Rachelle's Recent Adventures

I have been taking a couple of adventures without Linz and the kids as of late. I have been hanging out with Karen (the mom of the "Other Americans"), who loves gardens and plants. A few weeks ago, we drove through the charming Wiltshire countryside to look at the Courts Garden and the Great Chalfield Manor. This is a truly impressive medieval (15th century)home where The Other Boleyn Girl was filmed.
Karen and I also took a tour of Hampstead and the Kenwood House in London a few days later. Hampstead, once a suburb of London, is a planned community that was built for all people, regardless of social class, income or age to live side by side. It seems the utopian community didn't exactly work as dreamed, but it is still a beautiful neighborhood. Kenwood House was once the home of a Guinness (as in the Irish beer)family member and was filled with wonderful art, including a Rembrandt and a Vermeer.
I also ventured to Latvia for a short trip. I stayed both with my cousin, Gita and her daughter (and my god daughter) Anta. We had a great time soaking up the Baltic sun whilst (use of a new British word) exploring Riga's medievial streets. We went to the opera in the evening. The National Opera House is spectacular and the opera wasn't bad either (a Russian tragedy). The next day we went to Cesis to see my other cousin, Gatis, and his family. We walked around the old city and had a fabulous lunch at his house. I also went to the Jurmala (beach) with Gita. The weather was incredible, much warmer than England, and I had a wonderful relaxing time. My cousins, however, were sweating the credit crunch, which has had a profound impact on their well being. It seems the Latvians have been living high on the hog on borrowed money (gosh, that sounds familiar) and now the government is likely to go bankrupt. The cousins say that their pensions are not safe. I guess all we can do is wait with our fingers crossed, or as they say in Latvian, holding our thumb!

Awards

Since our parents/grandparents are loyal blog readers, I know that they will appreciate hearing about our recent accolades.

Georgia State University Outstanding Faculty Award: I won this 2008-2009 honor given annually to a faculty member at Georgia State who has done excellent work in research/scholarship, teaching, and service. Given that I have been in England for a portion of the time, I am wondering if the committee was especially pleased with me being away. I will make a brief trip to Atlanta for the awards dinner and to sit on the stage at commencement at the Georgia Dome with the new GSU president.

FC Belvedere Man of the Match: If I wasn't already strutting around the house, but the same week I was selected as the FC Belvedere Man-of-the-Match in our Sunday game. Rachelle knows that until someone else is selected at our next Belvedere match, I will only respond to her when she refers to me as "Man-of-the-Match."

Noah the Mentor: Rachelle and I were picking up the kids from school and entering the gate when the principal pulled us out from the throng of parents and said in a very serious way, "I need to talk to you...about Noah." He ushered us to a private space as we gulped and wondered what trouble Noah might have caused. The principal proceeded to tell us that Noah is "gifted" in interacting with younger children and that it is "moving" to watch Noah with them. The principal actually got choked up and had to stop speaking as he detailed to us how he has never seen a boy with Noah's skills! We learned that at the school assembly that day, the principal spoke about how every person has special talents, such as math, sports, or underwater photography, and that it might takes years to realize what is your unique gift. He proceeded to tell the children that he had observed one child in the school who was especially talented at helping and interacting with younger children. He had Noah stand as the whole school clapped.

France

I have waited to long to post this blog about our trip to France, and many of the details escape me. Other than a general positive haze of delicious food, great wine, excellent weather, some nice and some not so nice people, and beautiful countryside, here are some of my lingering memories.

Wed, 8 Apr: We landed in Beziers, which is a tiny airport in Southern France. There were only a couple of cars at the rental agencies, which explained why we were not able to rent a car at the airport. As there were no taxis, we ended up taking two buses to reach the train station downtown where our rental car agency was housed. The second bus was interesting as it was really a large van with a few seats and mostly standing space. It is a free bus, which runs around downtown Beziers, and people pack in tight and yack away in French. We made it to our rental agency, and once I was shown how to pry open the gas cap with the key and we marked off the many dents, scrapes, tears in the car, we took off driving on the right side of the road, which required some readjustment.

Our first stop was Nimes, a small city with some great Roman sites. We walked around an ancient Roman colliseum, which is still used for bull fighting, and explored some Roman ruins around the city. Our hotel owner recommended a wonderful restaurant, where we pantomimed that we were vegetarian but ate fish. The little old slipper-wearing waitress seemed to enjoy us as she repeated squeezed Noah's and Liv's cheeks and patted my head. When our food came, she showed us how to spread the garlic and tomato sauce on the small pieces of toast, sprinkle this with cheese and lay it in the bottom of the bowl, and then ladle the hot fish soup on top. It was wonderful and the red wine wasn't bad either.

Thu, 9 Apr: We drove to our place in Avignon, which was a 200-year-old, large apartment on a tiny twisty street. The kids loved the apartment and I was pleased to see that several channels showed soccer games, albeit with French commentators. Avignon is a medium-sized walled city and we spent much of our first day wondering the streets, shopping in the open air markets, and sitting at a cafe eating and enjoying the sun.

Fri, 10 Apr: We drove to several small villages in the hills. We had lunch in Gordes, which is a tiny town perched on top of a mountain. We also explored the Bories stone huts, which had had residents dating back to the Bronze age. The kids had a great time running around this open village. Finally, we made it to Rousillion, another hillside village. Rousillion is famous for the beautiful colored rocks and sands, which have been quarried for years for paint color. It was a truly spectacular sight.

Sat, 11 Apr: We drove through St. Remy, Les Beux de Provence castle, and some more villages. The day was rainy. One of the highlights was the castle ruins in Les Beux de Provence. There were people dressed in medieval garb giving demonstrations on how various weapons worked (including catapults). the views to the surrounding countryside were breathtaking.

Sun, 12 Apr: We spent the day in Aix en Provence, which is a beautiful city with many great churches, fountains, and shops. Unfortunately, Noah started feeling ill while wandering the streets, so we stopped by the pharmacy and medicated the chap before continuing our exploration. That evening, I enjoyed watching Manchester United vs. FC Porto game in the Champions League quarter finals.

Mon, 13 Apr: We drove to Cassis and found that we were not the only ones thinking that it was a beautiful day to hit the beach. We walked around the town, enjoying the sun and sparkling Mediterranean. We stopped at one beach and the kids went in the ocean. I tried to join them but the water was frigid, so I opted for some relaxation on the beach along with the topless sunbathers. We then hiked along the Colonques, exploring the beautiful cliffs overlooking the ocean and popping in on some secluded coves. It was truly spectacular. The only downside was that Noah was not doing well with all of the pollen in the air, so he stopped at a cliff with Rachelle after several miles of hiking, and Liv and I carried on. Liv said it was the most beautiful place she has been, and she said the water was so blue it looked fake.

Tue, 14 Apr: After so many day trips, the kids convinced us to stayed in Avignon. We did explore the incredible papal palace and the famous Avignon half-finished bridge.

Wed, 15 Apr: We headed to the Camargue, where the river Rhone empties into the Mediterranean. It is known both as a wildlife refuge and a common area for Gypsies to congregate. When we left Avignon, the day appeared sunny, however, it was cloudy and windy when we arrived. We rented bikes and started exploring a beach trail. However, when we noticed that Liv's face, ears, and hair were filled with sand and grit, we decided to abandon the beach and head for the marsh. However, the wind made it challenging even for us to balance on the bikes. We did enjoy seeing lots of wild horses and birds, notably pink flamingos. An interesting fact about the region is that it is believed that Mary (Jesus' mum), Mary Magdalen, and a woman named Sarah traveled to this region after the death of Jesus. Sarah (known as Black Sarah) died during the trip and is worshiped by the local Gypsies. We had planned on spending the whole day in the Camargue, but instead stopped off in Arles, a town with lots of Roman ruins. It is also the town where Vincent Van Gogh lived and worked. In fact, we stopped off in one of the hospitals where Van Gogh was hospitalized.

Thu, 16 Apr: We drove to Pont du Gard and, which is a 3-level intact enormous Roman aqueduct which can only be described as spectacular. Next we told the kids that we wanted them to have an open mind and positive attitude about our next adventure - a museum. Noah couldn't help letting out a groan, a whine, and then an outpouring of complaints. When we pulled into the parking lot of the Haribo Candy Museum, we then had the delicious opportunity to repeat our lecture to Noah about welcoming new and unpredictable experiences.

After our sugar outing, we headed to Beziers and turned in the rental car. The kids and I headed to a park and left Rachelle to relax in the hotel. The park was beautiful and we had a great time until we heard some sharp whistling and saw a park ranger/police shaking his finger at us from a distance. We figured that he confused our chase/wrestle/tickle game for a brawl. We wandered through the park and into downtown Bezeirs, which is quite nice with a large pedestrian-only center of town. As the restaurants weren't serving dinner until at least 7:30, we decided to go back and get Rachelle to show her the park and downtown.

Fri, 17 Apr: Although we did leave a sunny and dry France and landed in a gray and rainy Bristol, we were glad to be home.