Articles Tagged with trilingual family

[D66 – 70] Buenos Aires

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D66, Feb 21, 2014, BsAs

Got the news from my sister that a niang (our paternal grandmother) passed away yesterday ? now she would unite with a ya. And I couldn’t even be there … It’s too much emotion to write inside this blog so I will just say this much.

Tren de la costa to Tigre. A little cute train going to the delta, only 30 min. Although it took us 1hr almost to get to the train station. We had to wait for next train for 25min as we just missed the previous. There was a quite nice antique market adjoining the train station.

The train went along the coast. Nina excited about La Mer as she saw the water and cried.

Not knowing exactly what to do once I arrived at Tigre, we followed the crowd and took a cruise of one hour. Oh I was so glad I did. Only later I learnt there were so many rivers(Rio) running around this delta area. I saw some most charming houses along the rivers, with diverse architecture and style. What they all had in common was there was no road access and they all relied on boat (or kayak as I saw a few) for supplies and getting around. The ferry we took also took on some sort of delivery job. At the dock leaving Tigre, grocery/water/packs were loaded, then along the way, the ferry stopped numerous times at private jetty to unload the delivery – sometimes someone was waiting and sometimes goods were just thrown off to the jetty and left there. I guess it was pretty safe as no one could easily access the jetty anyway.

Tigre itself was quite crowded though and nothing much made us fancy without walking a lot. So after helado stop, we decide to take the train back but stopped midway at St Isda as LP said very good things about this place. It was a much quieter place to start with, then a nice cathedral. A tree lined square. A tourist info office that didn’t open.  It seems many wealthy locals choose to live around this area. We walked around the cathedral, dealing with a child who just woke up from insufficient nap and threw a tantrum. It would have been nice to visit the various museum and old villas. Oh well.

D67, Feb 22, 2014, BsAs.

Today was a rest day. No visiting nor much walking. Fetch laundry. Went to our cafe around the corner for a late lunch for 2 hrs. We are becoming local. Then went to the playground for 2 hrs. It’s almost like we were living here, although we had still to refer to LP from time to time.

D68, Feb 23, 2014, BsAs

Another leisure day, back to Chinatown for a meal at Taiwanese resto. Long wait. Full. At 2pm, we were yet to order. Fortunately we had enough crepe in the morning.

The lady sitting at next table started a chat with us asking where we live, in Chinese, as she recognized us speaking 2 languages. As it turned out, she grew up in Vietnam, studied in Germany, married a porteno and moved to BsAs. She was quite interested that we spoke 2 languages with Nina, and complained the slow service of the restaurant, which apparently changed the owner recently from a Taiwanese to a non-Taiwanese.

Then the helado stop, part of daily routine now.

Walked to plaza belgramo. Oh a lovely market, craft, creative, mostly sold by the artists themselves. In a nice surrounding, park, trees, next to the big (quite beautiful) church with round dome, and next to one of the best playgrounds we’ve come across in this city.

It’s almost like a local resident’s weekend, rather a visitor. Isn’t it what we were after?

D69, Feb 24, BsAs

I said I wanted to go back to La Boca for some photos, and off we went. The one hour bus became a bit boring, esp in a non-aircon’ed bus in a hot summer day. Nina wasn’t the only one who wanted to get off the bus asap.

Unfortunately the museum was closed, ah it’s a Monday!! Why didn’t I learn my lesson? But the streets were a little less crowded, although definitely still busy. Still tango dancers pose for the photos with tourists – some were actually nice poses. We chose a restaurant to watch their tango shoe, but it was their senior men’s band and live song that won our heart.

On the way back we decided to take bus only to the plaza de mayo and then take metro to get home faster.

Noticed people buying full trolley load of grocery and had someone packing their shopping, and very likely doing the delivery. That’s quite handy.

D70, Feb 25, BsAs.

Went to change some cash with xiao Liao our money changer on my own so they two got some down time with no fuss of bus. The bus became unbearably long: almost 1h30min just to get to his place. Should have taken metro.

The inflation in the country was so real, because Xiao Liao was told by a merchant walking in during our chat their selling price of something increased again … Liao was selling a bottle of detergent for 18peso last week and now his buying price become almost 25.

I walked along Defensa, for the last time, north bound to plaza de mayo. It’s such a quick walk, without Nina. I made sure to say hello to a statue of Mafalda, and asked to be taken a photo with her. She was sitting on the bench, easily to be missed if not knowing she was there.

There was a group of people protesting next to plaza de Mayo, but I didn’t understand what for. A quick metro ride (10 min) home, but they were out. Text, phone didn’t work, was anxious. Then Nico called me, I joined them in playground. Lunch at nearby cafe/confiteria. Good value for money of set at $62, the bread was in an edible biscuit basket, cute. Tea was in a nice tea pot. The vuelta (mixed fried potato, cheese, ham) nice.

Ran a few errands (last load of laundry, bought a small duck for Nina from the Chinese shop), pack. Time to leave tomorrow. Already.

[D56 – D60] Buenos Aires

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D56, Feb 10, 2014, BsAs

As it’s not raining in the morning, we set out to the Cemeteria de Recoleta. We took bus 110 (we were becoming really good at this bus thing). A really impressive cemetery! There were real building-high tombs and statues. There were streets lined up. In front of Evita’s there was a constant flow of tourists. Her tomb (along with her husband’s) was definitely not the impressive one, rather more humble ones. The one next to it was up fir sales… If location location location matters, it’s a spot destined to be regularly visited.

We the pushed onto Panerai boutique, as Nicolas is a fan (although with the current spending rate he’s not going to buy another one any time soon). Very disappointing as there were only 6 watches on display.

We ran to an old-time charming resto/bar in the corner called El Sanjuanino. Like back in time. I had locro, a sort of stew with sausage, veggie, maize. Quite hearty. Love the deco and feeling of the place.

After lunch we crossed a few blocks and a massive road, wanting to visit the BsAs Fine art museum. But it was closed, alas! We walked to the paeque de nacions unidade seeing the giant sculpture of flower. It reminded me of the one in HK.

Took a  taxi home as it was going to rain. It did. We stayed inside mist of the day. A day for rest and think what’s next after BsAs.

P.s. Some national icons displayed in president office, Mafalta us one of them. I didn’t know much about this cartoon figure, let alone knowing that it’s an Argentina one. Looks like worthwhile reading to learn about social events and background in 60s, 70s.

P.s. 2, as a big city, BsAs is quite special, in the sense that it’s actually quite quiet – no honking of the car, no hassling of the street vendors. Even pollution seemed to be in control – I didn’t realize its existence. It’s naive to say that it’s all just beautiful – but the infrastructure was quite solid, the metro, the extensive bus, the city bike, the universities, the drainage system that drained all overflowing rain water within hours.

D57, Feb 11, 2014, BsAs

It’s raining again. We decided to discover the kids amusement park inside a shopping mall in Abasto – a neighborhood that no regular tourist would be interested in going.

The so called Museo de Los Ninos is in fact a playground of 2 floors in a big shopping mall, with all sorts of real-life size objects to simulate the play, such as a truck, bus, a supermarket, a bank the kids can go withdraw money from the cashier of another kid, the laboratory to make milk and yogurt, a basketball court, a library, a veggie patch. I was quite impressed and Nina was even more. Her favorite was driving the bus … Her dream coming true … It’s funny to see her little hands controlling the big wheel while trying to sit on the driver’s seat way too big for her and way too far away for her not to slide down. It’s a 40$ well spent for a rainy day. Kids are universally the same creature, curious, adventurous, thrive with the love from parents.

The chef who made our Japanese lunch (udon, rice, bento) perhaps never saw a real Japanese dish in his entire life … It’s like frying spaghetti with some veggies. Anyway Nina seemed to enjoy the udon.

We were getting better with buses, taking two more lines, 188 and 64.

Went to the nearby playground before dinner. It’s becoming our routine. Nina always claimed 沙子, and dug deep. Some local kids came to talk to us. Alas what a shame I couldn’t understand and talk much. My Spanish is not coming back. We today even went to have a look inside the church around the plaza Güeme, at 7:30ish there was a mass. In front of the church a group of kids were playing football, with some quite impressive kicks. People were walking their dogs. Having a coffee in the bars around the plaza. At 8pm, it’s still very day like, lively, and we were part of it. Mundane it may be, it’s the moments like this life really came into being.

Our dinner time was now officially pushed to 8pm or later.

A street in Abasto was named after Boulogne Sur Mer!!

Suddenly I thought about where the name of Buenos Aires came from.

D58, Feb 12, 2014, BsAs.

We have been here for a week. With our own apartment of all normal facilities, it feels a bit like home, although the days were filled with visits and new things and frustration of not knowing enough Spanish. It suddenly occurred to me, while I was waiting in the pharmacy that it’s the normality of such travel that is not so normal. Does it mean that life as we know it can be established everywhere? I shouldn’t be too surprised by this, yet I was a bit taken back by this revelation/question. The existence, and choice of geographic existence, is nothing but a state of mind, plus a bit of material familiarity and comfort.

A sunny day, wanted to do a bit of nature in the park/ecological deserve in Puerto Modena. We got off the subte (getting really good at this public transportation thing) of Cathedral/plaza de Mayo, and started walking towards the direction.

Nina showed great interest in Ministeria de Defensa, as they had a few tanks in display in their big garden and everyone could enter freely – no question asked.

Puerto Midena was a renovated/refurbished old port, now a trendy/modern office/bar/high rising residential area. It immediately reminded me of Pudong in Shanghai, with its broad, neat, and artificial waterfront walks with fancy overpriced restaurant and cafes, with trees still not quite big enough to provide shade in a sunny day like today. One interesting fact was that this area paid homage to the women in the Argentinian history, hence even the fancy bridge was called women bridge, Puente de la Mujer.

The real delight was running into the navy museum hosted on a tall ship, the tall ship who did 37 trips to as far as Europe (Boulogne Sur Mer was on the list again!) and Australia. This massive ship was served as a training boat for navy officers, and it’s very well equipped. A visit down into the basement through a narrow steep ladder (Nina managed it) was interesting to see the dog that was brought on the trip, and the diving equipment of the day. The ship became the museum in 60s, today it charged a symbolic ar$2 for a visit. An under-valued visit! I had been onto 2 tall ships in Sydney before, none could compare with this one in terms of size, authenticity, and the historical educational value.

After a lunch at central market cafe, we made a mandatory stop in the playground before finally arriving at the ecological park. Ah the sort of park where you won’t see any man made sign except the dirt road. Nicolas would have loved it more if there weren’t so many mosquitoes hovering around him (none around me surprisingly). It’s still a delight to have such a big natural land right inside the city.

Massive ICBC building.

We took yet another bus 162 this time going through the train station and Santa Fe, a long shopping road.

Got laundry back.

Nina’s day is now synchronized with Latino time: wake up at 10am, lunch at 2pm, nap at 4pm, snack at 6 and dinner at nearly 9!

D59, Feb 13, 2014, BsAs

By the time we left home, it’s already 12 … Today was the zoo day, and a relatively cool day, hooray!

If you ask me, zoo was perhaps among the last things I would plan on visiting in a new city. But I shouldn’t deprive Nina from the pleasure of animals. Seeing lions, giraffes, bears, monkeys on the picture book coming to life must be quite something for Nina. I could see her eyes lighting up, and attention totally drawn when I pointed out the animals she’s ‘familiar’ with. Oh, wow, lions ARE big, giraffes ARE tall.

Never, I mean NEVER, buy lunch in the zoo. The worst and most expensive fast food ever, for more than 200$, we had 2 miserable (both in size and taste) hamburgers, one horrible pizza ever, 2 bottles of water, and 2 chips. That’s on top of $90/pp entry ticket.

Japanese garden? Nothing Japanese of it from the outset garden so we decided not to spare another $35/pp from us to enter. It’s perhaps as Japanese as the udon the other day.

We were finally psychologically and physically ready to tackle the late dine out. After playground and bath, at 9pm we walked into the lovely ambianced but deserted next-door restaurant La Paña de Colatado. We decided on diner only instead of diner+show as the show would start only at 10pm we were told, and we did not know how Nina would react any time from now.

Among a long list of parrillada with all parts/meats to be ordered separately, we choose the set menu for two to avoid embarrassment of ordering funny parts. It’s not the Brazilian BBQ but more like Korean BBQ, where they brought a tray  with all neat sizzling in it still. A huge tray that was! Some ribs, some steak, some sausage, some liver, some tripe. Way more that we three could handle. Nina loved the ribs the most – a bone sucking child. She showed amazing capability to handle late night meat dinner with just some tomato and salads. With a bottle of wine disappeared, at 10:30pm, other diners just started to walk in, and the show was nowhere near to start.  oh we were not that Latino yet, after all.

As usual we were presented with a bill (surprisingly reasonable at $310, esp after the lunch at zoo) marked ‘10% tip is not included’. Should I feel insulted that they thought we might escape tipping or should I feel grateful that they just wanted to help us avoiding being ridiculous?

D60, Feb 14, 2014, BsAs

We had a very late and very difficult start with Nina today. She woke up only at 11:15, and winged for 2 hours before we could dress her and got ready to go out. We decided on something nearby, just a few bus stops away.

El Ateneo,  located on Ave Santa Fe,  was claimed to be the 2nd most beautiful bookshop in the world. Although I personally was rather skeptical of such rating – isn’t beauty in the eye of the beholder? – it did trigger some sort of  curiosity in me.

Well, it certainly deserved its reputation. Through a rather humble entry, suddenly I saw a theatre, filled with books. Yes the building was originally designed and opened as a theatre, named Teatro Gran Splendid in May 1919. Only in about a decade ago it was converted into a bookstore. It’s 4 floors high, with thick crimson theatre-style certain , ceiling frescos, roman columns, all in red and gold colour throughout. It reminded me of the Garnier opera house in Paris.

Now it’s a book store, filled with books in every corner of three of the floors. The private theatre boxes in the corners were now reading area, making it a very comfortable and quiet corner to browse through what you may want to buy. The stage area was converted into a cafe, making it a cafe of old time atmosphere. We of course spent most of our time in the junior section, browsing through the kids’ books, in Spanish.

Argentina is said to be one of the highest book-per-capita countries. It’s a lovely and comforting notion that people still read books.

For lunch we finally tried the bar/cafe just down the street. It looked like having been around for decades if not longer and had an old-time vibe in it. It looked like a place where everyone in the neighborhood knew since kids and an still met for a chat.  We always wanted to give it a try. Its simple menu provided some family-like choices, like empanada, tortilla and a fish like we ordered. Nina was still in her grumpy mood unfortunately-  was she actually disturbed by the late night out last night, even if she got her 12+ hour sleep? Or was it something to do with the little red rash on her face and neck since 2 days ago? We wouldn’t know and we tried to remain calm yet alert.

It’s st valentine’s day  – Dia de los Anamorados as they call it in Spanish. I think the day was for singles or non-parent couples, as we were destined to have a night in and early bed time as parents. So not fair.

D30 – 35 Antibes/France

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(Note – I hesitated a lot to publish my quick notes of diaries as-is onto this blog. I would have loved to be able to write specifically for the blog, ideally, so that it’s a bit less ‘rough’ and more thoughtful. However I realized – after one month of keep trying but in vain  – that it’s just too time consuming to do so hence unrealistic during the trip. It’s only going to do absolutely no favour to my original intention to document and share our trip. As such, I am going to, at least for the time being, to post my quick notes almost as is first (just deleted some purely personal/private references). So the upcoming few posts are going to be catch-up work. You will have to accept my apologies in advance for some obvious rush work).

Nina 2 yr - 0

D30, Jan 15, Antibes

Road trip today from St martin de la Cluze to Antibes. What a beautiful trip! From snowy mountains (we crossed Vercors through le Col de la Croix Haute of 1200m), it was apparently snowing last night, all white everywhere, -2c at some point. Mont Aiguille was finally behind us. It was where Nicolas brought me and 2 other friends to mountain climb and I had the most impressive rappel in my life – 50 metres straight down, and at some point I was in the void, or in the air literally.  We were relieved though to have passed the Col as we won’t sure if it would be too much snow to drive through. All these little villages dotted around the valley, the mountains etc.

Then slowly landscape changed, into valley only, snow disappeared, olive trees appeared. Houses of yellow facade replaced the houses with volets (wooden foldable double window to keep the house warm). We were visually officially in Provence. Chateau became more often and accessible. More people walked or sat outdoor in cafe. Stopped at Sisteron for lunch. Set menu of confit de canard for 9 euro, great deal. Lovely town. Parking was surprisingly free between 12 and 2pm! While we got closer to Cote d’Azur, the temperature went up to 14c. Sunny, impressive forms of clouds. Well maintained highway, reasonable toll charges. Suddenly I was correcting myself for saying in the past that the country felt decaying. This time, I didn’t hear much winging. Even the public toilet was very proper (even saw a very innovative design of combining water/hand soap/dryer into one device).

Why people choose to live where they live? When you can fairly easily travel from place to place nowadays. How many of us live where we live by chance or by accident? A person, some sort of romance? a desire just to see? accidentally passing through somewhere and felt in love? Where we will all end up? The questions of my life! We were asked so many times so far, where we will be after our RTW. Most people surprised when our answer was so certain, Sydney. Won’t you fall in love with somewhere else?

Will we?

It’s a long road trip for Nina, being strapped for 5 hours. Suffice to say that I should have prepared more toys and books.

At 4pm, we arrived the sunny, warm, crowded and visually prosperous Antibes, to meet Monique my mother in law. We will be staying with her for the next week.

And our real estate agent found us a tenant just today, who were moving in tomorrow! It’s all happening. Very stressful morning before hitting the road to sigh paper, answer questions etc. But everything falling into place as they say!!

Monique prepared our bed using my old linen (what I had in Grenoble a decade ago). So cute.

Delicious pot au feu.

D Antibes 05

D31, Jan 16. Antibes.

We were welcomed by a weather similar to that of la Capelle, except in a slightly warmer fashion. It rained and it would rain every single day during the week that we were here. Hence trying to find indoor entertainment. Good luck in an apartment! Playing football in the garage did the trick.

At 5pm we had an appointment with a generalist for Nina’s vaccine of typhoid (she couldn’t get it in Sydney before we left with other vaccines because they would only give typhoid vaccines for kids above 2 years old). She was more a Buddhist than a doctor I have to say! Nothing was pressing, all could take time. To find a band-it, it took her good 10 min and sorting through the paper in her drawer of the last 10 yrs, but in vain. She finally gave up and asked the doctor next door who shared the same cabinet. She didn’t ask a single question nor gave indication of what side effects the vaccine might have. She did though talk about the trips to Argentina etc. Her waiting room was quite charming.

French President’s romance was rather entertaining for the whole nation. Now French people had not only a first girlfriend but also a first mistress! Quite disturbing when it comes to political etiquette. Yet it couldn’t happen in a more suitable country, where their precedent presidents had far more quantity of mistresses, or just went through one divorce and one marriage and one birth of child during presidency. French public had just fun of it. It provided the headlines for weeks and the raw materials for numerous talk shows and political debates. Funnily his support rate didn’t go down but went up. Only if Clinton could live in France!

D32 Jan 17, Antibes

This morning I was granted the right to have a walk, on my own!! They took Nina with them to Casino for grocery, I went for a walk in the old city. I loved the narrow winding lanes, the doors, the stone walls and houses in the small alleys in the old city. I have always loved walking around, esp in a new place, and sometimes could walk for endless hours and days. I love the joy of surprise. Ever since the birth of Nina I wasn’t able to do this at all, and I much appreciated the few hours of being able to do it. Time for myself became the ultimate luxury. I need the time to feel no one else – not a mother, not a wife, not a daughter, not a neighbor, not a teammate – but myself. It’s also time to be taken by surprises and let the unknown inspire me.  I need such time from time to time.

Evening we went to Nicolas’ old school friend Ch for dinner. Another lovely soiree, especially for Nina. She ate and ate and finished two pieces of cake – a very delicious and good looking fruit cake. Ch’s family was a trilingual family too (French, Danish, English). There are really quite a few multilingual families around.

Another record bed time for Nina: 22:30. She behaved rather quite well and didn’t even fall asleep on the way back home. This child adapted fairly well to the changes so far.

Nina 2 yrs - 03

D33 Jan 18, Antibes.

Nina’s 2yo birthday today! Can u believe it has been two yrs since that long day?!

Nico made a cake for her daughter, like last year. I guess it would become a tradition. This time it’s a round cake with clementine sauce. Pretty. Nina liked more blowing her candles though.

Last year we said instead of buying Nina a birthday gift, we would rather offer her a birthday experience. This year we were already doing a round the world, but I still would love a special experience for her birthday. The torrential rain limited our choices quite  bit as we had to opt for indoor options. Hence we went to the Musee de Picasso à Antibes. I liked the museum (equally the Picasso museum in Paris) when I visited several years ago. It’s tugged in a most amazing part of the old town of Antibes, overlooking the Mediterranean sea on the one side, the old town the other side. A stone building, 3 stories. There is only one level however that was dedicated to Picasso’s works, painting,  ceramics and sculptures. Between 1946 and 1949 when Picasso lived in the area he had part of the building as his studio. The other level to other artists work. The jewel was the garden though as far as I was concerned, dotted with cactuses and sculptures by Miro and others, overlooking the Mediterranean coast. Even under heavy rain, it was still pleasant walking in such a pleasant garden.  Nina’s favorite was the stairs though.

In the morning we went to the food market in the old town. I never got tired of markets. This one was another particularly charmng one, presenting everything that we could dream of Provence and Mediterranean: lavender, olives, sausage, tapenade, fruits.

We had freshly made spinach and ricotta ravioli for lunch, and confit de canard for dinner (again! Did I already mention that this was one of my favorite French dishes?!). Nina was over petit Swiss now, but still fanatic about oranges/mandarins/clementines.

How many 2 years one has in a lifetime? At 2, Nina has been to 5 countries (Australia, Fiji, China, New Zealand, France). At this rate, when she reaches 20, she would have gone to 50 countries. That’s what I’ve got in my bucket list of my lifetime!

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D34, Jan 19, Antibes, Italy

Despite the rain, or because of the rain, we decided to go to Italy for a pizza. Only 60+km and an hour away, it’s the Italian border. Ventimiglia was the first city after the border, and a quick glance over the guide book told us there was an old city, so we stopped. It’s a decaying but still rather charming old old town. Narrow, deep and high laneways connected  the narrow buildings. Laundry hanging outside the windows reminded me of China. The laundry was under the rain for goodness sake! Only in places like Italy, there would be an  overly decorated mirror on the external wall!

The cathedral just finished the mass service when we arrived just after 12, but the organ player was still playing. Nina asked for more after each piece. The crypt had some beautiful crafted stones excavated from the same site during renovation (so as I understood from the Italian notice).

It’s time for our pizza! But it was nowhere to be found. The old city was so quiet that hardly any shop was open. We were almost giving up, when we saw an open sigh from a pizzeria/ristorente! It was apparently on the petit routard… Well I should have known better when I saw the sign, but we were quite desperate at that point. When the waiter came to take the order I was told pizza was served only in the evening!! What kind of restaurant it was. We settled for gnocchi, risotto, lasagna, and spaghetti. All other tables were occupied by French speaking population, likely all disappointed by not having the pizza they came for.

We went for a walk along the beach in the newer part of the city. Black sand, black cobbles, but lots of tree branches and rubbish washed onto the beach. Quite sad. Under rain not many people was walking so Nina could run and threw stones on the beach. Really kids didn’t need much to have fun.

We pushed onto Bordighera for another 10 min, but the rain did take its toll and we decided it’s not worth getting off the car anymore. So we decided to do a u turn and stopped at Monaco because I said I had never actually visited it.

Of course there was the casino, the tourists, the pretty cars, the luxury shops everywhere, but of course it’s not my type of city. Nina decided to push her pram through the raining city. I was tempted to visit the gilded casino inside (for once!) but as they didn’t allow little person under 18, I skipped it. My chance of becoming a millionaire overnight was just gone.

The drive along Cote d’Azur was a pretty one even under rain. But from the evening news it seems there were lots of flooding, damages and accidents this week due to heavy rain. We apparently chose the best time to visit.

D Antibes 02

D35, Jan 20, Antibes.

No more rain today!! Although still cloudy mostly, the occasional sun was most welcome after 4 days of torrential rain.

Went for a walk to Juan les Pins in the morning with just 3 of us. Had lots of fun running around the sand. The city was so quiet, most houses were closed whole day (as volets were shut)- this was indeed a holiday city.

After lunch we four did a drive around the Cape d’Antibes, passing through quite a few gorgeous houses and the famous Eden Roc Hotel. Mental note: would be better to do a bike tour next time. Walked in the old town of Antibes. The most elaborated  pastry/chocolate shop ever, called Jean Luc Pele. 100% black chocolate!! Definitely not my cup of tea.

Then we drove to the lighthouse and chapelle on top of the hill. From there you had a really good view onto the city. The Chappell was perhaps the only one i have visited so far which was so heavily decorated by small photos and painting of all sorts. Not the typical kind of church.

Then we had a most amazing sunset view. Certainly looked even more spectacular after a week of clouds.

After dinner (moules frites), Nicolas and i decided to take advantage of the last night here with an in-house babysitting to go for a nightlife ? the city was even more dead at night. Only a few bars open. We opted for a rather trendy modern vin bar to finish off our stay at Antibes.

P.S: to follow our RTW experience: Trilingual Family blog, or join Trilingual Family
facebook group

Video – Nina’s First Encounter With Snow

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It was on the first day of January 2014 when we went to Semnoz near Annecy/France for an outing of Luge, with A (Nicolas’ godson) and S (A’s dad). Nina seemed very intense on the video – she was indeed. She was probably getting her head around the cold white thing everywhere around her, and the speed with which she slide down on it.

The great thing about Semnoz – a so-described rather small ski station by French standard – was that there was an automatic belt that brought you, your child, and the luge etc uphill after you all went downhill with the luge. So zero effort was required from the parents. Top stuff!

P.S: to follow our RTW experience: Trilingual Family blog, or join Trilingual Family facebook group.