Monday, January 18, 2021
French renovations, Day 28: More wall demolition
Sunday, January 17, 2021
French renovations, Day 27: Vitamin D therapy
The sun was out, so we spent the afternoon at the beach, basking like lizards.
This Christmas and 6 years ago, the kids' Canadian grandparents sent us Canada hoodies. We re-created a photo from 6 years ago, complete with the same stuffed animal that Inga was holding.
Zari and Eric napped and read books--I love this photo of the two of them!
Saturday, January 16, 2021
French renovations, Day 26: Sledding!
Friday, January 15, 2021
French renovations, Day 25: Wall demolition!
Thursday, January 14, 2021
French renovations, Day 24: Saved by the dump truck!
18,869 steps
Uff da! I am tired out from today's adventure. Comrade came by as promised this morning with his dump truck. He managed to back it into our pedestrian street with just enough space for people to pass by on one side.
Then the work began: carrying down 300 bags (give or take) of plaster/concrete, one or two at a time. Down 2 flights of stairs, down the hallway, out the door, and into the truck. Then we had to empty each bag out, since plastic isn't allowed to be mixed with the "gravat" (a catch-all term for plaster/concrete/cement debris).
Then back up 2 flights of stairs for the next round...over and over again. One of our friends came to help--thank you so much!! Next time we need to use the dump truck, we'll assemble a bigger team as it took far longer than I had expected (about 3 hours) to carry everything down.
After all of the gravat was in the truck, Comrade and Eric drove it to the dump while my friend and I cleaned up the hundreds of ripped trash bags. We carried almost the entire load of wood down by ourselves before the men came back. We then loaded up the wood--which went so much faster than the heavy debris!--and Comrade took off to the dump again.
Unfortunately, we also had an incident that we had to smooth out. Apparently while we were upstairs fetching bags of debris, the shopkeeper across the street asked Comrade to move his truck a little. And apparently he said some rude things back to her. We didn't know this, but the shopkeeper told her boss, who also lives across the street and is someone who's a good acquaintance of ours.
She and her husband came over to tell us what had happened. Initially they were very upset because we thought we knew what had happened and had condoned his rude behavior. Nope! We had no idea. So we apologized profusely and also made sure to visit the shopkeeper once she was back in. I think we've smoothed all the ruffled feathers now.
We also racked up some "good neighbor" points this afternoon. Our upstairs neighbor on the 4th floor (5th floor in the States) had ordered a huge custom piece of furniture from an artist friend. It's a combination staircase/cupboard. Anyway, it was the size of 3 large armoires, and we helped her carry everything upstairs.
So a bit of drama, a bit of goodwill, and a LOT of exercise today!
Dinner was leftovers plus "what's in our fridge that we can use up?"
I pulled all of our winter gear out of the attic. We're going sledding on Saturday. We all tried on our snow boots, snow pants, coats, & gloves to be sure they fit. We'll make it work, even though some kids' boots are too big or too small. I'll pop by the thrift store tomorrow to see if I can find some of the correct sizes.
Wednesday, January 13, 2021
French renovations, Day 23: Prefecture & soccer
We spent the morning at the prefecture, the administrative building that does immigration, driver's licenses, car registration, and other bureaucratic things. I swear, it's set up to torture & stress people to the maximum!
We had an appointment to pick up the kids' visas (DCEM). Despite having ALL the correct paperwork, including a printed confirmation of our appointment at exactly 9:11 am, one of the security guards wouldn't let us in. "Every person needs to have a separate appointment confirmation. This is only good for one of the children." However, the computer system only allowed one RDV per family since our kids were all in the same application!
After waiting in the cold for about a half-hour, I was able to get me and Dio inside. We waited at another line and finally got to the woman at the counter. She was super friendly (whew!) and said, "Of course you need everyone here! Tell them to come in."
I called Eric and relayed the message. The security guard didn't believe Eric. The guard finally got on the phone himself and I told him the same thing, with the woman at the counter right next to me. He STILL didn't believe me and insisted on talking to the woman. But the woman said, "Sorry, I'm not authorized to take your phone."
Finally, Mr. Grumpy Security Guard came into the building, walked down the long hallway, and personally confirmed that our family was allowed in. Which we'd been telling him all along!
Meanwhile our kids were freezing--literally freezing, not just Freezing. They'd been outside for about an hour and were only dressed in hoodies, not winter coats.
We had soccer in the afternoon: the 3 girls at Cavigal at various times and Dio at the chateau. I ferried the girls in the middle of the afternoon and made a quick trip to Aldi on the way home. Then I dropped Dio off at the chateau.
Ivy talked me into having an "adventure" instead of going straight home, so we wandered around the chateau grounds and took all the little paths that we hadn't explored before.
I made spicy crab sushi for dinner. We're currently playing the card game Skull King and I'm still super cold.
Tuesday, January 12, 2021
French renovations, Day 22: Waiting
We met with Comrade this morning. He seemed excited to see what we've done with the apartment since we bought it.
We asked him about our big load-bearing beams and whether we could knock down the big dividing wall. One beam isn't even touching the wall, so that one shouldn't be an issue. The other was still touching the plaster.
He suggested chiseling out just a little bit underneath the beam, and then placing something underneath. If the beam is truly using the wall as a support, then it will settle fairly rapidly. So I did that this morning. I put a shim underneath and marked how much I could move it (about 1/2" to the right).
I'm still trying to get in touch with the structural engineering company but they have never responded! This is a place where a friend-of-a-friend works, so I would expect a response as that friend-of-a-friend said he'd pass our message along to his boss.
Anyway, Comrade offered to measure our windows and get an estimate for us at a wholesale supplier. Oh...and he's definitely bringing his dumpster truck on Thursday morning!
The rest of today felt like a holding pattern. I didn't have any big projects to work on, and most of the things on my list were checked off. I was also really cold and spent much of the day huddled next to our living room heater.
I had a bit of a panic this afternoon when Dio didn't come home after school. I waited...waited...and an hour later, I started to get worried. I first called the school to see if he had something come up, but they confirmed that he'd left on time. Then I called Dio's friend one street over (they often do homework or go to the park together). He didn't answer. Then Zari came home and said she hadn't seen him.
Finally I called Eric, who had been at the park with Ivy ever since school got out. It turns out Dio had asked permission to play with a friend--but Eric didn't think to tell me!
Inga went rollerblading with two friends after school.
Dinner was potato leek soup (store-bought, I admit) with croutons and saucisses de Toulouse. For dessert we had dark chocolate pudding that I had made with an Instant Pot.
I am currently huddled on the couch with a hot water bottle and felted wool sweater blanket. I'm wearing a long-sleeve shirt and a cashmere sweater on top. Still can't stay warm...
Oh, Eric's books finally arrived today! The best place to buy a copy is Bookshop (if you're in the US). Bookshop directly supports independent bookstores and also gives authors far more of the share of sales than Amazon. Go to bookshop.org/shop/freeze
Monday, January 11, 2021
French renovations, Day 21: Checklists
We're in a holding pattern waiting to arrange for the dumpster. Comrade is coming over tomorrow morning to take a look at how much construction waste we have.
Without anything to work on in the communist apartment, I decided to make today a "check things off my list" day. It's amazing how much time we have to devote to the minutiae of life.
I ran errands, made phone calls, paid bills, wrote emails, filed health insurance claims, and did "les démarches administratives." This is a catch-all term for anything involving paperwork & bureaucracy in France. It might be paying a tax bill, going to your local social security administration, getting a driver's license renewed...
I walked to the carte vitale (health insurance) office but they've stopped doing walk-ins. So instead I called someone and managed to get through after only about 10 minutes on hold. Our files have both been received (we submitted them back in July) and are "in process." Now we wait, anywhere from around 6-18 months.
We signed up for a "formation d'électricite" with Jean Marc of EducElec. You get an entire course on electricity, complete schemas of your installation, personal guidance all the way from start to finish, and supervision to make sure everything meets code. So excited to get started !
The sun was playing hide-and-seek all day. Eric brought Inga and Ivy to the park during their lunch break for a quick training session. After lunch, we went to the beach to read but ended up with only a few fleeting minutes of sunshine. And then a few construction workers started up some heavy drilling equipment. Time to go back home.
I'm still working my way through Obama's new memoir. I only read a chapter or two today. I'll read a few chapters of his book in between my "brain candy" books that are sheer fun.
The kids were so noisy and energetic this evening, I was about ready to do something drastic. DRASTIC!! I don't know what but it would have been emphatic and dramatic. With a 6 pm curfew, we can't get them outside to burn off excess energy after dinner.
What else happened today? Piano lessons after school. Dio has become my YouTube content manager & analyst and gives me daily updates on my performance. Oh yeah, my home country is going crazy too. It nearly turned from a democracy into a banana republic thanks to Lord Cheeto and minions.
So yeah, just another ordinary checklist day.
Sunday, January 10, 2021
French renovations, Day 20: Rest!
Saturday, January 09, 2021
French renovations, Day 19: Cleanup!
Friday, January 08, 2021
French renovations, day 18: Cleanup, then goodbye ceiling!
Thursday, January 07, 2021
French renovations, day 17: Wall & ceiling demolition!
Wednesday, January 06, 2021
French renovations, day 16: More ceiling demolition!
It's 9pm and I think it's the first time I've sat still all day! I got started on demolition right away. Eric helped me move the piles of wood paneling out of the way, then it was just me, a hammer, and a pry bar having fun for the next several hours.
The entire side is now done! Now we have to go to the other side of the room (partitioned off by a wall) and do the same thing all over again.
The girls all had soccer at Cavigal today. Dio went to a friend's house in the afternoon, so I got 2 walks in today after all of my manual labor.
After soccer, Eric did cleanup for about 2 hours. Almost all of the plaster debris is now bagged up. Tomorrow we'll move the scaffolding to the other side. One of us will tear down the ceiling while the other person does cleanup and bagging. We have to cut all of the wood into small pieces and bag it as well.
Remember how Dio really REALLY did not want to do soccer? Well, today he said to me, "I'm really sad that soccer was changed to only once per week. I really want to play soccer more." (The new 6 pm curfew has caused many activities to be shortened.)
Yeah, that is the reason why I don't take his complaining too seriously.
Dinner was cauliflower, tortellini with pesto, and homemade Galette des Rois. Inga found the fève.
Tuesday, January 05, 2021
French renovations, day 15: Scaffolding & more ceiling demolition
Double thumbs up for today.
First thing in the morning, Zari and I went to a pharmacy for a rapid Covid antigen test. She tested negative, so she went back to school just an hour late. She's feeling fine today except for a slightly runny nose.
Next, I set up the scaffolding. It's more stable than I expected side-to-side but a bit wobbly on the end-to-end. I don't expect that it will collapse, but we'll need to be careful and not treat it like a jungle gym.
Then...the real fun! Demolition. I tore down the next 1/3 of the room, ending at the next large ceiling beam. I discovered that the plaster was originally painted in multiple colors and patterns. In some places the paint would flake off in large sections, revealing the stripes of color on the plaster. I saw purple, tan, brown, and what seemed like dark red.
As I was hammering on the plaster and pulling down beams, I had a sudden realization: "I am deeply and profoundly happy." It's crazy because I was covered in plaster dust and dirt, my muscles were aching, and I was suited up in goggles, respirator, ear plugs, and a bandana. Not exactly what we imagine when we think of happiness. But I am most content when I'm making or doing something tangible.
After 2 hours of demolition, it was 2:30 pm and time for a break. Plus I hadn't eaten anything all day. I showered and had a delicious lunch of random things left in our fridge.
Right after school got out, I headed off to the Riquier district to pick up a floor lamp (we need more light in the communist apartment, since our electricity is still down). I found one with 5 flexible arms for only 7 Euros. Carrying it home was a good workout for my arms and shoulders.
Ivy went to the park with friends and slipped on the baleine (whale). She came home with a big goose egg. Our friend brought her to the pharmacy and sent her home with a tube of arnica gel & homeopathic tablets.
Eric met with the director of the Grotte du Lazaret, an archeological site of a prehistoric cave where humans used to live. They're featuring writers inside the cave (including Eric), putting together a sound & light show, and hosting readings and creative writing workshops. Eric is going to be involved in many of these events. Pretty cool!
Dio wants to remind all of you that he has a YouTube channel that needs subscribers!
Monday, January 04, 2021
French renovations, day 14
Our 7 am wakeup was rough. I powered through the morning and went running after I dropped the kids off at school. It was now or never, as we had rain forecast all day.
I drew up new floor plans for the front half of the apartment, incorporating some unconventional ways for partitioning and opening up spaces. I think we're close to the finished version.
I baked another double batch of sourdough, which in theory should last us a week but in reality more like 4 days. Sigh...
Zari came home at lunch looking awful. "My whole body aches and I'm tired and I feel feverish." She collapsed on the couch for the rest of the day. She perked up enough in the evening to eat and do homework. Poor thing. She had a running/stuff nose 2 days ago and it has morphed into who-knows-what.
Eric and I had an afternoon date at Leroy Merlin, the big box home improvement store (like Home Depot, Lowes, or Menards). There's really only one such store in all of Nice. Sure, there are smaller hardware stores scattered through the city, some independent, some part of larger chains, but only one really big store for the public. So it is SUPER crowded all the time. It's like Black Friday there, every day. The parking lot is always completely full, lines everywhere, people in every aisle.
It also takes 30-45 minutes to get to, depending on traffic. So going to Leroy Merlin is a half-day outing, even though it's in the same city! We bought scaffolding, a dehumidifier, and polystyrene boards (to cover the interior windows that open into the staircase--trying to reduce the noise in the common areas). We'll be back soon, I'm sure.
We met a super friendly salesperson, Jeremy, in the tool aisle. H gave us the details on many of the tools we're looking at buying. He said we didn't really need an SDS-max. We should be fine with an SDS+ (which is great--they're half the price). We also asked him questions about sandblasting (his opinion: go for it--it's easy and way less expensive than hiring someone) and got confirmation that our technique for installing joist hanger plates was correct.
We were out of groceries, so we stopped at Lidl on the way home. It's the first time I've bought groceries with a car since we've been here. The scaffolding barely fit in the car; I think we had a centimeter left over. The groceries got piled all around it.
Piano lessons after school took the rest of our afternoon and evening. Dinner was chicken & mushrooms in cream sauce with basmati rice and pains au chocolat for dessert. Whoops, forgot to make vegetables tonight!
Tomorrow: more ceiling demolition!
Sunday, January 03, 2021
French renovations, day 13
Trash total: 56 bags, 16 hand loads
School starts again tomorrow. I hope we can get up on time! We've been spoiled the last two weeks with no alarm clocks.
I need to braid everyone's hair tonight. I'm thinking double French braids for Inga and Ivy as they will stay in for a few days.
Today was a Lego day. We brought the box of Legos to the kitchen table and built robots, airplanes, houses, and who knows what else. I organized our receipts and paperwork, getting ready to do taxes.
It rained most of the day, but there was a break in the afternoon when the sun peeked out. We went up to the chateau before the next rainstorm hit.
Dinner was green vegetable purée topped with crème fraîche and "what's in the fridge?" risotto (caramelized onions, Toulouse sausages, white wine, & Grana Padano). Not bad at all!
Saturday, January 02, 2021
French renovations, day 12
Friday, January 01, 2021
French renovations, day 11
Thursday, December 31, 2020
French renovations, day 10
Trash total: 30 bags, 16 hand loads
Wow! What a day. The kids all helped in the morning pulling nails and stacking boards. We are now DONE with all of the wood paneling and the rough lumber that was holding the paneling in place. Stacked, organized, and easily accessible by size.
Then the super awesome part: taking down the plaster ceiling in the front room! Eric was freaking out a bit, wondering if we were going to make the structural beams fall down on us. We took off a small area and looked inside with a headlamp. I assured him that we were fine--we were clearly pulling down a false ceiling, nothing structural.
The fast-motion video doesn't convey the physicality of ripping a ceiling down: pounding with all your might with a hammer, ripping the boards down, cracking 40-lb chunks of plaster off. It's immensely satisfying. We have loads of cleanup just from the portion above the mezzanine.
I was SO happy with what we saw underneath the plaster: original wood load-bearing beams (poutres) and cross-beams (solives) that have never been painted (hooray!). The white stuff isn't mold; it's bits of plaster that got splattered when it was applied decades ago.
I'm imagining a beautiful exposed wood ceiling like these ones, once we sandblast it to cleaner, lighter wood.
After all this work, we went to the park for an hour. We were hoping to get the telescope out this evening, but it was overcast. And we only have one more day before 6 pm curfew.
Wednesday, December 30, 2020
French renovations, day 9
Trash total: 27 bags, 16 hand loads
I had a long work day yesterday, but instead of falling asleep I was wired. I lay in bed for a long time thinking about home renovations, books I was reading, random stuff.
I woke up a bit after 8 am and decided to pretend I was still sleeping. So I stayed in bed and read until 10. Then finally I had to face reality. I showered and dressed and headed down to the communist apartment for several hours of work. Today was dedicated to pulling nails, stacking boards, and cleanup (off-camera).
I popped back into our apartments a few times to bake sourdough and finally called it a day at 1:45 pm. Time for a quick late lunch. Ivy and Inga played "restaurant" and asked me to film.
Zari and Eric went to her soccer practice at Cavigal, and I finally got the other kids outside. We first had to pick up a package (safety googles, yay!). Then we took a walk around to the port. It's funny how you get used to the extraordinary beauty here. Dio kept saying, "I'm so bored. I want to go home." Watch the video and tell me if he looks bored. Nope. I don't think so.
Only two more days before the 6 pm curfew starts. I'm so not happy about that because we usually go on a walk after dinner. Now I don't know when we'll fit it in. Zari still hasn't been able to try out her telescope. I hope tomorrow night will be clear enough to see the moon.
Dinner tonight: larb, sushi, & pain au chocolat.
Tuesday, December 29, 2020
French renovations, day 8
lots more trash hauled away...can't remember how many but I wrote it down somewhere!
Well, we're headed back into a stricter lockdown starting Jan 2. I don't know many details except they're making the curfew 6 pm instead of 8 pm (which, frankly, is ridiculous...what difference will that make?).
I tore down the rest of the wood paneling today and cleaned up 2 big piles of wood. I have about 3x more left to either get rid of or pull nails out of.
I also capped and tucked away all exposed wires. But in the process, as I was testing a former light switch by the front door, I tripped the main circuit breaker. When I turned the breaker back on, we no longer had power. The breaker stays on the "on" position--it's not tripping back to "off." But no power at all.
So I had to work most of the morning with a headlamp.
I need to figure out what's going on. Is there another breaker closer to or on the meter, for example? Why is the breaker resetting but not working? I wish I knew French electric systems better. Plus the wiring in the communist apartment likely dates to the late 1950s or early 1960s. I am sure much of it is no longer up to code.
So yeah, I'm feeling a bit down about renovations today...it's frustrating to hit a snag. We'll figure it out, I'm sure. We have a few electrician friends and of course we can always hire someone.
In the afternoon we met up with several friends for a bike/scooter/rollerblade ride on the Promenade des Anglais. Eric took Zari and Inga all the way to the airport and back, while I stayed with the main group. We walked slooooooowly (one friend had a puppy, another had a baby in a stroller) a bit past the Negresco, then turned around. It was sunny and windy, with a dramatic, stormy ocean.
At one point I was towing the two girls on rollerblades behind my bike. They were holding onto the back rack, one on each side, and raising their other hands in a victory salute.
Eric recorded a conference presentation this evening about writing for video games. We had to stay quiet; I put on a series called Dragon Prince on low volume. The kids are enjoying it, 8 episodes so far (not all today of course!).
Eric made duck breast with honey & balsamic, a classic recipe. Yum! I think it's the first time we've cooked magret de canard. I'm not sure why? We eat it at restaurants but just don't think of cooking it at home.
Monday, December 28, 2020
French renovations, day 7
Trash total: 22 bags, 11 hand loads
I spent the morning cleaning and organizing the back room. I like a nice tidy workspace, even though it will get dirty again. I sorted through all of the ceiling beams and kept the best ones. The rest went into the trash--they had way too many nails to be worth keeping.
I then had to carry everything to the garbage station: 4 bags of debris and dust and 9 armfuls of beams. It is so satisfying to work with my hands and not just with my brain.
Zari took all the kids out to the park while I was working. Thank you to all the kids for letting me work! Zari filmed a sibling dance competition, which I haven't had time to see yet.
During one of my trips up to the garbage station (literally "up" as it's uphill on the rue Rosetti), I ran into the owner of the Café Simone. We cross each other all the time but never really talked until now. He thought we were Dutch, which happens a lot. We chatted about what brought both of us to Nice.
We're in the middle of some drama with the owner of the other part of the basement. Prior to the 1960s, they were affiliated with the Communist Party but eventually ended up changing names and splitting ownership of the various parts of the building. This group owns the first floor (called the "rez-de-chaussez" here) plus one of the "caves" or cellars in the basement. (There are 2 cellars, a big one and a small one; we own the small one. They don't have labels on them, but they are partitioned with 3-foot-thick load-bearing stone walls that have obviously not been moved since the building was built 5 or 6 centuries ago.) This group thought they owned the whole basement and have been using it exclusively for the past several decades--and they are the only ones with the keys.
However, the legal paperwork shows otherwise: the Communist Party owned the smaller "cave" in the basement. However, they had forgotten about it over the years until they got the papers together to sell the apartment.
So what is the drama? The owner of the other cellar doesn't want to give the small cellar up! We met with the owner twice in the spring and thought we had worked everything out. We looked at the cellars and agreed on which one was ours (the much smaller one), and he said he'd give us the keys. But when I wrote him an email yesterday letting him know that we had signed the papers and asking if we could get a set of keys to the basement, he called back very angry and said he was contesting our ownership of the small cellar.
He's been sent all of the legal paperwork, contacted by the notary, but he still insists that we should at best only have a small portion of one of the cellars. He won't accept anything without a drawing of the exact square footage of what is ours (which doesn't exist in any of the governmental records--our notary checked).
So we have to try to mediate this with him...and worst case, go through a legal process to have them declared as squatters. The representative from the Communist Party is really frustrated on our behalf and said, "Don't worry, we always have Plan B: I call my lawyer!" I told him I hope it wouldn't come to that.
After a shower & lunch, Zari and Ivy helped me and Eric in the front half. We took down most of the wood paneling. Zari and Ivy were our nail pullers. It's slow work. Eric wants to throw all of the paneling away, but I think it would make a great ceiling for the bottom of the mezzanines (painted a nice glossy white). Bead board is a classic look and it would be free. So for now, I'm going to pull all of the nails and stack it away in case we end up using it.
We stopped at the underside of the mezzanine. There was too much dust and we weren't masked up.
I also rescued three very nice duvet covers from the garbage. I have no shame! I threw them in the wash and they are good as new! I don't need any immediately, but it's nice to have extras in case of spills...or perhaps we'll use them once the apartment downstairs is finished. I might even use one of them as a drop cloth. I usually throw things away more than I accumulate, but renovating makes me take a creative look at reusing things. Our budget for this project is "spend as little as possible, make it as nice as possible."
Zari helped me make dinner: Thai coconut chicken soup. SO GOOD! I don't know why I haven't made this for so long.
Here's the recipe (serves 4, so of course I made double). I didn't have parsley on hand.
- 3 1/2 c. coconut milk (2 cans)
- 1 c water or chicken broth
- 1 lb. chicken, cut in 1" cubes
- 1/2 lb. mushrooms
- 1 oz. fresh ginger, grated or finely shredded
- 1 oz. fresh lemongrass (finely mince the tender inner part, and throw the hard outer stalks in the pot after bruising them a few times)
- 3 jalapenos, sliced (leave seeds in if you like it really hot)
- 1/3 c. lime juice
- 3 Tbsp. fish sauce
- 1 Tbsp. sugar
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 2 Tbsp. parsley, chopped
- 1 Tbsp. sweet chili sauce
Sunday, December 27, 2020
French renovations, day 6
- send the kids outside to play
- clean up the mess from yesterday's demolition
- start taking down part of the ceiling in the front half to see what is underneath
Saturday, December 26, 2020
French renovations, day 5
Friday, December 25, 2020
French renovations, day 4 (Christmas!)
Thursday, December 24, 2020
French renovations, day 3
16,893 steps
No renovations today or tomorrow...it's Christmas!
I had a nice run in the morning, followed by both of us grocery shopping in different locations. Our food bill is going to be so high this month, I don't even want to think about it! Eric went all-out on seafood and I bought a filet de boeuf for the Beef Wellington.
We took the kids out for a walk around town after lunch. The we put on a cheesy Christmas movie for the kids (Jingle Jangle) while we prepared dinner. Eric made tonight's meal and I got the Beef Wellington ready for tomorrow.
Dinner was: - salad with tiny savory sandwiches from a local bakery - langoustines - spider crab - gambas (giant prawns), 1 per person - baguette with Comté and truffle cheeses - bûche de Noël - Réveillon chocolates
We went out for another walk after dinner to see the light shows. We thought of going to midnight mass (held at 8 pm this year) but instead decided to get the kids to bed. Everything is ready for tomorrow, including 2 treasure hunts for some of the presents.
The kids are under strict instructions not to wake us up before 7:45 am.
Ivy: "What about 7:44?"
Me: "No."
Here's a movie from today's adventures, with music by me & my bassoonist friend. Merry Christmas everyone!
Wednesday, December 23, 2020
French renovations, day 2
Tuesday, December 22, 2020
French renovations, day 1:
Then we adults tore the panels down. In the process, we dislodged the fluorescent lightbulb and broke it...so the remainder of the morning we were in a very dark room with just one small lightbulb up in the corner.
Monday, December 21, 2020
French quarantine 2.0, day 31
Today was eventful: we are officially the owners of the communist offices downstairs! This process started back in 2014, when we had just moved into our building. We noticed that the floor underneath us was vacant and wondered who owned it.
I remember some young men in their 20s going into the apartment around 4 am one night...I was a bit freaked out thinking they were breaking in. But in retrospect, they probably were part of the Jeunes Communistes as they had keys to the door.
Anyway Eric did "les démarches administratives" to figure out who owned the apartment, going to various city offices until he found the Cadastre, which records property owners in Nice. He found out it belonged to les Jeune Communistes, affiliated with the Communist Party of Nice.
So about twice a year, Eric would stop by the CP office and ask about the status of the apartment. It had been vacant for at least 10-15 years back when we moved here. The woman at the desk kept saying, "Yes, we're trying to sell it, but we're working on getting all the papers together."
Eric probably went by more than 10-12 times in the past 6 years. Depending on who he talked to at the office, some people told him that it was impossible (so typically French!). It's impossible, totally unthinkable, never going to happen...until it isn't.
Anyway, out of the blue we got a call 10 months ago from the person in charge of all the CP properties. He said, "We're selling the apartment. Do you want to make an offer?"
Yes!
An investor had already made an offer, but the CP representative wanted to sell it to a family, not to someone who was just there to make money. So he said, "I'll tell you what: make me an offer at X price (which was much lower than the investor's!) and I'll sell it to you. And I'll tell the investor sorry but it's taken." The rest is history. This is also typically French: if you know the right person, then miracles can happen.
So what else did we do today? We spent most of the day outside at the coulée verte. Our friends held a "goûter de Noël" and we all brought some kind of treats to share. One of them even made a piñata! Eric invented a new game that I call "volleyfoot."
Ivy had a hard day. At lunch, she ate a few slices of ham and soon after started vomiting. We suspect the ham was bad as Eric and Zari both had a little and they either thought it tasted off or felt a bit icky.
Dinner was sausages and fennel roasted in red wine....so good. It's a recipe from Mimi Thorrison's cookbook. Here's what I did:
12 saucisses de Toulouse (or other good pork sausages, around 1.5 kg)
2 Tbsp dijon mustard (we use the "fine et forte" kind...very powerful!)
4 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, sliced
1 large fennel bulb, sliced
1 cup red wine
2 Tbsp butter
Mix together the olive oil & mustard. The recipe said to roast the sausages for 20 minutes before adding the vegetables, but I think it's best to put the veggies in along with the sausages. Put the onions & fennel on the bottom of a large baking dish, drizzle with some of the oil/mustard sauce and stir a bit to make sure it's evenly coated. Sprinkle on some salt. Then put the rest of the mustard sauce on the sausages and place them on top of the vegetables.
Roast for at least 40 minutes at 200C, until the vegetables are nicely done. You want them to be very tender and starting to caramelize.
Add red wine & butter to the dish and roast for about 10 more minutes.
Sunday, December 20, 2020
French quarantine 2.0, day 30
Saturday, December 19, 2020
French quarantine 2.0, day 29
Eric took everyone but Zari to a Christmas party. Zari stayed home to take a shower. I spent a few hours watching "how to do your own electricity" videos (in French of course). I'm fairly confident with American electrical installations but less so over here. So time to educate myself.
Friday, December 18, 2020
French quarantine 2.0, day 28
Zari had her first practice at Cavigal. So far she's allowed to keep coming. I don't know exactly how their selection process will work.
Thursday, December 17, 2020
French quarantine 2.0, day 27
Wednesday, December 16, 2020
French quarantine 2.0, day 26:
Zari went to Villefranche this afternoon and is going to try out at Cavigal on Friday. The Cavigal team her age is really, really good...as in, she might not make it in. On the other hand, the Villefranche team is not very good at all. She has fun, but a good number of the girls aren't strong players. But at least we have options.
Monday, December 14, 2020
French quarantine 2.0, day 24
Sunday, December 13, 2020
French quarantine 2.0, day 23
Saturday, December 12, 2020
French quarantine 2.0, day 22
We spent the afternoon at a friend's house out in the "arrière pays," the mountainous back country behind Nice. They used to live around the corner in Old Nice and Ivy is best friends with their daughter. They're enjoying country life with a big house, huge plot of land (both needing loads of work to restore...but that's half the fun) and a gorgeous view.
They also picked olives from their 11 olive trees and had them pressed into olive oil in a neighboring town. We got to test it out with some baguette slices. The oil was a gorgeous cloudy green-yellow with a deep flavor and spicy bite.
Friday, December 11, 2020
French quarantine 2.0, day 21
Thursday, December 10, 2020
French quarantine 2.0, day 20
- Céleri rémoulade (celery root remoulade)
- Escalope de dinde au jus corsé (turkey escalope with aromatic concentrated gravy)
- Petits pois au beurre (green peas with butter)
- Baguette
- Brie
- Gaufre au sucre glace (waffle with powdered sugar)
- Concombre et dés de féta (cucumber & feta salad)
- Boulettes de soja sauce orientale (soy "meatballs" with oriental sauce)
- Baguette
- Semoule bio (organic semolina)
- Yaourt bio aromatisé à la framboise (organic raspberry-flavored yogurt)
Wednesday, December 09, 2020
French quarantine 2.0, day 19
Tuesday, December 08, 2020
French quarantine 2.0, day 18
We made lebkuchen during lunch & dinner. I don't even know how many because by time I took pictures, we'd eaten or given away several dozen.
So now let's get to the fun part, in which I stick my arm into poo. Because that's what you do when it needs to be done.