Popping Into Paris

Talk about a shock to the system! From the quiet of Guadeloupe to the peace and tranquility of the Marne Valley to....the hustle and bustle of Paris - ouch! Cars, roads everywhere, people dashing and rushing all over the place. It was all very overwhelming to us small towners!

Still, it was nice to wander around Paris on a summer's evening, with the realms of people sitting on the pavement (well not literally!) outside of cafés and bistros enjoying the beautiful hot weather that we have been blessed with ever since our return. I'm always glad I don't live in Paris but it does have its charms and beauty, especially at this time of year.

Something that caught our eyes was the relatively new bicycle scheme here. You get a card, take a bike for half an hour (free) or longer (a euro or two) and putter around to wherever you happen to be going, then park the bike at the nearest bike point. Simple! And according to the number of empty spaces and all the people we saw on their bike, very popular. Helmets appear not to be so in favour though.

Our actual purpose in town was an evening bowling with the family. Unfortunately an earlier puncture meant the spare wheel was in operation as was an 80 kph speed limit even on the motorway, so a very lengthy journey in. Probably the longest car journey the kids have had in over a year!

Next we struggled with the intricacies of the Parisian parking system. Pay at the machine? Oh no, far too simple! Go and visit all the neighbouring tabacs to try and purchase a ticket only to find they are either closed down or no longer selling any. We gave up in the end - it would seem that the Parisian ticket attendants are not quite as fervent as their Londonian counterparts!

Bowling was great fun. Bertie smashed us all, with a stunning 145 and several strikes. I, ehem, came gloriously last with about the same score as my age and the humilation of several gutter balls (nul points!). The girls had a great time running around, tidying the balls for us and taking the occasional shot. Thier joy was complete with a late-night trip to McDo afterwards and the lengthy journey home saw them all blissfully fast asleep!

Photo Time!

Cousins Siblings

Siblings amongst the corn Helping Daddy

Looking beautiful in her new dress from Tatie

More Cousins

In The Marne Vallée

It really is so beautiful and peaceful here (except for our kids of course!). Out the window we look down onto fields of corn that are being harvested, further beyond is the Marne river weaving its way along, and beyond that the occasional train coming to or from Paris.

Bertie's sister and BIL moved here the summer we got married, and in 8 years it has been lovely to come and see what changes have taken place in their home and garden, which were pretty much a new-build shell to start with.
(taken by CassCass)

This time it was the guest room that changed, with a very comfortable bunk bed, the lower part acting as a couch in the day which is a great space saver. The walls are now yellow and green and the bouquet of lavendar and mint my SIL kindly left for us are a wonderful finishing touch.

In the garden, Bertie has been hard at work ever since his arrival. The most important thing he has done (in our opinion!) is put up the remaining parts of the swing set. For two years there has been one sole swing, now there are also two different boat swings, meaning five cousins can have the time of their life swinging away! Very useful when you have as many small nieces and nephews as this family!
We visited Meaux a few days ago by bus - the girls almost exploded in excitement boarding the bus, much to the amusement of a little old lady waiting there! We wandered around (accompanied by much complaining from LissaLou - she does not do wandering!) and visited the cathedral. The girls were very taken with the stain glass windows and statues - LissaLou expressed shock at the latter, telling me they weren't allowed. On further investigation, she had remembered our recent reading of the Golden Calf episode in the OT. So good to know some of what she hears sticks! One thing we loved in Guadeloupe was picking and eating fruit for free, and we have been delighted to carry on this tradition here. We have enjoyed little plums from by the river and pears from the nearby wood, and shocked the SIL by eating elderberries by the dozen! (Are you sure they are edible??!) Today has been Party Day, with all the family here en masse, celebrating a nephew's birthday. Food and drink in abondance, sun sun and a little bit of rain, and little girls running excitedly all over the place with their cousins. Topped off by a very late night - good job we all still all on Guadeloupe time!

Piou Piou, The Friendly Chick

We haven't been doing very much this week, just chilling out, or rather boiling out! It is so hot, I often go in the girls' room and find them resting on their beds and I can sympathise!

Today Bertie was at Pika preparing for our Campfire tomorrow which started off as a small do for friends and family and now sounds like half the town has been invited....

At home, we carried on with different activites in the company of our friendly Piou Piou. Have I mentioned him to you? He is LissaLou's schoolfriend's little chick and Mamie is babysitting him whilst they are away in France. Only, I am not sure how much she is remembering that they will be taking him back!

The initial plan was to take him to Pika and put him with the other chickens, to protect him from the mean mangoost that ate his sibling, but Mamie said the other chickens and hens wouldn't accept such a small chick on his own, so he stayed for a little while. And then a bit longer. And now he is still here and there is no more talk of taking him to Pika!

Piou Piou is a people chick, loving company. He sits next to Mamie and Papy, or if possible on their shoulders! He wanders around all day pecking at food (a chick with fine taste, he enjoys JoJo's spilt porridge, and today's brown rice was gobbled up!) and making the noise that gave him the name. There was no one around downstairs today so he must have been feeling lonely - he hopped upstairs and proceeded to wander around our flat, eating who knows what under my bed and pooing all over the place. He also loves water melon so I put that out for him, until JoJo got hold of it.

Needless to say, JoJo in particular loves Piou Piou and follows him around pointing and saying "nah!" which is his excited response to most animals in books or live. Thankfully he hasn't squashed him yet; in fact, as fascinated as he is, he is also scared of him and usually ducks away at the last minute.

Mamie told us with a chuckle that whilst all the other hens in the neighbourhood go to bed at sunset (the ones opposite us fly up in to the trees, quite a sight!), Piou Piou stays up faithfully at Mamie and Papy's side until 11pm or whenever they shut up and turn the lights off! Definitely a people chick!

Out And Abouts

LissaLou said how nice it was to have Daddy at home and to go out together as a family, and I have to agree! We are profiting from these days!

Other recent trips have included...

Walking down by the sea to watch the Tour de Guadeloupe by boat which arrived into our port one lunchtime. As we walked through the trees to get there, we stepped over mango after mango and picked up a few to add to our picnic. Bertie spent most of his youth going down that way to the sea (rather than the less muddy and hilly route by road that now exists but is much longer) and walking through smelling the very strong fragrance of fresh and rotting mangos reminded him of those days.

One of our churches had a Campfire out in the country and we enjoyed singing mostly creole songs around the fire, whilst being eaten alive by mosquitoes! Unfortunately by the time we left at 10pm with one sleeping and two tired wee ones, the food still hadn't been served....

Last Friday at the girls' special request we returned to La Ferme Ti Bou, this time with two other families. Needless to say the girls had a fantastic time, seeing the animals, trampolining, bouncing but most of all going round and round and round and round...(you get the idea!) on the go karts. The cool pool water was very much appreciated as was our water melon! Jojo was also able to appreciate it a lot more this time and had good fun in the ball pit.

Yesterday was a family outing to Port Louis to visit Bertie's nephew at a holiday camp he is working on. Not a job I would wish for!!! I thought they were camping but turns out their tents have bunk beds inside, easy life!

We then went on to the beach and enjoyed splashing and diving with all the family. Well, we would have if LissaLou hadn't had a meltdown and cried out the whole visit... These are few and far between now but still painful to live through!

Not many days left now so we shall see what they hold.

History Gets Personal

Not only have I been looking into the general history of the island, I have also been able to look into one of my hoped for projects this year, drawing up a family tree. I have spent various occasions asking Mamie and Papy about this and that person - Mamie thinks I'm strange and can't think why on earth I want this information, whilst Papy loses track of people and then shrugs and says with such a large brood, he had no time to keep up with all the other relatives! Neither of them know that much of their ancestry so plenty to be done!

Two Thursdays back, we organised ourself to spend a day at the Archives de Guadeloupe with a friend also interested in the subject. This is based in Gourbeyre and we presumed not a child friendly place so the girls went to our JEM friends and JoJo was confided into his Tatie's hands (my first proper separation from him and I must admit to being quite moved at his going!). They all got on fine.

We arrived at the archives and were told it was full and to come much earlier. Happily they saw the disappointment on our faces and found us a place to look at micro film. There was a very helpful man, passionate about his subject, who went through all the complicated procedure for us and then left us to it.

We started with Mamie's father, whose birth certificate we had, but could not find his parents for love or money. The same with her maternal grandmother. All these people come from Grand Bourg in Marie Galante and we had a rough idea of dates so it really was frustrating.

Before leaving, Mamie had given me a marriage certificate for her paternal grandfather and between micro films I struggled through it. It turned out to be a goldmine! We had the exact birthdate for him, but still he wasn't coming up on the records! The helpful man, recognising the novices that we so clearly were and taking pity on us half an hour before closing, came and found him, just like that! Success! It was so sweet! So we presume that the others were all there, we just missed them! This great grandfather was born in 1862 so his parents were born in slavery, not that many generations ago.

Time was up and off we went. We can carry research on by post with a place in France and all details should also be available in the local mairie so we will try our luck there. Unfortunatey, there is very little online that I can find.

I can quite see the attraction (and frustration!) of this detective like work now that we are into it and look forward to continuing it as and when we can.

Mother's Day

In France, we celebrate Mother's Day on 7 June and Father's Day is coming up on 21 June. It is taken very seriously by the school, where the teachers spent the week before working for it. Everytime I asked LissaLou what she had done at school, she replied she couldn't tell me as it was a secret!

On the day itself, I received a lovely card with a poem which she recited to me, and then she sang a sweet song. I filmed it so I shall add the words sometime. Her Tatie at school had helped each child make a lamp (minus the bulb!). Bertie spoiled me with three roses - in Guadeloupe! Bliss!

At church we received beautifully decorated pencils and cards from the girls. Then we went for lunch with Bertie's sister, but strangely enough it was the women who did all the work and who gave gifts - I received two lovely bags from my two SILs. I questioned why the men did nothing (perhaps they feared the results?!) and explained how in the UK we got spoiled and everything done for us throughout the day. My SIL was most impressed and decided to come to the UK for her next Mothers Day!

We look forward to another poem and song from LissaLou on Sunday and Papa's present (a bowl - but shhh, don't tell him! It's a secret!)

A Tale Of Woe

Our BIL has been kindly looking at our computer this week and marvelling at the fact that, despite undergoing immense destruction and abuse at the hands of the wee ones, it has kept on going! He said that he would recommend it to his clients as a very robust laptop!
Sadly, even robust laptops have their limits. First he fiddled and tugged until eventually he discovered the girls' mini-cinderella disc that had been the cause of the dvd player not working. (I could just imagine one of them slipping it in and then wondering and wondering just why nothing was happening!)
Next we showed him our favourite method for opening the computer with no proper kit at hand - my super duper potato peeler! It is great for peeling too! I would not leave the country without it and if i could, I would post a photo for you!
Once inside, he marvelled at the traces of milk and who knows what else. The inside of our keyboard and the screen were also places of horror for this Computer Man!
In all the turning on and off at the button rather than by the more traditional shut down method, we had destroyed some of the Windows files. Possibly could have been sorted, but then he finally pulled out the hard drive, and almost wept at the damage wreaked by that infamous glass of milk and CassCass last December!
Diagnosis: it will certainly never ever work again and he will do his best to get the stuff off it, but is not holding out much hope. Ahh! I am glad that Sister Evs had the bright idea of transferring all my photos to her hard drive in march so we haven't lost too much.
And for all you dear readers, go save your important files on to disk RIGHT NOW! (And do not let your children near a computer with a glass of milk!)

1st Communion

My kind BIL, knowing my plight, has come over for a family meal with his laptop, all for me!!

Last Sunday was a Big Occasion as our niece Stella went through her 1st communion - this is a massive thing here, accompanied by a huge party and lots of presents etc (they made far more of a fuss of it than of her birthday for example, which passed almost unnoticed). It is the culmination of months of catechism and 50 children went through the occasion at Mamie's church. It will be followed up in years to come by Profession de Faith and then Renonce.



The party was kept for this weekend, as it is bank holiday (yup, yet another one!) which gives plenty of recovery time. Well, more like another opportunity to finish the enormous leftovers in family! And those still left after today will be for the Mother's Day party at Nadia's next Sunday!

Preparation for the party has been going on for weeks, and this week got serious as Wilson painted and spruced up the house, a huge mutton was brought home (it looked like a bag with a corpse!!), we filled baskets with dragees (favours?) - LissaLou was a dab hand at this - and Mamie's sewing room looked more like an off licence! Saturday was spent cleaning cleaning cleaning (or in my case entertaining all the children, including Meddy!) and the place looked great at the end. The mairie lent us some tables and chairs and it looked like a restaurant with Mamie's fine china and glasses out.

Lunchtime was a family meal so there were a mere thirty of us! Then in the evening all the friends and family of Stella's father came so it was a much bigger affair, carrying on into the wee hours. My BIL laughed at me for going to bed early - I took the girls up at 9pm and fell asleep with them! Fortunately there were still some cakes left this morning that we tucked into (note: cakes - there were at least five or six HUGE affairs to begin with!) None of us feel that we should be eating for another week!

It is a major issue for Evangelical Christians here as to whether or not to attend such parties - many have a clear stance that they don't, and their point of view is known among their Catholic friends so they are not invited. We were happy to attend the party and help out where needed, and have been involved in numerous debates with others as our position was discussed.

I worked furiously on my photo albums over the past days and put them out for the family to browse through. It was nice to hear people remarking that they had never seen this or that photo before, and it is certainly a big improvement on the last. I used up all the acid-free sticky stuff Evs brought me and had to resort to pritt stick to finish, much to my sorrow!!

During the party, upstairs became the kids' hangout, and they were particularly impressed with the flying pig mum brought over for us! LissaLou got her hair done by her tatie and now has little beads for the first time - cute! But a nightmare to sleep with!

Family Photos

When I first came here 8 years ago I was shown through all the family photos which were scattered here there and everywhere with no evident order or purpose throughout various albums in different stages of decay. Oh how I longed to get my hands on them and order them!

Well now my wish has been realised! Mamie has let me loose with the photos and over the past months I have been ordering them bit by bit and trying to decide how to present them. Now I have purchased a large album, I have been able to get started - I decided to put them in date order as much as possible but it is not always clear when they were taken (or even who they were of! Usually Bertie is more reliable than his Mum but I feel like Colombo always asking him just one more thing...!). I am also trying to put in important dates (birthdays, marriages, moving country etc).

The early photos of the children's baptisms and religious celebrations (First Communion, Confirmation, Renonce) are the best and I have put a selection below. After that they are a real jumble - some photos I look at and wonder why on earth did they take this! But all in all I feel better acquainted with the family as a result and I hope that it will be helpful for other outsiders who come into the family.

So here with have Papy (age 16), Mamie (age 21) both bottom left and centre, Bertie's baptism (his sister is his godmother - marraine) and bottom left a selection of different siblings and their communions etc.

Mi-Careme

Just when you thought the Carnival was over...back it comes again! A couple of groups came out for a parade around the town, this time wearing black and red. The girls were very excited to see them again but this time it really is over - until Christmas when it all starts again!

In the meantime, we celebrated the bank holiday with an impromptu party at Pika. One of those pleasant occasions when you say in passing to someone "why don't we pop along to Pika...hey we could even have a BBQ...." and suddenly half the family and many friends have come along for a feast!

As ever, the men sorted the BBQ under Bertie's close supervision, the women prepared all the food, I spent my time pushing the girls on the swings and keeping JoJo out of mud and mess, our nephew's name was bellowed constantly as he got into everything, trod on everything and swung a machete left lying around...

Bertie headed off to his dry dry garden and managed to construct this dinky little cover from the coconut leaves he collected recently propped up with sticks from another plant.

JoJo was pleased to give him a hand in his endeavours
Our great discovery of the day was our cucumber. Here it was on the 12 March - can you see the wee thing?

And now here it is just one week later! We are looking forward to enjoying it very soon. Our friend also gave us a lesson in picking sweetcorn - get it when it is very pale yellow and it won't be hard and chewy like ours was! I took a bunch and found a massive caterpillar (or two or three) in each, so my new lesson is if it doesn't have a caterpillar it is probably too dry!

Leaving On A High

Sister Evs' three weeks which have sped past came to an end this past Wednesday. Despite her visit being marred by the strike, she had a good time and got to see a few choice parts of the island. However, there is still so much to see she will obviously have to return for another visit in the future!

The day before she left, we took her along to the beach at Ste Anne (for what is a trip to Guadeloupe without a bathe at Ste Anne....). She was suitably impressed and agreed that this is what you expect when you come to the Caribbean - clear blue sea and soft white sand etc etc. We thought the water was cold (the kids' teeth were chattering!) but she loved it!

It was so quiet there - on a school day there are only retired tourists there - well, at least until our crowd turned up! They must have breathed a sigh of relief when we set off again!

You will see from the photos that Mum and LissaLou are missing - LissaLou finally went back to school to her delight and Mum kindly stayed behind to collect her. We all had a great time - Baby JoJo just loves splashing and wading through the water now (whether or not someone is holding him...!) and CassCass had a great time mostly on my back. We also enjoyed watching fish swimming about the rocks. Even Baby Luke entered into the swing of things!

Before leaving we treated ourselves to a magnum each - and at £3.30 each it certainly was a rare treat!! Somehow I don't think magnums will be on the list of the 100 basic foods to have their prices reduced!

Evs has put lots and lots of lovely photos and her own perspective of her stay here on her Got Passion site - go look, enjoy and comment!

What The Girls Have Been Up To

And we thought the Carnival was over! The girls have had great fun dressing up with whatever they can find and marching round the house with their Carnival song (very realistic too) and barely a day goes by without it

This was last Thursday when we had a friend of LissaLou's over. After the Carnival, we went on to Activity Time and they had a great time making birthday cards for a cousin, puppets, daffodils, drawing...all with Mamie's new ducklings in the background! (We are looking forward to Duck a l'orange...)

Beautiful Guadeloupe

Just to assure you that there is more to this beautiful island than striking, here are some pictures from our day out last Wednesday, driving across La Traversee through the mountainous Basse-Terre then up round the west coast before returning home.

We stopped off at la Cascade aux Ecrevisses and had a great time bathing in the freeeeeezing cold river! (Didn't see any ecrevisses - shrimps though!)
After a picnic lunch we carried on to Pointe Noire and looked out westNever can resist a few coconut trees!Then we headed north to Deshaies and admired the pretty bay there

I think this boat's name is I can't hear...the mind boggles!

Bertie's sister Nadia and her daughter and friend were kind enough to take Mum and Evs in their car and it was very funny driving behind their erratic stop-starting as they enabled Evs to take lots of photos at random points in the journey. We were slightly concerned when we saw cameras shoved out of both windows but happily no casulties.

Nadia's car struggles up hills whilst ours had worn brakes (since replied, hurrah!) so we screeched our way down them. I suggested to Bertie we tie them together but he didn't seem to think that this was such a good idea...

This was the first day of major rain since the Londoners arrived - typical! But it cleared in the afternoon and all in all was a lovely day.

What We Have Been Doing

Last Wednesday Mum and Evs arrived safely into wartorn, oops I mean beautiful Guadeloupe! We had been concerned about whether their flight would be cancelled, the airport open, cars allowed in to collect them etc etc but all was fine, hurrah! We didn't have very much in the way of food (especially milk) but it has given the prayer "Give us this day our daily bread" a much more powerful meaning, and do you know what....God always provides!

As our movements have been restricted (barricades are still in place) we have enjoyed chilling out at home and in the local area, including swaying on the hammock on our balcony - is it just me, or does Mum look slightly ill at ease here?We have also been for a walk by the sea, showed our visitors the town centre (all one street of it!) and visited Pika a couple of times. Mum and Evs have been great keeping the children entertained (such patience!) and trying out all the local cuisine with great gusto. And of course, Evs has been relishing all the photo opportunities that have come her way. Her french is limited (we have heard an awful lot of "je ne comprends pas!") but she can perfectly comprehend Mamy and Papy pointing at her and the camera and themselves!
What with all these visitors hogging my computer, my online time has been limited (no bad thing!) and Bertie hasn't been able to watch the tv each evening (ditto!) So just to catch up on some pre-family arriving events....

I managed a chocolate spice cake for Bertie to celebrate St Valentine's - it tasted more like a pain d'epice and I wouldn't do it again but he (and the girls!) appreciated it all the same.

Papy has replaced his pig that went AWOL with two more who will hopefully stay put (especially given they cost €150 each!)The strike is still on - into week 5 now. In fact, as I was writing my post last Tuesday, I heard loud noises which turned out to be gunshots as the gendarmes and youth of the town met up at our local shopping centre. Since then, there has been a continuation of the unrest in certain areas but we are not particularly aware of it and our local Carrefour has reopened so we have food now, what a relief! Having said which, I have told Mum not to tell you all how well we have been eating off the land, or you might lose sympathy for us!

The French Government have made an offer but I don't think it has gone down very well so the strike is still officially on. This week is supposedly half term so we are waiting to see if the schools reopen next Monday. In the meantime the girls continue to enjoy playing at home - here is CassCass with her cousin.
I have managed a month of getting up early now and I would even more heartily recommend it to you all! (except those with 4 month old twins....) As the sun is rising earlier I am trying to bring back my wake up time accordingly with my eventual goal being 5am - can I do it?!

Hopefully I will be back soon to let you know about our Mardi Gras celebrations and our family trip to Port Louis & Petit Canal tomorrow.

Five Years Old!

Friday was the long-awaited day which has been LissaLou's thoughts for the past 11 months and 27 days...LissaLou reached the grand old age of five! Amazing....

We decorated our living room with balloons, photos through her little life and then called her through to open her gifts - we were delighted that Mum and Evs had brought them over from the UK with them, as the closed shops here would have meant nothing to open otherwise!

She was very pleased with her Polly Pocket swimming pool set from her BF back home as well as a PlayMobil horse and cart from her auntie, but oh the arguments since between her and CassCass and Stella as to who gets to play with what! Baby JoJo doesn't get involved, he just heads straight for the toys and pops them in his mouth!

Off to Pika for our birthday celebration - a very fine BBQ courtesy of Papa and can you guess what is boiling in the pot...
Sweet potates freshly picked from Mamie's garden!Papa put up a second swing to the girls' delight and they spent practically the whole time on them. Unfortunately they are quite far from each other so the pusher has to run between them both manically! Evs spent so long pushing CassCass that I was tempted to chop her arm off and leave it there so the rest of her could get a rest....

Papy presented LissaLou with a beautiful bouquet - and the last maracudja at Pika!
We enjoyed having Mum and Evs here to share the special day - as well as Tatie Nadia, Agathe (whose car we have), Tatie Felicianne, Mamie and Papy, and some friends who popped in for a branch (as you do).

And the point culminant for LissaLou was....her gorgeous chocolate cake made in a heart shape courtesy of Papa (thanks to Latana for sending Swiss chocolate over with Mum! Delicious!)
But what the photos don't show is that we just could not light those candles for love or money... there was a fierce wind blowing at Pika all day and every time Bertie lit one it went straight out, despite being the magic relightable ones! So her blowing out photo was somewhat posed!

Bertie had to pop off for work and the others gradually left so we were pleased to enjoy a somewhat quieter and more calm Pika in the afternoon.