Sorry to have taken so long updating the blog! My morning routine now includes an hour of light cardio and / or yoga-- trying to get into decent shape, despite starting this pregnancy heavier than I was last time. This has limited my computer use in the mornings.

First: the things we have been up to since our last visitor left, almost two weeks ago.... The answer is, not much. Getting back into our routine, doing lots of catch-up laundry, hanging out at the park (where Geo's much-improved French skills mean he actually gets to play with kids these days!).

Last weekend we took Geo to the parc Montsouris where he saw his first puppet show. This is a big thing in France, little free-standing marionette theaters in most of the big parks, with regular shows. We caught the "Cadet Rouselle" show-- VERY loosely based on the children's song of the same name. The plot was, uh, odd-- it included a birthday party, an angry ex-chef, theft of a jeweled necklace and a confrontation in the forest between the good guys and the bad guys. Geo had NO idea what was going on, but laughed along with the other children and seemed to enjoy himself.

This week, he and I took a field trip into Paris for a visit to W. H. Smith, because I needed to buy North & South, by Elizabeth Gaskell. I do not, will never, understand how it came to be that an English lit graduate from the U of C did not discover Gaskell until she was in her 30's. So wrong. But I digress. We bought books (Geo got a nifty train book, what a surprise!), had a picnic lunch in the Tuileries, then Geo jumped on the trampolines there and took a ride on the merry-go-round. We had a great time! Mental note: plan more trips into the city that are purely for fun.

This evening we are taking a train to Nantes to meet up with Geo's godfather, who is spending a month working there. We'll be back Sunday night, and I'm hoping next week is cooler than this week. We've been up in the high 80's, and while our apartment is nice and cool, it's been pretty miserable being outside. And let's not even talk about public transportation!

Now, here are the long-promised Avignon pictures. Please note this trip was taken with *my* family, which is composed entirely of photo-averse people. But my mother, father and sister were there. You'll just have to take my word for it.

Our trip started Wednesday, July 15th at the crack of dawn. We got to the Gare de Lyon, found our train, got all the tickets and Eurail passes worked out with the patient, but long-suffering conductor, watched several people get arrested for boarding without tickets/identity cards, and arrived in Avignon around 11:30 am. We had a quick lunch-- since our hotel was outside of the city center, getting to the nearest restaurant required walking along the edge of the highway underpass at noon in 100 degree weather-- which was, frankly, disgusting, then hurried back to our hotel to meet our driver. See, we had big plans. We'd arranged three van tours of the area, to maximize our limited time. So the first driver picked us up-- our itinerary was as follows: Arles, les Baux de Provence and St. Remy-- we were, as the brochure put it, On the Path of Van Gogh.

Proof that I didn't take this trip alone: you can see the backs of our guide, my parents, sister and even a bit of Geo. On the sweltering streets of Arles.


A spot Van Gogh painted in Arles-- please forgive the fuzziness of the details, my brain was fried shortly after arriving in Arles.


Geo in front of the Roman ruins. And yes, we were bribing him to walk with lollipops. All your high-minded ideals go out the window when you have not brought the stroller and your 35 lb 3 year old starts begging passers-by to carry him.


Despite our best bribing efforts, there were plenty of tears and he finally found someone willing to pick him up in the ridiculous heat and carry him. Notice the sad, sad face. Poor child.


Our first stop in les Baux de Provence was a former quarry that is now a sort of art installation. Projected on the walls are lots of slides of Picasso's life and work, set to music. It was probably about 65 degrees inside the quarry. I seriously considered spending the night there. Next we visited the actual village, which was ridiculously picturesque and beautiful.


Our last stop of the day was at St. Remy, the former (well, and current) psychiatric hospital where Van Gogh did some of his best work. This is Geo in the cloisters.


We went back into town. I should say that July in Avignon is the month of the biggest theater festival in France. It was indescribable. Throngs of people, throngs of people dressed in weird costumes performing in the street; music, screaming, processions, impromptu parades-- it was like Gay Pride plus the Fourth of July plus Sesame Street Live. In the midst of this chaos, we found a restaurant, managed to get back to our peaceful hotel and took long, long showers, set the thermostat in the rooms to 20 degrees Celsius, and slept.

Thursday morning, we started again with another tour. Since this tour also went to les Baux de Provence, we opted for a quick visit to an olive oil producer, whose olive oil is sold in the US through Williams Sonoma. We got to taste some delicious oils, bought lots of goodies, then headed to the beautiful village of Roussillon.



We decided this should be a postcard:


Next we visited a perched village, whose name I have forgotten. Yes, that is my sister's back.


From a distance we were allowed to see the Abbey of Senanque. We couldn't go inside, since the eight monks who live there don't like visitors.


Geo in another "perched village" whose name I have forgotten. My brain was melted by this point in the day.


Same village:


After this morning tour, we went back to the hotel, ate some bakery sandwiches, then my parents and sister went on a tour of the vineyards in the region. Geo and I stayed in the hotel in the air-conditioning and took a lovely, lovely nap. We met in the city center for another evening of dinner + performance art.

Friday morning we decided to visit Avignon. The tourist map given to us by the hotel pointed out a "free boat service" that takes visitors across the river, the better to admire the Palais des Papes and the Pont d'Avignon. We, being suckers for the combination of "free" plus "boat ride" decided to try this out.


Faces!


I don't know how I managed to live in France for almost ten years and know the famous children's song by heart without learning along the way that the pont d'Avignon doesn't actually go all the way across the river. Live and learn.


After the boat ride event (which ended up taking way longer than expected, for many diverse reasons) we walked up about 100 medieval stone steps to a park perched on top of the gigantic cliff. Geo found a play area and was happy as a clam.


Due to a series of unfortunate events, we didn't get to see the inside of the Palais des Papes, which we will have to save for another visit.

We got our train back to Paris and were happy to be back in the more temperate Ile de France after three days of blistering heat.

Some other activities while my parents were here: a visit to the Louvre / Tuilieries, a visit to the Parc de Sceaux and the Chateau therin, then my father and sister went on to Germany and my mother went back to El Paso.

A few random photos....

What Sesame Street DVD is a librarian and die-hard fan of 30 Rock likely to give to her grandson? Why, Elmo and the Bookaneers, of course, featuring Tina Fey as a bookaneer, singing about her favorite book: "... it's really quite a shocker / All about missing underpants / Stolen from Davy Jones' locker!". Geo LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVES it:


The ONLY group pictures from the entire visit! Taken at the beautiful Parc de Sceaux:




And this picture, just because it's cute:


And that's it for today, folks!