Does anybody read this?Coz i have no way of knowing.Please send us some news,we want news ,we want news,we want news,we want news,any news is news!!!!!

The weather has been very tropical all week,humid and thunderstorms all week.The surf has been flat for nearly 4 weeks,with a coupla days of head high waves in between?offshore every day but very few waves.I've been lucky to squeeze a coupla surfs in.The waters warming up but i dont like these flat spells.Its not like gunnamatta.
Mothers day last Sunday,so we went to spain in the pyrenees to a restaurant with sensational viewsover the mountains an had the best steak i've had since we left oz,absolutely magnificent,huge char grilled cote de boeuf(t-bone).Great food,great wine,great dessert,greatviews.
Laura had her 11th birthday last week and the two cousins ran amok.Too much energy!!!!
I started to demolish part of our house this week in between working for Rob,working for Jez and school.I'll post some shots soon.
Shirley,a vibrant New Yorker had her last day at school today,shes the one with the curly hair.That leaves only 3 english speakers in the class,Kirk the other seppo ,Melissa an aussie and me.The latin Americans(a crazy cuban,bolivian 2 peruvians,Brazilian)are out numbering us and so are the Ruskies(4).Theres also a vietnamise that nobody can understand,indonesian,ethiopian,2 maroccan(1 is pregnant and really grumpy).its a real mixed bag and its totally in french ,our current teacher speaks very little english so you better pay attention or you get lost.The room that we are in is like a cave and not very pleasant so we want to be french and go on strike!!

Lac Marion

I thought it was time to show some of our area.Behind our shoebox in Biarritz is a laneway and on the other side of that we have a large park.This park has a lake-lac marion- paths that lead maybe 3-4 kms in all,and many different pockets with beautiful gardens.Its a very popular spot and its great to have it at our backdoor.In the photo that I've taken from inside our shoebox,we have a view of the trees in the gardens(very lucky to have that in France).The park has some magnificent old trees and is ever changing with the seasons.The lake is quite big with some quite big fish in too.We often walk or ride our bikes here and the kids love it.I took a lot of photos yesterday but its too hard to show them all.
Last week we were invited to Mme Coarse D'Agraives place for an aperatif, and to meet the family.This is the lady that we bought our house from.Her family has had the chateau in her family for centuries.The rest of the family were curious to meet the only non-family to own property within the domain.They are the Bourguoise.We were greeted by a 70ish yr old man who spoke very good english(he sounded like a posh pom)And he wanted to tell me his life story before I could get in the house.Very nice people and even though most had good english,I like to speak french in these situations.Its good practice.The old chap is very interested in history and gave us a quick rundown.The chateau was originally built in 1645 and has been rebuilt twice since,the second time after a fire.They were not chased out of the domain in the French revolution because they were of Spanish descent,and have been lucky to have been there ever since.
It was an interesting evening and also met the nephew who is about to renovate the house on the other side of ours.As I said before,nice people and the real bourguoisee.
We also tried to butter up Anne(D'Graive) because we want to rent the house that we wwere in that evening from September.She goes back to Paris after summer and has offered it to us but we are yet to agree to a price.We want to move up there to be closer to work and to get Lola started in a new school at the start of her year.Its a really cool old Landaise style farmhouse, it will be very nice place to live and only 200 metres from our place.
This weekend was a little quieter and Lola went to a birthday party on Sunday.
Have a good week

13 may 2008

We've just had a long weekend here, it started thursday and finished monday.One thing is for sure, the french love their holidays.The breaks coupled up with their 35 hour week ensures that there is very little productivity in this country and after being here for a year I can see why.In general the french are not really too keen on working hard,although their new president Sarkozy wants to change that ,I dont think its going to be easy for him!!!
I've nearly finshed at Robs,so I can start doing a bit more at our place.Corinnes flat out saving the children in child protection
The weather is still beautiful and I'm surfing nearly every day at the moment.Living and working a stones throw from the beach makes it easy to get in the water and you dont lose three hours just to go surfing.
avagoodweek b,c et lola

Update on the language.Sorry,but the original site for our blog was in french and a little hard for you non french speakers to coordinate.Well imagine what I have to deal with everyday!!!!My laptop is configured in french immediately,so i had all sorts of dramas and still do coz the cyber jargon is not easy to translate.You cant just pick up the dictionary and find the translation.Ive had the same problem with building as the terminology is so different and hard to translate,so ive had all sorts of troubles at the hardware stores trying to explain what I'm after.And when your french is crappy not everyone is accomadating.But most are very helpful and I only need to make a joke about my bad french and they will then smile and be very helpful.Its a great way to improve my language.This week I've been(sorry its all french and i dont know what i've done or how to change the italics)organising nails,gas for my gas nailers,and windows ,all successfully, so itsgreat experience and great practise when I go out on my own and organise al these sorts of things
I worked at robs place today and we had a surf at Cunnu(the nudie beach in hossegor),the waves were good and wee'll probably do the same tomorrow;Its a 4 day long weekend here but I'm not french so I dont respect their public holidays.Corinne is going to Spain(about 30mins)tomorrow on her fortnightly trip to get fuel, wine and other shopping;
Tomorrow night corinne has invited some family,Francis and Eliaine ,Xavier and Marie-France and Jerome(uncles,aunts and cousin) for aperatif,so we have good food and wine to look forward to.
I'll lat you know if I over indulge(its hard not to when its all sooo good)
Anyway Haveagoodweekend

One year later

Hi to you all back in Oz,well its taken a year but finally weve decided to set up our blog.We should have done it sooner coz so much has happened in our first 12 months in France that we'll have to give a rundown fo whats gone down.
Before leaving Oz we had a ridicuosly hectic,logistical nightmare of co-ordinating our move to France.We finished and sold our house,sold a lot of stuff,2 cars, furniture etc. packed our clothes,tools,kitchen etc,got married(finally).It was a crazy 6 months,almost surreal.
Heres a list of our past year

-April 23 2007,an emotional arrival at Biarritz airport greeted by Corinnes family
-No baggage!!!!
no clothes ,no surfboards(after being hit for $650 excess bagageat tullamarine,not very happy!)
-Arrive at chez Larran/Garcia-this is going to be what I call our shoebox,40 sq metres is going to be hard to deal with after being used to space.
-Organise Mobile phone,internet connection(with Orange France-bad choice and didnt realise what grief this incompetent company would amount to)
-Apply for Carte de sejour
-Too much red tape, its strangling me...AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
-look for a car for 3-4weeks, find a great little car,a citroen Picasso.2000 model ,low k's and only 4500euros
-We decide to put Lola into school for the last 4 weeks of the school year coz from April to September is a long time out of school.She is not exactly happy about it and is not easy for her as her french is still a bit sketchy and they are finishing their year so its all a little hard for her but she does really well and now restarting in September will be a little easier for her.
-Michel's health takes a downturn after looking promising.Were all surprised because he seemed so healthy.None of us realised how ill he really was.
-busy looking for housesand realise how expensive it is here.
JULY
-school summer hols
-tourist arrive in plague like proportions
-too many surfers,so I opt not to surf peak times during day,its crazy out there!!!!
-Richard (Dog) Marsh and his family arrive in Anglet from OZ doing the same thing as us with his french wife,as she pepares for the birth of their third child,a boy-Dylan.This is great for me as I get to hang out with another aussie surfer who has the same penchant for the amber liquid as me too.They also have two girls,A year older an a year younger than Lola?Great for all concerned!
-Start french lessons,private lessons with a retired teacher,great guy, now i realise how bad my french is.I have a long way to go
-Find a house in Saubion,about 30 mins from Biarritz and about 10 mins inland from Hossegor,its the old(mid 1800's)gate house for the Lagrollet chateau,needs to be extended and prettied up ,perfect for what I'm after .
-Michel's health deteriorates more and is hospitalised.I didnt realise it was the last time I would see this very special person
AUGUST
-Michel passes away and everybody is devastated.The funeral was very difficult for everyone
-Pauline(my sister ) arrives for a weekend and we show her the beautifil area that we live in.Great to see some family
-Summer mayhem here is in full swing
-Our freight from Oz arrives albeit late,and we stack it in our shoebox with us,not much room now
-I leave for the Mentawaiis and meet up with Redeye,Salmon,Gonga,Farms ,Tim,Darty, Caiden and Jolly for a coupla weeks on the high seas on the Addiction,surfing, fishing and drinking beer,great fun was had by all and great to see the lads
SEPTEMBER
-arrive back in France after a ridiculously long exchange of connecting flights.Padang,Djakarta,Singapore,Paris ,Biarritz
-Take possession of our house
-Danni (my neice)arrives for two weeks ,great to see her and hear her stories of her experincesin the states and Canada
OCTOBER
-I start my free /mandatory french course at Bayonne,merci President Sarkozy-at least the teachers are young and pretty
-Buy my van, from a physiotheropist that i need later and hes quite good and speaks english
-the family is still reeling after losing michel
-Start to draw plans for house,wow,a lot of research on the net searching for translations of building terminology that cant be foundin dictionaries,Moniques cousin is an architect so he is quite useful
-Corinne is searching for work but has been so busy with everthing involved in settling in that she hasnt had time to scratch herself yet.Its been so hectic she needs a break
-realise that the freight company have lost a box,oh nooo,all our winter clothes,lucky we are insured and its their mistake
-Submit buiding permit
-gets very cold before xmas and surfing heaps
-Xmas 2 weeks hols fro Lola.First Xmas here ,very strange indeed;Missing home
-New year, cold but mild beautiful days
-First big swell of the season 20 ft and what a sight,big and messy but really big!!!!
-Next 6 weeks the swell pumps but virtually unsurfable
- Building permit REJECTED!!!!!
-Comedy routine begins-present new sketches to Mairie(council),they like them and send us to DDE(independant town planner),DDE throws us out of office yelling and screaming that they get thousands of people like us everyday!And to get back to where we came from !!!Shock, horror
One hour laterCorinne and i are in the Mayor of Saubions chambers,She(very proud woman) loves us and says to leave it up to her.Sure enough she overruled him,Yeeehaaa
- back to the drawing board, chage the design and its now better and resubmit plans
-Been without french course for 6 weeks-red tape problem
-co's stilllooking for work and really frustrated
-Corinne get temp position
-Co's contract is extended,
-Start small reno for Rob(guy I met on my first trip here)
-Receive buiding permit,finally
-APRIL
-Surfing regularly and going to my french course twice a week ,my french has improved so much but still so far to go
-WOW? ONE YEAR!!!!!!!

Among all that -Lolas french speaking-Amazing
-Lolas homesickness
-my homesickness
-I hate France issues:living in a shoebox
-Orange/France Telecom (what a nightmare,too much to tell here)
-Organising to meet the Sutcliffes in Bretagne in July, cant wait!!