The Mirabelle Craze.

Here in Metz there is a fruit called a mirabelle. Metz is the capital of the mirabelle. And, this means that we have a festival for the mirabelle. Why? Probably the same reason that Georgia has a Cherry Blossom Festival - because people like festivals!

So anyway, a mirabelle is basically a small yellow plum. They are a little larger than a grape and they have a pit. Although, the picture is a little deceiving...they don't have big blue eyes.

The mirabelle festival lasts about 2 weeks. Each night they have various things going on around town. The festival begins with the crowning of the Mirabelle Queen...who is also Miss Lorraine. Miss Lorraine goes on to the Miss France competition, and then represents France in the Miss Universe competition. But, for the Mirabelle festival, Miss Lorraine - Reine de la Mirabelle (Queen of the Mirabelle) is the star of the show. She pops up every now and then at the different activities that take place and everyone oohs and ahhhs.

Well, we love taking part in our cities activities so, of course, we went to the beauty pageant! I made a video...

Other mirabelle activities include water sport 'demonstrations' and 'initiations' - David went wake boarding and we went kayaking and got some kind of official card for doing it.

They also had a rescue dog demonstration. This was very interesting. Their trainers would ride a boat out into the water...fall of yelling for help...and the dogs would go rescue them.

There was also jousting...from boats instead of horses. The winner is obviously the one who doesn't fall in the water. But it was hot on Saturday so I say the winners were the ones who did fall in....I wanted to.

It has been fun so far. The next big event is the mirabelle fireworks. AKA the biggest fireworks display I've ever seen (all because of a fruit!) This happens this Saturday. We are going to find a spot at the Plan d'Eau at lunch time, have a picnic, and save our spot until the fireworks go off!

IN OTHER NEWS:

• We are keeping our cat guest for an extra 2 weeks!
• Maria and Rocky are coming to visit in about 2 weeks!

Now that you are educated on mirabelles...go learn about the Presidential Candidates! ...pick a good one!

Who are you backing?

David and I have been educating ourselves on the presidential candidates for a while now. We have officially picked a candidate that we feel best represents our political views and moral values as well. In all of the debates so far Mike Huckabee has demonstrated his knowledge and ability to lead our country. I urge you to find some videos of Mike Huckabee speaking or debating and to read about his political views, plans, and beliefs.

Below is a pretty good blog entry that I thought I would share with you all. Please take the time to read it!
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http://onemom.wordpress.com/christians-for-huckabee/

Christians for Huckabee

There’s an article coming out in the September 3, 2007 issue of Newsweek magazine about Mike Huckabee. MSNBC has the article HERE.

The gist of the article is that “on paper” Mike Huckabee is the ideal GOP candidate, but that the party faithful aren’t following him because “he’s too nice to be President”. Here’s a piece of the article, including a quote from the Southern Baptist convention:

The short, cruel answer is that many people who should be his most enthusiastic supporters don’t think he could win if he were pitted in a nasty race against the one Democrat conservatives loathe most. “We like Mike a lot,” says Richard Land, a leader of the Southern Baptist Convention. “But nobody thinks he can beat Hillary, and a fear of another Clinton White House outweighs almost everything.”

There is a further insinuation that these “Christian” leaders would support Mike if he had more money. OK, Christian leaders, listen-up … Mike Huckabee would have more money if you supported him! I have been working on an article regarding the need for evangelical Christians to stand with Mike Huckabee in his run for the Presidency, but this article in Newsweek and the comments from Southern Baptists was so troubling to me that I had to speak out today.
Some key thoughts:

Christians: Mike Huckabee is our brother in Christ. How can you say “we like Mike and think he’s the best person to be President” … and then turn around and throw your money into the pots of other “pseudo-conservatives” because you are hypnotized by their money and power and charisma?!

Christians: Where are James Dobson and the Moral Majority? A word of support from both of these would boost Mike Huckabee into the front of the pack and carry him to the nomination and the White House.

Chrisitans: I call on you today to arise from your apathy - to shake off the stupor that comes from blindly following the mainstream media, and to stand with Mike Huckabee in his run for President.

STAND WITH MIKE IN PRAYER. We must agree together to faithfully support Mike Huckabee in prayer each day as he faces the grueling challenges of being a Presidential candidate.

STAND WITH MIKE FINANCIALLY. We must give more than nice words (through blogs, letters to the editor, talking to friends, etc) to Mike’s campaign - he needs our financial support.

STAND WITH MIKE IN YOUR ACTIONS. Mike Huckabee is not a man of personal wealth (like other candidates, who are able to “loan” their own campaigns millions of dollars of their own money), so even with the growing financial support, he still needs us THE PEOPLE of the country to work on his behalf here in the trenches. Here are some ideas:

• 
  
  Start a blog and join the official “Bloggers for Huckabee” blogroll
  


• 
  
  Write letters to the editor to your local paper and to papers around the country about why you “Like Mike” (be sure to include the URL to Mike Huckabee’s website http://www.mikehuckabee.com/)
  


• 
  
  Pass out fliers in local parades and community festivals. SC4Huckabee is a wonderful example of regular people getting the word out to their community about Mike Huckabee.
  

Mike Huckabee is our brother in Christ - he is not perfect, but he stands on the firm foundation of God’s Word, and he knows that as President that he works for the people, not for special interests and not for himself. Mike Huckabee is running for President - indeed, he is not just running for President, he is running for the good of the United States … he is running to strengthen this nation … to lead this nation and to stand firm on the Christian tenets our founding fathers used to build this country.

I will close with a phrase that I have used before in this blog and I will continue to say it until more Christians get up from their pews and agree to stand with Mike Huckabee in his run for President …

All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing …

In my lifetime, I do not believe there has ever been a more crucial Presidential election … one that will either strengthen all that is good in this country, or will send us on a path to destruction. I urge my Christian brothers and sisters to realize that the decisions about who will be our next President will be all but etched in stone in just a few months - we cannot wait until November 2008 to vote. We must vote now through our prayers, our money, our actions … we must stand with Mike Huckabee - not only our brother in Christ, but a man who is a true conservative - a man with a proven record of leadership and getting things done while working with people from both sides of the political aisle.

Kerry

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House Guest

Meet Miya ("Me-yuh")

She will be staying with us for about 2 weeks. She is Alex's cat, who lives with Alex's parents, but they are going on vacation and she can't stay in Alex's building, so she is staying with us :o)

I think she likes our apartment so far...especially the diagonal beams that she can climb up. At night she sleeps on the floor at the foot of our bed underneath the comforter than hangs down. She is very affectionate and playful. It's fun!

everyone needs a pet

The Orchard

My most recent activity has been constructing my family tree...well, one half of it. For some reason, on my Dad's side of the family we have had some very motivated relatives to collect information over the years to make sure that is isn't lost in time. I think it's great! And now I have the time and the means to contribute to the effort.

After receiving an email from my Dad about a recent trip he took to Pennsylvania to visit some family I became motivated to take on the challenge of gathering and putting together all this information...and to seek out more of it! Below is a picture of what I've been working on. It's only a "glimpse" of the tree since you can't read any of it here, or even see all of it. But you can see where I am (circled in blue), and the red circles that you see are my Ancestors that came from Lithuania. So, from this picture you can see back to my Great-Great-Grandparents. Isn't that cool!?

I don't think I'll be able to go back further than this...because nobody knows anybody that is still in Lithuania...and nobody speaks Lithuanian anymore. BUT, we can go forward! :o) At least my kids will already have this info and they can keep passing it on.

I bet there are so many families whose trees go back further because they were in the US longer. Those would be cool to see. But this is mine, on my Dad's side, and my Mom's side would probably go back even less because I think it may have been my Great-Grandmother who came over from Italy.

Anyway, I'm still gathering information like middle names and dates and stuff like that. After this one I and hoping to add to David's side. I think it will end up being a Christmas family activity. We shall see!

Bikes, Bananas, Beef and Berries.

Our entry today begins a week ago. Last Saturday a large group of various people associated with Georgia Tech got together to spend time with a friend who was heading back to the US for good. The day's event was bike riding along the canal (Moselle River) and a picnic lunch. Shaya (pictured far left) was the guest of honor.

Little did anyone know, but this bike adventure would lead David and I to rent our bikes for the rest of the month! We really enjoyed spending the time outside and found it financially a good decision to rent the bikes for longer than just the afternoon. Although, after the weekend, the weather took a turn for the worst! For the majority of this past week it has been raining non stop! We were only able to take our bikes out one other time during the week, in the evening, to ride surrounded by lots of bugs! I think it may have been a good thing though because our bottoms were pretty sore anyway.

The bad weather did inspire me to cook a little though. Pictured below are my homemade Banana Muffins! Yum! Recipes you can find online are actually pretty good, I'd be lost without them...or starving!

Today was the first day that the weather was significantly better. With rain clouds lurking overhead David, Katherine, and I decided to venture out on our bikes again. The rain never came but we did have a pretty good ride.

We tried to follow a bike-path map that we got from the place where we rented our bikes but we ended up getting really off track and just rode around where we ended up instead. We saw some very neat 'country' french homes, gardens, and towns that lie on the borders of the city of Metz.

After our ride we had worked up quite an appetite! Lucky us, we had just purchased some Swedish meatballs and "fixins" from IKEA earlier this morning! They actually serve this at any IKEA cafeteria...if you've ever eaten there you'd sure to have seen something that looks similar to this: Although, they usually serve them with french fries or boiled potatoes...we went with mashed = far superior. :o) I guess this is how they would serve it in Sweden. They use a "gravy" sauce and a berry sauce...of the Ligonberry, a Swedish berry. It is very, very, very, yummy. And also very filling.

Tomorrow we will be hosting a new Master's student who begins his year and a half stay here in Metz. He will be the first new Master's student to arrive so hopefully we can make him feel welcome and at home here in Metz. Who knows, maybe after his masters he will end up married and back in Metz for three years! :o) ...you never know.

Girl's Night

A tradition is forming here in Metz among a few of us girls that are somehow associated with Georgia Tech Lorraine. Girl's Night. To date we have had two Girl's Nights. The first one involved pedicures and dinner, and the most recent was a waffle night and a movie. There are a few essential things for girls night:

#1 GIRLS.

#2 Someone other than the Girls to cook food.

(David has filled this roll twice already - THANKS DAVID!)

#3 Something yummy. This usually involves chocolate in some form or fashion.

It's nice, for girls who are around guys all the time, to be able to do something together like this.

Next, there will be a Girl's Night involving pizza, pedicures, and a pageant. The letter similarity is just a coincidence...

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Buying Harry Potter

Start with ice cream...

...then add friends...
...and make sure you have a watch for the countdown...

...find a participating bookstore...

...await 1:01 am...

...and Harry Potter can be yours!

Admire the cover...try to figure out parts of the story from it...

...then start reading, and don't stop until you are finished!

David and I really enjoyed the book. There were even a few times where David would be reading in the back half and I would be reading the front half, just so that we could read at the same time. It's a little sad that the stories are finished, but they were very good and remain to be read again and again. If you haven't read them, we highly recommend it. They are easy to read and full of adventure. Even if you find out how it ends there is still so much you're missing out on! Read read read!

A Bunch O' Stuff.

I've been a tad behind...so here is a bunch of stuff that has been happening lately.

The 14th of July is a big national holiday here in France. Non-French people call it Bastille Day, but the French just call it the 14th of July. They had a military parade going down the road right outside our apartment - here are some pictures from that.

They had tanks and guns and all kind of stuff that they use in the military. For us, seeing this helped us envision what it must have been like during war times when tanks would be going down the streets randomly. It was very interesting but also kinda scary when you think of it that way.

Next - we now have a vacuum cleaner! Isn't it beautiful? I've never been so happy about a vacuum cleaner.

The main reason for the purchase is cleaning that rug that you see in the picture. A broom can only do so much! It is truly a time saver when it comes to cleaning.

Then we had some visitors! Cori and Frank came to visit us from Germany. Cori is American and Frank is German (her boyfriend). Cori and I (and our families) have known each other for a really long time and now that we are both living in Europe we think it's pretty cool. They stayed for a couple days, it was fun.

And, I am pet sitting. For the Grandidiers! In 8 days they will be in Atlanta for their summer vacation. So, while they are gone I have volunteered to pet sit. It's been great. Although these birds aren't the same kind of "interactive" pet I've really been craving, it is really nice to have them around. They make very pleasant noises and are fun to watch when they take a bath...and they do it all the time.










I just hope it doesn't get too hot while they are here. They are used to the nice temperature inside the Grandidiers house because they have such high ceilings. But, with all the baths they take, they should be ok.


Here is a closer picture of the three of them. Two are the same colors, and the other one (the one in the front) is a little bigger and colored differently. Aren't they cute?



My pet sitting adventures will continue after these guys leave too!! Our friend Alex has a cat at her parents house, and when they go on vacation someone needs to watch it. Alex can't have it in her dorm room so she asked me. Before she could even finish asking I said yes :o)

I'm really excited about the cat :o)


On a less happy note, our neighbor cat, it moved. :o( No more random visits or watching her from the window. They moved out last week. Maybe the next people who move in will have something.


Chopsticks! Random, I know...but this blog is about a bunch o' stuff! Pictured here are four sets of chopsticks. Two from Japan and two from China. Can you tell which are which?

Ok, I'll tell you. The blue and green ones are from Japan (you may have recognized them from a previous "Joy." post) They can from our friend Eileen while she was in Japan (now she is at home planning her wedding!!) And the red ones are from China! They came in a fancy box. The box says "A handmade Chinese gift." Our friend Wui, another PhD student, gave them to us. He prefers using a fork and knife so gave us his extra chop sticks. I think we should start a collection now. Next we need some from Korea... anybody going to Korea soon?

Aside from that bunch o' stuff, David stayed home today to study for his Qualifying exams because he woke up with w really sore neck. We have no idea what he did to it to make it hurt, but it's been giving him some problems - maybe all the studying and note taking? Hopefully it will heal so that his studying isn't hindered. The end of October will be here before he knows it!

The last Harry Potter book comes out TOMORROW. The excitement is killing me. I hope we get a copy of the book in a decent amount of time. Nobody talk to me about it until you are sure I've finished reading it.

We will be going to a concert tonight with some of our friends from Church. We are pretty sure it is supposed to be a Christian French band, and it's really close to our apartment, so it should be lots of fun!

More later.

Tuesday and Wednesday

They are having a series of concerts in Metz over the course of the next few weeks. This past Tuesday was the second one so far and I think it was supposed to be the most the one with the most popular band. SuperBus took the stage and the crowd went wild. They are a French group (female vocalist and guys on all the instruments) Most of their songs all sounded the same...drums, bass, electric guitar, club-mix sound. It was interesting though because many of their songs included English words...some were entirely in English. The only problem was that some of the people in the audience really had no clue what was being said. We heard them trying to mimic the words and that made it clear that they didn't know what the words were. Some people knew enough English to figure it out, but others were just enjoying the beat.

One of the things I found most interesting was that the stage was set up right next to the Cathedral (as you can see in the picture). It's strange to me to see a huge cathedral with several hundred years of history right next to a concert stage and tons of people. I think that if this had been a situation in the US that they would have never let a concert take place right next to such a piece of history...maybe it's because there isn't as much history in the US in the first place...?

Wednesday morning we headed to Luxembourg to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. :o) Although probably one of the hardest Harry Potter books to make into a movie, I think they did a pretty good job. Enough said...you need to see it for yourself.

Wednesday evening we went to a PhD dinner hosted by the Asian PhD students: Zheshen and Wui. It was incredible. To see all of the pictures from it click on the More Swafford Pictures and Videos link.

This is a picture of the Chef, Zheshen (on the right). He began cooking at 4pm and made 3 appetizers, and 13 entrees! It was incredible. We ate things like, seaweed, mushrooms, squid, pork, beef, shrimp, cabbage, scallops, peas, chicken, tofu, potatoes, eggs, and rice of course, all in different Chinese dishes. Did I mention it was incredible?

Below is a picture of just six of the main dishes that he made. The ones I liked the best were the bottom right one (pork, tofu, and mushrooms with a yummy sauce), the top middle one (marinated mushrooms), and the bottom left (very spicy pork and cabbage). Very good very good. The only problem was that David and I forgot to bring our chop sticks! We went to dinner with Wui last Friday, to a Chinese restaurant and he gave us a lesson on the proper way to use chop sticks, so we wanted to practice some more... Oh well, we will just have to eat with them again. :o)

After the meal we had dessert, although it was not Chinese. I was volunteered to make it - chocolate chip cookies. They were pretty good, but I'm still trying to perfect my recipe. There were 80 cookies. Yummmmm.

All things new.

Today's story begins on Saturday morning...

David and I woke up to happy thoughts about heading to Belgium to go kayaking. On our way out the door we stop down in our cave to get an old t-shirt for David to wear that has previously been packed away with all our winter clothes. At our cave door David asks, "Susan, why did you leave the cave unlocked...and why did you throw our winter clothes all over the place?" "Huh?" I replied. After walking into the cave I noticed that our winter clothes were thrown all over the place...definitely not how I left them. I had packed them all away in some of our suit cases to store them for the summer and now they were out everywhere. This is the point where David and I realized that someone had gotten into our cave. They had pried to door open and gone through all of our stuff.

In our cave we have, out of season clothes, our 2-second tents, 4 pieces of luggage, a jar of apple sauce, a can of green beans, and lots of boxes. After repacking everything we have found that nothing was taken. It's strange - what were they looking for? Not clothes, not food, not shoes...something more valuable? Like an old TV maybe? So, the conclusion is that they wanted something different than what we have, or our stuff wasn't good enough...both are fine with me. We also looked around in the cave area a little more and discovered that another cave had been broken into, and a third had been attempted. We can't really tell if any one's stuff was taken though. We also saw the door that leads to the outside of the building to the street...it was open...broken open. So that is how they got in. We're going to tell the agency tomorrow morning and post a note in our building to inform everyone. I don't know how often people go down to their caves. BUT, if someone left the door from the caves to the main building open someone could get into our apartments and that is really scary. I won't be going into the cave by myself anymore!

We went to a new country...well, it was new to me, David had been there before. With some other students from GTL we car pooled through Luxembourg and up to Belgium. What we saw of it was very beautiful. The river that we went down had a lot along it to see as well. We saw this really cool castle on a hill (more pictures on my PicasaWeb site) and there was another really large rock that some people were climbing. Then we saw some cows. They were mooing like crazy. It sounded like they all had a stomach ache. There were also a few places where the water was a little rougher and that was fun too. We stopped a few times at various places. At one of them we got out, some people bought drinks, and I headed to a bathroom. Right next to the bathroom there was an ostrich. It was enormous and kind of out of place. It was a "camping" area with a random ostrich. At the same stop, when we were getting ready to leave David and I realized that our boat was missing... Eventually we found it about 30 feet from where we had tied it, and a paddle was missing. Some friends found our missing paddle a ways down the river...

We deep cleaned our apartment today. While doing so, we decided to do a little rearranging. It was fun and we really like the result. We just moved things around in our living room but it now feels much more spacious. A new arrangement of things is always refreshing.

What else is new? David has discovered that with PicasaWeb you can post locations with your pictures. So he has been sitting here placing each picture that he has on a map exactly where the pictures were taken. It is pretty cool, but I think he's obsessed.

I made blueberry muffins for breakfast this morning in one of those silicone bake ware things. It's the first time I've used one but it worked really well! Too bad we don't have anymore blueberry muffin mixes! I guess I'll have to look up some recipes and make them from scratch. Oh well.

Harry Potter this Wednesday! Hope you are as excited as we are!

Young At Heart

I am very excited to tell you about one of the common activities that we do when I baby sit the Barry children. They don’t watch any TV so that leaves them lots of room to be creative. Very often I will come into the house to start a night of babysitting and they will have pieces of paper and markers scattered all over the kitchen table while they diligently work on drawings. They don’t color in pictures that are already drawn for them, but they create their own…and very often they aren’t just creating a picture.

For example, below is a picture of something we created together. It was inspired by previous castles that they had been working on. From the pictures they had already drawn they began to cut out the drawings of the knights and bad guys and the weapons that the people had…these became game pieces. Then we took the pictures of the castles and made a road to connect them. It ended up being like a game board. There was even a princess to be rescued (thanks to me…it would have just been fighting for fighting’s sake if I hadn’t recommended the princess.) The castle ‘stage’ continued for a while…and they still love castles. Luckily they are living in France, so they can see a lot of real ones in person.

Most recently, at night, the older boys have been reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with their parents before bed (and when I baby sit I get to read to them instead). The book has got them into a chocolate factory mind-set, so everything they talk about can some how be incorporated into the Barry Chocolate Factory. I think I have enjoyed it a little too much. Last night we each designed a candy making machine that would make something really cool for the chocolate factory. Reid’s made chocolate balls…sports balls. A soccer ball with white and dark chocolate…a basketball with orange and dark chocolate, other more colorful balls…that, I suppose, was supposed to be used for some kind of sport. Neil’s also made balls – an original idea of course - but just colorful ones. But my machine…it made fruits. Well, not just fruits, but it made fruit seeds. And the seeds are meant to be planted so that the fruits can grow. But they don’t grow real fruits of course! That would be absurd for a chocolate factory! It makes fruit seeds that grow into fruits that are chocolate! Confused? Use your imagination! The “fruits” grow from the seeds, but they aren’t fruits at all…the are chocolate shaped fruits. The purpose is to trick parents into thinking that their children are really eating healthy, but instead they are really just eating chocolate :o) As you can see from the machine, the ingredients are added at the top, into the funnel. You will notice that there are cocoa beans as well as other ingredients that are necessary. Then, the machine does all the other work to create the magical seeds. If you pay attention to each bean’s path you should be able to figure out what kind of fruit seed is being produced. (there are also picture hints in the upper right-hand corner) Honestly, I think I had more fun than the boys did.

I think the moral of this story is that when you use your imagination things are way more fun…the best way to accomplish this is to not have a TV.

It is time that you meet the boys I baby sit for. Starting with the oldest, pictured with his Chocolate machine is Reid, he is 7 years old.

Then we have Neil, he is playing with Pokèmon cards…and don’t worry, he doesn’t always have the shirt on his head. Neil is 5 years old.

And last, there is Dean. Dean is almost 2 years old and this is one of the only pictures I have of him not sucking his thumb. I usually baby sit for him the most because his brothers are either in school or their mom wants to take the older boys out to do something without having to worry about the little one. I guess we shouldn’t tell him this or he might feel left out.

There is another little insight into my life here in Metz.

International Connections

David's Mom and Sister have been visiting us for the last week and a half. They have had the opportunity to meet the Grandidiers (see below) as well as travel to nearby places.
I have taken them to Strasbourg and Nancy, and today they are in Luxembourg on their own. This weekend we will be with the Grandiders again to travel to Germany.

David will begin studying for his qualifying exams next week and I will continue tutoring and babysitting. In the near future we will be going to Belgium to kayak, and Luxembourg to see the next Harry Potter movie. Other than that we will be waiting for our next visitors...Rocky and Maria?

Fête de la Musique

June 21 - Fête de la Musique - takes place all throughout France.

Here are some videos from all the different musicians we saw last night.

A little bit of life here in Metz.

A lot has been going on around Metz lately for multiple reasons... but I think it is mostly because the weather has been a lot nicer lately. Enjoy this video of some of the things we've seen lately.

if you can't see the video above, go here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=jKUOtSnlBH4

Rocky à Metz!

We have finally hosted our second visitor! Rocky came to visit us here in Metz before going to a conference being held in Paris. Although Metz isn't a very exciting place Rocky came at a pretty exciting time. This was also a very good excuse for us to make the guest bedroom a more official guest bedroom. The blue futon is now in it's permanent home having been replaced by a dark grey one in our living room. It works very well because it fits perfectly in the space.

Before we get to the exciting part... We took Rocky down to the technopole and gave him the grand tour of Georgia Tech Lorraine. Then, while I was giving an English lesson, David and Rocky worked in the PhD room - David on his research, Rocky on his presentation for the conference. The weather was pretty warm while he was here (except for the time when there was a huge downpour of rain...at least he got to see what the weather is usually like in Metz).

Rocky also got to experience my cooking - helped a little too. Doesn't it look like he is having a lot of fun? :o)

Ok, so for the more exciting part. During his stay the TGV (fast train) to Metz finally started running...and this means celebrations. The city set up a huge stage right in front of the gare and both Friday and Saturday nights there were performers and entertainment of all sorts. We got to see an orchestra, electronic sliding trombone-like instruments, a video of how train travel has evolved, the French "American Idol" equivalent runner-up, and fireworks. Since he was leaving on Sunday (the first day of the TGV actually running) he was able to take it for his return trip to Paris. BUT the night before he left he took us out to dinner. We went to a restaurant that we've never been to before, but definitely will be returning to. We all had delicious 'french style' meals followed by dessert at Top Ice Cream...the best ice cream place in all of Metz.

We probably could have shared ONE of those desserts between the three of us, but we didn't realize that when we ordered :o) ...we usually only get cones.

That concludes our time with Rocky. It was nice having him come and bring a little feeling of home. Everyone is welcome!

Villefranche & Antibes

Next we went to Villefranche. It is a very small place between Nice and Monaco. Most tourists don't visit Villefranche like they would other places because there really isn't much to do here. It is very peaceful and quiet, but there isn't much to see. We saw lots of boats...lots of boats...and that was good enough for David. We also found some decent places to eat, but it took us a really long time to find them. It didn't take long to see all of Villefranche, thus, we only stayed for 1 night. Then we headed toward Antibes. BUT, check out the gare in Villefranche. It's really neat because it is so close to the water. Most of the time that you travel by train around the south of France this is the kind of view that you have...darn.

We then arrived in Antibes. Although very touristy Antibes was wonderful! We finally saw some sandy beaches (the others were rock beaches) and we found a really good restaurant that we went to twice during our stay there. Our hotel was really nice too. It was the only hotel we had that did not have air conditioning, but it was the nicest looking room with the most comfortable bed.

We also had a really nice view of a playground. The first day that we were in Antibes it was a little later so we went to one of the playgrounds to talk and watch kids play for a little while. While we were there we saw a rat that was hunting for food. Someone had thrown out some very large chunks of left-over baguette that pigeons were picking at until the rat found them. It was hilarious! He would jump into the crowd of pigeons, scare them away, steal their bread, and hop off towards his little hole. The funniest part was watching this small rat trying to run with a huge piece of baguette in his mouth...it occupied us for a while.

Also while we were there we met an American girl who was working in an ice cream shop. It was very strange how we met her. David was ordering our ice cream by speaking french...then the girl looked at him a little funny and said (in English) "So, that is 2 cones with one scoop of chocolate each?" We were blown away...we weren't expecting her to say that. Then David asked her where she was from and she said Atlanta!! Weird huh? She said her mom was French and they moved back to France about 3 years ago. She said that she had met someone else from Atlanta a little earlier that day - it's a small world.

The most exciting thing we did while we were in Antibes was watch a group of old folks play Botchy (although it has another name here). It was neat because while we were watching, one of the men started talking to David and when we told him we were American he said very well: "Oh, do you speak English?" then laughed - we think it is because that is the only English he knew. But we talked to him about living in Antibes, which seems a lot like Florida in terms of a good place for the elderly to retire, etc. It was neat...they were very competitive in their playing and it was cute to see the little old lady's sticky out their tongues at their husbands when they made a better shot.

So that wraps up our vacation!

The Principality of Monaco

Traveling to Monaco was definitely an adventure. We actually went twice. From Nice we took a bus, for about 40 minutes, that took us to Monaco. The first day we could only walk around select areas because it was the last day of the Monaco Grand Prix.

Monaco is the world's most densely populated country and second smallest independent nation - The Vatican being the first (population: 32,410...area: 485 acres).

The first trip: It was very interesting. I've never been into racing (and still am not) but encountering it while in a foreign country is pretty neat. The entire country was full of security and police and barriers to keep people from seeing the race unless they had purchased tickets. They must have taken a lot of time prior to the race to walk everywhere and determine where the "track" (road they were using) could be seen because we weren't able to see anything no matter where we went. We heard it though! It was so loud! We were able to walk around some areas where they were selling racing merchandise and even get really close to the road where they were racing because the sound was deafening...we had to walk around with our ears covered because it hurt not to...but we still couldn't see anything. So, after a somewhat disappointing day of site seeing, we decided to come back again. We really wanted to go to the aquarium, but the day we were there, was the only day of the year that it is closed...the last day of the Monaco Grand Prix.

Our second trip to Monaco was much better. While many of the barriers were still up, we were able to walk around everywhere and even on the streets they were using for the race. We could see tire tracks and some of the advertisements were still up.

We visited the palace of the Prince of Monaco. (Monaco is a constitutional Monarchy so the Prince is the head of state.) There were guards outside that walked back and forth in front of it. Then we watched them change. The area all around Monaco is beautiful. The large cliffs that look over the very blue Mediterranean...it's very nice. Many rich people live/move to Monaco because of it's nice atmosphere.

So, some history of Monaco... Monaco has been ruled by the House of Grimaldi since 1297, when François Grimaldi ("Malizia", "The Malicious") and his men captured the fortress protecting the famous Rock of Monaco while he was dressed as a Franciscan monk. He gave David some pointers on using a sword...

Then we ran into Prince Albert the 1st. HE gave David some pointers on how to steer a boat. Prince Albert the 2nd is currently living in the palace (Albert the 1st's grandson). I'm pretty sure we walked around everywhere possible in Monaco. It is pretty small. But it was very pretty. There were boats everywhere - which David loved. And the scenery was just incredible. Most of the things we saw looked like they would be part of a resort or something and they also had a bunch of casinos...and those were very pretty buildings.

After our self guided walking tour we finally went back to the Aquarium. Of course it wasn't as large as our new one in Atlanta...or most other aquariums I've been too, but there were a bunch of neat things inside. We even saw those eel things that are in the Little Mermaid movie - Flotsam and Jetsam. Well, we think that is what they are based off of...they can be 6 feet long and have those creepy looking faces. We also saw a lot of the characters from Finding Nemo. Nemo of course...Mr. Johansen (the flat fish with eyes on top of this body..the "kids" got into his yard before school one day)...I'm pretty sure I saw the fish that Gill was based off of...star fish (Peach)...and one fish that looked like Gurgle (the fish that hates being dirty). The Aquarium also included a Museum. Most of the things in the museum are from the travels of Prince Albert the 1st and they was also a section that Prince Albert the 2nd had contributed to. Albert the 2nd actually brought a chunk of ice from the North Pole back with him and they have it in a container that is keeping it frozen. They also had models of Albert the 1st's sail boats and equipment. And this model of a very old submarine that David tested out. I can't imagine trying to use this thing...there are so many knobs and handles and things to think about....and I wonder if it had a window so they could look out of it...I guess they would need one or what is the point huh? It was all pretty interesting and we were really glad that we were finally able to go.

So, David and I recommend visiting Monaco if you are ever in the south of France...just don't go on the last day of the Monaco Grand Prix.