A Visit to Tamerville

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Cider, France

On this last trip to France, we were invited to lunch at Tante Isabelle and Oncle Bernard’s stately home in Tamerville.  It was built in 1735 (or thereabouts) and I don’t have nearly enough photos of it – but here are a few!

Here is where the chickens pictured above hang out:

Pictured you see Oncle Bernard, Cousine Cecille, Little Cousine Soleyn, and Slightly Less Little Cousin Gaitan.  To the left is a large garden that is rented out to a local farmer who then sells his produce in the big market.

I probably should have started with this photo of the side entrance.

Also, I probably should have taken photo of the front entrance… um, photo journalism is not my special talent.  In the foreground is Cecille, this is the house she and her siblings grew up in.  Can you imagine?  Also pictured is my Brother-in-Law Julien, Mother-in-Law (in the doorway), Cousin Gaitan, Oncle B and Minnie the Dog.  I am pretty sure I am spelling Gaitan incorrectly, by the way.

Above are photos taken in the cider shed: the cider barrel and corking machines.  This was probably one of my favorite places on the property.  Cecille told me that the great barrel would get filled seasonally and when she and M. were young, they were sent to the cider shed to fill bottles from the barrel for the adults at dinnertime.

This is my only interior shot.  You must understand, we were there for lunch, not a tour so I didn’t always have my camera ready and I had my hands full with Mlle.  Not pictured is the huge swingset we spent a lot of time on.  Also not pictured is the grand fireplace in the dining room and the gun armoire in the entrance (it is the country afterall!)  Anyway, here is Mlle. making quick work of these ancient stairs, worn down over the centuries by of some of her ancestors.  I couldn’t imagine training a child to walk on these treacherous steps.  Life was hard back in the day!

Setting the Stage for a Baptism

Here are a few more photos of the gorgeos church in Granville where Mlle. was baptized.

And it was even more beautiful when filled with loving family and friends!

Everything is More Beautiful (and Beautifully Done) in France or The Toile Toilet

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powder room, toile toilet, toilet, urinal

This is the toilet in the powder room of our cousins beach house in Normandy…

and, yes, this is  the matching urinal.

Mme est ici!

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brioche, cidre, St. Vaast La Houge

Actually, at the moment of posting, I will be up in the air on my way to Normandy with M. and Mlle. I would love to promise that I will still be writing regularly but I know my limitations so I will just promise to take lots of pictures. Maybe I will finally get my Instagram game on! However this three week trip pans out for the blog, I leave you with highlights from my previous time in Normandy!

The lead-in photo is mes beaux parents’ house, it has a name: La Maison Rose (that’s The Pink House in case you need a translation). It was once the main house of a large town farm. Today, the out buildings are owned by lots of different people.

Traditional French cooking is very important here. Cidre is one of Normandy's primary exports.

Brioche was invented here too!

I can’t wait to sink my teeth into the French pastries, especially the Coffee Eclairs! M. is looking forward to the cheese.

My mom and sister and I will have tons of fun in the gorgeous local markets.

I am excited to introduce Mlle to her grandparents and extended family. My mom and sisters will be joining us as well – we are truly blessed! But mostly, I am looking forward to seeing M. enjoying his mom and dad, La Maison Rose, native Francophones, his beloved brother and their dogs! He will be so happy.

Je Suis Official!

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Livret de Famille

I am officially a French wife! The French, famed for their bureaucracy, have very strict rules about how they want their citizens to get married. Since my husband and I got married in the US, we ignored those rules but if we ever want to live in France (which is a big possiblity) we needed to check a few boxes.

The proper way to marry a la Francaise is to announce the impending nuptuals by publishing the Marriage Banns no less than 10 days prior to the ceremony. Then you have a civil ceremony at the city hall. If you choose to have a religious ceremony, it can only take place after the civil one. At the end of the civil ceremony, the new bride is handed the Livret de Famille, or family book. This is an extremely important document in which marriages, divorces, births and deaths are recorded and apparently, you can’t do a bloody thing without it! Having the Livret was a great concern to me as I read that if we try to move to France before we have it, things will be much harder to get done.

However, getting it had its challenges. My husband had not ever applied for his citizenship card. The Carte Identite is proof that you are French (a passport doesn’t count) and even though he was born in Frnace, he never got his card. For years before he and I got together, his mother urged and pleaded with him to get his card. Then, as we were planning our future together, I urged and pleaded – and pleaded and pleaded – with him to get it. Finally, on our wedding day, he applied for it. Which meant that it would be months before our marriage would be official in France, months before our daughter could begin to get her French papers in order and months before I was registered in the system (pushing back my timing for French citizenship and benefits, should I desire them).

Once he got the card, he then had to apply for everthing else. We still had to publish the Banns and then we had to send off for all the other paperwork.

Finally on Friday afternoon, the Livret de Famille arrived, along with our daughter’s French birth certificate and our French marriage certificate. I wasn’t expecting it. I thought we still had hoops to jump through before we’d get the Livret but my husband was just pulling a fast one on me because he wanted it to be a surprise. And, boy, was it. I actually did a jig of joy in the apartment and took the vein-poppingly frantic photo you see above. I had no idea how pleased I was going to be. The final piece of the puzzle is Mlle’s French passport. Once that is in place, the world will truly be ours! OK perhaps that’s an exaggeration – suffice it to say, we have a lot more options to choose from now that we are all “dual”!

Madames Play with a Purpose – Half the Sky Game

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Donation, Fistula Foundation, Half the Sky movement, Johnson & Johnson, Pearson Foundation, Women

Half the Sky Movement has created this game to help raise awareness and funds to empower women around the world.  Supporting causes that are very close to my heart, this game allows the player to raise money simply by playing.  From their site:

“Just by playing the game, you are working to change the world! You need to play in order to unlock sponsored donations from two companies; Johnson and Johnson and the Pearson Foundation. Both are partnered up with nonprofits in the game to send $500,000 in total to assist women and girls. The Pearson Foundation’s donation of $250,000 goes to Room to Read and will supply young women with books and other educational resources. Johnson and Johnson’s donation of $250,000 goes to the Fistula Foundation and will supply life-saving surgeries to women in need!” 

You can find the game on here at:  https://www.facebook.com/HalftheGame

You will be hearing more from me on this blog about womens issues in upcoming posts. In the meantime, play and we all win!