March 29 - April 3
Bon jour all. It's Sunday night again, so the saga continues.
This was a very short week. Monday was a vacation day, so things started off on Tuesday. The boys did the school routine. Things are going very well with the tutor. Andrew is making great advances in math and is starting to read magazines in French! Michael is learning a lot of French as well and has virtually no accent. That means when we don't know how to say something, we ask him. It's fun. We are also are learning lots of French medieval history. It is fun to be able to live our lessons each weekend. Learn the history, go see the history. What a cool way to learn.
On Friday, we decided that I had spent too much time with the boys and needed an emergency date night. So we hired Roxanna and headed off. This time Dave took me past the hanger where the A380 is. It was a long way away, but I could tell it was very big. The most noticeable thing were the wings. They are attached at the bottom of the belly of the plane. Then they are angled very strangely. They are really curved. The plane is being moved to the test facility next week, which is right near where we live, so maybe we can get a picture for you to see.
On Saturday morning, Wendy arrived!! Her plane from Amsterdam had computer problems, so they were delayed while they got a new plane, but she arrived all in one piece, with all of her luggage, almost. Her carry on had to be checked on the plane from Amsterdam. That was fine, except that when she arrived in Toulouse, that bag wasn't considered and international bag. All of her other bags arrived on the international belt. We thought that one was lost. Of course, it was the one with all the important things in it, it was a carry on after all. It turns out the airline found it on the domestic flights belt, but not until after we left. So Dave went back to the airport to retrieve it later that night.
After Wendy unpacked, we didn't want her to sleep, so we drove her to downtown Toulouse. The first thing we saw was a demonstration of teachers. They have been striking about once a week, to protest changes in the education system. Wendy, being a teacher, was very excited to see this. We walked over a lot of downtown, saw the capitole square, the inside of a chocolate shop, the inside of the capitole building, and visited a creperie (You can't visit France without tasting a crepe!). We walked a lot and wore Wendy out. Then, since we were downtown, we stopped by and visited with the Reich's. They had fun talking with Wendy.
After we got back to the house, we fed Wendy her first taste of French food; Fondue, of course! It was a very good meal, complete with Apple tarte for dessert. Then Wendy headed off to bed.
On Sunday, we decided to take Wendy to see Carcassonne. What fun! The walled city was just as impressive as always. Our first stop was lunch (of course. As Wendy says, in France it's all about the food). Wendy sampled the regional dish, cassoulet. Yum!
Then it was off to tour the castle. We first toured the museum, full of sarcophaguses and various other medieval objects. Then we took in a tour of the castle and part of the ramparts - in English, no less. It was a great tour and we learned lots we didn't know, including that the king, Louis XIV, added pointy blue slate roofs to the towers so that everyone knew it belonged to him. Two of the towers, weren't reconstructed correctly and have pointy orange tile roofs. This is causing some offense to the French people. Pointy roofs are from northern France. Orange tiles are from the south of France. So... when the orange roofs are old and need to be replaced, they will use blue slate. Then everything will match. This seemed to be a big deal to the tour guide. Wendy found it very funny.
After touring the cathedral (which, by the way is one of only three in France that has Chartes blue stained glass windows), we did some souvenir shopping. Then Andrew took Wendy to the School museum. They had a good time playing with the quills and ink. Then it was off to home for taco dinner and bed.
This promises to be a fun and busy week. We have so much that we want to show Wendy and she has a birthday this week. We will have lots of fun.
Until next time!
Amy
