bobandkatherine.com

Food, food, food…and living in the Cote d’Azur…
Today I am thankful for living in a place where I can walk with my wonderful husband and amazing little girl to the Marche Provencal (provencial market or open air farmer’s market) to get basil-marinated sun-dried tomatoes from a local artisan.
Food here in the South of France…
My little girl has never eaten a chicken nugget (of any kind), macaroni and cheese or a Happy Meal…she’s never eaten from a commercial fast food establishment. She ate her first hamburger patty 2 weeks ago and I didn’t think 3 times about her getting E-Coli from it…probably because it was from a “real” restaurant & not a fast food joint, but mostly because we weren’t in the States.
In France I don’t worry about water flouridation, GMO crops and E-Coli-ridden meats…but G still eats 90% organic food. After all I’ve learned in the last 2 years about our food, its sources and the potential hazzards associated with them, I’m glad that I can worry just a little less about my fledgling being poisoned by the very things that are supposed to nourish her.
I must admit that I was mostly blind to all of this until about 18 months ago, about the time that G was starting solid foods. Since then I have tried to really educate myself on what goes in and on our bodies, especially hers. In doing so I have been truly shocked and appalled at the US Food System…in fact the world’s food system.

Growing up…I never ate this shit…NEVER, NEVER, NEVER…but then, that was 20-30 years ago, before Monsanto and all of the pharma-farming started ruling the food supply. I know now that most people didn’t have that option 30 years ago and even fewer have that option today.
I grew up on a small farm in Minnesota, 20 acres of 5 acre parcels; three 5 acre fields and one 5 acre section that contained the buildings including our house, garages, etc. At the peak of our farming we had 60 head of beef cattle, 100 chickens and a 1 acre garden consisting of everything from corn to watermelon. We rotated our fields between grazing and alfalfa that we baled for hay. We grew or raised everything we ate except for the dairy products including milk, cheese, yogurt and cottage cheese. Those dairy products all came from local family farms from people we knew…because back then it was cheaper to keep it local.

As big of a pain in the ass this place has been to get accustomed to, after one year it really feels like “home” and there are so many things I would miss about it. We live in a beautful, amazing part of the world and are truly blessed to be able to take advantage of so much that this place has to offer…including food that seems a little safer and healthier than it would be if we lived in North America.

Think about what you eat, what goes in and on your body…THINK…THINK CRITICALLY especially about what goes in your kids’ bodies. EDUCATE yourself and don’t fall prey to the voices of the media that are bought and paid for. You live in a country that is free…take advantage of this and don’t just accept what you are fed.

Upon waking and diaper change, Miss G informed Daddy boldly that today she would like to go “train”….

Guilliana really likes riding trains…which is wonderful since we live 3 blocks from a large train station and there are many wonderful towns and cities (and yes even countries) within an hour or so train ride. The fearless and always adventurous Miss G also gets horribly, viciously car sick (just like her mommy), so if it weren’t for our easy access to rail transport we probably wouldn’t be getting out too much while here!

So there we were with an eager little traveler and no idea where we might go. Bob had done a bit of reading about St. Raphael and its suburb Frejus in the Var region earlier in the week when we were looking for things to do during this week off together. So we headed to the train station and got our tickets to Frejus!

Wow, what a fantastic and incredibly scenic ride! I honestly had no idea that there were red rocks similar to those in Sedona Arizona. The homes, ports and beaches along the way were gorgeous and actually a bit different from the areas west of here where we have visited previously.

Upon arriving in Frejus we took a short walk and didn’t see very much. We decided to head back to the train platform to see when the next train would come by to take us the 5 minutes up the road back to St. Rapheal. We discovered that we would have to wait another 3 hours…well, let’s make the best of it! So we followed the signs to the center of town to look for a restaurant to have some lunch and generally check out the little town.

The town generally struck me as more “working class” and definitely medieval, although it didn’t have the same 13th century feel that the incredibly picturesque town of Valbonne does. After strolling down a few streets we discovered the town center all decked out for the holiday season, complete with carousel and food booths. As we didn’t want G to get all worked up before we had a chance to eat, we made a quick detour around the festivities.

We went down another few streets and found what looked like a lovely little place with a decent-looking menu and decided to go in. Well the food at Le P’Tit Encas was really very good, and very reasonably priced! The service was lovely and the entire experience was quite enjoyable.

After we finished our nice, long lunch we headed back into the town center to see what we could find for G to see and do before the next train arrived. Once we got in we saw the cutest thing…PONIES!! There were 4 of the cutest little Shetland ponies giving rides to the little ones. So I quickly got in line and had Bob take G around to the various displays and whatnot while I waited for her turn. Guilliana was quite amped up at this point due to her chocolate Sunday and half of my raspberry & pistachio ice cream with raspberry coulis. SUGAR HIGH!

Once it was her turn, Miss G got on that little guy and grabbed the reins like a pro, completely ready to start her ride. To be fair, Guilliana has a rocking horse in her room nearly as big as the Shetland…so this wasn’t exactly her first rodeo, so to speak! Although the ride wasn’t very long, and G didn’t really want to get off, we had to only a short time to make our train for the trip back home. With the 15 minutes we had left, we took a quick tour of the Medieval church in the town center, amazing! We also sampled our first vin chaud (hot wine…we enjoy this in the States as well, it’s usually called mulled wine), not too bad.

We headed to the train platform and boarded within a few minutes, found some excellent seats and settled in. The bright and sunny day quickly faded to a gorgeous sunset over the Mediterranean and then slipped into inky night as we arrived in Antibes. Our little ball of energy was nearly zapped out at this point and ready for dinner and an early bed time.
We live in an amazing place, in an incredibly beautiful part of the world. We are blessed to be able to experience all of this together as a family. Although our road has been anything but easy since arriving here, the struggles make us stronger and reinforce to me that there is nothing I can’t handle while my amazing husband and beautiful little girl are by my side.

Here is the day in pictures…

Slideshow – Miss G takes Frejus!


Au revoir, mes amis!

So…it’s the end of December 2011 and the weather this past week has been unbelievably awesome! This week has basically been about 16C (60F)! Wow, can’t complain for the last week of December.

We decided that we needed to go somewhere we have not been since moving to France. So…the decision was made to take the train to Cannes today and spend the day down at “La Croissette”.

We got Miss G all dressed up in one of her “new” outfits she received for Christmas. She looked soooo cute with her little Benetton boots and long sweater dress. We found few open restaurants right “on the beach” that we decided to enjoy lunch with a view of the sea. It was rough…NOT!

After lunch, we walked sea-side and enjoyed the sun and water-view. OH…and we even found a pay-to-use WC (water closet) that was self-washing once you finished your business! It was definitely better than some of the public restrooms we have encountered in the locale. Miss G rode the go-kart train a couple turns to finish off our incredible family day! It was back to the train station to head home!

Here is the day in pictures…

Slideshow – In Cannes with G


Au revoir, mes amis!

Pere Noel is has been a little bit of an elusive fellow to track down here in the French Riviera. Two Sunday’s ago we saw Santa while shopping at the “big” Carrefour Market and decided that we could wait one more week before getting Miss G a picture with Pere Noel! Also…influencing our decision was the fact that G wasn’t really dressed for the occasion. So, one week later on Dec. 19, we figured it was time to get pictures of Miss G with Santa.

After a 2 hrs struggle to get out the door in order to “beat the crowd”, we arrived at the Carrefour during the downtime of lunch hour (or “hours” here in France).

Much to our surprise (and still being 6 full days before Christmas) one Pere Noel decided he wasn’t going to work on Sunday. We aren’t the only ones in the store that day. There were lots of people especially ones with kids! The entire following week was tough to get out to a place to “find” Santa. We went all around Antibes to find a Santa 3 out of 5 evenings but had no luck. Really? Is Pere Noel that hard to find especially in the last week before Christmas?

On Friday, Dec. 23, we decided to try the local (and only) mall we know of near St. Laurent du Var called CAP3000. We scanned their website and discovered that Pere Noel would be in the mall and available for photos from 1000h-1900h. Perfect! We REALLY didn’t want to miss G’s opportunity with Santa.

We braced ourselves for what we thought was going to be a “zoo” of people but we were pleasantly surprised that not very many people were out despite most of the shops being open! And, after a bit of asking around, we were able to find Pere Noel for G’s photo opp. So…

Merry Christmas! Bon Fetes!

From all of us to ALL of you! Best wishes for 2012!

Au revoir, mes amis!

We would like to apologize to all of our followers. We are truly sorry for the lack of recent posts over the past 5-6 weeks. Yes, we are aware that we broke our promise of 1 new post a week. We’re REALLY sorry!

Unfortunately this is a result of a couple of extremely time-consuming challenges that have caught us completely off-guard. Suffice to say, we cannot get into the details but will eventually get back to writing about our adventures!

Please be patient. We’ll update everyone soon.

On a more exciting note with Christmas season upon us, we are definitely looking forward to our first “French” Christmas in France. Miss G definitely enjoyed decorating the Christmas tree last Sunday!

Au revoir, mes amis!

Two weeks ago on “holidays” (vacation for you North Americans), we were on our pre-flight departure to Rome where Miss G and I were having a discussion. She is at that age now where she is repeating everything mommy, daddy, and her Nounou say. (Well…looks like daddy better start paying CLOSE attention to what comes out of his mouth!)

G’s vocabulary is quite extensive now in both English & French. I will go so far as to say that Miss G understands way more French than daddy & I was taught French in school. (Good for G, sad for daddy!) In the video, it started out where I was trying to teach her how to say “OK” and after a couple of attempts to get the pronunciation right, I just decided to go with the flow…here is the end result and Miss G’s interpretation of “OK”.

Stay tuned for our Rome blog with amazing pics!

Au revoir, mes amis!

It truly is a sad day. Now living in France, I went to sleep last night and woke up this “grand” French morning to learn of Steve Job’s passing. Today did not starting out so “grand”.

Today’s, or yesterday’s, news reminds me of a conversation Katherine and I had in the not-so-distant past. Recently, a leader of the Canadian NDP political party, Jack Layton, resigned abruptly. Sadly within a month, he lost his battle with cancer. When Steve Jobs resigned from Apple, it felt eerily the same, like déjà vu. I remember saying to Katherine that this sounds all too familiar of Jack Layton’s story. I prayed the outcome would be different despite knowing Mr. Jobs past battling his health issues.

When Steve Jobs resigned from Apple, a few things really started to hit home although one in particular really stuck out. You see, Katherine and I now have a beautiful, one & a half year old daughter. She is the light of our lives and we love her to death! We hope that she will always have both of us around her for the majority of her life and, as long as we can control that, we will be.

I guess what I’m really getting at is the fact that when you really think about it, money isn’t everything in the world. Steve Jobs was incredibly successful to the point money wasn’t an issue. Sure, it can buy a person a few more years however, in the end, money cannot buy health. So if you are fortunate enough to live a long & healthy life, you are already rich beyond your imagination! Good health is the wealthiest thing you can be blessed with.

To Mr. Steve Jobs – thank you for being the visionary you were. You changed our world as we know it and have inspired many others to “think differently”. You were one of a kind. And…in classic Steve Jobs’ fashion, “Oh, and one more thing…”

Au revoir, mes amis.

We have been meaning to write a post on this for quite some time now. Back in March, we configured our site to use Google Analytics and we have watched the site’s metrics/statistics very closely since then. Eight months later, we’re fascinated by the information we are seeing from the regular/first time visitors.

Almost 40% of visitors find us directly and read our site with some sort of regularity. Judging from the search engines: Google, Bing, and Facebook, about 47% of site visitors find us through these channels. However, more interesting that the actual numbers here are the specific “search” terms that lead people to our site. We can understand some of them and why our site gets listed in the result set but others, we never would have guessed!

For instance, the “Top 5″ search terms (in order) that bring people to our site are:

1. interdean shipping
2. the little nell wedding deck
3. bobandkatherine.com
4. cathy kaveka hotel
5. getting married on top of aspen mountain

Some other interesting searches that have lead visitors to our site include:

1. dinner on “a sandbar” honeymoon
2. living abroad wth a job transfer
3. countries where you can get hulu
4. french law apartment uninhabitable
5. get married on top of aspen mountain
6. tempe town lake and running
7. juice box with a monkey on it
8. where to find prostitutes in antibes ( <- our personal fav)

Another intriguing facet that leads visitors to our site is the locations from which they come. As of October 2011, we now see people have come from 197 cities comprised from 28 different countries! That is amazing! Most of our visitors are friends and family keeping up with us from our home countries of the United States & Canada. It also now looks like we have picked up quite the following from France! However, we now have new regular visitors from Brazil, Australia, Singapore, Netherlands, Ireland, Malta, Sweden, Taiwan, and so many more. As each month passes, we are starting to see more and more regular visitors and we welcome you all. We hope you enjoy what you read and that we can at least entertain you for a small portion of your day. Also remember…regardless of the reason you find our site, feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding our experiences that you may benefit from should find yourself on a similar path.

Lastly, as of this weekend, we have made a new commitment to you all and that is…to write at least one blog per week. Feel free to hold us to it if we don’t hold up our end of the bargain.

To everyone that visits, whether you follow our adventure regularly or you are looking for information from our experiences, we say “Thank you”!

Au revoir, mes amis!

More observations of things that are quite different about France
Banking…
None of your debits are taken out of your account until the 5th of the next month! If I make a 3000€ debit card purchase on the 26th of October, it doesn’t get taken out of my account until the 5th of December! Crazy!!
You don’t have payroll tax automatically deducted from your paycheck! Your employer is not responsible for “withholding” your taxes due, you are! You can pay in one lump sum at the end of the year in June or you can pay a monthly estimated tax (like most businesses in the U.S. do).
Driving…
You can drive a scooter or any motorcycle that is under 125ccs with only 7 hours of instruction at any age starting at 17. The 7 hours of instruction was only mandatory starting in January 2011. You cannot drive a car until you are 18.
I don’t know about you, but I would sure as hell rather my inexperienced young driver begin learning in something that has 4 doors, a roof, seatbelts and airbags rather than a death rocket! Most people wear their helmets (it’s a law); however, that is the end of the safety gear. I routinely see people wearing shorts, flip flips and often shirtless. Also, you will see numerous instances of tiny, tiny little people riding on the back of motorcycles and mopeds…I’m talking kids under 5, holding on for dear life. I say a little prayer every time I see this that those innocent little ones stay safe in spite of their parents’ complete idiocy.
Out & About…
Tips are included; along with taxes & everything else in the prices of everything you see…clothes, food in restaurants, etc. The tips are forcibly split so you should still give a little extra to your server if you’ve received a little extra.
Food…
Eggs and milk are NOT REFRIGERATED!! Well, you can buy refrigerated milk, but it’s not common, it’s called lait frais, i.e. “fresh milk”…um…versus what exactly? The unrefrigerated eggs freak me the hell out. I already have serious issues with eating eggs so having to pick up warm, sitting on the grocery shelf eggs, regardless of if they are bio (Organic) and pleine air (free range) still gives me the willies and I find it nearly impossible to eat eggs here.
There’s no such thing as bacon…I know, let that sink in for a second….There is plenty of stuff CALLED bacon, but we as North Americans would not recognize it as such. I even got some “rashers” from the English food store here and although it was close…still not bacon. I realize that you will not feel sorry for me because of this, but it really is quite a difficult loss…everything tastes better with bacon!

Hi everyone, it’s been a while since I’ve written anything, and not because I didn’t want to and definitely not because I didn’t have anything to say!

I have found WordPress a bit tedious and to be honest, I didn’t even know my username and password. I had no idea how to upload photos and really…with all of this moving around the world and having a very active kiddo, I let my microposts to Facebook do most of the talking.
So, now I have committed to writing a whole lot more and you, my adoring public, will have to let me know if you like it or not!

So, my thought of the day, “food”. Well, it’s kind of a thought every day, but you know what I am getting at…
“”Knowing how to cook might not keep you from being overweight,” he says, “but it will keep you from being obese.””

My friend Tina posted a link to a challenge to not eat any processed food for the month of October. I jokingly told her that I couldn’t “play” because it wouldn’t be fair to the North Americans, considering that I live in the South of France. All joking aside, I think that this is a really interesting and critical conversation that we Americans should start having. Here’s a link to the site and the challenge: http://www.eatingrules.com/2011/09/october-unprocessed-2011/

Questions to ask yourself and ponder…

What are we eating…and why? Who controls our food sources? Does someone other than your neighborhood small farmer stand to gain from our gluttony?

Did YOU eat some of the stuff that your kids are consistently putting into their little bodies?

I grew up on a small (20 acre) farm in Minnesota where we raised our own Hereford beef cattle, chickens and had about a 1 acre garden. The first time I had McDonald’s I must have been about 12 or 13…and I thought it was disgusting!

Is it really more convenient or cheaper to eat the processed foods on the shelves?

Interesting article and apropos considering where I live, “The French are getting fatter too”: http://www.npr.org/2011/08/06/139042221/the-french-are-getting-fatter-too

“Nearly 14 percent of the French adult population is now obese, compared with 8 percent just 10 years ago.”
I must say…I live in a place that is full of tourists from all over the world during the summer months and you can still tell who is French and who is not, based on the girth of their backside…