From Devin-Yesterday's elections in France

It’s Sunday, May 22^nd. Everyone in France has known for months that this is election day. The French vote every 5 years for their President. This time around, there were 10 candidates. Here are their posters that were put up on a special board they mounted for this purpose right in our square next to where they hold the weekly farmer's market and next to where voting takes place: (notice sarkozy's poster third to left was ripped early on.)

The precincts are open from 8AM to 6PM throughout the country. Overseas territories such as the Ile of Réunion or New Caledonia cast their votes one day before. The dépouillement or counting of the votes takes place at precisely 6:01 once the polls have closed. In our village, the town’s multipurpose room was the voting center. I was told to wander over to the center and check out how the vote counting takes place, so I did.

I entered and found many familiar faces. Eight tables had been set up at which 4 people were seated. At each table, there was at least 1 city council member. The 2-3 others appeared to be volunteers. Around each table were 15 or so bystanders. In the corner of the room was an easel with some figures. Each hour during the day, it had been recorded which percentage of the town had cast their vote. By 2pm more than 60% had voted. We have a population of 2200. 

Here is what I observed:

Person #1 would remove the ballot from the envelope and pass it to Person #2. He would then pronounce the last name, e.g., Sarkozy or LePen. The next two persons would each tally that result. All of this took place under the watch of the bystanders. The ballots were placed in 10 different stacks. As I roamed among the eight tables, I got a pretty good feel for who was leading. The two tally sheets were quite easy to read as well and served as a more accurate read for curious ones such as myself. To my surprise, Marine LePen, who took over her father’s position and who represents the extreme right, had quite a few votes. I overheard chatter that the youth had cast their vote for her.

Once all the votes had been counted, we were asked to leave the room. Through the glass door, I then saw the city council members and volunteers wink at each other, give each other a high five and then toss all of the tallies in the waste paper basket. They then turned on the television to hear the official results which, by law, can not be broadcast before 8pm.

Results: Hollande 28%, Sarkozy 25%, and LePen 20%.

French elections almost always take place in two parts. This was called the first round. Those two who amass the most votes, go at it again in 2 weeks.

I was obviously joking above when I said that the tallies were tossed in the garbage but it does make you wonder. I left the precinct at 7:30pm and results were still being counted. By 8pm, the winners and losers were being announced on national televison.

Hollande, who will most certainly win the second round, will need to run a marathon for the next five years less one kneecap. The Socialist will be inheriting a rotten economy and regularly meeting with his constituents who continue to believe that they should be able to retire at 60, receive welfare until one finds work or indefinitely, recieve all kinds of other services for free and of course that they shoudl be able to strike anytime, why, because it’s fun!

Guest Blogger-Irene Shackelford (Lara's mother)

Sorry for the long delay in blogging. Here's an entry from my mother chronicling their recent visit-during the cold/lonely weeks of record lows in late January/early February. Now that they are gone, the weather climbed up to the 70's! Despite the cold, we had a great time and all 4 of us miss them being here with us!! Meanwhile, Devin and I owe you all some stories of the last few months --we've been doing weekly visits of the region each Wednesday when the kids are out of school and are really enjoying our last 2 months before our return to Berkeley. Stay tuned!! Lara

A winter trip to Aniane France by Irene:

We arrived in Montpelier, on time, in spite of a harrowing race to make the flight, only to discover our bags didn’t make it.  Off to baggage claim and a quick look around for Lara who was picking us up.  No Lara and limited English speaking representatives in baggage claim.  Oh well, we tried describing the bags and then Lara, with Anais on her hip clapping her hands and Sebastien running with a huge smile, came towards us.  Well, who cares about bags, seeing the kids was good enough.  Lara took care of the details, bags would be delivered tomorrow and off we went to their house.  With two car seats and our carryon luggage it was a good thing we didn’t have all the bags.

Aniane hadn’t changed much since our trip in fall 2010.  Just a new playground for the children and no leaves on the trees.  A rather barren looking village after all the foliage on those beautiful plane trees, yet it allowed for expanded vistas and of course fitting for a winter day.

Lara had been talking about all the changes she wanted to make and wow she did accomplish a lot; of course we all know the muscle behind the changes.  Devin had painted, made cabinets, tiled counters

and implemented a multitude of things that made the house even more comfortable.  Lara’s great and evolving design eye had made each room a very pleasant, individual creation that also functioned well.  Their latest purchase that was another of their incredible finds on Craig’s list was a dishwasher.  I am always amazed at their tenacity in finding deals on the internet. 

I was curious about school life in France so the next day I walked with them to school.  Now it’s cold in the south of France in the winter, so there we were bundling up children and Nana, burr, but I had my down coat, my gloves so I was prepared but little ones don’t like gloves, hats.  We trudged off, dropping Anais off first, where she cheerfully kissed us goodbye, then over to Sebastien’s school where we waited in line for the school to open. (here's a similar pic but it's from another day, pretend you don't see the starbucks cup)

 There were an equal number of dads and moms (and or nannies) taking their children into the classrooms to be greeted by the teacher.  Pacifiers are dropped off also for the afternoon nap. Children 3 and older have the option of coming home for the French two hour noon meal or remaining at school for the noon meal.  Sebastien comes home, then returns for his afternoon nap, snack and playing outside.  We then pick him up at 5 p.m.   That means we were walking to the school and back 4 times.  Add that to the daily trek to get bread at 7 in the morning, the walks for meal items at the butcher or grocer, then the play time at the park for Anais and or Sebastien and you can see why the French are thin.  Although, the women my age were not thin, but matronly looking.  All the young women, moms, were thin and it’s not from the gym.  All the walking, hanging out the clothes, apparently dryers are not used as much as dishwashers, and climbing the steps in the houses make for efficient bodies.  The Aniane house has 4 levels.

Immediately Lara and Devin immersed us in village life.  Gus & I experienced a French stretch and exercise class that was challenging, gesturing and following by example is universal.  We met the Brits who live in Aniane at a dinner party, the local artisans and also the various neighbors and friends who have been so gracious.  There is a lot of eating and socializing in village life.  Here's a typical shot after dinner in their salon:

We also enjoyed long walks in the countryside, outings to nearby towns, stores and farmer’s markets.

Once we were over our jet lag we prepared to go to Barcelona. We took, first, a bus from Gignac, the nearby town,

to the train station in Montpelier, then the train to Barcelona, the city we have planned to visit for many years - I'm enchanted with the work by Gaudi.  We felt very European taking public transportation; it was a very pleasant trip even though it snowed in Spain!  There we were in the South of France and Spain and it's the coldest they have had, unusually cold we were told, after a very balmy December and beginning of January.  I think I'm bad luck.  Same thing happened when I went to Seattle.

Our trip was lovely even if we had to wear overcoats, gloves and hats. There is value in traveling in the off season, no crowds, museums and restaurants were not crowded, the people we met were locals, not tourists, and last minute flights in winter are cheap!

Two of the highlights of the trip was going to the sagrada familia (church built by Gaudi)

and to Casa Mila, the largest house built by Gaudi. There we met an interesting and respected contemporary artist from Barcelona, Perejaume, who was exhibiting his work.  And it was amazing work, dating back to 1990 in many different media revolving around the idea of excess.  We met a visiting professor from South Korea who was more of an art student than I and she kindly explained some of the art. The artist was hanging out, talking, the friendly, Spanish way!

The food in Barcelona is as wonderful as they write about, the seafood was amazing, along with the ambiance of the restaurants.  There is a vibe there that is enchanting, we said we liked Barcelona better than Venice, except of course for the art of Venice, nothing beats that.  Having said that, the contemporary scene in Barcelona is very hip and compelling.

We visited Sete, the nearby port that is the home of oysters. 

We also visited and liked Montpellier. Montpellier is a very hip, high tech, university city with wonderful winding streets, lovely shops, one of my favorite tea shops - Palais de Tea - was there, friendly French (yes, they are helpful and nice when we try to make ourselves understood) and the most wonderful toy and game shop we have ever seen.  It was a fantasy land of beautiful things to bring the child out of the adult and make children's eyes sparkle.

Of course experiencing the slower European way of life such as all stores closing at noon, the long meals, the incredible politeness, and the kissing, on my gosh, in the south it's three kisses, always,  on first greeting, and leaving, even if only for a few minutes, is always a highlight of visiting France.  The people who had us over for meals were so very nice, but we have to remember to slow down because eating is a very long and multicourse event.

The grandchildren were the highlight of course which is how we feel when we see any of our grandchildren.  We hadn't seen Sebastien and Anais since the end of summer so we saw a big change in them. They are doing well, as are their parents.  Life is good for them.

We had a wonderful trip and recommend it to you all!

Update about the kids from Lara

The kids

Well it has been interesting to watch the kids adapt to the French school, kids, language, way of life.

Anais (20 months when we arrived and now 2)

Regarding school, Anais is in a daycare pre-school 2 mornings/week the same one Sebastien attended last year. It was the her first school in her life so it took her 5 or 6 visits to not cry when we left (which was just a show-she always stopped right after we left of course) But soon enough she was walking in there like she owned the place and enjoying the different activities (such as playing with large buckets of rice on a large tarp, pretend cooking, taste-testing different flavors, bicycle and jungle gym, etc)

When we arrived she understood everything we said but words back to us were nouns/subjects only. Now she has started adding verbs and mostly in French for verbs! She loves to name things that she knows. And now she thinks its normal to give every object 2 names- one English and one French. One thing I love is when she comes home from school, she knows I’m going to ask her ‘how was school, who did you play with’ so before I have a chance to ask, each time she comes home she looks at me and says “Keyris!” and “Luna”, which I came to learn are 2 other kids in her class. I like that she knows the other kids, there was a time I thought she wasn’t social. In fact she seems very social, she often points at our friends who come over and asks “what’s that” because she wants to know their names.

Sebastien 3.9 when we arrived, now almost 4

Sebastien on the other hand adapted to school as if he had been there before. He was excited to go and never asked to stay home. In the first month of school, he had a permanent sub, a man named Michel. He liked this teacher very much and would was very happy to see him each morning. Then the regular teacher Pauline returned and when I asked him, Sebastien said he liked her better.

The kids have a lot of attention, there are 2 teachers to 12 kids. In general, teachers are very well qualified with a lot of knowledge about child development. They do the usual art work of various scribbles in various media, activities to practice making straight lines, putting sticker ‘spots’ onto images of lady bugs. On the back of these masterpieces the teacher writes what development stage this activity is targetting. Something that is very interesting about French culture is how everyone agrees to be on the same system of organization. It can be annoying when you don’t know the rules, but if you do, it’s all very predictable. So each period of school (between the vacations) the work is collected and collated into a little notebook for the parents to keep. So far we’ve experienced fall break and Winter break, I assume we will have a couple spring breaks before we leave. The last day of each period, feels like the last day of school before summer back home. Everyone is excited, even the parents. In my exercise classes, people say ‘bon vacance’ before the break and we don’t meet until the kids go back to school. It is annoying to stop exercising just because of the kids schedule but that is how it works. 10 weeks on, 2 weeks off or so throughout the year.

Sebastien started out in September understanding most of what the kids and teachers were saying in French but answering back in broken French with English mixed in. Little by little, especially each time he played in the cul de sac outside with the neighborhood kids, he incorporated more French in his speaking, including words we don’t like. He started copying his favorite friend’s sassy attitude too. "Oui maman" with a sassy tone, like a teenager! Is this happening to you parents already back home at this age?? What’s with the attitude at 3.5??

Now 4 months later, he is finally using verbs. He still speaks a lot of English with us especially me but now instead of English words peppering his French, French words are peppering his English. I thought it was interesting when he started putting French verbs in English sentences. (what are you mang-ing?) Right now he is getting prepositions all mixed up in both languages. Like saying “attend pour moi” in French (that’s an extra ‘for’ he doesn’t need to say which shows he was trying to use the English contstruction for that phrase) or “Anais is being mean at me,” which shows he’s using the French construction in his English. I wonder if this is the next section that will straighten out in the coming months.  We will see.

French ways:

It turns out that our village had the most births per capita over any other town in all of France. When Devin and I picked this place because we wanted the opposite of our old region, somewhere with more kids to play with, we had no idea about this statistic. It is probably like living outside of Berkeley in more suburban towns where most households have kids. We know a lot of families and through the school whom we see in the streets on our daily trek back and forth to school (9 to school, 12 back for lunch, 2 back for nap, 5 for pick-up) Once we know someone through a mutual acquaintance, we are able to have conversations with other parents. there's an American mother I've learned of from the chicken merchant at the Thursday market and I'm hoping to meet her one day. In general, kids and parenting seems to be about the same. There are cultural differences and my kids are always the louder ones playing on the slide the "wrong" way but in general kids and parenting seem universal. I personally miss Totland and being able to show up at the park any day any time and finding other kids to play with with other parents to talk to and trade parenting tips.

Playing together

Just last month or so, Sebastien and Anais have started to play together. This is a big help because Sebastien is one of those kids that needs constant companionship. Now Anais plays with him and they’re starting to invent different games together. This makes it a lot easier at dinner making time. Also, it makes me very happy to witness their lifelong friendship begin.

What they are into

Christmas was a lot of fun this year. Sebastien got a skateboard, 10 hotwheels from the movie Cars, and batman pajamas. Anais got a dollhouse, a bicycle and a dolly in a stroller. Then for Anais’ bday, she got a CD player made for kids that she can work. All these things made them really smile (except the dollhouse. In fact that toy is more for me. I play with it more than anyone ;) Sebastien wants to practice his skateboard all the time. And Anais is really into the scooter that our neighbor loaned us. They are also doing drawing, building towers with the blocks and they love to help me cook and bake. They are really helpful in the kitchen and they helped me bake all those Xmas cookies I made this year!

Sleeping

My parents snicker when I tell them that Anais doesn't sleep. Apparently she got this from me and I too never gave my poor parents a break. Sebastien sleeps a lot and falls asleep easily. We have started putting them in the same room so they are used to it before we get back to our 2 bedroom house in Berkeley. This is not working very well, they keep each other up by cracking up over nothing. Anais is usually the instigator....

Here are some photos of our darlings.

We miss all our darlings back home too. What are you and they all doing these days????

Anais loves to try new challenges, explore, wander off... Here's her tricycle in October:

Sweeping the cul de sac in September (and playing with the kitty that sleeps behind there)

Trying the neighbor's bike at the fair in the village

She found a kitty! (Oct)

She likes to try all foods. This is pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving.

She LOVES her brother "nya-nya" (next to his reward chart which doesn't work anymore)

weekly visit to the donkeys that live down the way just outside the village

Kitty kat cake for her b-day

Sebastien was very focused on learning how to ride this bike (sept)

His favorite friend Louis on our way to school (Oct)

He was/is also very focused on learning to play soccer as well as his friend Louis

his favorite friend from school Basile

 Uncle Joel (neighbor and anais' godfather)

Neighborhood kids from cul de sac in Sept. They played together every day when it was still warm and light out!

Sebastien misses everyone in Berkeley including his bud Sacha. Such a cute pic from before we left, I couldn't resist...

A glimpse of Paris for Aunt Virginia

This post is for my mother’s aunt Virginia who said her one regret in life was that she didn’t get to see Paris again. Since it didn’t work out to skype with her from the eifel tower (wouldn’t that have been cool?) we wanted to do a good post of our visit, including the things she said she wished she could see again: the daily life in Paris, the little shops, the streets, etc. We lost Aunt Virginia last week so she didn’t get to see this entry. Therefore this is for the rest of the family. Here’s to our curious, observant, artistic Aunt, who will be greatly missed.

Here she is with daughter Betty Anne at our family wedding reception. I'm emotional that she (and BA) were there.  

Anticipation

So we were all so excited to get to Paris. Each one of us had something we were looking forward to. When asked, Sebastien said he was looking forward to "seeing France” (he meant the eifel tower).  Here we are on our way to the train super excited:

The mobile family

First we drove our car to the bus stop at the next town from us. And we left it in a spot RIGHT next to where the bus picks us up (that doesn’t happen in Berkeley!) For 1.50 euros per adult, we get to the Montpellier train station in 45 minutes with no hassle of driving and parking. We feel mobile as we trek to our train with our big stroller and only 1 bag. We get everyone on the train without problems (unlike last time when we almost missed the train and accidentally dumped Sebastien out of the stroller). And we’re off to the city of lights!

Arrival

We’re on the high-speed train, the famous TGV with only 1 stop. So that means we arrive in just over 3 hours. When we finally arrive, Sebastien’s excited and looks out the window and says “I can’t see France”. I tell him the eifel tower is in the middle of the city and we’ll see it the next day. We’re all excited when we get off the train and make our way outside. Soon we see our lovely friend, Yvonne (the sister of Genevieve who you’ve met in previous posts). She has come all the way into the city center to pick us up and take us back by Metro to her house in the suburb of Lardy. We manage to get off the train easily with the kids and here is this exciting view of the Gare de Lyon, the same train station depicted in that famous series of Monet paintings. It's amazing that something painted hundred plus years ago was my 'advertisement' for Paris and comes to mind when there.

See-this was painted about 100 years ago:

And here it is in 2011!:

Yvonne and Daniel

We enjoy a nice evening at Yvonne and Daniel’s interesting home. Aunt Virginia, who had an eye for building and designed her beautiful home in Shell Beach, would surely be intrigued with this house, which is also a very personal house. There are huge canvases of modern art everywhere, the house is made of wood with a huge garden in the back and a wonderful sun room overlooking it. There are books or art tucked into every nook and cranny. And nooks and crannies seem to be everywhere. And the whole house is furnished with wooden furniture from the family furniture business, hand crafted wooden furniture with wooden joints and leather upholstery. One of a kind.

I’m always interested in the meals I am served in French homes. The first night for the first course, we have little mini pancakes (that come already made in a package) with smoked salmon and creme fraiche on top. Then for the main dish, we are treated to a dish from the North of France. It is herring with boiled potatoes served with crème fraiche or butter (not both like we are accustomed to.) There is perfect bread and a plain salad.

I am also always struck by the simplicity of the meals. It is really ‘plain’ and ‘no fuss’ by our standards. And now that I’m used to that, I really appreciate it because it is so straight-forward. None of the inherant flavors of the meal are hidden or masked or manipulated at all. They are right there. Perfect, sometimes average, but standing there with nothing to hide.

After dinner we have the customary large plate of different cheeses (nice and stinky, if they don’t smell, they’re no good) and after that we’re presented with a bowl of fruit to peel and enjoy if we wish.

The next day, our lunch is lentils with boiled meats. The lentils are amazingly delicious and Yvonne has cooked them in a pressure pot with fresh thyme from the garden, carrots and onions. I am curious if pressure pots are as used in France as they are in Brazil. Yvonne says they are quite common. For dessert, we have a sort of charlotte which she’s made in a mold lined with ladyfingers then filled with Bonne Maman black current preserves and topped with Crème Anglaise. It is (politely) devoured.

Our activity with the kids that day is a visit to one of the many local chateax. This one is owned by the state and has been turned into a home for mentally disabled kids. There’s a boarding house, a hospital and a farm. We get to visit and feed the goats, donkeys, pigs, sheep, chickens, geese and even a llama. See the gorgeous surrounding landscape:

Our next highlight is to head back into the center of the city to our friend’s home right next door to the famous eifel tower in the 7^th arrondisement. And again, the family is so excited. This is truly the first view we get when we come up the stairs from the underground metro. Sebastien is ecstatic:

Our friend's neighborhood in the 7th is really lovely with cute shops, delis, and even an American joint selling all things American (which I can’t find anywhere near our town, only in Paris. I pop in to get some much needed brown sugar for our holiday baking.) They have candy corn, cake mixes, pop rocks and other fun American candy. With all the colorful products, it is a pretty kitchy (and happy I think) place. I am happy to hear some American English on the street after all these months. Very rare experience in France. Apparently it is quite an international neighborhood. We get some fantastic views of the tower and streets throughout the weekend. Check out my shadow and Sebastien running ahead to get all the way to the tower (we finally had to stop him-he went really far!)

then Sebastien stumbles on a boot camp class and is riveted. Imagine working out under this view!:

Also, I am so lucky that there happens to be a Paris flea market happening here on this same weekend. Something I’ve always wanted to see:

Look at this chandelier:

And these madmen like chairs!

Our hosts showed us their favorite bridge:

And this was just there in the middle of our walk. Like a postcard!

And Aunt Virginia wanted to know what the streets and little shops were like. The following pics are taken from right downstairs from our friends' apartment. When they need something, they just pop down there.

A drugstore:

Wedding dresses:

fruit/veggies (not much organic)

and flowers:

Aunt Virginia would have loved to see our friends' beautiful huge apartment. There are huge ceilings with French elaborate moldings througout. There are glass french doors separating each of the rooms. There are wooden floors throughout. There are marble fireplaces in every room, including the bedrooms, with the original marble and French mirrors above them. Our friends have painted each room perfect white so that it is all uniform throughout and all you see is the beauty of the architecture. They furnish sparsly with modern lines and are saving for beautiful crystal chandeliers to perfect the look. 

We learned that Paris is considered one of the most beautiful cities in the world because it is unified by one beautiful style (Haussman style).
(See wikipedia for more info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haussmann%27s_renovation_of_Paris )
After my friend's lesson and passion about it, I paid more attention when looking around.

The louvre:

A door:

the famous French balconies:

                                            

another door I liked (Dev's favorite color)

Food

Our meals throughout the weekend: the first night, we are treated to smoked salmon and homemade apple crumble. Another night we have pork chops and another night we have a sauerkraut dish from the Alsace Lorraine region--a broth with finely shreaded (like vermicelli) cabbage and 2 different sausages and corned beef. Almost like an irish dish. Always we finish with the best, gooey cheese and salad. One night it's our turn to cook so we get some ingredients from the lively street just around the corner of our friends' house. First we show our host kids how to make chocolate chip cookies. We don't have as much access to different (even Italian) foods in our country village. So we get some fresh homemade Italian pasta from the nearby upscale deli and make a sauce of fresh tomatoes with organic shrimp (from Madagascar apparently). With a fantastic bakary right downstairs and all this homemade food, we eat well the whole weekend!

Sebastien's really a pro by now--he loves helping me!

 
And our Parisian host was a natural and Anais loves to help too!

Cite des enfants:

We take the kids to this children’s museums where they get to play with all kinds of cool kid exhibits. Like this pretend work site:

Then Anais loves the water one where she gets to pour water into buckets and throw chips into a pretend river. She wears an apron and manages to stay dry! Sebastien loves these mini movie theaters they’ve set up to show movie clips that represent major emotions. There’s the happy one with a cool montage of happy scenes from movies from all genres. Then there’s the sad one and the scary one. Interesting idea. Anais also loves the one that plays with the senses. Sounds, Smells, Touch.  The exhibits are well marked with the age that matches the development milestone the exhibit is based upon. They are so well thought out. As are the kids’ school. My conclusion is that France understands kids.

The next day, we get to go to an adult museum. We go to the Georges Pompidou center for the Edvard Munch exhibit. He’s the one that did ‘The Scream” although that particular painting was stolen recently. There’s also an exhibit on dance that is interesting to me. We don’t get a chance to soak up everything thoroughly but we do see that it is amazingly well curated. I loved how they tried to figure out what Munch was going through at the time of his paintings to construct a narrative of what he was trying to accomplish and what he felt about things. Each president is supposed to build a monument  to leave for the city upon his departure. This building is the controversial one left by Georges Pompidou, the one with the inside of the building showing on the outside. So we ride up the escalators that are located on the outside of the buidling (not unlike the one in the beverly center!) and here we discover the BEST VIEW OF PARIS. The entire roof line is even, as in the same height below us except for the major sites are sticking up out of that line. We see the Notre Dame, the montmartre, other churches, the eifel tower, etc. poking out of the horizontal line of rooves. Plus we are there on the ONLY clear day of the weekend. It is gorgeous and we feel good.

We have lunch with Devin’s good friend Sven and have a wonderful time walking back along the rue de rivoli, past mainstream stores (ugh, so many american stores, I feel like I’m on Market Street in SF!) We finish outside the louvre before we have to get back for the kids naps and I take this fun panaromic picture there:

Last but not least, let me show you some Christmas decorations.

An intersection on the Champs d'elysees:

OMG: the karl lagerfield homage at the galleries lafayette. You would not believe the effort that went into the 30 windows of puppets all with different themes. I couldn't tell who sponsored them-they were just pieces of art and there were millions of people there to see them!

You can't see it very well, but these puppets are ballet dancers that are really moving. Gorgeous!

And this was from neighboring dept store Printemps and it was so classy. There was a different window done up for each major city (Istanbul, Moscow, Singapore, etc) Here's Paris:

Finally, some pics of the children on our way back to Aniane.

   

                                              

back in the train:

Thanks for reading. May Aunt Virginia rest in peace.