005+02:00

SPENDING A LOT of time thinking/pondering/deliberating/analyzing/stressing about this lately. More to come in later posts, but for today, a little thinking/ pondering/ deliberating/ analyzing/ stressing outside on a beautiful day netted a bit of progress. So I snapped a few photos to go along with some of the others I've snapped a long the way (larger version comes up with a double-click).

After settling on an outline (and after several meetings with my adviser in Geneva) I mapped out the road ahead.

Ordered and read lots of books.

Materials and sources arranged by chapter. Good start, no?

More of the same, plus some books.

But to put it all together...Oye.

Just get to it and keep plodding.

As I said to a friend when he asked how the thesis was going; I've reached the end of the beginning stage and I can't wait to get to the beginning of the ending stage.

Saturday Night Football

2011-05-28T21:23:00.004+02:00

EURO-STYLE FOOTBALL, that is. The Champion's League Final is tonight and both my sons are sitting on the couch wearing Barcelona jerseys -- purchases from our last trip to the great Spanish city.