Posts Tagged ‘Guilliana’
Wow…what an incredible day! No cars, no clouds, hot and sunny, and a beach on an island. Does it get any better?
Yesterday we decided to make a new play date with one of Miss G’s classmates, Bia. They are like two peas in a pod and are so cute together! We, along with Bia’s parents, Carlos and Rita, planned a play date on the beaches at Ile Sainte-Marguerite; famous for where the Man in the Iron Mask was imprisoned and where the Hollywood movie was partially filmed.
According to Wikipedia…
“The Île Sainte-Marguerite is the largest of the Lérins Islands, about half a mile off shore from the French Riviera town of Cannes. The island is approximately 3 km in length (East to West) and 900m across.
The island is most famous for its fortress prison (the Fort Royal), in which the so-called Man in the Iron Mask was held in the 17th century.”
While this trip wasn’t about touring Fort Royal (for another day), it was about languishing in the sun, enjoying a bottle or two of rosé wine, and great conversation with Carlos & Rita, who recently relocated to the Cote d’Azur from Portugal. Like us, they are enjoying the area and weather in the French Riviera and we all have so many things in common. It’s so great to meet new friends that are in the same place as ourselves; new parents, new country to live, etc. We have met so many fabulous people in the past year from all over the world. We are so blessed!
The Cote d’Azur is an amazing place to live and such a great opportunity for the kids! We are glad that Miss G has become great friends with Bia and now has yet another close friend to enjoy planned outings with. G and Bia walked hand-in-hand pretty much the entire way from the ferry to the beach! They get along so well and it’s so cute to see them having a conversation amongst themselves playing in the sand and floating with their water-wings in the water. Now, I think we just have to get all our other “France” friends together and have a “grande” time on the beach one day this summer! Hmmm, maybe a beach picnic is in store soon.
Here are some pics from our day on Ile Sainte-Marguerite! As always, click the pic below to enjoy the slideshow!
Au revoir, mes amis!
It was somewhat of a happy and sad day, all in one. Miss G started school about a week and a half ago. Yep…she’s a big girl now..just ask her! In France, kids are eligible to start school at 2 years of age.
The fact that she knows quite a bit of French already (more than daddy), we wanted to continue her experience to the fullest and learn as much French as possible before we head to whatever the next destination will be. (I hear Asia might be asking for us to visit for a couple years?!?) Granted, that is still a couple years away so by then, G should be completely bilingual. With that being said…daddy will be in trouble! I had better find a French tutor in exchange for their practicing English with me. Thus far, I have been reluctant to pull the trigger on this one unlike Katherine, who has met a fabulous French woman with whom she exchanges linguistic notes/lessons.
Au revoir, mes amis!
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…
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!
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!
Over the past couple of weeks, we have gone from helping G climb stairs to watching. Yep, that’s right! Guilliana has informed us that she is big enough to climb stairs on her own now. Check out the video below as we are at the local “jardin” (garden/park) where G loves to hang out, climb the equipment, slip down the slide, and generally just be a kid!
I stopped filming just short of the little troll in the pink shirt pushing G out of the way ONLY to stand on the slide and let NO other kids go down. Looks like daddy going to have to start giving G-Monkey hockey fighting lessons! The little girl (more appropriately little “brat”) had ZERO manners and would be considered the bully at the playground!
Lesson #1 – Grab opponent’s collar at the back of their shirt. Pull shirt over opponent’s head so they can’t see. First punch to your opponent’s nose and then unload a flurry of rights and lefts until opponent begs for mercy. Nice work. You have now graduated to Lesson #2 (to be determined…as needed).
Au revoir, mon amis!
Last week I decided to get out of the house and get some fresh air. Since March this year I have been working completely 100% remotely here in Antibes. However as of tomorrow, August 1, I will have to go back into the office once again. This isn’t exactly to my liking but necessary to continue employment. (For the record, if any of you reading this needs (…ahem, wants to hire) a great software, web application developer, I’m your guy!)
Remote work has treated me well, allowed me to stay at home and see my daughter every single day. I can say that I’m extremely grateful for that and wish it could continue! I’m going to miss working from home BUT will continue my search for more remote work. I think the best part about working from my home office is that my days aren’t 8 consecutive hours of working. I can work for 4 hrs then break for lunch. After eating & playing with Guilliana, I can then come back to my desk and work a couple more hours. I then typically break for afternoon coffee for an hour to relax, collect my thought, and draw up solutions for whatever software issues I may have encountered during the day/week. After coffee I finish my remaining 2-3 hrs and then call it a day. One last benefit to remote work is my commute. I step outside my office and, across the hallway, Guilliana is playing with her toys where I can join her…immediately!
As I was saying…I decided to get some fresh air and hopped on my handcrafted, Canadian-made “Rocky Mountain Slayer 50″ mountain bike and headed off to check out Fort Carre (pronounced Car-ray) and Port Vauban (pronounced vo-bun) both of which just happen to be right down the street from us.
Next time I will have pics from an actual tour of the entire Fort. Unit then…here are last week’s pics…enjoy the slideshow!
Take care, mon amis!
Au revoir!
Actual pics can be found here Fort Carre Album
Recently G-Monkey figured out how to tell mommy & daddy what she wants. It’s clear a the day to her so check her out and let me know when/what you figure she wants!
Turns out…she wanted the cordless phone. Who knew! LOL!
Unfortunately I missed the first part of this conversation when I decided to reach for my phone. (Daddy has to remember his iPhone is more than just a phone and can whip it out as a video recorder at a moment’s notice!) I wanted Katherine it see the funny, silly things that G does when I’m feeding her dinner prior to her getting home at night.
In this particular video, it’s like I’m not even there in room for the first bit despite sitting right in front of her. I would really love to know what she’s thinking and where her little thoughts are taking her.
Now at 14 months, you can just see the wheels turning inside her head when we ask her questions. She has a very good understanding of english and knows exactly what we are saying to her. Not only that…BUT we moved here 4 months ago and G-Monkey has spent 8-9hrs a day each week with her Nounou (nanny), Carole. Nounou speaks french to Guilliana all day long and now, she actually understands more french than english! How crazy is that? Guilliana is at the perfect age to learn both languages since she was just beginning to comprehend english prior to our US departure. At her age, she’s a little sponge for all the information she can absorb.When we ask her “Qu’est-ce qu’une vache dire?”…her response…”Moooooo!” Yep, that’s right, a cow says “Mooo.” Regardless of the language the question is asked for a cow (or vache), her answer is always “Moooo!” Likewise with a cat or dog question, she knows we are asking her the same thing in french and english. It’s amazing watching her go through the changing stages of development and it blows my mind at the same time! I can’t tell is G is speaking French or English…maybe you can decide.
See you soon, friends. Au revoir!
This is just too cute not to post! A few weeks ago before we moved into our new place, I shot this video of Miss G showing us how to dance. We bought her a new audiobook that reads to her and sings songs. It’s her new favorite book! Seriously, how many times can one kid press the same button! Hahaha.