La Plage

On the sunny afternoon of Sunday 31st August, the family decided to go on a walk at the beach and invited me to go with them. They're very kind and have told me that pretty much anything they do as a family, I'm welcome to join in with if I want.

There's about 3 beaches (that I know of) in or very close to Cherbourg, what with the town being on the coast of the Cotentin Peninsula and all. The beach we went to was called 'La Plage Urville-Nacqueville' about 20 minutes drive away from home. It's quite rare for us to drive places as school, shops etc. are within walking distance.

The beach was sandy and there were lots of campsites nearby. Lots of wind too, a bit like a nice English beach really. There were lots of people windsurfing and doing other similar water sports.

We parked on the other side of the dunes and walked along the beach. They strapped Aurianne into a front baby carrier so that she could have a sleep. Fran took off her shoes so she could paddle and Marc rolled up shorts so he could splash.

After walking for around half an hour, Marc took a big jump and slipped, falling into the sea! He was soaked. We had a spare change of shorts, but not a spare top. Charly took off his jumper and wrapped that around him so he wouldn't get cold - it was too long though so they used a hairband to tie the back and keep it up. It was hilarious. He looked just like a little rabbit!

I carried around his t-shirt and jumper, letting it flap in the wind to dry. They were so wet I had to wring them out! It was working but after another 15 mins he started getting cold so we turned around and headed back. 

We got back to the car before his clothes were dry so he just sat in a different one of Charly's fleecy jumpers for the ride home. This one was tan coloured and almost came down to his ankles. Combined with his sandals he liked like a little Arab boy. Hilarious.

Some pictures of Urville-Nacqueville beach...

Ici à Cherbourg

So I have arrived in Cherbourg! I'm loving my new family and getting to know the town.

My first day in Cherbourg was Friday 29th. Fran and Charly were really lovely and told me that because I had arrived early I didn't need to worry about waking me early and that I could just chill for a couple of days which is just what I needed.

My New Room!
(They bought me chocolates
and flowers as a welcome present!) 

Fran and Charly have two children, a boy and a girl. Marc-Alexandre (boy) is 3yrs old and then Aurianne (girl) is 8 ½ months.

Marc, being 3, tired and overexcited, gets a bit naughty and stroppy but on the whole is an interested and smiley boy. Monday will be his first day of school! They start school at 3 years old in France.

Aurianne is a very happy, smiley baby but two weeks ago hit the clingy phase and so is not very comfortable with strangers. Thankfully for all involved she took to me very quickly and is happy to be left with me for periods of time.

I'm learning how to find my way around places, and am having a lovely time settling in. It's been very relaxed which has been great after the stressful time with Helene!

Fran and Charly are on a bit of a health kick at the moment too. By this they mean eating better food, and in smaller portions; this is excellent for me, given my rocketing weight over the past year. Hopefully, with this and the walking to and from school, and up the two flights of stairs to the flat etc. I'll be back down to my happy size 8 again by Christmas! (Ideally well before that, but there's no point being unrealistic!)

In Cherbourg, they live in a large, 3 bed flat. The building used to be two, three-storey houses but the owner decided to knock through to join the two houses and make each floor into a flat instead. It's in a pretty good location with about 20 minutes walk from the town centre and harbour. It's a really good sized house but unfortunately has no storage. The kitchen has all of 2 cupboards under the sink so they've been forced to improvise with shelves. The lack of storage makes the house feel really cluttered, but there's not much that can be done about that. The other bad things about this flat is that the guy in the ground floor flat smokes, and it comes up through the air vents. Every now and then you get a big whiff of it which is not very nice. We also have other flats opposite and when they hang out of their windows to smoke we have to make sure the windows are closed else it blows right in.

Fran is taking me to find out about French classes the other day too. I think they're on Friday mornings and start next week (not 100%). I'm hoping that I can meet other au pairs/english speakers of a similar age so that I have people to hang out and do things with soon! We'll see!

Cherbourg Promenades en Mer

L'Adele Bateau
(Taken from the tour website)

French Flag flying on the Boat!

Forts around the Harbour

View of part of the forts

On my first day here (Friday 29th August), Fran took me on a boat tour with the children. It was about 20 minutes to the Harbour so we left at 3pm to get the 3:30pm boat tour.

You can embark on the boat from either the 'Pont Tournant' - the bridge at the harbour near to the shopping centre, or la Cité de la Mer. The harbour is much closer so we got it from there (the first boarding place) and then the ferry swings round to the Cité de la Mer. Fran was really glad we got it from the Harbour as to board from Cité de la Mer you had to climb down some precarious looking stone steps, and with a baby and a 3yo, not the safest!

It was very interesting and went all around the harbour, lasting around an hour. It was guided and they gave us lots of interesting information about Cherbourg and the harbour, well, at least I think they did... it was all in French! (Their website is in English though oddly enough www.hagueapart.com)

One of the forts in ruins
"Probably the Germans", says Fran.

The boat, called 'l'Adéle', went right up to the walls and forts which are all around the Cherbourg Harbour. These were built towards the end of the Napoleonic War, designed to keep the British out, but the French then ironically invited Queen Victoria to come and open them at a grand ceremony!

We saw lots of marker buoys which Marc got very excited by (probably because he could easily spot them and told us about them every time he saw one!) and also saw lots of Ferries going to and from Rosslare, Poole and Portsmouth.

We went past the Cité de la Mer (the Aquarium and Sea Museum) which apparently had/has an exhibition all about the Titanic. Cherbourg was (one of) the last places for the Titanic to stop and they're rather proud of that fact.

It was a pretty bumpy ride. Marc kept wanting to go and sit outside, but after the first 15 minutes, the seats had all been splashed and were too wet to sit outside. We had sat inside to begin with (Marc insisted) so hadn't gotten wet like a lot of other people, but this meant that we didn't really have a good view. He also wanted to run around a lot, which wasn't the best idea given how bumpy the ride was... We're lucky he didn't fall over!

Cherbourg harbour is actually quite big. There's a couple of beaches and the Ferry port, as well as the boat docking bit too.

It was quite a good boat trip all in all. Perhaps I'll do it again when it starts again in April (they're closed from October - March) and hopefully I'll be able to understand a bit more of the tour then!

View of Cherbourg from Sea!

Un Mois Sans Internet

I'm back!! Apologies for my month-long disappearance avid readers! If I'd known I wouldn't have any internet for a month I may not have gone in first place... felt incredibly cut off from the land of the living. Anyway, I have finally arrived in Cherbourg and thankfully have internet, phone signal, shops, TV, English people, etc...

So far I've discovered that I've missed the following things:

- Robin Williams apparent suicide
- Brangelina's wedding
- The Ice Bucket Challenge craze. Seriously, what the heck!? (Oh, and don't bother trying to nominate me people, it's not going to happen...)
- Terror alerts are going on in UK

I'm sure I've missed more than that but if I have I don't know it!

To make it easier for me to catch up on these blog posts, I'll just post stuff about the past month in small chunks, probably scheduled for dates in August, else I'll get really confused! So just scroll downwards for that! I also have lots to tell about my trip here and all about my arrival too!

Enjoy!

De l'est à l'ouest, par le Train

Éloyes Station (I think)

So, my journey to Cherbourg continued...

As I said in the last post, I had to get replacement bus from Remiremont to Epinal and then change to train for Paris. Helene had told me that there were no stops in between the two stations but she was very wrong - we stopped at Saint-Nabord, Éloyes and Arches. It was a nice scenic route and I was very glad to be getting further and further away!

At Epinal, I got off the bus and went to find the train! The French 'composte' their tickets before they board on trains - basically involves sticking your ticket into a yellow scanner which stamps your ticket with the location, date and time. I'm still not sure why you're supposed to do this though... Seems a bit superfluous to me!

It took me a little while to find the right platform and train. It wasn't too difficult but as I didn't want to drag my suitcases up stairs I got the lift, but I got in the wrong one twice as it didn't say on the lifts which platforms they went up to. Helpful!

I boarded the train after a little while searching. Helene had freaked me out with her constant telling me that sometimes trains split, check lots of times that its the right train because it might not be etc. so I walked up and down the platform about 3 times until I was convinced it was the right train. Thanks to getting the earlier bus there was plenty of time to wander.

Pretty Church in Arches

The train from Epinal to Paris was very relaxing. It left at 16:27 and was due to arrive in Paris at 18:46. The bus had been boiling so I had a freshen up in the loo, and then listening to Lana Del Ray's new album while watching the French countryside out of the window. It was a TGV train (fast train) so it didn't stop very many times, maybe only 3-4 times at the most. At Nancy lots of people got on but no one sat next to me so I still got to spread out.

Epinal Station

We were a little early arriving in Paris, at Gare de Paris-Est . I didn't mind too much. I had two hours wait in Paris and get the Metro west to Gare Saint-Lazare. Helene had given me a child ticket for the Metro that she happened to have but Frances told me not to risk it because they'll just fine you lots of money on the spot so better to just spend an extra 1.70euros on a new one. I had a bit of difficulty getting through the barriers with all my luggage - they didn't seem to have them for people with luggage in some places so I got stuck a few times!

Helene also told me to go via Opéra on the metro but that was stupid because going from Paris Est to Saint Lazare via Gare du Nord meant one stop on the Metro line 4, a change onto RER E Magenta line (after a 5 min walk through Gare du Nord), one more stop and you're there! Would have been able to do it in about 20 mins if I'd run/worked it out a bit faster/not gone on the Magenta line in the wrong direction... I asked a french person if it was going to Saint-Lazare. He said yes, but I shouldn't have believed him as one stop later I was in Pantin... (two stops in the wrong direction). I didn't mind too much as I just hopped off, went up the steps and over the bridge to the other side and jumped back on! I met a very nice english guy (probably a student) on that train. He asked if I needed help (in English!) as I was translating something on my phone. I told him thanks very much, but I'd worked it out now, and explained about getting on in the wrong direction. He told me to 'Never ask a French person anything. They really do not care!' Very good advice!

When I got to Saint-Lazare, I followed the signs out towards the train station. It turned out that the Metro was about 100m from the Station, and not just in the same building like Gare du Nord was. I had around an hour to kill at this point so took my time getting into the station. I worked out the general area where trains to Cherbourg went from and went to hang around there while waiting for the Platform to be announced. I was just considering going to get a burger when an english girl and her mother walked past, talking in english, and I think I blurted out 'Are you english?'

Nancy Station

They were very nice and happy to see an english person too! They told me all about their ordeal getting from Gare du Nord to their hotel, not too far from Saint-Lazare. Apparently they weren't sure about how easy it would be so just booked a taxi which originally quoted about 25euros but charged them over 50! I told them that I'd just come from Gare du Nord and explained how easy (and cheap) it was. They then told me that they were in Paris as a holiday before Charlotte (the girl) restarted her A Levels in September. She told me all about how she wanted to be an actress and was taking Drama but had struggled with the theory side of her A levels, although had got top marks on all practical sides of things. I told them about how I was going to be an au pair and had been in the mountains etc.

They stayed talking to me for almost half an hour and at about 8:30pm I told them I should probably go and find my train as the platform was now on the boards - platform 25. It wasn't far so I headed over, and waited. Just as I got there the boards flashed 'Retard 5 min'. I wasn't too worried by this so just sat at the end of the platform waiting for the train to turn up. I remembered about the silly composte thing so moved over to scan my ticket at about 20:40. A few seconds later a station guard (what do you call them?!) came up to me and asked me what train I was waiting for and where I was going. I told her Cherbourg and showed her my ticket. She then told me that the train had moved (she'd worked out I was english and was thankfully speaking english for me!) and that it was now on Platform 23. It didn't say that on the boards - they still said Plat 25, delayed 5 mins! She said she'd show me and ran me over there. She pointed at the train and said 'quick, the train leaves in 3 minutes!' I hurriedly said thank you very much for letting me know and rushed over to the train to get backs and things on. This train was a non-reserved seating one so thankfully I didn't need to hunt for the correct carriage and seat and just jumped on. I put my suitcase on the racks and then found a seat. Less than a minute later the train left.

I'm so glad that she came and told me, and that she guessed I was waiting in the wrong place! I would have had no idea otherwise and would have missed the train completely!!

The journey was mostly uninteresting. The only thing that happened was some strange drunk french/eastern european guy was asking people if they had a phone charger he could use. I had my laptop out with my phone plugged into it and if I'd realised that's what he wanted earlier, I would have hidden it! He came along and asked, when I said no, he leaned over and took my charger out of my phone and tried to fit it into his phone! I tried saying it was a different phone and didn't work but when it did he told me thank you and then sat down and made himself comfortable! He told me he'd just be 2 mins but then made a long, loud phone call and kept trying to pass the phone over to me to get me to speak to his friend. I kept saying 'Non merci, Je regrette, je ne comprends pas' but he didn't get it. After a couple of minutes the train stopped at another station and everyone else in the carriage got off! At this point, I started to feel pretty uncomfortable so packed away my laptop and everything else, took my charger from him, and told him I needed to go to the toilet. He tried getting me to leave my laptop and charger etc. all there while I went but I told him it all needed to come with me. I picked up my bag, went to get my suitcase from the rack and planned to go into the next carriage where there were more people. The guy insisted on helping me carry my bags and then stood blocking the way into the next carriage next to the loo. I actually did need the toilet so took all my stuff into the toilet and took a good 10 minutes. By this point it was about 12am so I knew we only had a couple more minutes until we reached Cherbourg. I came out of the toilet and headed straight into the next carriage. Thankfully he'd disappeared, probably to bug someone else for a phone charger!

Finally arrived in Cherbourg at 00:05. Charly was there to meet me at the station and we were only about 10 mins drive from the house where I finally felt like I could relax again!

More about Cherbourg next...

Mon Évasion de Vosges

Getting out of there was pretty stressful. Despite agreeing to me leaving on Friday 29th August in the original emails, Helene was very reluctant to let me leave as planned. The closer we got to the day it was planned for me to leave, the more worried I got. Helene had refused to let me buy a train ticket saying that she didn't know when we would finish, and that I couldn't leave until we had. As I hadn't actually been anywhere outside of the house where I would have been able to find internet or a train ticket boutique either, I was starting to feel more and more trapped!

The Monday of the week I was due to leave, my Cherbourg family tried to contact me. Limited signal made this pretty tricky so I arranged to call them back the next day, and in the mean time try to get a definitive answer about time/day I would be able to leave from Helene.

I called Fran and Charly on Tuesday evening. I'd had no luck getting a clear answer from Helene but she definitely didn't want me to leave until at least Saturday. I tried explaining that she had agreed for me to leave on Friday but to no avail - she just told me I had definitely said the 30th (now I have internet again, I checked the emails. They confirm that she agreed to me leaving on Friday 29th!). Helene had offered, should it happen to coincide with the day/time I planned to go, to drop me off 'somewhere near Paris' on her way back home to Laval, but she was very vague about this and so I wasn't sure about taking my chances with that.

After a chat about train times with Fran, it was agreed that the train I had originally planned to get on (11:04am from Epinal on Friday 29th) would be best however Helene wasn't being clear about whether she would take me to the train station. Not only that, but she also said that we were an hour away from Epinal and that it would be very inconvenient for her. Fran asked me to find out where Helene had planned to drop me off in Paris to see if they would be able to arrange to pick me up/have a friend collect me/something similar. However when I went to ask Helene she continued to be vague and wouldn't give a clear answer, or a time that she would be able to drop me off. Fran decided that Helene was actually being really difficult and said that they'd speak to her instead.

I put Helene on the phone with Charly who spoke to her in French. I didn't get much from the conversation other than Helene's "She is a big girl" and "That's a big problem for me". After a couple of minutes she snapped 'Au revoir' and hung up (I was pretty annoyed about that, I still had another 25 minutes left on the call without needing to pay more but hanging up meant I'd have to pay to call again to finish the conversation!)

Helene was very annoyed after this. She told me that it was the strangest conversation she'd ever had and that Charly was a scary man that had used the word 'summon' which she'd never heard in conversation before, had talked about me like I wasn't a person and that she thought I wouldn't be able to cope with him in Cherbourg because he was a very hard and strict man. I found all of that pretty hard to believe. I'd spoken to Charly a few times and certainly wasn't scary! She talked about how scary and authoritarian he was, how his wife must be really repressed etc. for about half an hour, but still had refused to agree on a date and time for me to leave.

After calling them back they told me that she'd just told them that it wasn't possible to agree a time because she hadn't finished the work she needed to complete yet and that she needed to keep me until it was complete. Charly was quite angry about how rude she was to them and about the way she'd been treating me and agreed to see if he could find a way of buying me a ticket for the Friday so that she had no choice but to put me on it, however given that the house had no address and it was coming up to 2 days before the train he didn't think that it would be possible. Before saying goodbye they told me not to worry, if I needed to leave earlier than planned, or even late at night, that they would be able to pick me up or find me somewhere to stay in Paris at short notice, assuming I could get there. Very kind of them!

Charly had told me he would call her the next day to try and get an answer from her so the next day her phone rang and she ran off to answer it. She came back 5 mins later to tell me that it was another strange conversation with 'your french man in Cherbourg'. She told me that never before had someone called just to apologise and that it was very odd behaviour. I asked if he'd said anything else but she said that he hadn't, that he just wanted to apologise. (When I spoke to Charly he told me that he'd just been trying a different approach, eg. "I'm sorry for getting annoyed in our phone conversation last night but we really do need to have a set time for Cate's arrival?? *Hint Hint*", but naturally she'd missed the hints and just seen it as an apology. Ridiculous)

On Wednesday night, I couldn't sleep because I was feeling so worried about the fact that I hadn't bought a ticket, or even had Helene agree to a specific train yet! I was supposed to be leaving in less than two days time! In an attempt to calm myself down a bit I decided to pack up all my things so that I would at least know I'd be ready to leave whenever Helene finally agreed to it.

The next morning, after very little sleep I came down to tell Helene about my lack of sleep caused by worry. She couldn't understand what I could possibly be worried about, unless it was 'your scary french man in Cherbourg', which it obviously wasn't. I tried to explain that I hadn't bought a ticket yet, or even got a day or time confirmed from her. I was concerned about the price going up, not being able to reserve a seat, not being able to get on a train etc. but she told me that I was being childish and worrying about silly things. Personally, I thought I was being an adult for actually caring about being organised and wanting to make sure that I kept the commitment I'd previously made to Fran and Charly in Cherbourg but she didn't see it that way.

The lack of sleep, stress, worry and now Helene's ignorance and failure to understand, or to even listen to me, drove me to tears at which point Helene told me I was a baby and that 'I'll just drive you to the train station so you can buy a ticket right now then, just so we can work'. This seemed a bit extreme so I said that I was happy to just buy one using the internet on her phone so she didn't have to go out of her way, and that all I needed was for her to confirm a time so that I could actually do that, but she refused. I went upstairs to get my purse and coat and then came back downstairs. I repeated that it really wouldn't be a problem to just buy one on her phone given that it was about an hours drive to and from the station and I knew she wanted to work, I added that given the journey time to the station that it didn't make sense for her to go today and then again the next day to take me. Helene told me she didn't care, all that she wanted was to do work and I never ever wanted to work because I was such a baby, oh and that she was really cross. This was too much. I'd worked 14 hours a day for 8 days in a row at this point with barely any sleep in between and it was her that was hindering us getting started with work by having a strop and saying she'd drive to and from the station just to buy a ticket! Eventually she just said 'oh, so if everything is such a big problem for you then maybe you just want to leave today instead?'

I don't think she was expecting me to say 'Yes, ok. I will. I'll go and get my things'. She completely lost it at that point, knocking books onto the floor and stomping out, slamming the door and swearing continuously. I was pretty upset by this point. I think it was perfectly reasonable to want to buy a train ticket in advance so that I had a definitive day and time of departure from the mountains, and an arrival date and time to give Charly and Fran in Cherbourg!

I went upstairs to pack up my last few things - pretty much just had pyjamas, laptop and wash things to shove in the bag - and then called Fran to let them know what was going on. Fran completely understood and told me that it was no problem for me to arrive early, she'd just need to clear off my bed! She started telling me about the next available train times when the door bursts open and Helene stormed in through the door telling me I was being ridiculous and just needed to calm down. I told her I was on the phone, which she ignored, and then I eventually just ended up passing the phone over to her so that Helene could talk to Fran.

After about 15 mins, Helene passed the phone back to me. I had packed my things, brought them downstairs and was just filling up a water bottle for the journey by this point! Fran told me that Helene had told her I was having a huge panic attack and that she wasn't comfortable putting me on a train in my state because I would definitely get lost and she was very worried about me. Fran thought I definitely didn't sound like I was having a panic attack, but actually quite calm despite being a bit upset, and that the cause of my stress was clearly Helene. She'd told her that it was probably best to let me come to them today as they were fine with it and it sounded like I needed a break! Fran also told Helene that she'd need to pay me so that I would be able to buy a ticket (she hadn't paid me for 4 weeks!), and then told me the next train was at 16:27 from Epinal. It was about 11am at this point so I had quite a bit of time to wait, but I didn't care. It was supposed to take an hour to get to Epinal anyway so thought it was probably best that I had some more time to spare, in case Helene managed to be any more difficult, which it turned out she could!

I went to tell Helene about the train from Epinal. She told me I wouldn't be going from Epinal, but from Remiremont, a tiny little station only a little bigger than Yate (and that's just because it had somewhere to buy tickets from Humans and was located next to the bus station) because it was about 20 mins away rather than an hour. I discovered that I could get a connecting train at 15:27 so still had plenty of time, though I was a bit annoyed that she couldn't even be bothered to take me to the train station she had originally told me she'd take me to. She kept telling me that I could stay if I wanted to, that I could even stay in my room and not do any work all day if that would make me want to stay. I didn't want to stay there anymore, I'd only left that house 5 times in a month and was desperate for civilisation, the internet, shops etc.

When I told her what time the train was she said that we didn't have to leave immediately if I didn't want to and that we could go whenever I wanted, and that I should eat first. I told her that I would prefer to leave before 2pm to give me plenty of time to get there, get tickets, find out where I was going, and for her to go and find an ATM to pay me from! I took my time having something to eat, during which she kept shouting questions about English grammar and vocabulary as she was trying to add some last bits to her lessons. She then asked if, just before we left, I could check the paragraph she had just written. I didn't mind but then we ended up working for an hour and a half!?! So much for, 'you don't have to work today'.

At 2:00pm, I packed my suitcases in the car and at 2:30pm, we finally got to the train station. Helene asked the station person (what are they called?) about train tickets. I understood enough to hear her asking about trains tomorrow morning and saturday. I told her that I was adamant about leaving on the train at 15:27, and then she told me that it would be 79€ for that train, or 69€ if I got the one the following morning. "It's ok if you want to stay an extra night, it's 10€ cheaper so it might be better?"

I bought my tickets and then waited at the station for her to go and find a cash point. When she got back she told me that there wasn't a train, but it was actually a replacement coach instead, and that I could get the earlier one at 15:04 if I wanted to. I did so I said an awkward goodbye to Helene and the two younger children and hopped on.

And so my escape from the Vosges began!

A few pictures from Remiremont station...

Alsace le Soir

As a historian, Helene has lots of interesting things to talk about. She told me lots about the history of the area we were going to – Alsace. It was an area that was taken over by the Germans during WWII and so had a lot of German influences. She also told me about the Saint-Laurent cross which is on a few mountains around here (thought I might be able to find more info about it online but Google is failing me). Her husband Benoit was from Ventron and that he told people he was German. I was really interested about this. It seems odd to me that an area outside of Germany would want to call themselves German after the atrocities of the war. She kept saying that the area didn’t have national pride for any particular nation before or after – yet she was saying that people from that area call themselves Germans…

The Alsace region looks very German. I think if I didn’t know any better than I would have thought it was Germany! It also seemed quite old and a bit rundown; most people hadn’t repainted their shutters, broken garden fences etc. but maybe that’s just rural France in general?

It’s an interesting area though. Apparently the schools in Alsace don’t have to follow the French National Curriculum and can adopt the German version if they want to, or just make something else up entirely. Lots of schools also teach in German. Very strange!

As we travelled through, Helene promised to take me to visit lots of the local villages properly. She said that somewhere near they made the proper German pretzels, and that there was lots of local German sausage shops too. There was also apparently lots of interesting historical sites which, again, she promised to take me to visit.

We arrived in Saulxures-sur-Moselettes at around 5:30pm. Helene decided to stop at the shop on the way to the house as we needed food. I decided to go in with her as I needed a few things – face wipes and paper etc. I didn’t realise but France doesn’t really make basic things like lined paper so I had to buy squared paper (like the stuff we use for maths in UK) instead - very annoying. I did manage to get myself some more fruit juice though.

It was around this point that Helene told me that there wasn’t any internet at her house. Not impressed. Apparently they sometimes went to the ‘Maison de Tourisme’ (Tourist House) to get internet but as we drove past it we saw it had been burnt down… Helpful.

We finally got to their house at around 7pm. It was in quite a pretty area next to a farm and was a very old house. More to come about the house later…

Helene was very tired but we still worked out way round all the bedrooms making beds and vacuuming the rooms (well, I vacuumed the rooms). We then, finally, got to have something to eat!

Helene told me all about how her sister was very strict and hadn’t let the children eat with the rest of the family in Corsica. She had thought it very mean (I didn’t) and said that her children were all very constipated from eating too much pasta and bread, but not many vegetables. It’s for this reason that we ate pretty much nothing but vegetables for the next week.

For dinner we had a really nice creamy vegetable soup, followed by lentils with hot dog sausage bits in it. For desert it was natural yoghurt (which all the kids put 4-5 teaspoons of sugar into – disgusting) and I had a peach.

Apparently her oldest daughter, Alienor, is allergic to just about everything – almost all types of fruit, nuts, some vegetables etc. Helene says it is because she let her try everything before she was 1yr old and so for her other children she only gave them plain potato, milk and bread (or something super plain like that) until they were almost 2! Therefore, the family didn’t eat much fruit and continued to eat not much fruit for the whole time I was there…

No pictures to cover this part I'm afraid, and I didn't take that many pictures during most of my time in the Vosges either - sorry!

La Dernière Ligne Droite

Thankfully, we were woken up by Helene at 8, not 6. She said ‘we are very late and have to leave immediately’. She wasn’t joking about wanting to leave immediately. I barely had time to throw clothes on before she was back to tell us that we had to go!

The journey was awful as ever, although finally someone had the idea that maybe I should sit by the door and not in the smallest seat in the entire car given that I was the 2^nd biggest person in the car… After that it was a bit more comfortable but the kids were still completely unaware of the concept of personal space.

We arrived at a Service station to pick up some breakfast at around 10am. My headphones were broken by Hermine (she yanked them out of my laptop on the ferry) so when I went in to go to the toilet I made a very speedy stop in the shop to buy some more. Helene came in to tell me that they were very late and now they were waiting for me I was wasting their time. I tried to hurry up but not much I could have done faster. I went back out to the car to find everyone sat on the grass eating, and definitely not waiting for me!

At some point we went past Avignon and the famous bridge – I meant to take a picture but I didn’t have a window seat at the time so didn’t get a chance.

Cat at the Train
station Car park

At about 1.30pm Helene told me they’d changed where Alienor would be getting the train. She was supposed to be getting a train from Bourges (I think) which was completely the wrong direction to where we were actually going, and instead she was dropped off at the train station in a town called ‘Beaune’. The family used to live there apparently so Helene was familiar with the roads – just as well as we entered Beaune with apparently just 8 minutes to go until the train, the satnav said 15 minutes, and they apparently hadn’t bought the ticket yet…

View from Beaune Train Station steps

Beaune was quite nice. Very french, naturally. Helene told me it’s a very old town with a wall going all the way around it. When we got to the train station they rushed in to get Alienor on the train, which must have left about a minute after they got there but somehow I think she managed to get on it. I was left in the car with the children – I don’t remember what they were doing exactly but they weren’t being very nice. Helene came back about 20 mins later and asked if I’d taken my medicine. Obviously I hadn’t as we’d left immediately in the morning and so I hadn’t had a chance. She started shouting at me telling me the reason she’d been gone so long was so that I would have time to take my medicine. I tried to explain that I couldn’t just take it in the car and needed to use a toilet. She then told me she would take the children away and I could go and find a restaurant and use the toilet in there and that she’d be gone for as long as I needed. When she asked how long I’d need I told her I’d need at least an hour – I only needed about 15 mins but I was pretty fed up of her and the kids and wanted a break!

More views of Beaune

I found a little pub just opposite the train station. Helene had suggested I go to some other restaurant over the road but it looked quite posh and the type of place you can’t just go in to have a drink and use the loo! The people in the pub were quite friendly. I ordered an orange juice and then sat there having a nice time for about 40 mins, and then went to take nasty medicine in the toilet. I’d taken the little plastic cups from the toilet at the hostel and had ‘borrowed’ a teaspoon from the Ferry so I could mash up tablets.

Lots of old buildings in Beaune

When I was done I texted Helene to tell her I’d wait at the train station. While I was waiting I decided to pick up my Railcard - a very good idea because I don’t know when I would have had another opportunity to get it! Helene returned at least 20 mins after that, during which time I just sat on the station steps and watched a cat wandering about in the car park.

Now that Alienor had gone I was able to sit in the front seat! Much more room so much more comfortable! I was also able to talk to Helene – the first time we actually had a proper conversation since I’d arrived in Corsica. I was very annoyed to find out then that there was no internet at the house in Vosges!

Un Voyage Difficile

This morning was awful. I didn’t sleep very well last night because I was worrying about the journey, medicine etc. (mainly just because no one actually gave me any information so I didn’t know what was going on!)

I must have only got around 4-5 hours sleep, which was interrupted by a lot of banging at 4:30am – the german uncle (finally found out his name was Albrecht) and Benoit were leaving (I think going to Ireland, but who knows).

I got up at about 7am. I had some hot chocolate and then went to take my medicine. At 7:30am I asked if it was ok to use the shower to which Helene told me ‘No no no, there is no time’ so I just had a quick wash in the sink instead and then got dressed. I helped all the children finish getting dressed and have breakfast and we were ready to leave at about 8am. I was feeling very sick and the children wanted to play in the garden so I sat with them and had a drink of water. 5 minutes later Helene started shouting at me telling me that there was so much to do because we were about to leave and to go and help in the kitchen. I went to the kitchen only to be told by Anne and Grandmaman that it would be easier for me to wait in the garden with the children because there wasn't enough space (they were just emptying the fridge, getting the food together). There really wasn’t much to do – they had paid for the cleaning service at the villa so they didn’t have to wash bedding or towels or vacuum or anything.

Helene told me to put the children in the car because we had to leave very soon so I started getting the children into the car with all their things at about 8:30 and they were all inside, ready to go by about 8:45. At 9:15 I was getting annoyed. All the children had been sat in a boiling hot car for half an hour but Helene was just talking to the other adults. At about 9:30 we FINALLY left and by 9:40 all the children were fed up with their toys and games (obviously). At 9:45 we made our first stop at the side of the road because one of the kids was feeling carsick. I kept telling them to look ahead out of the window, and to open their window and let in some fresh air but for some crazy reason Helene told them to look out of the side windows and to put a jumper on – what?! Consequently we stopped another 2 times in that first hour… We also stopped after about 40 minutes to have a coffee at a little café – something else that made no sense to me. She didn’t even ask the children to go to the toilet if they needed to when they were there and so 5 minutes later they were all crying because they needed to go.

Helene told me to order a
'small hot chocolate' at the cafe.
Tiniest hot choc I've ever seen
(this cup was barely bigger
than an espresso cup)

There was hardly any room in the car, but Helene made me sit in the smallest seat in the whole car (the middle seat) – despite being bigger than all the other children. Apparently Hillaire gets carsick – so put him in the middle so he can look out of the windscreen!? Idiot.

We arrived at Ajaccio at about 11:30am and then drived around all over the place, the wrong way down one-way streets etc. looking for a Boulangerie. Crazy. At about 12:30 (yes, almost a whole hour was spent driving around aimlessly) we stopped in the ferry carpark. The grandparents were coming on the same ferry so they found a shop and bought croissants, pain au chocolat and baguettes which we then stood in a car park and ate. I wasn’t able to put on suncream this morning either – they had made me pack it up in the car the day before so I now have slightly burnt shoulders because the only shade was one bench under a tree and there wasn’t room under it for me.

We then drove to the boarding area for the ferry. Helene told me that she didn’t have a ticket in my name so if anyone asked my name was Bethany Amis (perhaps this is an au pair that cancelled on her which would explain the late notice for hiring me!). We then had to sit in a very hot car for almost an hour while we waited to board which was very difficult with bored and uncomfortable children (and me).

Eventually we boarded the ferry where everything was a big rush to find a seat. Helene then told me that she needed to spend time with her parents away from children because her mother was ill and was very exhausted so needed quiet time. She told me that she would sit with her mother for an hour or so, and then come back to spend time with the children before dinner, after which she would go to have dinner with her parents and Alienor, and then give me some free time.

However, that, as always with Helene, wasn’t how it happened. She appeared 3 hours later, at which point the kids were all huddled around a French film and I’d stuck on a film for me on my laptop. She came up behind me saying ‘is that a film for the children?’ When I said no, they’re watching a film on their dvd player, she got really angry and started telling me that this was time for the children, not for me. Trying to explain that the children were watching their own French film right next to me didn’t make any difference – she just huffed and then shouted, ‘I am really fed up of you!’ and stomped off. Her 17yr old daughter Alienor then gave me a dirty look and followed her mother… I was pretty confused at this point, in my opinion it was pretty nice of me to look after the children at all as she’d told me that she was hiring me to be an English tutor and to edit her courses. 10 mins later she came back with 5 plates of steak hache (basically a burger that’s not in a bun) with chips, throws them all on the table and then stamps off again. I wasn’t sure if one was for me or if they were just for the children inc. Alienor, and when I asked Alienor what they wanted me to do she just said ‘eat and watch the children like you’ve been told to’.

I had just sat down to eat when Helene reappeared to tell me that she had to speak with me immediately. I got up and followed her off to some stairs somewhere (ridiculous place to decide to sit – loads of people kept trying to walk past with their bags etc.).  I don’t remember exactly what she said but the gist of it was that she wasn’t very happy with me because I hadn’t done anything at all in Corsica (oh, only look after the children, and help in the kitchen or with cleaning, washing…) I told her that she’d never actually told me that I was going to be looking after children so to now tell me that was the main reason she had hired me was pretty ridiculous. She then tried telling me that she had been very clear – I was hired to help with English, edit her courses and look after the children (she didn’t). She then told me that I had to keep the children with me until she had finished dinner with her parents because her mother wasn’t very well. I tried to explain that at any given time at least 1 of her children (usually Hermine) didn’t want to stay with me and would run off to find her. She just told me she didn’t care, that she needed to keep the children safe etc. When I asked her to tell the children that so they knew they had to stay with me as they didn’t understand/listen to me, she told me that she didn’t hire me to tell her how to be a parent… Not sure quite what that had to do with it.

Typically, she then didn’t come back. One by one the children disappeared to go and find her. I tried following and keeping track of them but once I realised their mother wasn’t actually so far away, I gave up. She was supposed to have come to take them away after she’d finished dinner anyway…

Final view of Corsica from the Ferry

We finally arrived in Toulon just after 11pm. Helene was very angry about this because she thought they’d have arrived at 10pm, allowing us to get to the hotel by around 12am. Naturally she didn’t account for the actual getting off the ferry which took around 20 mins, plus getting out of the ferry area which probably took another 20 mins. Consequently, we didn’t arrive at the ‘hostel’ until after 2am, although I’m convinced we could have arrived by half 1 if she’d started walking back to the car earlier, and then hadn’t driven around EVERY roundabout 2-3 times each, and taken about 5 wrong turns (seriously, how?! the signs were so clear and she had a map and satnav?!) When we arrived at the hotel she told me that, again, she hadn’t planned for me and had only bought 2 rooms for 6 people (there was 7 of us). She then told me I had to share with the 10 and 12 yr old boys while her, Alienor, and the two little ones shared the other room. I felt quite uncomfortable about this arrangement – and told her so, but she just told me there was no problem and that she wouldn’t change it.

The hostel was super basic – much worse than those Formula1 hotels we used to stay at. Worst part was that the bathroom was like a train toilet, except they’d squashed a shower in there too… I felt hot and sweaty and generally dirty after the travelling and ferry so had a very hot shower before I went to bed. It was a good move as I definitely wouldn’t have got one the next morning. Helene told me that we’d be leaving at 6am (to be honest I don’t know why you’d bother stopping for just 4 hours – probably would have been better to upgrade to a cabin and sleep on the ferry…). I probably asleep at around 3am in the end… 

Un Jour Traumatique

Today has been very difficult. This morning I woke up at about 9:30 and was told that I must take the medicine! I find it really hard so spent hours deliberating about it. At about 11:30 Helene came to tell me off and said that it wasn't hard and that hard was being terminally ill and that if I wanted to she'd just hold my nose and force it down my throat - as that really helps me to relax and feel ok about it all! I tried to explain that it was a phobia and that as irrational as she thinks it is, it's a big deal for me. She made me give her the tablet which she crushed it up and then tried to make me take it just like that. 'Just hold your nose and you won't taste anything' - yeah cos that works... I tried to explain to her that the only way I can take medicine at home is very specific; I need to have cranberry juice or blackcurrant juice, two glasses - one with the medicine and a small amount of juice and the other with just lots of juice - and then a straw. They didn't have straws or juice and Helene refused to let me get a second glass, even with just water. I got so worked up about it because she wasn't listening to me that I couldn't breathe properly and got all sweaty and faint. Eventually Helene's sister, Anne (the doctor) came to help. She understands that it's a phobia and tried to help me to take the medicine in a different way. She mashed up a peach so we could use that as fruit juice and let me use a spoon to put the nasty medicine in my mouth (It's partly the tilting my head back thing that I struggle with I think). It took a while but I did it eventually.

Lots of Lizards in Corsica!

For lunch today we had the leftover chicken (just wrote 'children' by accident! Lol!) with rice, bread and salad. I then sat and read the french pirate book about 'Big Jack le Pirate' with Wandrille. I think it is all about the Pirate's search for a blue diamond but I'm not sure.... Reading in french does help with my pronunciation though as the children will correct me and it helps me to match the words with the spellings - very useful as they are rarely phonetic!

Hermine has been in a foul mood all day. She keeps answering me back (in french) and getting all stroppy when I ask her to do anything. Hillaire says she is tired - that much is clear! Anthelme hit her earlier while we were at the pool so she hit him back, when I told them to stop and apologise or go back to the house, Anthelme said 'D'accord, pardon' and then went off to play but Hermine had a huge strop and started throwing things everywhere. 
I told her that I had had enough of it and it was the last chance to stop or she would have to go back to the house (in bad french). She didn't stop so I said, 'ok, assez. Aller a la maison'. She just carried on shouting at me so I repeated myself a few times and then gave up and told her off in english instead. She then screamed at me that she didn't understand it when I spoke in english. I told her (in english) that I know she doesn't but if she won't listen in french then she will listen in english! And then repeated that she had to go back to the house. She screamed and slammed doors and threw things at me and told me that she would tell her parents what I had done (absolutely nothing, just asked her to stop or go inside in french and english!)

At around 4pm, I got the children some bread for a snack. They put chocolate powder on it! Very weird - they told me that 'it is very french'.... well it's definitely not english! Benoit then asked me to clean up after the children, empty the dishwasher, clean the kitchen, tidy the children's room and then go to the shop and buy bread all before 5pm... bit unrealistic! Benoit, Helene and Alienor are really stressed today because we leave tomorrow but they're just making things difficult and stressing out everyone else too.

Very few recognisable things...
Milka, BNs and Frosties were about it #FrenchFood

When I went to the shop, I bumped into Alienor and Alice who were coming back from the beach. They don't even speak to me anymore but they did to ask if Benoit had given me enough money to buy them something (I hadn't). Clearly it's far too much effort to speak in English to me... In an attempt to make future medicine doses easier to take, I bought some juice while I was at the shop and hunted profusely for straws but I couldn't find any.

Strange condiments that the
french keep having with bread

Pretty much all there is in Campomoro
Restaurant (far left), Shop (left by the road) and a Hotel!

Fish from the Corsican Sea

When I got back I was attacked by Wandrille who told me 'VITE VITE VITE, IL Y A UN POISSON!!' - Hillaire had caught a fish in a bucket at the rockpools!

Helene told me that she wanted me to make sure my 'luggage was ready to leave before dinner' - this really confused me because for a minute I thought we were leaving tonight but she just still can't speak english... I packed my main suitcase full of everything I wouldn't need for the next two days. This took a while as I had to repack everything as it wouldn't fit back in properly. They all started the Aperitifs without me (and didn't even bother to come and tell me they were starting) so I missed bread and smoked salmon - one of my favourites. I was not happy about that!

Dinner was Fish Soup (again), and then Pasta and that Tzatziki stuff with more bread. For dessert they had something called 'Fromage Blanc' - I couldn't work out what on earth that was. It's not Creme Fraiche, or Yoghurt, or Cheese, or Cream Cheese... It's kind of like a mix between Cream Cheese (which they don't actually have in France apparently) and Natural Yoghurt. They were pouring sugar onto the top and eating it just like that. Yet another french oddity.

After all that time packing, apparently my hand luggage was still too big and they wouldn't let me put it by my feet so I had to try and squash clothes and toiletries, plus a couple of things to do, all into my laptop bag as the only other bag I had was my medium sized handbag stowed away in my suitcase (they wouldn't let me get it out again). Alienor gave me a paper Carrefour bag and said to just carry my things in there (they don't half make things difficult!) Had they just explained earlier then it wouldn't have been such a problem but they are really bad at explaining things clearly - and bad at listening too because I definitely had room to put the bag by my feet (I just would have had to have limited feet space, but I've done that plenty of times before).

We are due to leave at about 8am tomorrow but apparently I have to get up at 6am (why?!) Surely the best thing to do it to get everyone up and dressed, eat something and then just leave half an hour later? We are getting a ferry (I think from Propriano to Marseille) and then driving until around 12am when we will stop at a 'Hostel' - I hope when she said 'Hostel' she meant one of those Formule 1 French Hotels they have in complexes just off the motorways? We'll see! I'm going to be so bored tomorrow. All I have to do is some Sudokus and my ipod - I won't be able to use laptop or phone much because I have no wifi and will run out of battery pretty quickly. Apparently (according to Alienor) there are no plugs on the ferry and we won't even have plugs at the Hotel - surely not?! After nearly 2 days of driving with very little to do I will be going crazy! I hope the children shut up long enough for me to sleep...

On that note, I am going to sleep. Especially as I will be woken up in just over 6 hours for literally no sensible reason... I won't be able to blog until probably Tuesday but will update on what is definitely sounding like the Journey from Hell!

A bright, clear day in Belvedere-Campomoro, Corsica!

Very clear water!

Mon Visage Gonflé

Today has been all about my swollen face... Last night I had some toothache which made eating dinner quite painful but then this morning I woke up with the whole left side of my face swollen! My tooth doesn't hurt anymore thankfully but I have an uncomfortable inflated face instead. It turns out that Aunt Anne is an Emergency Doctor so she had a look at it, took my temperature (with a strange thermometer that I had to hold under my arm for a couple of minutes until it beeped) and decided it must be an infection so prescribed some Metronidazole which she just happened to have with her already. Those of you that know me will know that I am super phobic of medicines, especially tablets... She told me to take two tablets a day until I can get to the Dentist or a day or two after the swelling goes down. She also tried to give me Paracetamol and/or Ibuprofen. I tried really hard to swallow it earlier, and put the tablet in some peach but it was massive and tasted gross and I didn't get much of it down.

Lunch today was homemade Pizza, bread, cheese, salad, and melon. Then for dessert it was the leftover Apple tart and Hillaire's birthday cake.

After lunch, I told them I needed to have a lie down as I wasn't feeling very well. I just wanted to have an hour or so to sleep but every half an hour someone would come to see if I was ok. It's nice that they care, but I really just wanted to be left alone as every time they came in I was nearly asleep. I was in my room for nearly 4 hours but only managed to sleep for about 15 minutes because of that! Very annoying as I know that just having a sleep would make me feel much better!

Location of the Vosges (The Vosges), France

Every day this week I have asked someone (a different person every day) when we leave Corsica and travel to the Vosges Mountains. The french are not overly forthcoming with information. Most of the answers have been 'don't worry, it's not til the end of the week' or 'you still have more days in Corsica - enjoy it!' and no specific answers! Today Hillaire came to visit me in my room (they always want to play on my phone) so I told him he could play on my phone for 10 minutes if he would answer some questions for me. First I asked when we would be leaving - apparently 6am on Sunday! I then asked how long it takes to get there and he said that from their home in Laval to the Vosges was about 6 hours but that he didn't know from here so we looked it up on Google maps. I will be staying somewhere called 'Saulxures-sur-Moselette' near Ventron. Their Chalet is near a lake and mountains and Ventron is about 2 hours from Epinal (which is where I will need to get the train to Cherbourg. I'm glad the children are willing to talk to me all about things as the adults are rubbish for information!

After Hillaire came to visit, all the other children slowly came to join us one at a time. I was watching Finding Nemo which they hadn't seen before (how can you not have seen Finding Nemo as a child!? Even in France!) I was trying to explain what was happening to them in french but I needed my phone to do that and they wanted to play on that! Very difficult but I think they were getting the gist!

Their Grandpapa has been playing the piano this week (there is a piano in the utility room - why it is there and not in the dining room/living room area I don't know! It's not like there isn't room for it there...) He's very good and can play a lot of different tunes - and all from memory! It's very impressive.

Today for Aperitif we had the greek Salad Soup again. I asked what it was called again - it's 'Tzatziki', pronouced 'Sasiki'. It's apparently made with cucumber, yoghurt, onions and other similar things. After that, we had barbequed sausage and pepper, and then pieces of steak, and then for dinner it was whole pan roasted chicken in a onion and tomato sauce and roasted new potatoes. When they were serving I got given the wishbone of the chicken. They had no idea what that meant so tried to explain the tradition of pulling the wishbone between two people with their little fingers but they thought it was weird! Apparently it's not something they do in France... They also don't seem to do green vegetables so I am seriously missing peas! And green beans etc. I also miss Chips! Also chocolate and fruit juice! I'm starting to miss home a lot more now. Perhaps it's just because I'm not feeling so good. 4 more weeks with this family and then off to Cherbourg which I think might feel a bit more like home as I will be able to unpack and settle in better there - plus there will be an english person there too (the mum) so that will be nice!