French School

The boys started school on Monday, they seemed pretty chilled about the idea of starting, as if it was just normal. We kept telling them they'd be great and we didn't expect anything of them, we just wanted them to go in and give it a try. We have been doing some youtube French with them over the last 6 months and last week we were going over the French alphabet.

The day before they got a bit nervous. I think Percy especially started realising that it was quite a big deal, he said, "I've not got enough French in me," but they were excited too. I was slightly worried that we'd get there and the school wouldn't be aware they were starting today and they would be turned away. Mainly because I had a whole day of lounging planned, my first day to relax in weeks, maybe months.

They we're pretty excited when they woke up and at 8:30 all four of us headed off. 

At 8am I decided it wasn't shorts weather, by the time we left at 8:30 it was shorts weather.

The school is just 5 minutes walk away. It's the only school in the village, and the French have a revolutionary system of everyone going to their nearest school. You go to your Mairie (town hall/one stop shop) and ask to be given a school place and they give you one. No one chooses a school (unless you want some kind of special school) this means the longest anyone is walking to our school is 10 minutes, so most people walk, but there's also a parent car park which has more spaces than there are cars. This is a massive revelation for me because their old primary school had a car park so small that not even all the teachers could park in it. I didn't realise it until now, but the school run used to be pretty stressful. Me and Percy went by bike, with Eric in a trailer and everyday we had to do a little bit where we turn right off a busy main road. I felt like we risked our lives a little bit everyday. Once a wheel did come off the trailer and a few times cars were impatient and got too close to us. Cars were parked all over the place near the school, people would come half an hour early to get the best spots and if we ever drove it took so long getting out of there. So to walk for 5 minutes on a quiet road is a dream.

The school is really small, I'm not sure how many kids but less than 100 and about 20 per class. We got to the school gates and a man on the door said "Percy and Eric?" which was great! I was so happy my day of lounging had been confirmed ... I mean happy for my kids to be educated. They pointed to where Eric needed to go and Dan took him, which left me without my translator to sort Percy out. Fortunately his teacher has very good English, unfortunately she's only his teacher on a Monday. They didn't really say a lot, they just showed him the classroom and he took a seat right by the door and then I had to just leave him, which was weird. Dan said Eric went really silent before he left.

The school day is very different to how it is in English schools. In this school (and I think this is pretty standard) they go in from 8:45 to 4:30, which is a long day, but they have a 1 hour 45 break for lunch and they never go in on a Wednesday. For this term at least they will come home for lunch. This was really great on the first day for them to know it's only until 12:15 and then you can come back for a break from all the French before the afternoon lessons. There's also a morning play time and unlike in Liverpool the kids are all on the same playground at the same time, so Percy and Eric can play with each other.

While they were in I got on with some lounging. I also hung some pictures on the wall and tried to sort out the kitchen being fitted in our old house.

I'm actually not topless here, it's just a weird angle where you can't see the bikini.

When we picked them up for lunch Percy's teacher told us that there was a trip for him tomorrow! It was to Colloiure where we had just been that weekend. That meant he would be with strangers all day, without coming back for lunch, and we had to somehow buy insurance for both boys. Not just for the trip, but for the whole rest of the year. It's like public liability insurance in case they hurt themselves in school. That was pretty random.

On the first day Percy said he didn't know what lesson he was in, but after further questioning we think the lesson was a maths lesson about angles. I wish they would give him a maths sheet with just sums on it, he'd love that and he's good at maths, but apparently all the maths questions were sentences.

Eric gets a quiet time after lunch where he can have a nap, or if not he has to just be calm. They have a little room with cot sized bunk beds for all the kids. The class room is very nice, it quite like what he's used to, there's a little toy shop and toy kitchen and the room is attached to a bigger cafeteria where all the kids who stay in for lunch eat. That's also the same place where you can go to a Wednesday club if you want. He was very chuffed when he came out at the end of the day because it was another boy's birthday which meant he got a party bag of sweets. We were very proud of them both for getting through the first day.

We were a bit concerned for Percy and the trip, it's great he was going out doing something practical, they were climbing a hill and seeing a castle. It was a full day of strangers for him. At home time we saw the bus arrive and kids began getting off it. We couldn't see Percy anywhere and I was slightly worried they'd left him in Collioure, but it turns out he was in a window seat and the kid next to him had fallen asleep and Percy didn't know how to get out. Aww bless him. 

By Wednesday they were happy to have a day off. We did some English home schooling, Percy learnt the difference between your, you're, there, their and they're, and Eric learned the phonics sound "oi" as in foil, soil, coin. In the afternoon Dan dropped us off in Ille-sur-Tet. I drove for practice (I haven't yet driven without him in the car). We'd been to Ille-sur-Tet before, but not to this particular lookout spot which was incredible and the photos really don't do it justice.

We went for a bit of a wander too, off the main road scrambling up some rocks looking out for lizards and stuff, (there was one in our garden the other day). We found what I first thought was abandoned furniture, but later realised was beehives!

On Thursday Percy's class were learning English, so he got taken out to learn the French alphabet with one other kid, a Ukrainian girl who I'm guessing has just fled the Ukraine. We were told he'll get those lessons every morning, so I think that will help, and I'm impressed that the school can do that for him. I've signed up to go on two school trips next week! Eric's class is going to the next door village for some kind of sports day and Percy's class is doing forest school. I'm sure I'll be no help at all, but it will be good to meet other parents and maybe pick up a bit of French, and every time I put myself in embarrassing situations it's all good material, for all those comedy gigs I don't do anymore. Maybe for our podcast that I haven't got round to editing yet.

Today (Friday) Percy was not that happy to be going into school again, but at lunch time pick up his teacher was telling me he is good at maths. They finally gave him a worksheet with questions just in numbers. She said he can bring in an English reading book too, which he's very happy about. I tried to tell her he is good at reading, but I could remember the word for reading so I said, "he look at book good," like an absolute idiot.

I'm enjoying trying to get myself into a little routine when the kids are in school. So far I've been dropping them off at 8:45 then trying to get in a bit of exercise before it gets too hot. I went for a run a couple of times, and today I cycled 2 villages east to Le Soler. I bought a baguette and some kind of half bread half popadom with sugar on and cycled back, only stopping to take a photo of the funnest bus stop I've ever seen. 

For the rest of my mornings I do a bit of house work while listening to a learn French audio book, it's hot enough to dry three washes a day which is very exciting! I have a few other French learning things I do too. The kids are back for lunch and we've tried doing the main meal then, it means less washing up and stuff in the evening. 

In the afternoon I've tried to make some time for creative stuff like blogging or painting, but there is always boring stuff to do too. Today we had to collect a parcel from a place 10 mins away, so I drove for driving practice. I'm getting better but Dan is away in the Czech republic a week tomorrow for work and I don't feel ready to be driving them around places yet.

At least I've discovered we do have a corner shop in walking distance, so we won't starve. It's a mixture of a pub, a coffee shop and a corner shop. It doesn't sell a lot, just a really weird selection of stuff, but if you're in the market for a baguette, a mood ring, a bit of dried pig (possibly it's face), and a frozen fish that still looks like a fish, it really is the best place. 

A la prochaine.

Surprising Dan

Hey. Thanks for reading my recent moving to France blogs, it's been hard making time to write them and everyday I don't finish it more stuff happens, so they get longer. But they've all had a good response and a lot of views, so I really appreciate that. After this one I'll go back to my normal frequency of just writing them whenever.

Birthdays

So we moved into our new house on 23rd April. Dan's birthday is inconveniently 30th April and Eric's birthday is 3rd May. We'd given Eric's birthday some thought and arranged a trip to Manchester Legoland with another family. Also, on the last day of school, we invited both Percy and Eric's classes for a little party in the park after school, which was a fun but manic time. I'd planned some sports day type races and team games, but I just remember running around throwing packets of sweets on the floor while kids chased me. I was like the Pied Piper on crack.

Dan knew his birthday was going to get forgotten, but after his last two birthdays being affected by Covid I did want to do something. It was hard to think about it back in England, in the phase where Dan was chasing the French estate agents everyday, we were having our kitchen wall knocked down, and my main aim in life was trying to sneak bin bags into other peoples bins. There seemed no point buying him a gift in England, but having to get it once we were there was tricky. I didn't (and still don't) have a french bank card. There's one we both use, but he gets a text whenever it's used saying how much was spent and where and also we don't live near any big shops, and I've only just started learning to drive our new big car so the options of getting him a nice surprise gift were limited.

In fact gift-wise I did not do great. On his birthday I suggested Dan bought himself a raclette machine while he did a full weeks shop and bought a washing machine, and he did. Ah the romance.

I really did want to do something nice though. His family come from north west France, so it is very far from where we are, but that's my fault. It's all because I said, "I'm not learning a new language for the weather of Cornwall." But his cousin and one of his aunties are in the south. I messaged them and his auntie was free, plus it turns out his grandma (he calls Mamie) was visiting the south for the weekend. So they very kindly offered to make the trip (over 3 hours from Marseille) to come and surprise Dan, even though at the time of arranging it we had no dining table or chairs or sofa or working oven, so I was a bit nervous about this plan working. I invited them for an evening meal on the Friday and they planned to stay over in a nearby airbnb to be around for Dan's birthday on the Saturday. 

Dan was working on the Friday and had arranged to go and pick up our new car on the Friday morning. Dan's a massive car enthusiast, so I imagine getting to spend a big chunk of money on a mum bus from 2011 was an absolute dream for him. It's a Renault. But how the french pronounce Renault is very different. It's sort of like how you pronounce the word gnu but with a "ren" in front. Anyway in the morning he went to get that and a bunk bed, and after work in the evening he went out to get this table and chairs we were given. I had been saying how much the chair and table were important for days, trying to make sure he could get it by Friday, when really I think a sofa is possibly more important but obviously for eating lasagne, a table really does come in handy. 

So Dan was out and I started cooking this big lasagne. I was bit nervous that we could run out of gas, because our gas supply is just a massive gas bottle and you have to just buy a new one when it runs out, they sell them everywhere. I have no idea if ours was full when we moved in, so it could run out at any point. The gas was fine, but I did manage to set the smoke alarm off and the kids were yelling at me. While all this was going on I was trying to go over the French for, "would you like a drink" and, "thanks for coming." Dan's family arrived at 5 while Dan was out, which was the plan. Dan's Auntie speaks very good English, which is great, I don't think I could have arranged it without that. My spoken French is bad, but writing messages is even harder, because I'm not sure how to spell hardly any French words.

We've visited auntie Beatrice once before in 2013, when we cycled to Kuwait. She was living in Paris at the time and we stayed in her very trendy flat for a few nights. France was one of the best bits of the trip. I loved cycling because you get to see all of the city, from the fields on the outskirts where you can just see a tiny tiny Eiffel Tower on the horizon, to all the rough looking inner city suburbs, to the really fancy old buildings right in the middle.

Dan and Beatrice 2013

Then in 2019 Eric was almost two and we thought this would be a good time to try a new adventure. Because he was free on a flight, we looked at a map. I quite fancied going to Barcelona, somewhere we'd both never been, and we'd also not done much of southern France, so we rented a camper van and drove from Nice to Barcelona. That was the time we spent a day and a half in Perpignan, and have since decided to call it home for the foreseeable future. But before we got to Perpignan, we stoped off in Marseille, where Beatrice lived then (and continues to live). Her and her partner Olivier were beyond generous and bought me a lobster to eat, even though they were on a weird diet of drinking the water leftover from cooking vegetables. Not even eating vegetables!

2019 in Marseille

So it was really nice that Beatrice and Oliver were up for coming over, because it really is a long way. But equally exciting was that Dan's grandma Rosalie (from the north) was staying with Beatrice, and so she could come too! I've met her a few times and she's absolutely lovely. Her English is a bit better than my French, but I hope in a year I will have surpassed her. Rosalie is one of 10 children and one of those great aunties to Dan came with her on the journey to ours.

So four French people arrived at our house, one of whom I didn't know the name of. Dan was delayed getting the table so I was actually with them for an hour without Dan (and with no chairs or sofa to sit on). They were all staying in the nearby town of Millas, about 2 miles away, so when we got the message from Dan that he wouldn't be there until 6 Beatrice and Olivier went to check in at the airbnb. We were all a bit concerned that they wouldn't get back before Dan, but it made sense to go. This left me with the boys Mamie (the grandma) and the random French aunt that I didn't know the name of, and who spoke no English whatsoever. We managed to have a few conversations, mainly by me just showing them things. I did a house tour and then showed them our photos that we had framed ready to go on the wall and I got the boys to show some of their toys. 

Mamie asked how long we were renting this house for.  I can easily say in French, "for one year" but I can't say, "it's actually on a rolling contract, so we just need to give three months notice if we want to leave." I really tried but that just confused her, so in the end I just said one year and got Dan to explain later. 

Beatrice made it back just in time, but Olivier, who was parking the car somewhere a bit further away so as not to be seen, didn't quite make it. We talked about how to do the surprise, but it ended up with the three French ladies hiding in the down stairs loo. I later thought a cool idea would be to put the visitors in the back garden and put the shutters of the French doors down, and then reveal them legs first. Like they were on the horrendous show Naked Attraction, but not naked obvs.

There was quite a lot of Dan going in and out, before the surprise. He picked up this table so we were carrying that in and then all the chairs. But it was a really lovely surprise when they finally came out. Especially that Mamie was there, I don't think we'd seen her since Dan's youngest sister's wedding three years ago. 

It all worked out and we squeezed round the table to eat my lasagne. I asked Dan the name of the random auntie and he didn't know! (We later found out it was Victore.) They bought us some gifts, including a card game called Papayoo which is fun, but at the time we played it I was so tired and didn't really understand the rules. The were a lot of laughs, including some quite rude humour from the oldest French people. It turns out bum holes are funny to old French people too. - Thats a top tip if you're thinking of holidaying here and want to strike up a conversation.

The next day (Dan's actual birthday) was a bit less successful. It started with a little dip in the pool of their airbnb, which looked amazing but it was actually probably the coldest day we've had since we've been here. Then we wanted to go somewhere nice, but not far because they had traveled so far to see us and had to get home. We tried to have a picnic at a very local lake, but actually just spent ages driving our new massive car down tiny farmyard tracks, following a sat nav and then giving up and going back to ours for lunch. Ah well, it was so nice to see them and I'm very grateful for them for making Dan's birthday fun.

On Sunday we went to our local mountain. I can see snow on it, so we took sledges and coats. We got nowhere near the snow, it was boiling hot the whole time but still beautiful.

I can see you but I can't get to you, snow!

The rest of the week was reminiscent of lockdown. Dan was working, I can't go anywhere far with the kids because I can't drive. I've had two little lessons with Dan and it is pretty hard, mainly the fact I'm driving a big car on small roads with ditches, more than the driving on the right thing. So we were mainly in the house, doing a bit of homeschooling, because Eric's only learnt two thirds of the phonics sounds he needs to know to be able to read. Also, just to confuse them, we started learning the French alphabet because even though the letters look the same they don't make the same sounds. Like J and G are pretty much the other way round in french and "T" and "H" don't make the "th" sound that they do in English, they make a different sound that sounds like it's got a "w" in. It was a tiring and a bit boring time. I feel the need to say that because my photos look like I'm having fun 100% of the time. It's quite hard to capture boredom in a photo.

Tuesday was fun though. It was Eric's 5th birthday and I tried to give him as much fun as I possibly good within the restraints of: we don't know anyone and I can't get anywhere and Daddy's working. We did have a lot of cardboard though and I've got a degree in making stuff, so making a cardboard castle was a good way to spend the day until Dan clocked off work. 

This beanstalk has, over several days, grown right round the corner and to the top of the castle

In the evening went on a road trip to the toy shop, followed by McDonalds, followed by the beach!

Toy shop purchase.

Well done for getting this far, sorry it's so long. This is a good bit though:

Today was a beach day too. We went to a different beach with some people from the english speaking church, and then stopped in at this very picturesque town called Collioure. 

Matisse has painted Collioure it and now it's my turn. 

We got an ice cream, and here's a tip about ice cream pricing:

1 boule = 3.50 euros

2 boule = 4.50 euros

3 boule = 5.50 euros

4 boule = 6.50 euros 

So, if a family of 4 get 1 scoop each in a separate bowl the total is 14 Euros. If they get two bowls with 4 scoops in (2 flavours each and you have to share a bowl with 1 other person) it's 13 euros!! That's my top money saving tip ever. That and never buy insurance for anything you don't legally have to, because either it might not happen or we're all going to die anyway.

Anyway, we didn't get two ice cream scoops each (sorry to disappoint) we shared. I shared two scoops with Percy and Dan shared two with Eric. The reason I bring this up is because Eric loves to pick blue flavour, or unicorn flavour or something mad. This particular blue one was called Smurf flavour and Dan picked nut flavour, and I took great delight in telling him his combined flavour was Smurf nuts. Ha Ha Ha I am hilarious.

School starts tomorrow. My real retirement begins then. I bought a lounger for the garden and I'm going to lounge so damn hard. 

The First Week.

In case you didn't read my previous blog, I arrived in France on Friday, saw our new house for the first time on Saturday and just like God and Craig David we chilled on Sunday.

Monday (25th April)

Today was the last day that Dan was not in work. We had 10 days between being in a functioning house with food and internet and beds in England, to being in a functioning house with food and internet and beds in France, and actually four of those days were days we were doing other things (Eric's fake birthday, Sarah's wedding, Easter day, and the Sunday we chilled.) But for the other 6 days we worked really hard!

Monday was the day we went to the Mairie and all of the shops. 

The Mairie is like the town hall/one stop shop, even though our village is tiny and its walking distance to the town hall of the next village. In England if you want to sort out stuff like council tax or school admission or getting child benefit you have to go to all different places. It would normally involve you being on the phone on hold for ages, or if you did go to a physical place it would be the One Stop Shop. I don't know of you've ever had the misfortune of having to go to a One Stop Shop, but it's basically full of desperate people with no money queuing for ages to talk to someone about Britain's incredibly complicated benefit system. All while being made to feel like the absolute scum of the earth. The Mairie is like that except nice. There's no stigma about going, everyone is polite and helpful. It's for everyone, not just the poor and desperate. So we went to sort out the kids school admission and also asked about French classes for me, bin days and council tax (which luckily, unlike in Britain, our landlord is responsible for paying.) The Mayor of Saint Feliu d'Amont personally welcomed me to the village in English! You wouldn't get that as a new immigrant in the Picton road One Stop Shop.

We had a lot of our stuff shipped. There was a fridge, 3 chest of draws, our mattresses, two desks etc, but we didn't take our table and chairs because it was too big and we didn't take our sofa because it was ugly and we want a sofa bed. We didn't take our washing machine because its rubbish and noisy and we didn't bring the boys beds because Eric was still in his toddler bed and we wanted to get them a bunk bed. So we still had a lot of basic stuff to get. Perpignan has an Ikea, so after going through their website we headed there with a list of what we needed. When we arrived we saw the tiniest Ikea I've ever seen! It turns out it's just a shop you order stuff from, which since the internet exists makes this Ikea pretty pointless. Opposite was a very French sofa shop. I went into for a browse and it was clear straight away we were not the clientele for this kind of shop: 3000 euros for a sofa, no thanks. I walked in and the man asked if he could help me. I didn't know the french for "I'm just browsing" but I had just learnt in my online classes the phase "canape lit" which is a sofa bed. So I said in my best French, "je voudrais une canope lit" and then he showed me some. I had to go and get Dan, who was outside with the boys eating sandwiches on a bench. And then we had to all pretend we were considering buying these totally overpriced sofa beds and then leave, with the kids asking, "why aren't we buying it?"

So we went next door to the tiny Ikea to order some stuff. It was like a game of charades, where me and Dan acted out what furniture items we wanted to this poor guy, who had to translate it into French and then into Ikea language. Dan's french is very good but he's never lived in France and only knows the kind of French that you would chat about with your family. He didn't even know the word for 'that little shelf that sticks in your shower that you put your razor on', because even in English no one has a word for that. I mimed shaving my armpits and then putting my razor on a shelf. I don't know if it helped but I was enjoying myself. We finally came up with a big list of things we wanted. Dan went to pay and they said they only accepted certain kinds of bank cards, and not the kind he had. It was super annoying and even more annoying for the guy, who had played a 30 minute game of charades with us and received no commission.

We went to several other shops that day. Two were a bit like B&Q and then we went to Decathlon to get Percy a new bike. We hadn't brought Eric's bike with us because it was so heavy and rattly. We planned to get Percy a new one and upgrade Eric to Percy's old one. Percy was very chuffed to get a bike in his favourite colour yellow (it's his favourite because its the colour of beaches and giraffes). It's also the first time he's had gears, which he was very happy about. 

We got back to the house exhausted in the evening and made a quick dinner, and then annoyingly went out after tea to two different supermarkets, because this was the last day that Dan was off and we had the hire car. Nobody wanted to go, but it needed doing. Especially because I was planning a secret surprise birthday for Dan this Friday and this was my last proper chance to get food in for that.

Dan's Mum left all her friends and family when she was 18 and came to Britain and since then has become incredibly British, like she doesn't even have a French accent. But all the rest of her family (which is very large) have remained in France (apart from her brother who is in Hong Kong). Many of them are in the north of France, but one of Dan's aunties (who we've stayed with a few times) and Dan's cousin (who is our age and has a family) are in the south. While we were still in England I messaged the cousin and Auntie to see if they would be up for coming over to surprise Dan. It's quite a challenge to organise a surprise party in another language a week after arriving in a new place. But they were very helpful and responded to my english messages, and were willing to travel over 3 hours to make the surprise work. All I really did was cook a meal for everyone, which was still a challenge because for a few days we couldn't work the oven, I can't drive here yet, and we didn't have a table and chairs until the day of the party. And I don't have my own bank card so I couldn't spend money without Dan getting a message saying how much I spent and where I spent it, which does make surprises difficult. So anyway, I went to the supermarket and managed to get enough food to make a big lasagne for eight people. 

Tuesday

Today Dan was back at work and we went to see our local area. 

We'd been so busy trying to make the most of the hire car that we hadn't ever walked round our village, apart from the trip to the Mairie. We headed out in the opposite direction and I was blown away by how close we are to fields and tractors and mountains. Growing up in a village as a teenager I'd perviously been very vocally opposed to fields, calling them "shit parks," because they are really. Imagine going to a park where you're only allowed to walk round the edge and theres no play stuff or toilets or benches, it would hardly score highly on Trip Advisor. But for some reason grown ups were always like, "oh you're so lucky to live in the countryside." It's easy to say that if you're an adult with a car ,who can get to a shop or anywhere you like. It's much harder to appreciate fields if you have to walk 20 mins get the train and then get a bus just to go to a park with your mates.

Anyway, I think at age 36 I've probably reached the age where I can forgive fields for ruining my youth, and appreciate them. Especially if they have mountains behind them.

In the evening Dan went out to give the hire car back. On the way he stopped in to view a second hand mum bus that we have now bought! I'm scared to drive it. We wanted a bigger car so that when people come to visit we can drive them places, but it seems massive. And I've never driven on wrong way round roads before. Also we still don't know what the yellow diamond road sign means.

Wednesday

I was determined to get out and see this city we moved to without ever really seeing. (We came here for a day and a half in 2019 and saw a beach and a castle.) Our little village that has no shops or anything is next to a slightly bigger village with 3 shops and a train station. So I decided we three would cycle to the station (a mile away) and get the train into town and explore. Cycling was a challenge. Percy is very good on a bike but Eric is still learning. In the UK me and Percy would cycle to school and Eric was in a bike trailer. Eric is not a good enough cyclist for me to also cycle, I have to jog behind him to catch him. He's good at going forward, but isn't good at stopping or keeping the right position in the road. Anyway we set off and he was doing really well then I needed a break because I was jogging with a heavy backpack so I asked them to stop. This is where Eric panicked and fell off. He was fine, but he was so close to falling in this sort of concrete stream/ditch running between the field and road. We managed to make our way to the train station and lock up the bikes. There was one other guy waiting for the train with a mask on and I remembered Dan had said "it's very important to wear a mask." Oops. I got on the train anyway and it wasn't an issue. I also didn't have a ticket because theres no ticket office in Saint Feliu d'Avall, so you just buy one on the train if someone asks which, they didn't. 

It's only about 12 minutes and two stops to Perpignan, just like the village I grew up in, a mile from a station and 12 minutes and 2 stops on the train to Coventry. The only difference is that Perpignan is infinitely more beautiful than Coventry. Coventry has a good cathedral and a ring road that everyone hates. Perpignan has mountains, beaches, a river, a canal, a castle, outdoor markets and sunshine. But before exploring all of that, Eric needed a wee. We went to the station toilet which needed a 50 cent piece. I put it in the slot and the door didn't open. So Eric had to wee in a random alley. At least boys can do that kind of thing fairly easily. We continued down a big wide street lined with very tall palm trees, ate our packed lunch and carried on exploring. 

We went inside a really nice bookshop that had loads of beautiful children's books. I considered getting one for Dan to read to them to help them with their French, but then the shop assistant came over and told me this was a specialist Catalan bookshop and none of these books were actually in French. My French is so bad I didn't notice.

There were a signs for tourist information point, but I now know that the sign is about 10 minutes walk from tourist information. After trying to follow the signs I finally gave in and asked a random passerby. She was really lovely and walked us all the way there. On the way we passed loads of interesting looking shops and we crossed over the canal where there was a outdoor market selling old French postcards and Asterix books. At tourist information we picked up some leaflets and, crucially, a map so we could now find all the best places. The lady at tourist information told me about a beautiful park, that was very good for children and was free, so we decided to make our way there. On the way we stopped off at a really cool shop called Flying Tiger. It was like the toy section in Ikea mixed with things like candles, fairy lights, sunglasses, and bags, all good value fun stuff. The boys had a bit of money to spend so Eric bought a wooden jigsaw you colour in yourself and Percy bought some hamma beads, despite the fact I didn't bring an iron here. The also chose Dan a mug with a dinosaur on it. When you put a hot drink in the dinosaur turns into just a dinosaur skeleton.

We then traced our steps back past some of the interesting things we passed while following the woman, bought some post cards and then continued on to find this park. 

When I got to the place circled on the map it turned out not to be the park at all. The lady had circled a few places and this was sort of a library with a little gallery. But we'd walked a long way and I was just glad for a sit down. After a while a member of staff came and told us there were games for children on the top floor, so we headed up to see a big shelving unit of board games you can play in the children's library. After playing for a while it was time to make the long walk back to the station. The trains are only about every two hours, so we didn't want to miss this one. We broke up the long walk with an ice cream stop.

This time I had no excuse not to get a ticket, apart from the fact the ticket machine didn't work and there was no one in the ticket office. (I later learned the ticket machine isn't touch screen, it's got a knob that you have to twist, so it was working fine but twisty knob is nobodies first thought, right?) Anyway, I just got on the train feeling bad that I didn't have a mask or a ticket (in my head I practised the french for "there was no one in the ticket office). In the end four guys who were like the train police got on and asked me for my ticket. In the moment I couldn't get out any of the French apart from "Je suis desole" and just spoke in english. I said can I buy one now and guy was just like ptfff, which I took to mean it's no problem. Then when we were on our way a woman came past quickly and asked everyone to wear a mask. Then the person opposite me asked me where my mask was and said, "I don't care but that woman will be mad at you." She was right, the woman came back and was mad at me. There wasn't much I could do. I wish I'd bought a mask in town, but on the way no one really seemed that bothered. It was much more of an issue than the fact I didn't have a ticket. Luckily it was only a short journey, and then I had a nice relaxing mile jog with a backpack on in 27 degree heat chasing after a kid who can't quite ride a bike: the most relaxing way to travel. But I'm proud that we made it.

Thursday 

We had a chilled out day. We explored more or the local area, going in the opposite direction towards the school. 

That yellow building is where they go for their lunch (unless they come home which they will do at first.)

You might be thinking what a lovely place to bring up kids I bet theres no crime but you'd be wrong...

Some kids have lost their chickens! We actually saw a big group of kids protesting about this at the Mairie on Monday. I hope we find them and we can be the heroes of the village.

We found a big basket ball court too, I think basket ball is a big thing here, more than football, which I'm happy about. I think basketball is much cooler. I've been to see basket ball a few times in Ramallah (when I lived near Bethlehem) and it was a lot of fun. The boys then drew all over our yard, got chalk all over themselves and then all over the house.

Next blog: Dan's surprise party, trying to sledge, and Eric's birthday.