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!