Flowers for Grandmother

Coming home from our ski trip, I felt so happy to see this bunch of crocus in our garden. But hey, taking photos of flowers, I feel like I'm really old. Like a grandmother. Defintively old old woman behaviour. But since it is La Fête des Grand-Mères, Grandmother's Day, today, I publish a flower photo to their honour!

Cauterets, skiing in the Pyrenees

Skiing in the French Alps were my first experiences with Latin culture - especially with the Latin queuing habits. All the Swedes standing practically still as all the Italians and French deftly passed them….

Now I want to pass on my love for skiing to my children and being only two hours from the Pyrenees ski stations, I wanted to go even though my husband was away. A ski week alone with two children = kamikaze mission? We went to lovely Cauterets, just outside the Aquitaine border, in the Midi Pyrenees region. I had some doubts on the first day when we arrived in the rain and the station was closed due to the storm Xynthia arriving. The storm passed us and only damaged one of the lifts, but nearby ski stations had to close entirely.

The next day was sunny and perfect, but I was sweating just getting our equipment from the rental shop, taking us all up to the station in the cabin lift and getting the skis on my children... We had picnic in the sun and then I took them to ski classes. That gave me two magnificent hours on my own surrounded by these majestic mountains. Pure happiness. When I went to pick up the children, they were both smiling and rambling over their words to describe what they had been doing. After trying out the hotel pool and Jacuzzi and the play area, we had dinner at the hotel. I fell asleep at the same time as my children, exhausted but happy.

We then had the routine settled. Calm morning, buy bread to make sandwiches and picnic up at the station. After the ski classes, a snack and then head for the pool and the play area. In the evening there were animations at the hotel. Introduction to circus, Wii tennis tournament and question games... what the French call 'ringard' but really lots of fun!

Skiing is the best vacation all categories in my opinion - outdoor activity in a beautiful setting and lots of well needed food!

We stayed in Cauterets, a very nice mountain village, at the Odalys Balneo Aladin Residence, a very family oriented hotel. The ski slopes are at 2400 metres, so it is a snow sure option. Very nearby you find Donjon des Aigles, a view point to study eagles, falcons, vultures and other high mountain birds in their natural environment. It is open from April to September, so we couldn’t’t go there this time.

Pep's sings Liberta

Marvelous song and a very poetic video. It was excessively played on the radio last summer, but apparently not everywhere. He sings in French, English and Spanish.

Liberta

Nobody says I have a cold

Rhinovirus, the principal cause behind a common cold.

If you check for the word 'cold' in an English-French dictionary, it's translated by 'rhume'. One could imagine that saying 'I have a cold' would be 'Je suis enrhumé', but that is completely wrong. Or, I have at least never heard any Frenchman pronounce that phrase.
Here a cold is called a rhino-pharynges. Or rhino for short. Rhino-bronchitis, that's when you're coughing as well. Angina if your throat is sore. I think you all agree that you feel better just knowing that what you have is not a mere cold but something with a complicated name...

Complicated name means calling a doctor. Just in case. You never leave a French doctor without a long list of medication. Like paracetamol for the fever, spray for the nose, a syrup for the cough and something to thin out the expectoration.

In the good old days you would have gotten antibiotics too, but for that the doctors have gotten very picky. Do you think you will recover from your cold anyway?

Cap Ferret, wild and beautiful

If you move on a line westward from Bordeaux until you reach the Atlantic, you have pretty much reached Cap Ferret. It forms the end of an arm that creates a beautiful and oyster rich bay called Bassin d'Arcachon. This arm is very narrow, so only a few meters separate the beaches on the inside of the arm, protected from the sea, and the wild beaches on the Atlantic side.

Cap Ferret has become something of a trendy place for French stars and other VIPs, but it has so far managed to keep much of the initial wildness that makes it such a special place.

Photo Wikipedia

If you feel like exercising, try walking up the 258 steps in the lighthouse and enjoy a spectacular view over the bay at the height of 52 meters.

Map Wikipedia

On the map you see the different fishing villages. You don't really see them if you stay in the car and follow the road. The best option to get a good look is to take a trip by boat.

Photo Wikipedia

Photo Wikipedia

Once, after a very hot day, we went there with some friends and found a small restaurant close to the water. The air was warm, the children playing and we thoroughly enjoyed a meal with oysters and other seafood. We lingered for a long time over half empty wine glasses as the sun went down.

Photo Wikipedia

Armagnac V - Restaurant Jardin de Violette

We had lunch at the farm restaurant Ferme Auberge du Jardin de Violette in Lencouacq. It took us into the pine forest to a peaceful farm in the middle of nothing. Violette lets her biological garden supply her restaurant in vegetables and bio chicken. Other meat comes from local producers. The menu is set every day in function of what she has harvested in the morning... and she grows 40-50 different kinds of vegetables, many of them a bit forgotten, so chances are you will try something new!

We had a fantastic meal with vegetable soup, chicken, onion and leek pâté, duck magret filled with vegetables and an apple and kiwi cake. She has been here for thirty years now and is well known in the region. A quietly passionate woman! I would love to come there again in summer and go and have a walk in her garden, have coffee out on the terrace... I know that in summer she makes the most amazing salads with salads you have never seen before, even with eatable flowers!

Worrying about your security

My grandfather lived in a small village in the north of Sweden. When we came to visit, we'd open the door and shout 'Hello!'. Sometimes he was away on an errand, but he'd left the door open. The only time he locked the door was when he went away several days, fishing or hunting. Everybody knew where to find the key, hanging behind a piece of wood just next to the door...

Since then I have lived in big cities and gotten used to locking the door behind me as I enter. I have even lived in areas with guards patrolling and security checks at the entrance. Pretty far from the confident way of life that my grandfather had.

Then we bought our house here in Castets. One of the first things we did was to install an alarm. Our neighbours were very curious. WHY do you install an alarm? As I asked around about the criminal activity around here, most people had trouble finding any examples at all. Except maybe that time when some youngsters broke into the cinema to steal some candy... A reality quite far from what I had gotten used to!

Of course, this is not true everywhere in Aquitaine. The coastal area have some problems, mainly because there are many summer houses that stay empy during long periods.  But still, the Southwest of France is a hundred times calmer than the Southeast. I hope it will remain so for a long time.