Roma

     I would guess that, unlike me, not many tourists in Rome wake up the first morning and have one of  their travelling companions forcefully state “I don’t want to go to the Colosseum’.  Luckily, Lily was easily convinced to venture out of our Bed and Breakfast that first morning with a promise of another well-known Italian wonder:  the gelato store.  We saw an impressionable collection of sights during our 3 day stay, and the girls really were very good sports about it, as long as we kept up with our Italian tradition of one gelato fix per day.  On the afternoon of the last day Grace did start mumbling that she was tired, to which Lily replied, “Don’t you understand, we are doing a tour of the WHOLE WORLD”.
     Despite Lily’s protests, we visited the Colosseum and tried to bring the place alive for the girls without too many gory details.  Lily was a bit disappointed that she missed the big war reproduction shows by some 20 centuries and Grace asked why all those people would want to come see people and animals get killed.  It is hard to get the head around the violence that took place on that spot.
     Afterwards we ventured into Rome’s buzzing metro where we were warned repeatedly by security to beware the pickpocket - a new English word for the girls to learn.  A near to tears Lily had to be reassured that her pink packet of Trident gum tucked in her pocket would be safe.  I must admit that Barry and I, despite our assurances to the worried girls, were feeling a little paranoid the first time we entered into the depths of the Colosseo metro.  We had just been discussing the fact that pickpockets often dress as businessmen or even fellow tourists these days to fool their targets into lowering their guards, when 2 nuns pushed onto our crowded metro car.  I couldn’t help but think that a habit would take the pickpocket scam to a whole new level.  I looked to Barry, motioned towards them with my eyes and mouthed, “Good one”.  I think we both relaxed a bit after that.
     We snacked in front of the Trevi Fountain and then the girls ate gelato on the Spanish Steps while I window shopped along Via Condotti where petting some soft Italian boots was all I could afford.
     Our Bed and Breakfast was very close to the Vatican City, and this is where we spent day two.  One very kind worker noticed Barry with his crutches in the Vatican Museum and arranged for us all free entry and advised us to later take the fast route, exit right, from the Sistine Chapel to St. Peter’s.  Despite Rome being a large, bustling capital where even in the winter it’s hard to see the Romans for the tourists, we had several experiences of people going out of their way to be considerate and helpful;  it sure was appreciated.  The Vatican Museum, like the Louvre, would need days to see it properly, as there was memorable and ancient artwork everywhere.  The Sistine Chapel makes for the best  “I spy” game ever!
     "The School of Athens” by Raphael was also a highlight for me.  Raphael was working on this painting at the same time that Michelangelo was breaking his neck painting (I got a neck cramp merely gazing up at the ceiling after several minutes - Michelangelo had to paint like that for 4 years!) the Sistine Chapel.  The story goes that Michelangelo had given strict orders that the chapel was off limits while he was working, but Raphael, with a little help from the Pope himself, snuck a peak at what his rival was up to down the hall.  Raphael was so impressed at what he saw that he headed back to his school painting and added his rival, Michelangelo, in the foreground.
     We were all awed at the 6 acre expanse of St. Peter’s Basilica.  When Grace was asked about her Rome highlights she named in this order 1. Getting her very own bottle of 7-Up to drink  and 2.  Seeing the dead body.  The red-robed dead body was that of Pope John XXlll displayed in a glass box in St. Peter’s.  When she took Lily back to see it, they stood holding hands as close as they could to it.  After several minutes I heard Lily whisper to her big sister, “Is that Santa Claus?”.  Lily was very relieved to hear that Santa was still alive and kicking up in his North Pole digs!
     An Italian friend here in Avignon had put us in touch with her very good friend in Rome, and so Friday morning we were lucky enough to get a private tour with the kind and knowledgeable Guido around the Pantheon neighbourhood.  For me it was the area of Rome we visited that felt the most relaxed and comfortable.  The Pantheon is the only ancient building in Rome in constant use since it was built in 125 AD and it’s concrete dome is a marvel.  We then sampled some of Rome’s best coffee at “Tazza d’Oro” and wandered over to the spacious Piazza Navona.  Guido took us into a number of churches along our walk, teaching us, in his broken English, a bit about Baroque art.  Thanks to him we saw some treasures we wouldn’t have seen otherwise, including one of my favourite paintings I saw; Caravaggio’s “The Saint Matthew’s Vocation” in the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi.
     We ended our day in the National Museum of Rome.  The girls took the much needed  opportunity to lounge surrounded by the 1st century frescoes from the summer dining room of the Villa di Livia: hey, if it was good enough for the wife of Augustus Caesar to recline in and enjoy, it’s definitely good enough for my two daughters some 2000 years later!

The Colosseum

Trevi Fountain

Gelato on the Spanish Steps

I read that experts believe it wouldn't be possible to build the Pantheon's concrete dome even with today's technology.

January sunshine and gelato in the Pantheon's square.

Piazza Navona

 2 Canadian girls and 2000 year old Roman Frescoes.

Birthday Party in Avignon, Canadian Style

As we planned for our year in France, one perceived side benefit was foregoing the traditional birthday party with all the stresses associated with planning and executing the perfect party.  How naive of us to think that we could pull that off.  


Having managed to successfully organize Lily's birthday in December, Virginia and I began the process of coordinating Grace's birthday party, set for Saturday, January 15th.  By beginning the planning early, we felt we were in great shape.  Our plan was a simple one, accomplished by parents all over North America every weekend.  We decided to go with the trusted standby "Lunch and a Movie".  Lunch at a local pizza joint and then walk to the movie.  How simple it was going to be.  


We were in a good place the day before the party as 11 of Grace's classmates had let us know that they were coming to the party.  Just as we were heading out for dinner at a friend's place on Friday night, I decided to double check with the theatre to make sure everything was a go.  As I looked through the paper to find the theatre's phone number I noticed that the movie times that in the brochure that was given to me two weeks ago were different from what was posted in the paper ( The theatre has a weekly Cinekid program that shows old animated movies at a reduced rate).  The 2 o'clock showing of A Bug's Life was annuler.  There was a 4:15 showing of the movie but that left almost three hours of down time between our lunch and movie.  If you have read Virginia's post entitled Bordelique detailing our first birthday party in France, you will understand the stress we felt on Friday night.  


By the time the sun came up on Saturday morning we had formulated a new plan.  The weather has been glorious lately so we decided we would take the city bus for 15 minutes to a large park in the suburbs.  I proceeded to type up the new itinerary of events that we would hand out to the parents as they dropped off their kids.   I also made a sign up sheet, to ensure that I had the phone numbers for all of the parents as well as what time they were going to pick up their child (I structured the timing so that parents could pick their children up at the original time).  As Virginia was cutting out the eleven copies of "Le Nouveau Plan", she began to laugh uncontrollably and said "They are going to think we're crazy".  


At 12:30 two stressed parents and two excited girls waited at the restaurant for the children to start arriving.  As they came in, I quickly brought the parents over the the sign up table, handed out the new plan and in my best french explained the annulation of the movie and went through the itinerary.  More than one mother made the comment "whoa, you canadians are sure organized".  Another mother while looking at her handout said " Ah this is great, this afternoon when I am having tea and wondering what Marie is up to, I can just pull out the plan and check the time and know exactly what she is doing".
The invitees arrived over a period of about 15 minutes, so it was a little stressful having the 5 - 8 early arrivals on the sidewalk running up and down beside the road yelling at the new arrivals as their parents dropped them off.  Antoine, the owner of our local cafe said "Oh my goodness" as the crowd of girls ran and screamed past him.  When I told him that we were having a Canadian stlye birthday party in France,  he replied "Is there such a thing?" and with a heartfelt "Bon courage" ducked back into his cafe.


By 12:50 all of the children had been dropped off and the party began.  We decided that 30 minutes was about the maximum time we could spend in the restaurant and everything went off without a hitch.  Of course 13 seven and eight year old girls in a small restaurant can make a fair bit of noise but as we left the owner said how well they had behaved.  I was a little flustered from all the noise so as I had the group of girls out on the sidewalk ready for the next part of the day I quickly told them that I was a teacher back in Canada and I was going to run the party like a class outing.  I also added that if they didn't listen to me I would phone their parents to have them picked up.  I can't imagine saying that at a birthday party in Canada but I had to ensure that the chaos I have witnessed at other gatherings did not happen on my watch.


With the rules of engagement understood the 15 of us walked par deux the 10 minutes to the bus stop.  Once we arrived at the park, Virginia and I finally relaxed and enjoyed the sunshine.  For the girls it was a great time as they played happily for an hour.  As we watched them playing, we thought that it was too bad that their school does not have a playground for them to enjoy everyday.


We walked back to the bus stop, singing french songs along the way while I quizzed them on their two times tables.  Back in the city we had another walk of 20 minutes or so to the movie theatre.  There, we enjoyed "A Bugs Life" though I must have been quite tired as I didn't understand much of it.
As the 15 of us exited the theatre bringing an end to the party after 6 hours of fun, the group of parents waiting spontaneously broke out in applause for the two foreigners that had successfully pulled off the "French Birthday Party, Canadian Style"
Our friend Benoit came over, shook my hand and said "Bon travail, très originale et très exotique".


The four of us headed home with one of Grace's friends that we had agreed to drop off.  We were all quite tired but I smiled and felt so incredibly happy as Sabah leaned over to Grace and said "un anniversaire super".  

Checking In

Once again I have been leaving the writing up to Virginia but I think it is time for me to add a few things from what has been transpiring for us here.

When I think back to my parent's visit in December to the Mistral winds that were almost literally blowing them and Grace off Rochers Des Doms, I thought that this wasn't what I signed up for when I moved to southern France.  Friday on the other hand was exactly what I  envisioned Provence to be like.  Beautiful sunshine and 16 degrees Celcius.  Virginia and I don't have classes right now so we enjoyed a leisurely day of wandering the streets and relishing the warmth.

Last Sunday morning, the girls and I went swimming with a friend and his daughter.  Being in the pool with the girls was great fun.  The rest of the pool was filled with people attempting to swim lengths by dodging each other as it was a veritable free for all in the pool.  The one lane that was set aside had all levels of swimmers in it and my friend actually got into quite a heated discussion with a lady that was leisurely doing lengths in the one lane.  The one lifeguard came over and tried to settle the two of them down just as the lady was telling my friend to imagine a spot on the far wall and swim towards it.  Francois replied that when he lived in Canada they would have three lanes open for different levels.  The lifeguard said that that sounded like a good idea but that she didn't have the right to set the pool up like that.  Francois later told me that one of the problems in France is that with such a focus on la liberté, it is hard to tell anyone what to do and arrive at some sense of order.

Even without classes we have been managing to keep busy.  This past Tuesday I was lucky enough to spend the day at a local lycée (high school).  A friend teaches Japanese to one of the teachers at the school and had asked her if I could pay a visit to the school.  It was certainly a good opportunity for me to see how the French education system differs from ours.  I had a tough time sleeping as I was a little nervous going into a new environment.  For the first time in quite a long time I had the off to work butterflies as I stepped out into the rain at 7:30 in the morning.  With the rain it was almost too close to a real workday in Mission so I nearly ran back to the house to climb back into bed.  The contact teacher met me out front and immediately took me into the staff room to meet her colleagues.  When I was introduced to the director of the school as coming from Canada, he quickly stated that Canada's education system was known in France to be the best in the world.  It was interesting to hear that perspective.

The first class I went to was a terminale S-section math class.  In France the levels are counted down as opposed to up. When you finish you are in your last year as opposed to your 12th year.  This was a group of students in their last year of school, in the Science stream.  One major difference between our two systems is the age at which students make decisions that will affect their entire lives.  After their first year of high school (age 15) students choose (or are selected as if your marks are not high enough then you are unable to choose the Science section) one of the academic streams (Science, Economics or Literature).  The Science stream is seen as the preferential choice as it is the only stream that does not close any career options for students upon completion of high school.  For example a student graduating from the Science stream can study law at university whereas an Economics or Literature graduate is unable to go into medicine.  If your marks are not high enough for an academic stream then you move to a technology stream that is more trades oriented.  Another major difference are the class sizes.  The math class had 36 students with room for 4 more.  At one point in the day I was in a class of 42!  Makes my classes of 28-30 back home seem almost manageble.

Once I sat down and was introduced, the boy in front of me let me know that his classmate was celebrating his birthday.  Never one to shy away and as Grace would say always looking for a new best friend, I proceeded to lead the class in a boisterous Happy Birthday to Adrian!  Once the class began I found out that the young man sitting beside me was repeating his year as he had not passed his math section on his BAC exam.  At the end of their final year, students write 6, four hour exams that comprise the BAC or high school diploma.  If they pass some courses but their average mark is not a pass, they repeat the entire year, not just the courses they failed!  This can be a real difficulty for students as each course is weighted differently so failing math (which is weighted very high) has the potential to undermine the entire year.

One thing I was expecting were very strict and traditional teaching styles however this was not the case at all.  All of the teachers I saw had a great rapport with their students and I could have easily been in a high school classroom in Canada.

A couple of things that are quite common in a Canadian high school were nowhere to be seen at the lycée.  I did not see one phone all morning nor did I see one student arrive late to class.  That is certainly something I would love to see back home.

All in all it was a very interesting day and I really enjoyed being back in the classroom.

Snails and Sauterelles

I do plan on sharing a bit about our trip to Florence, but in the mean time, I have a few photos I wanted to post from last night.  

We had some friends over last night for a very conservative Canadian meal of chicken.  One couple decided to bring over a French delicacy to share with us and to add a little culinary adventure (at least for us) to the menu.  When I was first handed a large tupperware container full of shells, I was somewhat confused and thought that they must be meant as decorations for the girls’ room.  It was only after she suggested that I put them into the fridge that it dawned on me there were snails still in the shells and we would be eating them!

Now, I have tried escargots in Canada before. They were barely bigger than a marble, already freed from their shells and well hidden in butter and garlic sauce: a delicate bite that was almost more sauce than snail.  Not the case last night.  These were healthy sized snails (note how large Barry has to open his mouth to fit one in) that you had to stab with a toothpick and slide out.  Grace was all up to try one, but quickly changed her mind when she saw what they looked like coming out of the shell.

The sauce that had been brought to dip them in was delicious, and the taste of the actual snail wasn’t bad;  a bit salty like the broth in which they had been boiled.  For me it was the texture that prevented me from sampling more than one.  Plus, I couldn’t help but make a connection with their close relatives back home in my garden.  Barry braved a second taste for the photo op.  Despite our small sampling, most of them did disappear.

Talk turned to travelling in Cambodia and Thailand and the various bugs that are eaten there.  This prompted one of our guests to boot home and return with a package of “sauterelles”  (grasshoppers) from Japan. Again, I tried one, and only one.  I’m not sure how they had been prepared, but if I had to venture a guess, I’d say that there must be some tastier varieties out there.  

We also had the the good fortune this weekend to learn about the French tradition surrounding the Epiphany to celebrate the day when the three Wise Men came to visit baby Jesus.  Within a gâteau or galette des rois, a small trinket is hidden and whoever finds this trinket in their slice gets to wear a crown and be the king, or queen, for the day.  Thanks to three different social events, three different cakes, and some thoughtful adult intervention, both girls had a chance to find the trinket and be declared queen.

Pisa

Italy.  If only we could fly for a mere 75 minutes and close out every year there.  

We’ve been travelling in Europe mainly by train, occasionally by bus, so it threw Lily for a bit of a loop to be going somewhere by airplane (Paris to Pisa).  She kept asking if we were flying to Calgary (some wishful thinking from our 5 year old about getting back on Canadian territory, I believe).  Lily did handle the disappointment of landing in Pisa, not Western Canada, very well though, as 3 steps out of the airport she stopped, looked around nodding her head and remarked, “This Italy.  It looks pretty good”.  

Despite Barry believing his English/French/Spanish hybrid talk could be substituted for beginner level Italian, we were lucky that most people we interacted with had a fairly good level of English and that they were willing to use it with us.

We took a taxi to  The Grand Hotel Bonanno in Pisa, arriving  in the late afternoon.  Restaurants open later here for the evening meal, 7:00 or 7:30 pm, so Barry left to try to find a little corner store to buy some snacks to tide us over until the dinner hour.  When he asked the hotel’s barman for directions to a spot where he could pick up some crackers and fruit, he was told it would be very difficult to find a place open as it was both a Sunday and a holiday in Italy.  However, he told Barry to wait a few minutes and disappeared into the hotel kitchen returning with a very yummy snack plate of melt-in-your-mouth-mozzarella, delicious ham and salami and a pile of bread sticks, on the house.  We sure appreciated the service  there; they also drove us in the hotel van to the leaning tower, to the train station the next day and gave the girls 2 baseball caps to boot!

Right after breakfast the next morning, (Who knew canned plums could be that delicious? Not me!  An unexpected breakfast highlight.), we headed straight to Pisa’s Cathedral Plaza.  Catching my first sight of the grassed plaza with it’s baptistery, cathedral, and famous bell tower, I was literally stopped in my tracks.  It was more impressive and beautiful than I had even expected, and it seemed hard to believe I was standing there after such an easy flight. 

The tower was closed to climbers from 1990-2001 as experts worked to decrease the degree of the lean.  They finally had success in 1990 after extracting tons of soil under the raised side.  Consequently and lucky for us, it can now be climbed once again.  Unfortunately, because of her age, Lily wasn’t allowed to climb (technically, neither was Grace, but we couldn't let one week stand in the way of a once in a lifetime ascent!), so Grace and I booked in for a half hour time slot to head to the top.  We marvelled at the well-worn and narrow marble staircase, imagining how many people must have climbed them before us over the centuries.  Grace’s favourite part was walking around on the fourth level where the lean was much more apparent than further up.  In 1360 during the last building phase, the construction was angled differently to try and compensate for the obvious lean, so you don’t get the same lopsided sense on top of the bell tower.

We also bought tickets to enter the museum Opera del Duomo with its ancient collection of statues, books, paintings  and other collections from inside the buildings it neighbours.  We crossed paths with only 2 other visitors, and it offered views of the tower from a very calm and pretty courtyard that for the most part we had to ourselves.  Well worth it!

Next, a train ride to Florence.