Franglais Expats: June 2007

As it turns out, Port-Gentil empties out almost entirely of its non-working expat members (ie spouses and kids) during the months of July and August. Although these are the winter months in Gabon, and thus the coolest (or should I say the least hot) and most mosquito-free, pretty much every single mom takes her kids back to the "home country" to reconnect with family and remember what it's like to be in a place where the electricity never cuts out, fruits are plentiful and refreshingly varied, and the stores are filled with ANYthing your heart desires. For me this pretty much means two months of trips to the supermarket without being able to use my special Gabon weapon on the kids: "Awwwww. Sorry sweety. We just can't buy it since the store has run out. We'll have to wait until next month to see if they get more in." I just know that this summer there's no way I'm going to be able to get Cecilia to enthusiastically try peaches or strawberries at snack-time in France when they're in direct competition with that ever-possible Nutella jar. At age 4 now her radar can pick up on the Nutella aisle pretty much the minute we walk into any supermarket outside of Gabon. Jourdain is more of a Honey Nut Cheerios man, but I consider that much less of a threat.

After having to break the news of our extended departure to Martine, our family's personal fuit vendor in Port-Gentil (see below), we headed off to France. I took this picture just moments after telling her the kids and I were flying out that same evening and would only be back in September. As you can see, she was not particularly happy to see her best clients go. (She walks all over town each day to find me, catching me in front of our house, in the supermarket parking lot, or even here, in front of Jourdain's school. But that's another whole post in itself I'll save for another day.)

So in an effort to create some semblance of stability in our kids' lives during all this moving around we seem to be doing, Olivier and I recently purchased a house in the middle of the woods in France. On a mountain. Far from everything. But it really is a beautiful area and our aim is to spend summers there with as many friends and family members as possible each year once the restauration works have been completed in a year or two! Here's the nity-gritty:

Our house is just outside the village of La Chapelle-en-Vercors. This area is located up on the plateau of the Vercors, which can be seen when looking east from Valence and west from Grenoble, and is in the Drome department. The house is right on the edge of a large nature reserve, allowing Olivier to leave directly from our front door to head out on long hikes and camping trips climbing up into the Alps, all while the kids and I take it easy and enjoy the green around us! In the winter we can reach the ski slopes within 15 minutes. The views in the area are pretty spectacular, with jagged mountain tops, cliffs, waterfalls and beautiful gorges and caves surrounded everywhere by beautiful green forests reminding me of New England. A 45-minute drive south of us drops us off in the town of Die and on to the Provence.

-The Vercors is located here on a map of France: http://ww w.bedandbreakfast.dk/maps/4/178.jpg

-Map of the plateau: h ttp://www.golf-vercors.com/img/a cces2.gif

Our house has a section that was beautifully renovated by the British couple that sold it to us, and a much larger section (barn attached to the main house by a smaller building) to be entirely renovated. Unfortunately the renovation process is taking forever to get off the ground, with our initial architect taking weeks to respond to about 1 email out of 5. I've just now found a new architect and hope he'll prove to be more on the ball!

Based on the speed (or lack thereof) of works getting done right now, I am afraid that the section of the house planned to accommodate multiple friends and family members simultaneously will only be ready as of summer 2009!! GRRrrrrr!!

And now for some pictures of the interior of the house: