La Pâtisserie, Le Shopping et Le Bébé

Cherbourg has some lovely green bits!

Today (Saturday), I didn't officially have anything to do so got up, and cleaned the bathroom while I was in there. I don't actually have to do any cleaning/tidying - a little after the children, and obviously my own stuff - but sometimes I feel like I should help as Fran's really busy and struggles to keep on top of it all, particularly as Aurianne isn't settling at garderie (she's in her clingy phase at the moment so doesn't really want to leave her mum) and Marc is being difficult lately. Also, cleaning is a good way to move about and I need to do a bit more of that.

This afternoon I thought I'd go for a wander into town. Fran and Charly were going to a wine and cheese party at Charly's bosses house this evening and Fran wanted to make chocolate and vanilla éclairs to take with them and Charly needed a haircut. They were having a bit of a dilemma about how they were going to get Aurianne down for her nap so I just said I'd take her with me instead as she'd sleep in the pram.

The Theatre and Fountain in Cherbourg Town Square.

They have two prams - one is a little city three wheel pushchair and the other is a really pretty old fashioned pram. I'll take a picture of it at some point... The little one is great to get out quickly - you literally just pull a handle at the bottom of a seat and the whole thing folds up. The big pram is really great for getting Aurianne to sleep as she can lie down properly but is a little less maneuverable. I took the small one into town which I'm glad about as I wouldn't have been able to get the big one into all the shops.

I want to buy a new purse so I can have a french one and then I won't have to carry around all my English bank and loyalty cards when I'm out shopping in France. I saw lots but couldn't decide what kind to get. I really only need one that can fit money in it, plus a card or two and ideally capable of fitting my railcard in too, however in the shops I went in I could only find either coin purses or large purses. I'll just have to keep looking!

Detour on the way home - discovered a big graveyard.
Not sure how to get to it though
as this road was a dead-end.

I also wanted to buy a pot plant for my room, a few toiletries, a USB disc drive for my laptop (my disc drive isn't working properly and too much hassle to get the part replaced) and an SD Card for my digital photo frame. I managed to get toiletries in Carrefour Cite (a smaller, city version of Carrefour - think Tesco v. Tesco express) but as it's only small they didn't have pot plants, USB disc drives or SD cards. I did wander around for almost an hour but couldn't work out where else I could get those things. I saw one upmarket florist which probably had pot plants, but I expect they were €25 minimum and I didn't really want to spent quite that much...

View along the railway (right)

Aurianne was asleep by the time I got into town. I was ready to go home after about 45 mins but as this wasn't quite long enough for her to sleep I took a long detour, while trying to negotiate my way around Cherbourg's streets. We got to the house after about an hour and half of sleep but as she was still asleep I carried on walking past it. I'd not been that way before as it's leading out of the city and I don't think there's much in that direction (school and town etc. are all the other way) so wandered up to have a look. I had to cross a deserted (I think) railway line and then found a path leading up a hill towards the main road and a grassy area. I got to the top and took some pictures and then Aurianne woke up so I walked her back home.

View along the railway (left)

When we got back I found out that Charly still wasn't back from his haircut (he'd left at the same time as me) and that Fran was really annoyed. One of the reasons I'd taken Aurianne out was so that she could make the patisserie desserts for the party however the first batch of Choux buns had been knocked on the floor by Marc. Her second attempt also didn't go so well as Marc had been naughty and distracted her from the oven so they burnt. She was completely fed up as a one hour baking exercise had now taken nearly two and she still wasn't finished. I took the children into my room to let her get some peace and quiet to finish. About half an hour later Charly turned up so I passed them over to him.

I found a little corner shop/off-license style shop
which sold international newspapers and magazines.

They had these books (part of a series) called
'La Patrouille des Castors' (or 'The Beaver Patrol' in English)
which looked like it was about Beaver scouts!

Fran came in a few times to get me to taste her Vanilla Creme Patisserie, Chocolate filling and then a complete éclair once she'd put it together. The semi-burnt ones were fine, and you could hardly taste the burnt bits with all the tasty chocolate filling. She was rather pleased with that and so she filled up the burnt ones with chocolate/vanilla goodness so that we can eat those!

The children were fed and washed, and then Charly and Fran got ready to go out to the party. Aurianne was refusing to settle in her cot so they just passed her over to me for cuddles until she got sleepy. Aurianne isn't used to her parents leaving her so I spent over 2 hours trying to get her to sleep. She wouldn't let me put her down so I tried the baby carrier thing to relieve my arms, which didn't work the first time, but thankfully did the second. I think she finally fell asleep at about 10:15pm. I managed to get her out of the carrier and into bed without waking up, but 10 minutes later she woke up again. After nearly half an hour of cuddles back to sleep, I managed to get her back into her cot where she stayed asleep until they got back at about 1am. A pretty exhausting day!

Hopefully Aurianne will get better at sleeping/I'll get better at putting her to sleep, else it's going to be really difficult whenever they go out!

View from the top of the hill not far from the house.

Ma Première Semaine à Cherbourg

My first week here in Cherbourg has been really good. Marc started school for the first time this week, and I spent lots of time walking around, getting to know the routes to school and garderie (nursery), and to the shopping centre. I've just about learnt the route to school and town, and I think I know how to get to garderie too just about.

Marc has struggled with school this week. He's only 3 so starting school at 8:30am and finishing at 4:30pm is a long day, made longer by the 20 minute walk there and back, and also coming home at 11:30am for an hour and half lunch (not quite an hour at home).  As a child in 'Petite Section' he also has a scheduled nap time - which they call 'dark school' - for an hour when he returns after lunch. This involves taking a blanket, pillow and teddy to school, then taking off shoes and lying on a little bed in the semi-dark. He hates this as he doesn't usually have a nap, and although he is allowed to read books, it's not really that fun to have quiet time when you'd rather be learning/playing! On Thursday, he got sent home as he didn't want to lie down quietly in the dark and I think Fran & Charly have a meeting with the headteacher at some point about getting him out of 'dark school'.

Marc's school is a private catholic school. Private schools in France are apparently not very expensive. I think Fran said they only pay something like €11 a month, although in France, private apparently doesn't always mean better education. Private schools are also allowed to include religious aspects, such as in religious assemblies and prayer/hymns, whereas State schools are not. They are also allowed to adapt the curriculum slightly to suit them (provided they are still achieving results in the government regulated exams), and can have the Wednesday off without making up time on Saturdays - I think the state schools have to do standard Monday-Friday in most places now. Private schools can also have extra days holidays (though I think there's a limit) provided they give a clear reason for why - this means religious schools often have extra days off for religious holidays.

This week I have also been knitting again. Although I brought all of my needles and hooks, I didn't bring very much wool so was a bit annoyed because I don't have the colours I wanted. Fran is an avid knitter/crocheter however and offered me pretty much full rein of her wool supplies! (I'll just bring a load of mine back next time I'm home and let her use what she fancies to repay the favour). She's got some really nice DK wools and lambswools so I spent a long time trying to decide which to use! Fran also has a large collection of knitting magazines and one evening I sat and flicked through them all. I've been having a lovely time!

I've been eating much healthier, though still not back down to my happy size 8 (darn it). They eat well here. It's muesli and fruit/yoghurt for breakfast. Occasionally there's Croissants or Pain au Chocolat but only once or twice a week. Lunch tends to be either a soup (Fran made a lovely courgette soup the other day), or baguettes with ham/cheese/salad, or just salad. Today it was a really nice grilled chicken and mozzarella salad.

Carpaccio (raw beef) with four cheese Ravioli
and mixed Veg. Very tasty!

Most nights the kids will eat at around 6:30pm and then Charly with bath Aurianne while Fran reads Marc a story (in English), then they swap and Charly reads Marc a story (in french) while Fran gets Aurianne ready for bed, gives her milk and then tries to put her to sleep. I tend to stay out of the way of this as it's a pretty good routine, and so clear up the destruction that has befallen on the dining room table.

Charly, Fran and I tend to eat after the kids are asleep - often around 8:30pm, or sometimes later. This week we've had Thai/Asian takeout, homemade burgers, risotto, carpaccio with ravioli and veg, roast chicken and some pasta ready meals.

I'm also very pleased that my energy is finally starting to increase. I think that's a mixture between more sleep, being able to get up whenever I'm ready, rather than forcing myself up (Fran doesn't usually need me in the mornings - lunch times, afternoons, after school and dinner mainly), eating better and getting out more. I might even consider joining a gym or doing some other kind of regular sporting activity!

I'm also looking into doing an Open University degree - possibly English Literature and Language. I've got 5 more days til the deadline for this year's entry and am very tempted. They even have the option to do a French module which would be pretty handy given that I need to learn French! I think I'll make some enquiries on Monday!

I'm really pleased I'm enjoying my new life in Cherbourg. Life with Helene was so awful and I was really worried that I wouldn't get on well here either.

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...