We finally got our family pictures back. Super excited. Plus I got a new headshot--way overdue since my previous one was from 2017.
We did these in exchange for letting her use our pictures for her portfolio. If anyone needs a photographer in the French Riviera, here's her contact info:
Eric caught a huge fish today (and a little one)! He was so excited. It's a sériole (Amberjack) and it makes delicious ceviche, which will be dinner tomorrow. It weighed in at 8 lbs (a bit under 4 kg).
I went running, had loads of meetings, ate a late lunch, worked on a publication, cooked dinner, attended and then edited and started captioning a live session, went on a walk. That was my day.
We had the usual reading of the birth story this morning, then opening presents (this year--a nice 3-piece suit, button-down shirt, pair of shorts, and short-sleeve shirt). Ivy and then Inga had games so half the family was gone between noon and 8 pm.
I went with Dio to change sizes on a few of the suit items, and Inga and Zari came along, too.
Birthday dinner and cake were a bit haphazard since Eric and Inga were still gone. But we all had time for a late move (The Amateur) and we just got home a bit after midnight.
Friday, April 25, 2025
Zari's statistics exam went well--she finished early and said it was all very easy and doable. She also had to take an English language exam online today (for her application to McGill--her paperwork won't satisfy their requirement for English proficiency despite her being a native English speaker!).
Those of us at home this evening watched Flow, which was fantastic and also left us with so many unanswered questions.
It's Dio's 16th birthday tomorrow! Wow!
Thursday, April 24, 2025
Zari had a big law exam today and felt pretty good about it, considering how difficult it was. She's now studying for a statistics exam tomorrow morning.
Gorgeous sunny spring weather today. Inga came home saying: "It's way too hot!" (Only 22 C but we've had relatively cool weather for a good while now.)
Inga mixed up a cocoa-mango-honey-sea salt-aloe vera mask that she, Ivy, and I tried on. It smelled like we had chocolate frosting on our faces! A bit of a pain to wash off, though.
I lost more than 3 pounds overnight due to sweating so much from my fever! I'm feeling about 75% percent better by this evening so I should be all good tomorrow.
Zari has a big test for a law class that she's stressing over. It's terribly boring so that doesn't help having to memorize a semester's worth of information down to the smallest minutiae.
We did egg wars tonight, finally. The final match was between Trump and Canada. Trump cheated but Canada ultimately won!
One minute I was fine, a few minutes later this afternoon I was DOWN with an intense fever/chills/body ache. I crawled into bed and haven't left except for the occasional trip to the WC.
Our grant writer is submitting a huge federal grant today, $4 million over 4 years. Fingers crossed!
To distract myself, I started reading Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, which surprisingly I have never read. I don't know how that happened because in middle & high school, I would often read 1-2 books per day!
Bonne nuit!
Monday, April 21, 2025
Easter holiday for the kids...we slept in, ate French toast (pain perdu) and used up most of our extra bread. I've been really busy helping our grant writer as she prepares a massive federal grant application. Also working on some big research projects, doing captions, etc.
Freeze Family Foot was fun tonight.
Ivy had a panic moment because she couldn't find one of her school books. We went to the car--not there. Finally we tracked it back to church, where she had left it.
We finished the last episode of Wheel of Time. Now we've got to wait another year!
Sunday, April 20, 2025
We had a bit of an unorthodox Easter. We did some of the usual things (decorating Easter eggs, (chocolate) Easter egg hunt inside our apartment) but skipped the fancy Easter dinner in favor of finishing up leftovers. We'll do the nice meal tomorrow, since the kids are still on holiday.
Ivy, Inga, and Eric watched a rugby game to cheer on our friend, a woman from New Zealand whose husband also plays rugby professionally. She plays for fun now--she also has 3 little children!
We watched another episode of The Wheel of Time and have one more to go. Something to look forward to tomorrow.
We were out by about 9:30 this morning, heading back home from the Gorges du Verdon. My sister really wanted to do the zipline/ropes course in Villeneuve-Loubet, so we made early afternoon reservations. We were practically the only people in the entire park! It was amazing.
And very challenging--I had forgotten how much effort some of the stations took. Our family plus the oldest cousin did the most difficult course, with 40 different stations. Many of them are rock climbing up sheer cliffs with just a few pieces of rebar here and there. Whew! And there are two super long ziplines--about 35 seconds to traverse. I think my very favorite part is the enormous tree that you have to climb down after traversing a long rope bridge. Some of the branches lean far out over the river below.
As soon as we got home around 4 pm, we sent everyone scattering in different directions. Eric got groceries; Dio and a cousin bought Magnum ice cream bars; Zari, Ivy, and Inga bought pizza and birthday cake; and I got more food at a few places. We all came back together for a quick birthday dinner and cake. We'll make a better dinner tomorrow when we have more time.
The kids and older cousins have been working on a funny shampoo video. Enjoy! Lots of inside jokes.
My sister's family is leaving early tomorrow morning. We have to say our goodbyes soon and get all the kids to bed.
Clear and sunny all day. We were out the door at 9 am. We had a 40 minute drive to the start of the lower gorge in Quinson. We had a 10 km hike along the bottom of the gorge, following an old canal that is no longer in service.
At the halfway point, right before the path turned and started going up the side of the canyon, we went through a long tunnel (some of the canal is open and some is tunneled through the rocks). Because of the recent rain, the tunnel was submerged with 1 foot (30 cm) of water! There was no choice--we all took off our shoes and walked carefully through the muddy water. Our feet were tender by the end.
Then we went up, fairly gradually, and hiked along the top of the canyon. We took an extra little path that went to the pinnacle between two canyons, where there was a little church and ruins of an older church.
After the hike, we were ready to play in the water, which is a gorgeous, almost unreal emerald-teal color. It took us a while to find a nice spot, but with the help of someone who worked at a kayak/boat rental place, he directed us to a spot that we would never have found on our own. I couldn't quite get up the courage to immerse myself--it was super cold! Colder than the ocean. But Eric, Ivy, Inga, and Dio did.
Next, we went to the Museum of Prehistory, which is one of the largest in Europe. It was big but honestly not very engaging as far as museums go.
Next stop: snacks! We were hoping to buy Magnum ice cream bars, but the one tiny grocery store in the tiny village of Quinson didn't have a working freezer--theirs was broken temporarily. So instead we bought juice, chips, and cookies. It's vacation, right?
We got home around 6 pm. After dinner, we enjoyed the amazing sunset from my sister's balcony.
Later in the evening, our kids and the two older cousins went out to the village playground, near the village chateau, and did some stargazing. I came along, too, and sadly my constellation identification doesn't go much beyond the Big Dipper and Little Dipper. It's been too long since 11th grade astronomy class...
Despite rain half the day, we had a super outing. We let the kids sleep in and had a slow morning. We were on the road at noon, heading from Aiguines towards Castellane. We drove along the length of the Gorges du Verdon on the Rive Gauche (on a map, the southern side of the canyon). It was...astounding. I've been to the US Grand Canyon and while it was enormous, it was so big that you couldn't ever see the river. And it was all dry and brown.
This canyon is also immense, but you can see all the way from the top to the bottom. The water is normally bright turquoise, although today is was a muddy green due to the extensive rain. And it's lush and green here, instead of dead and brown. So this has a thumbs-up for me, way more than the US Grand Canyon!
I still can't believe this is just 2 hours away from us.
We took several stops along the way to look at the view and take pictures. The road was VERY winding, with a curve or hairpin turn every few seconds. We had some children feeling carsick but no one puked!
We finally made it to Castellane, a beautiful medieval village with a church perched on the enormous cliff towering above the village. We hiked up to the top, going up first via the path on the back of the mountain. That turned into quite the adventure as 90% of the trail was literally a stream! (Normally it's not--the kids went camping here 2 years ago and it was just a rocky path). It was fine for us but more challenging for my sister's youngest, who is just 6 years old. But we made it up. There used to be a whole walled city and castle, but King Louis XI or IX destroyed it in the 15th century. So now there are just a few ruins left, plus the church on the very top.
We came down the path on the front of the cliff, which was mostly dry. Then we wandered around the village, bought ice cream and juice at a grocery store, and looked at real estate advertisements in the store windows. It's tempting to buy a small maison de village that needs restoring...
We drove back on the Rive Droite (northern side) so in all, we got the full panoramic loop. Amazing. It would be so fun to be here in the summer and do rafting, kayaking, and canyoning. And more hiking of course!
I had several work meetings as soon as I walked in the door. But I was able to take some time off to go explore our little village with Eric and Zari. It's really cold today, like way colder than it is in the winter in Nice. But it's supposed to be lots warmer tomorrow and sunny. We're going to do a hike along the bottom of the canyon. It will be longer but not too much elevation gain, so I think even the little ones will be ok.
We pushed our own kids super hard when they were small, and they all did brilliantly. Some of our most memorable hikes were 14 km (Corsica) & 11 (Mer de Glace in Chamonix, 1000 meters elevation gain) when Ivy was 2 & 3 years old. Ivy was on my back but everyone else did the full hike. Inga was 4 for the Corsica hike and she still remembers doing it all on her own.
Here's the church we hiked up to, as seen from the village.
We're spending 4 days at the Gorges du Verdon, the largest canyon in Europe. It's only a 2-hour drive away from us, and I can't believe we've never gone in 10+ years! (Well, I can believe--soccer makes it hard to get away).
Unfortunately it's been extremely cold and rainy and today was 100% rain all day long. That didn't phase us, though. We still got out and even did a little hike. We drove past Lac de Ste-Croix (brilliant turquoise water, even in gloomy rain and mist) and caught a glimpse of the canyon as it opened into the lake. We visited a charming perched village, Moustiers-Ste-Marie, set alongside dramatic cliffs. There was a chapel up the ravine, just a 15 minute hike up.
This village is a center of faïence (white-glazed pottery, often then painted with decorative designs--there's even a museum dedicated to it!
Once we'd seen the village, it was time to check into our lodging. We both reserved little townhouses in another charming perched village on the Rive Gauche. Ours is tiny and cozy. Downstairs is a living/dining/kitchen and upstairs is a sort of sleeping loft, accessed via a ladder/staircase. Once you're upstairs, there a bedroom for us, a bathroom & WC, and an open room with a double bed and another sleeping loft above it with a double bed and a single bed. The kids love it.
My sister and her family are staying down the street in a Hobbit house! The doorway is only about 4' tall and you climb up into it, like you're climbing through a window! But once you're inside, the roof slopes up and it is a spacious apartment with vaulted ceilings and exposed rock walls.
Some of the cousins are house-swapping. Dio is staying over with the oldest cousin (Inga's age) and his next younger sister is staying with us. She and Ivy and Inga are giggling away.
Tomorrow we'll be exploring the Rive Gauche, working our way to Castellane (weather permitting). Then on Friday it's supposed to be sunny so we'll do a big hike.
After dinner we all gathered at my sister's place and played games, including the winking murder game, whatever it's called. I even got them to play a few rounds of the "1 minute game," where everyone lies on the floor with their eyes closed and silently counts to 1 minute, then raises their hand when they think it's been a minute. The littlest cousin only made it to 25 seconds! Eric's parents used to do this game all the time, probably to get a break from the noise of 7 children.
We have shoes drying on top of radiators...jackets hanging up to dry...hoping for a bit less rain tomorrow!
My eye exercise class leaves me with headaches. It's normal and goes away by the next day. But it's sure annoying!
We're packing to visit the Gorges du Verdon for 4 days. Unfortunately it's been cold and rainy and the forecast says more of the same. We'll hike as much as we can.
Zari finished her last day of university classes. She has lots of exams between now and June, but no more classes! I can't believe how quickly that went.
Monday, April 14, 2025
I felt feverish last night but a bit more functional during the day today. But I opted to stay home while my sister took her family and Ivy and Dio to Eze, Villa Kerylos, and Villefranche.
Not much else noteworthy to report...need to get to bed!
Sunday, April 13, 2025
Ivy had a tournament all day. I went with her in the morning and stayed until Eric arrived at around 12:30 pm. I was so cold by time he arrived. Despite dressing in a thick sweater and a jacket over that, I couldn't stay warm (it's hard to when you're sitting still for hours).
When I left, they had tied 2 games (0-0 and 1-1). They had several more afterwards and ended up winning 3rd place, scoring 3-2 in the last game. Ivy scored one goal in that final game.
I walked home (about 45+ minutes) hoping the brisk walk would warm me up. Nope! Still super chilled when I arrived home.
After dinner, I was just feeling a bit overwhelmed so I lay down on my bed with blankets and pretty much didn't get up for several hours. I'm up now to write in my journal but otherwise I'm not feeling great. I may be coming down with what has been making the rounds with Eric, Ivy, and (yesterday) Zari.
I did go out in the afternoon with my sister and her family and whoever was at home. We went to the photography museum in Old Nice, which had an amazing exhibition by a deep water photographer. It was superb. Then they went to the beach but I went home to try to warm up.
They're planning an excursion tomorrow, maybe Menton or Monaco or Vintimiglia. Whichever of the kids don't have school or soccer will go as well. I might but not if I'm feeling icky.
My sister, her husband, and their 4 kids arrived yesterday evening from California. We did little excursions here in Nice today: Château, beach, coulée verte. We had a bigger excursion planned but their family slept until mid-morning.
Dio is flying home and Inga and her cousin (2 days older than her) are picking him up at the airport. We had to push them out the door and reassure them that they could do it and figure it out.
We made a huge batch of sushi for dinner, and I got a double surprise bag from a 2Good2Go bakery. It was a definite score today! We got 2 fancy pastries (chocolate tart, Tropezienne), about 14 other pastries (croissants, pain au chocolat, brioche, donuts, madeleine, etc.), 4 sandwiches, 2 small baguettes, and 1 large loaf of bread. Amazing for 8 Euros!
Dio went to the British Museum today with his cousins. It's a Freeze Family First. I've only been in London once for 1.5 days back when Zari was a baby and we were interviewed on GMTV about her birth. It was quite the whirlwind. We walked all over but didn't go inside anything.
He says the most interesting thing so far has been the Tube. He's never been in a huge metro system before (excluding when he was in Paris as a 1-year-old).
I had a productive work day that began with a run/walk with my friend. (A countertop piece got dropped on my foot yesterday and my toes are bruised enough that I couldn't get my Vibram FiveFingers shoes on! So I walked in regular running shoes while she ran beside me.)
We went this evening to pick up Ivy from her sleepover and spent over 1.5 hours in a traffic jam and only made it a few kilometers away! We tried every possible route and everything was completely shut down. We finally turned around and went back home. They were happy to host Ivy for another night. We were going to have an apéro at their house...we missed out!
Inga had a friendly soccer match and came home discouraged because she got put on defense after 10 minutes. She's best as an attacker or midfielder and for some reason her coach keeps putting her on defense, we think we cause she's tall and can do almost anything well. But he's wasting her there.
Since we were in the car, we stopped by Lidl and did a big shopping trip.
Dio flew to London by himself today to meet up with his cousins, aunt, and uncle. He and Eric had to get up at 4 am for a super early flight. They visited Buckingham palace today, ate delicious Indian food, and were watching the Minecraft movie when I last hear from him. Crazy that he is off in another country having adventures!
Our big adventure for the day was finally receiving our countertops and backsplash. The delivery company refused to drop them off in front of our building with the pallet jack, as they were supposed to do. They wheeled the whole pallet 100 meters from the truck to the tram stop, but wouldn't go a few blocks more to our building. So we had to carry all 6 heavy pieces, one by one, with Ivy guarding the pallet.
Later in the day, when we'd gotten some energy back, we carried them up to our apartment, with assistance from our guests in Le Chateau. (Thank you!)
Ivy and Inga babysat during lunch for our guests downstairs; they have two children ages 4 and 9 who are enthralled with our girls. Ivy is especially popular, probably because she's still a kid and loves to play.
Ivy left mid-afternoon for a sleepover, so the house feels extra empty.
Inga and Eric are playing soccer. It's close to midnight and they are still not home!
A picture of me and my friend Erica (a midwife & epidemiologist who has helped BWB with our data collection project) posing yesterday afternoon for some breech pictures. She and her family are staying in Le Chateau.
Everyone but Ivy had a soccer game this morning through early afternoon. I went to Inga's. Her team won 10-0 and I was filming to try to catch Inga scoring a goal. Somehow I missed her goal, which was the first one of the game! She was frustrated because she was on midfield during the first half but then put on defense during the second half, even though she was clearly not needed on defense. It was a weak team and Cavigal had possession most of the time.
Dio's team lost 0-1 and Dio had a shot on goal at the very end, which was blocked. Zari's team "only" lost 4-0, which is much better than some of their other losses!
Then we got together with my midwife friend and her family who are staying in Le Chateau. The soccer player teenagers were tired, so they stayed home while the rest of us went to the chateau to play and socialize. Then we came back to our apartment for dinner and got treated out to ice cream at Fenocchio.
We got together with some friends of ours, a family from New Zealand. He's a professional rugby player here in Nice. They have 3 kids ages 2 and up. Ivy and Inga adore their two youngest girls and the feeling is definitely mutual! The littlest one reminds me of Boo from Monsters Inc.
We had a late lunch together at our apartment and then headed to the beach. We walked a bit further down to the area where there is some sand (volleyball pits during the summer and in the offseason, it's open for anyone to sit/play on). Ivy and I went swimming, along with their oldest.
The water was brisk but very refreshing. I stayed in for 5-10 minutes.
I also had a fun run with my Canadian midwife friend, who is staying with her family in Le Chateau. We're hoping to go running together a few more times before her family leaves.
We finished watching the 4th episode of the new season of Wheel of Time. It definitely helps that I've read the entire series.
We have 3 soccer games tomorrow, then another get-together with our friends in Le Chateau. A fun & friend-filled weekend!
Friday, April 04, 2025
I started the day with a "coffee group" with some of my friends. It's so nice to sit at a cafe and catch up with each other's lives. Then I got to work in a serious way, hammering away at a huge grant application that we're trying to put together before the deadline. I had several meetings as well.
We're officially on school vacation for the next 2+ weeks!
We're doing things with friends both tomorrow and Sunday and I'm super excited for socializing and a break from work.
I'm back from a short trip to Aabenraa, Denmark! 🇩🇰 I was there for the Upright Breech Seminar on April 2nd to observe and write up a conference report. (You can read it here if you're interested: https://www.breechwithoutborders.org/aabenraa)
I flew direct to Copenhagen and then caught a 3-hour train to the nearest train station in Rødekro. The hospital is actually in Rødekro and not Aabenraa proper, so I stayed in a hotel just a few blocks from the train station.
I had a 50-minute walk in the morning to get to the hospital auditorium. I walked most of the way along a network of bike paths, which was amazing to see. I started getting blisters on the bottom of my feet at the end of the walk home. My shoes were very comfortable and broken in, but it was still well over 20,000 steps.
Today I did the same travels in reverse, getting home a bit before 11 pm. Ivy and Inga were already in bed when I walked up the staircase to our apartment, but the opened their windows and whispered out to me as I came up.
Our 2-week school break starts this weekend! Dio will be visiting cousins in London and then my sister arrives from California with her family (4 kids). We'll be visiting the Gorges de Verdon--Europe's Grand Canyon--for 4 days. I'm so excited!
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