it's been a while...

so, the last week. it all goes so so quickly, can't believe i've already been here a month! highlights of last week:

tuesday 13th july - fireworks at the aérodrome for the fête nationale (14th july, bastille day). they were nice :-) although, as ever at that time of night, there were mosquitos everywhere! but anyway, poor amélie was petrified, and sat during the fireworks with her head buried in anne's shoulder, fingers in ears, eyes shut, whilst anne told her what colour the fireworks were. it was hilarious. and they were my first ever 14th july fireworks, here's hoping there are many more to come!

wednesday 14th july - i had arranged with anne and olivier that i would have the afternoon off to go and see laura in juan les pins and the jazz festival! after lunch, i headed off with gloria to juan les pins. i picked laura up from her house and we had an eventful search for a carpark! to say the least. we eventually parked up, and headed into the town. it was easier to go straight to juan les pins, as that was where we would be that evening for the jazz (i should note, this was a very last minute arrangement, and i was grateful for the free ticket! thank you laura, friend of laura!) we went to the tourist information office where laura works to say hello, then headed to the beach. unfortunately, pedalos were a tiny bit extortionate (20€ for half an hour!!!!) so we sat on the beach for a while, before heading to the car to dump our stuff and head back for the jazz. there was this group from the us (new orleans) called soul rebels, who played in the streets, which was great. laura and i danced away like loonies and acted like groupies, taking pictures with the band etc etc and yes, we did follow them into their hotel (to use the loo - honestly) and got invited to party with them, which we didn't. because we went to the main festival opener. the second group are the only ones writing home about, the jazz à juan sextet, which was a group of two trios, if i remember correctly. during their performance, we saw the fireworks which were going on in cannes, and we left before the end - it was already 23.45 and i had to get back. photos to follow.

thursday 15th july - day out in the mountains. i started work earlier, and we headed off from the creche at 9. if i remember correctly! we went to an organic oil distillery (the views were great) and a farm. then we had a picnic by a lake. the roads were insane, luckily i slept most of the way - the only time i had to get out of the car was when olivier slammed on the brakes and we turned up a rocky road to find out where the farm was! i was right in the boot and me being me with my travelling in cars issue, i did pretty well! after the picnic, we played frisbee (not for long - i accidentally threw it into the lake! luckily i have warned olivier and anne that i am a slight catastrophe - i may have exaggerated the extent, but better to exaggerate, that way they expect worse than what will actually happen.) then we went back to the house.

friday 16th july - table d'hôtes with the french family. they are so lovely and the mum is a german teacher.

saturday 17th july - the other au pair girl arrived on the friday so i arranged to meet her - originally in the afternoon but she was going to a family friend's swimming pool in the afternoon so we went and had lunch in montauroux, in the cafe which sprays water on you. ursula found this very cool! it was nice and refreshing, given the heat! i had a bit of a headache, so drank lots of water, and the food portions were huge! we then trundled off to the family friend's house. except it had "disappeared". as in, ursula had forgotten where it was. in a black car, lots of u-turns, the headache turned to a full blown migrane. i wasn't sure if i was going to be able to last the drive back to the house, but luckily the family friends were a pharmacist and a nurse. so i was given paracetamol and unlimited access to the fridge, with cold water and ice cubes! i also plunged into the pool, which was lovely. and splashed around with the kids. came back, sat in the dark, and went to the pool here!

sunday 18th july - ursula and i went to cannes. although in the morning i worked an hour. and in the evening i worked one and a half hours for a table d'hôtes with the belgians. which kind of annoyed me and i was kind of fed up and exhausted by about 7pm. but cannes was nice, we went for lunch, wandered round, went on the beach and then came back here to use the pool. i was a tiny bit sunburnt..oops.

that's all for now!