Peace out france!

I'm back in Italy!

Time for the sun and sea!

Leaving today!!

I am leaving the countryside to go back to Rome!! I couldn't be more excited to head back home!

Having fun with some vintage hats

Apple Cake

We went to a fair in a nearby town and there they were baking these
apple cakes in the towns communal oven which has been around since the
town was first founded. The cakes were absolutely delicious and were
cooked about twenty at a time in the oven. They looked a lot like
apple pie but were not as sweet and didn't contain any cinnamon. The
cakes are another regional specialty that I have tried from here along
with a marzipan cake, which I am told is quite unusual for the area as
almonds are not native but since the town lies along the ancient road
from Poitiers to Spain they adopted such dishes.

The 12th c. Roman style church in Poitiers

The Halle when all the town gathered for dinner

The Chocolate Shops of Poitiers

The nearest city where I am staying is Poitiers. We have been several
times now as we have picked up several of Sylvie's relatives and have
gone there for numerous shopping trips. The trickest thing about
these trips is keeping flaminia happy so we regularly end up in
chocolate shops so that she can have a snack. This is the display
window of one of the shops. They have as many desinger chocolates as
you can imagine ranging from lavender to cayenne.

The halle in Couhe

The garden

Countryside Cinema

So I went to see How To Train A Dragon tonight or under the French
title just dragons in the Halle. It's the second movie I have seen
there, we saw toy story 3 last week. It's a good thing they are
showing childrens movies because I can basically follow along even
though they were in french. I wish now I had seen both of them in
theaters in 3d. But it is remarkable the things that they think of to
do in this town. I've never seen the Halle used as a market but now
it's been used as a cinema which is actually very nice even though it
was a little cold tonight. The temperature here has varied so much
unlike Rome which is just hot. Here it has been very hot, it was
freezing for about a week, and now it's been warm but it still rains
about every day. It's been very tempermental.

Today I spent the day with two French children Joanne and Hughes and
Flaminia. They spent most of the day walking Joanne and Hughes' new
kitten on a leash, yes a leash. That is now the second cat I have seen
on a leash in this town. Do people not realize that cats have no
desire to be lead anywhere by anyone even if they are on a leash? It
really is quite remarkable to watch a bunch of children yell at a
kitten in French trying to make it go where they want.

The vacation is coming to an end, well not really a vacation for me
since I have worked every day but I think I almost might miss it. I'll
definitely miss the French bread and my new found taste for goat
cheese but it might be a good thing not to eat those everyday. The
country has been an interesting experience for me. I'm not really a
country person but I've been blackberry picking and taking walks down
to the river and all things country, well not really but more like all
things country in a town in the countryside. It's not like I have been
staying on a farm and farming this whole time. But it's been a quaint
month eating traditional french country food except for the pigeon, I
couldn't, and spending time in the garden and the fields. It would be
great if I wasn't alone, which is probably why I now want to go on a
bike ride through the Italian countryside. Now let's see if that
actually happens!

Sent from my iPhone

The French Countryside

So I have been in France for almost a month now, my time is almost up.  It has certainly been an interesting experience to say the least.  I am actually at some random country house where the little girl I am nannying is playing with her friends.  Its been a challenge having only the family I am nannying for to speak to in English and my French is awful, thank god some of it is very similar to English.  The house the family stays in is Sylvie`s familys' house (Sylvie is the mother) and they have had it in the family since the 1700s.  It is not in the best state but they are trying to restore it.  The house has a lot of history which is quite remarkable, there is a pair of glasses in the house which Sylvie's grandfather wore after he escaped from a prison camp during the second world war.  The garden of the house is lovely and if anyone ever sees the drawings which I have done with Flaminia (the youngest one), the gardens are my subject.  The town itself is very small but they held a town market where everyone showed up and had dinner under the halle or market which is one of the oldest in this area.  I have also been acquainted with the local animals petting goats, horses and the local cats and been blackberry picking.  I now consider myself an expert blackberry picker.  I am definitely ready to return to Rome though and set up my life there!