Into the Snow we Go

Hello All,
I can't remember when we last blogged so am just going to have to ramble on from where I can actually remember. It doesn't help that Dean constantly changes his mind about where we are going next!
After promising my mom's dear Aunt Tate Lou to revisit, we finally headed back to her home in Caromb.We stayed over 2 nights at her house but did sleep in the camper van. She was such a lovely hostess, and once again I had to keep the conversation going as all Dean could say was "Oui" - this said "we", which you will all know translates to "Yes". On the Saturday we visited her son and his wife and met members of their family. Once again, my French language skills were put to the test. No-one in the family speaks English.We were served a lovely meal. Although the boys do not completely enjoy the different foods served, they do enjoy the manner in which a French meal is served. There is ALWAYS a baguette on the table and salad is always served, whnether it be a green salad or various salads such as carrot, or cabbage or beetroot. Then comes the hot part of the meal, the comes the cheese platter, and then comes chocolate pudding with a whipped cream - but it tastes so much better than our cream. AND there is always wine and water at the table. Oh I also forget, before they serve the meal they have an Apperitif. There are no side plates so the French keep their piece of Baguette on the dining room table cloth - rather strange - we always put it on a side plate or our main plate. The boys have said that they would like our meals to be done in this way. Oh yeah right - I need to serve a 3 course meal each night!
On Saturday night we had supper with Tate Lou. She made a lovely soup and of course there were Baguettes on the table. My children promptly began to dunk their bread in the soup. The look on her face was priceless. They do NOT do that in France BUT the next morning, we discover that they do dunk their baguette or toast in their coffee which may I add is often drunk not from a cup but from a bowl.
I was very sad to leave my newly found family but look forward to returning to see them in the future.
Sunday bought a very exciting day ahead where I would visit the house that we are dealing with. I had made a time to visit the lady at 10am. We left Tate Lou a bit late and as a result only got there a bit before 11am to discover that she was not there. I was really irritated, especially since there was not even a note left for me. I left one for the tenant and told her where we were parked. Well 3 hrs later, there was a knock on our window - It wasn't that it had slipped her mind, she had completely forgotten I had even called her to make the appointment!Anyway off we headed to the house and I was given a tour. Oh my goodness! What a state the house is in! Let me give you a quick rundown - It is basically two houses (one with 3 levels and the other with 4 levels) but they are joined by a central cement spiral staircase which winds it's way all the way down. Both sides of the house have a front street entrance but only the house with 3 levels is accessible from behind. It is rather big but lots of work needs to be carried out. At the moment, the current tenant, is only using the house to store her belongings. Her belongings include every possible tool,nut,bolt on earth (belonging to her late husband) as well as some of the most beautiful old furniture that I have seen. To move everything out of the house will take a team of about 20 people about a month I'm sure!
After having taken lots of photographs, we headed back to Marseille.
Jean-Luc (my 5th cousin) had arranged a meeting with the new Notary who will be dealing with the house issue. The meeting was to be at 9am on Monday morning. This was a scary thought. When you enter Marseille it literally swallows you up. We had planned to stay at Gemenos which is about 25 minutes out of Marseille as we knew that there was an Aire to stay at there. Jean-Luc warned us that at the very LEAST we need to leave the Aire at 7am to get to him by 8pm to attend the meeting at 9am. My email to him said that it would be a miracle if we got there on time, and his response to me was "The Family Squire needs to make a miracle ". So we decide to rather find a place closer and we tried to park near the church where we had parked a few weeks before. However there was no place outside the church so that left us looking elsewhere. We eventually found a place very nearby in a Petrol Station. We weren't totally convinced that this was THE place to spend the night in Marseille but on opening our computer and the WIFI icon started flashing at us, we decided, well if we have internet here, then this is where we are staying.
On Monday morning, we woke up rather early, I got dressed, and armed with my file of documents that Jean-Luc had so kindly put together the last time I saw him. Dean dropped me off and he headed back to the same place he had parked the night before and was going to work.
We met with the new Notary that morning and now my brain is filled with so many thoughts regarding the house. So many things to now work through. Anyway it was so nice to chat to Jean-Luc again and to see Christine (even though it was just for a few minutes).
We left Jean-Luc at about midday and headed towards Sisteron (another change of plans!), we found an Aire next to a beautiful mountain. What a stunning little town. Dean said he would be quite happy to retire there. The next morning, we walked around for a bit, found some water (which let me tell you is getting harder to come by because the government switches everything off in Winter) and then decided it was time to move on.We moved on to a town called "Gap". Not much to see there, just a fairly large town that has a Carasol. All French towns have a carasol. We parked in an open sand paved parking lot which definitely had a sign that said "No Caravaning or Camping" - but we figured, we don't have a caravan and camping by "south African standards"is pitching a tent and we weren't doing neither. The parking lot was fairly quiet and it gave us an opportunity to run the generator. Oh and a bonus. ONCE AGAIN on opening up the laptop we discover there is an open network, so Dean could do some work.We left the morning after and made our way to Grenoble. It was our intention to stay there but on entering it just discoverd that it is simply another city full of hustle and bustle. We have grown to hate these towns and far prefer the quaint little villages that we pass through. I must say that the drive to Grenoble was absolutely breath-taking. Although it was up and down windy mountain roads, seeing the snow-capped mountains in the distance was awesome! AND scary. I'm cold now - how am I going to feel when we get to the mountains. Driving led us past frost covered trees and grass. We stopped at a petrol station and a guy who parked next to us had a thick layer of ice on the sides of his windscreen. - Gulp!
In order to get the kids out a bit as all they had seen was the inside of the camper van for a few days, we decided to find a park where they could play and I would make supper, we would then tuck them up in their beds and move on.
Finding a park was not too difficult but we were even happier to find water in the park. The kids played a bit, they came in and showered, we ate and we then headed on through the mountains to Chambery.
We battled to find a place to stay in Chambery and drove for quite a while. Eventually just parking in the first available place we could find that was out the centre of the city. This morning when I woke up, I must have lain in bed for about an hour willing my body to get up, but I was just too cold. Although the entire time I lay there I kept on thinking, any minute now BOJ No. 3 (Bundle of Joy) No. 3 - this being Jetan, is going to wake up and say "Make me some tea"- He says this every morning!!! and I dread it! I was so greatful to Jesse this morning when I heard his voice come up and say that he would do it. My first response was - forget the tea - put the heater on - please!!!
We had every intention of walking around Chambery today but I needed to get some washing done. So after spending about 2 hrs parked outside a hotel that had an Orange Signal that we could connect to (unfortunately it's one we pay for), we then searched for the laundromat that we had driven past the night before. We located that quite easily.
While the washing was being done, Jesse decides that we need to walk to the Boulangerie (this is the bakery) to get some more baguettes. I say to him, okay I'll come with you. Well it was 10 minutes of walking and I was absolutely miserable. I only had a thin T-Shirt and my one jacket on and Jeans. I could feel my lips going blue! Needless to say, I refused to do any more walking today.
This afternoon we decided to find more gas because we are running out and all we need is to run out of gas! No gas, means no cooking, no showering and NO HEAT! We found some and we are now driving towards a place called Ugine. This is not meant to be a destination for us but Dean changed his mind today and decided that driving to Annecy which is where we were supposed to go for tomorrow is simply a waste of driving. So now we all sit in the car and head into the unknown. This unknown does not appear to have an Orange wifi hotspot so we may only be able to connect on Monday morning when we finally do get to Annecy.
If you see this blog before Monday, then you know we got lucky and found wifi.
During this weekend, we are braving the very cold weather and going to Charmonix-Mont-Blanc. This is where the snow is. On one hand I want to play in snow but on the other hand I don't think I want to be any more colder than I have been in the last 2 days.
Well watch this space, you'll soon know.
xxx M