I still wanna be a Wallaby

The game was shown on big screens in Marseille so we went to soak up the atmosphere. The place was overrun by England supporters and a smaller number of Aussies. We laid a rug for Lily on the grassy median strip of the main boulevard and watched the Wallabies lose to England. Michael was thinking of going to the game but for €300 a ticket I thought the money would be better spent on shoes and/or wine.

Somehow with all of the noise of the crowd and the French commentators ooh la la-ing over the speakers Lily fell asleep but when she was awake she supported the Wallabies by crying each time after England scored – it could have been her love of the game or the screaming poms behind us. She did stay awake long enough to see Loti’s try.....but what a sad day.

There was of course the standout Aussie guy with no shirt on sporting a well kept mullet screaming at the England supporters in his westie drawl. It makes you proud to be an Australian.

Crowd at halftime

Lily at fulltime

Our little girl is growing up

A quick update on Lily

– rolling over generally from her back onto her tummy,

- some days her eyes are green and other days they are brown but she still has the dark blue/grey ring around the outside,

- hair is slowly growing a light brown colour (much much lighter than mine) with her eyebrows really light brown

- bald patch is disappearing,

- last weigh-in was 8.1kgs,

- now on two solid meals a day (she is really enjoying her solids although not surprised since food has never been a problem),

- likes standing up (aided of course),

- loves the camera

and of course she enjoying watching the rugby world cup with French commentary. It's very funny to hear the commentators screaming 'oh la la'!

She is really enjoying her food - so far she has eaten apple, pear, veuve, peach, banana, avocado,pumpkin, potato, zuchinni. Here are some photos of Lily eating her breakfast.

Lily`s first swimming lesson

We went over to Martin and Eric’s to lounge by their pool for the afternoon and Lily had her first dive (or should I say dunk) in the water last week.

She really enjoyed the water and as Michael pulled her through the water she was actually kicking her legs – this could be the Renford’s third generation Channel swimmer! Lily wasn’t too sure about the whole par lava after she was dunked but as her dad says she will just have to get used to it!

A few weeks in Provence

Our first visitors arrived three days after we arrived and it was great to see Alana and Daniel get off the bus in Aix-en-Provence after their mammoth nine hour bus trip from Barcelona. They were greeted with smiles from Lily but then soon realised it was past her bedtime as she screamed for a good portion of the one hour drive home. Daniel asked ‘If Lily is so tired why doesn’t she just go to sleep?’ Hmmm…good question.

We went to St Tropez, St Raphael, Cannes, Gorge du Verdon and Alana kept Lily entertained with various nursery rhymes on the car journey. By the third day Daniel was volunteering to sit next to Lily and spoke the handful of French words to her over and over – Lily loves it when people speak to her in French so luckily we are in the right place!

Alana, Daniel and Lily in Cannes

St Tropez

Alana and Lily relaxing

We went to Antibes last Saturday to meet the english speaking mothers group that I found on google. We walked up and down the beach but couldn’t find a group of people with loads of kids so we gave up and had a lovely day on the beach. Michael is really happy since Lily loves the beach, although he struggles when she tries to eat sand. We’ve found a great beach in Antibes, Plage de Salins. Sandy beach, free parking, nice and quiet with a kiosk on the beach serving an Americana sandwich (a baguette filled with hamburger meat, frites (hot chips) and tomato sauce – YUM!)

Lily in Antibes

Everyone is topless on the beach which wouldn’t normally bother either of us but when there is an 80 year old grandma sitting next to us in a g-string it is not a pretty site! There are loads of retirees on the beach since the national retirement age in France is 50 and those that do work only work a 35 hour week. And one third of the working population in France work for the government. The government is trying to pass a bill to increase the retirement age since they say it is unsustainable for the economy but surprise surprise the unions are not happy!

The day after Alana and Daniel left, Bec arrived! It was a last minute trip and it was fantastic to see her since we didn’t think she would actually come. And the day after Bec arrived my mum arrived. And then two days after that, Michael’s nephew, Josh, Jen and little Amelia arrived! It has been so great to see everyone here – we didn’t think we would have people come visit us.

Jen and Amelia(Milly)

I suggested we drive to Cassis which is on the coast about an hour away (we have learnt that wherever we need to go it is always about an hours drive away – ask Martin how far is blah blah and his response is generally ‘about an hour away’!). The area is known for its bouillabaisse, a yummy fish soup. We had a walk around, found a nice restaurant and then found out we couldn’t have it since you need to preorder it! It was a shame but it was still worth the trip since we did a fabulous drive from La Ciocat along the coast and then through the mountains to Saint Baume where Mary Magdalene spent her last few years.

My mum, Bec, Lily and I spent a day in St Tropez (as you do!). We had a Cosmo and ate sushi while we people watched. My mum wanted to sit in the shade but no, we sat in the front row with our chairs facing out with the sun in our eyes! It was worth it! We went shopping but I didn’t buy anything but Bec bought a great pair of shoes which I loved….I’ll go back when they are on sale!

One place that we hadn’t been to in the area on our honeymoon and which Bec found out about is the Porquerolles, which is the largest of the Heyres islands. Lily seemed to enjoy her first boat trip and lazing in the sun. The island was beautiful although the water was too cold for Bec, Lily and I. Of course Michael went for his hour swim as he does when he sees a stretch of open water.

Lily and daddy on the boat

Main beach on island

Bec, Lily and me in Nice

Villa de Renford

Finally here are some photos of our villa. We took these the day after we arrived three weeks ago but have not had a chance to upload them! What happened to our relaxing time in Provence?!

Our villa is in Trans en Provence - a lovely little village located in the Var region of Provence. The village has one pub, two boulangeries (bakeries) and five restaurants with four of them being Italian. It is a little like home with the number of Thai places, Provence is full of Italian restaurants. We have found our local, La Toscanina – great pasta and you can get 1.5litres of Rose for 8euros (which is about $13). It has a great location - so peaceful and relaxing and Carrefour is less than five minutes away.

Village
We are getting used to the lifestyle – I’m sending Michael out each morning for croissants and baguettes for breakfast. The chocolate croissants are just divine but I also have a weakness for plain croissants with a delicious French raspberry jam (which I found out you can buy in Sydney) and also the pain au raisin…..mmmm.

We are speaking the little bit of French that we can – Michael has café au lait down pat. The language barrier is still a little hard at times but we generally get what we want, although we have been a little scared when ordering but then there is a sigh of relief when our meals arrive to confirm that we hadn’t actually ordered the pig nose salad! We are slowly coming to grips with parts of the French language – ‘h’ is always silent, you don’t pronounce the ‘s’ on the end of a word, ‘j’ is pronounced as a ‘h’ and the ‘r’ should be rolled from the back of your throat.

The second night here we heard some strange noises in the ceiling and apparently we have some (cute) lahars, which are like little squirrels, living in our ceiling who party all night. You will be lying in bed and you can hear them chasing each other around. We are getting more used to them now but we have to make sure we warn our guests since they could think we are storing little people up there!

We live about three minutes walk from our good friends Martin and Eric. Martin was the one who found this villa for us so we are extremely grateful to him. It has been great to have them so close by especially since they speak English and Eric makes a divine tiramisu!

Road to villa

Front of villa

Back garden

Lounge

Main bedroom

Second bedroomKitchen

Bathroom (for some reason the bideau is not with the toilet!)
Colourful toilet

Our brand new Citroen C4

Bonjour!

We have finally made it to the south of France. Our villa is lovely and we have settled in and it already feels like (our second) home!

We have spent the trip saying 'when we get to France' - we will start Lily on solids, we will sort out all of our emails etc etc. Well Lily must have felt the same. On the first night in the villa she rolled over..twice! We only brought away a few toys with us and we bought her some new ones and she rolled over to grab them (we must have been depriving our little angel!) She is very proud of herself when she does it- she smiles and her eyes light up! Oohh our little girl is growing up.

The first day we spent almost four hours at Carrefour buying supplies and essentials - it is such a great place...it has everything!!! I am very proud of myself - we have been here for three days now and I have only eaten two pain au chocolat!

I'll post some photos of the villa later on.

The wheels on the bus go round and round

Ahhhh....look at me!

We have decided that Lily is a born traveller - she has no problems with all of the different beds (one week she had five different beds and still had no problems sleeping!). She is constantly happy and of course knows when to work her magic to get her way!

She is not quite rolling over yet although she is trying to and she absolutely loves standing up - her chunky thighs (as her 2year old cousin Oliver affectionately refers to them) are coming in handy. She now lets us know when her nappy is 'uncomfortable' (that is if we have not smelt it yet and by all reports it only gets a lot worse when they have solids...hmmm there's something to look forward to) and has such a wonderful happy personality that you cannot help but be happy around her. She has developed the most infectious laugh and constantly giggles when we sing 'The Wheels on the Bus go round and round' - which has been sung on many occasions in the car when she has quite simply had enough of sitting in her carseat, which invariably happens when we are either a) on a freeway or b) stuck in a traffic jam! Unfortunately the song does not always work.

She loves being part of the action especially when mummy and daddy have just received their meals, regardless if it's breakfast, lunch or dinner! She will let you know when she feels left out of the conversation - I think we have created a monster..she loves being the centre of attention!