Work Hard to Play Hard!!!!!

We have been working 10-hour days and decided to take a couple days off, rent a car and see Provence. Kathryn loves cars and was very excited to see what we would be driving around for two days. It was a Panda, made by Fiat. It was nice, but going up a couple hills on the Auto route,we slowed down a bit.

Seeing Provence was strongly recommended (thanks Dave), and we thoroughly enjoyed it! 

We visited Arles, Avignon, Orange, Les Beau and admired the views of Gordes built on the side of a large steep hill/mountainside. We saw some really, really old stuff and also visited an enormous Roman aqueduct, perfectly preserved, called Pont du Gard (the 5^th most popular tourist site in all of France) as well as visiting the Abbey at Senanque. Except for the Abbey, this entire region is known for the Roman Ruins; Orange

being one of the most noteable for the ancient Roman theatre being the best preserved in existence, and the only one in Europe with its acoustical wall still standing. (Thank you Rick Steve’s Tour Book for teaching us about what we all saw!)

 And what would a trip around Provence be without touring a few of the many, many vineyards. Even though everything is dormant right now, it was a beautiful day, the vinyards were open for tasting and it felt like springs as we drove along and saw farmers and tractors working in the rolling fields.

It is very cold in southern France!  The cold seems to cut right through, so you rarely see man or woman without a scarf wrapped around their necks. The first day on our outing was windy, but not a cloud in the sky. The  second was absolutely gorgeous, we actually took off our coats; which was first day since we left Colorado that we haven’t needed them – along with hat, gloves and a scarf!

Now it is back to the salt mine – working day and  night it seems. With less than two weeks to go, we are on a time crunch and we have one last excursion. We will keep it a secret and show pictures on our next blog. Where has the time gone? We are making good time after some grueling sections of books that required a lot of attention!!!!!!  It’s actually starting to look like a library! Good thing eh?

Thank you for tuning in! Salut!

 

Food and Books

We have started the count down, having less than 3 weeks left until we leave for back home. It is bitter sweet for both of us as we are really enjoying experiencing the French life but missing our lives back home. Time seems to go by more quickly and we are starting to feel the crunch of our job and desperately wanting to complete it. We have mapped out the remaining books that need to be completed, and we are having some days doing over 100 books. Those days are not the greatest but we create ‘carrots’ for motivation to make them a little more enjoyable! Today, having a very productive day in books, we bought fresh gnocchi from a local Italian shop. They were definitely the best gnocchi either of us have ever had. And because our job requires us to sit - a lot, we have exercise time every once in while where we do jumping jacks in the living room to help us get our blood going.

We are also feeling the crunch of our job because of the other activities we wanted to do while we are here. We did have the opportunity to climb Sainte Victoire, which is the famous mountain where Cezanne spent much of his time painting the wonderful landscape. We did not make it all the way to the top, but we made it close enough and it was a wonderful spot to have a picnic. Our host family took us to two wineries in Provence. We had a great time seeing more of Provence and tasting the wines of the region.

Kathryn has been making her hair cutting talents useful, cutting hair for some of the students that attend our church. She has stayed busy with other activities with the church as well including attending a football match (soccer game) in Marseille. She was amazed at the intensity of the fans and players; it is nothing like American football.

Debbie continues to meet with Colette for ‘Franglish’ chats over French pastries and tea. She has thoroughly enjoyed her company and feels like it is helping her French a lot.

We have really settled in, in our area. We have a regular bakery that we visit and love seeing the same women. She is so nice; Kathryn wants to bring her home with us. We though it was great, she describes her pastries by showing you a corresponding candy bar – they must be her inspiration! We thought that could make a great Iron Chef Episode – make a dessert to taste like your favorite candy bar! 

We try to limit out sweets but when we need bread, we try to visit around 5 p.m. when the baguettes are just coming out of the oven and sold piping hot.  It takes a lot of will-power to have at least a little bread left when we gethome!  

We also found a Tunisian restaurant that we’ve visited twice for lunch.. The food is inexpensive, the service is excellent and they always serve us complementary tea and a Tunisian bonbon for dessert afterwards. Both the owner and employee know some English –  and we have such a great time talking with them!   

 

Paris – Perfectly wonderful Paris!!!

We worked really hard on the library before we left and actually have 2/3 of the library entered into the computer, re labeled and shelved; unfortunately there are books in two other rooms from the other library we have to work with and integrate. But – we’re getting them done as we speak. Our little excursion to Paris was much needed and we really had a wonderful time. And thanks to Kathryn – who found awesome deals including our train tickets on the TGV (high speed train). It only took 3 hours; the train goes to speeds up to 200 mph.

The weather forecast for Paris was pretty dismal, but when we got there, the sun was shining and after finding our hotel (way up on the North side), we headed out sightseeing.

We started at Sacre Coeur – or in English: Sacred Heart – from there we went to the Bastille/Marais area seeing – the Vosges and the statute of Bastille. We had a wonderful dinner and went to our hotel to rest up for our next three days. For those of you who haven’t heard – Debbie is a relentless tourist, being armed with a booked itinerary, full of museums! We definitely got our moneys worth from buying a museum pass…….

The second day might wear you out just listening to all we did – are you ready?…….We started with Rick Steve’s walking tour through Paris, starting at Notre Dame. From there we went to the Deportation Memorial to remember the 200,000 French Jews who boarded boats never to be free again. Then we went to the Latin Quarter, Saint Chapelle, – which is a two-story Cathedral having stained glass from top to bottom on three sides, then to the Concierge Museum -where Marie Antoinette and Louis the 16^th were imprisoned before

 being executed. Then we went to on to Port Daphne and Pont Neuf- which are along the Seine River. We took a break for lunch and then headed to the Cluny Museum – to see the famous Unicorn tapestries and the Pantheon. Kathryn was concerned because we still hadn’t seen the Eiffel Tower – and would you know – the Pantheon is on a hill on the left Bank and as soon as we walked out the door – there she was – the tower!  

We took lots and pictures and then continued through the Luxembourg Garden, Tuilleries Garden, toured the Orangerie Museum and then to the Louvre.  We were beat, but managed to find a two story diner that’s been around for over a 100 years. You don’t necessarily have a private table – especially for parties of two. We joined a cute Finish couple and after they left – a very nice couple from New York joined us. Since you sit very close you get to see what everyone orders. The man from New York ordered Tripe. We were adventurous, but not that adventurous!

Day three was supposed to include the Eiffel Tower  - but the weather forecast included rain – all day – so we thought Versailles might be better since it would be mostly indoors. After saying a quick prayer asking God for guidance, we decided that since we didn’t hear any voice and since we went to so much trouble planning our entire trip – we better stick to our original plan. Well half way on our Metro ride – at a scheduled stop – everyone was asked to disembark the train, and board the next one. Coincidentally – it was the same stop where we had to change trains if we were going to go to Versailles! We felt like God couldn’t have told us too much clearer – so we boarded the different train and headed forVersailles. God has a sense of humor –we know this for a fact.Because as we got to Versailles, it began to SNOW – really snow – huge, wet flakes!

 And of course everyone said – it never snows here! We told them about the snow we received in Aix and that they are never supposed to get snow either – and they quickly decided that we brought the snow!!!Versailles was still fun – for a little while we thought we might actually get to stay overnight! No one was allowed to go outside to the gardens – because it was snowing pitchforks and baby buggies. But by the time we finished the tour – the snow had stopped. Safely back in Paris, we went to the Musee D’Orsay. Kathryn really liked the Impressionist Paintings. The museum was closing before we had time to see the whole thing, but that was the beauty of the museum pass – we decided to go back first things in the morning to finish. 

We started the third day with breakfast at a famous restaurant known for their hot chocolate and a pastry called Mont Blanc. Cocoa Channel is among the famous who have sipped chocolate there. It was very good, but we were glad that we only ordered one hot chocolate and a coffee. Two chocolates would have been a little too much- it was rich, but delicious. We went back to the Musee D’Orsay and finished up, and as we were walking through the gift shop we noticed several famous paintings on post cards we hadn’t seen – only to find out we missed an entire wing – so back in for the third time! Third times a charm is our story at the Musee D’Orsay!

When we finally left the Musee D’Orsay, we made a quick detour to  the Rodin museum to see the statute 'TheThinker.' And as the sun was shining brilliantly, we headed to the Left bank for some lunch, and then onto the Tour Eiffel! We got our tickets and it was about an hour wait to go to the top – but so worth it! We had a Maroon, Chantilly crepe afterwards. We walked to the Arc de Triumph and went to the top – if you can believe there’s a bathroom at the top of the arch and we used that too! We walked down the Champs L’Eylsees and then home – it was another big day!

Well we found out during the night that Kathryn is allergic to Maroons – more commonly called Chestnuts which was the filling in our wonderful crepe at the Eiffel Tower.  And let’s just say she had a rough night. She felt a little better in the morning and was able to continue our power Paris trip. We went to the Pompidou Museum and the Picasso museum and then we had the best Shwarma know to man – Kathryn found out about it on the internet. They were awesome. We would both take the three hour train ride back to Paris right now just to have another one. It is a lot like our Greek Gyros sandwiches, but this had cabbage and cooked eggplant, chicken, lamb and a very special sauce all wrapped up in a warm naan!

We took pictures of all our food – just about. Paris has better food at a better price than Aix for dining out. Aix is actually very expensive.We are back to our books and on a really icky section- being really tough.

We wish we could bring everyone a Shwarma, some hot chocolate and a Mont Blanc from Angelina’s!

Tour of our home!

We have had a request to see our apartment and we would both love to show you around our humble abode!

Our first stop is the Kitchen. Do not let this kitchen fool you; even though it looks small it is big enough to make awesome meals! We are both very surprised on how well equipped it is and have fallen in love with the electric tea kettle (we both want one when we get home.) There is no dishwasher (expect for the two of us), which we have actually not missed at all. It kind of goes with the rest of the old fashioned, slower paced life elements of Provence, but on the other hand you do second guess how many dishes you really need when preparing a meal!! Our stove is a small 4 burner gas range and we have a much smaller than normal fridge which is on the opposite wall. The window on the right looks to an awesome old church that rings their bells at various times through out the day. Kathryn really likes the bells. We can also see Mount Sainte-Victoire which the painter Cezanne painted frequently.

Next stop the salon. Our living room is very comfortable, with having a very hard sofa and a very soft sofa. The television is very temperamental and we do not watch it very often at all. And if we do watch television, we have been watching US television over the Internet. We receive a lot of sunshine through the French doors and often we have to shut the shutters because it gets too hot! This is our view through the French doors facing one of the main streets. It is never too loud, but there is a hospital nearby so we hear the occasional siren, which is very different than the States!




This is our infamous flagellating bathroom. It has been quite the joke around here. Sometimes the bathroom will just randomly smell really bad (we think that it has something to do with the old plumbing.) But we say that the bathroom has tooted. He try to shut the door, but sometimes it just lurks- We were irritated at first at the smell and tried to put bleach down all the drains and bought air fresheners, but now we have come accustomed to it and just say ‘excuse you!’ and shut the door. This room also has double duty as our laundry room - we are very lucky to have a washer and dryer in our house, it is not very typical at all in France. We do have to pay 1 Euro for each use of the machines. It took a bit to get used to the washer, it only has settings of 1 -7. We still do not know what they all mean, but they told us ‘6’ is the shortest- still taking 45 minutes!! We try not to use the dryer for our clothes, but hang them on a drying rack (where ever we can save money!) But it is funny when we do use it- it goes around about 5 times in one direction. Stops. Then changes directions for 5 more rotations, continually until the clothes dry. Does it work better than the ones back home? Our opinion- nope.

Our last stop of tour is our bedroom. We started in the back bedroom, but for some reason both of us wanted to switch and we have been much happier. Debbie gets the bed closer to the floor, while Kathryn gets to sleep 6 feet above the floor. As you can see the beds are really small, smaller than a typical twin- this took a bit to get used to. And for this reason Kathryn is glad that her bed has rails. We also love out work so much that we even house books in our room! Because of the limited space this was the only place to put overflow books.


Hope you have enjoyed the tour of our home!

Great Work Week!

We have had a great week, getting many books done- having Wednesday being a 100 book day! As this day we really got a lot of books done, there are other days where have to spend more time researching new subjects that we come across, these days are long. We work 7 days a week and put in at least 6 hours a day. The current total books we have completed is estimated to be around 1800, and while the original books quoted was 4000, we are constantly finding more and more books that were never entered into the database having the library be possibly closer to 4,500 books! And while the work is still being tedious, we both feel like we are getting better at our tasks and becoming more accustomed to the work. We do not want to feel overly confident, but we see that there is a possibility that we can complete this library before we leave, which would be absolutely amazing for the both of us. Mary, the librarian that trained us informed us that we will grow ‘quite fond of the library and you will call it your own.’ At the time we never thought we could have feelings for such thing as a library, but as the days pass we are learning this to be quite true! We have invested so much time and energy into this library that we would not only like it to be competed but be effective for the people that will be using it, as well as having the

capability to grow.

Pictures of La Rotonde (left) and a fountain on Cour Mirabea (below)- which are both located in the main area of town. There are many fountains everywhere!

When we are not working we are having a great time using our kitchen! It is so nice eating all the fresh food. Everything seems to just taste so much better out here. Kathryn especially likes beets, and is happy you can buy them already cooked in a package. We did have a very unusual experience with some sausage. It was called ‘andoulle sausage’ and Deb knows that she has purchased something with a similar name at Costco. Well, as it looked like sausage, this was nothing like any sausage we’ve ever had before. While cooking it to accompany our spaghetti sauce the smell of liver filled the air, which does not really go with tomato sauce nor a good smell if you are not expecting it! We did eat it, but will not go into detail on the looks……..But with both of us being pretty adventurous with food and having three more fat links left we had our own little Iron Chef Competition. We both made a dish using the sausage. It was a good idea, and we think we each actually made something very tasty. Deb made like a cassoulet, and Kathryn made a type of stir-fry with apples and raisins.
We are now planning our second excursion to Paris, which is taking much longer than expected and we have had to hurdle some challenges, but we both know that it will be all worth it in the end.

Next blog will be a bit tardy due to our trip, but looking forward to sharing our adventures when we return!

Au revour~