unimog!

This is what you need for the true offroad experience


Of course, if you're going far, you probably want the half million dollar RV version

zoe sledding

very jealous.. am home sick and the oe's are out sledding!



also, the town of Le Fontanil was offering horse drawn cart rides and Santa time!





but Zoe was terrified of Pere Noel.

this is all second hand because I was too sick to leave the house.

Snowing!

and some local franco-chavs were pelting our windows with snowballs in the middle of the night. Why?

Lyon

This morning we went to the dermatologist to figure out what is wrong with Alex's face. The hypothesis is that it is a reaction to some mom-hormones which subsequently got infected. We now have corticosteroid creme, super fancy moisturizer and antibiotics for him. Even without the treatment, things are already looking better, much to our relief. It's so hard being vaguely repulsed by the way your son looks! Not to mention the guilt.

Anyway, last week we had arranged to go to the US consulate in Lyon to apply for a US birth certificate, passport and SSN for him, so we drove into Lyon without any major hijinx thanks to the marvels of GPS technology. Finding parking was a bit difficult, but with a little help from Chloe, I got into this ridiculous spot without even hitting the cars in front or in back of me!

skills!

The US consulate is in a nice building right on the quay, with big windows looking out over ... other buildings. We had an appointment at 11:00, but got stuck behind a scumbag businessman and his wife who were going on and on about the number of pages in the passport book, how they reside in Dubai but have property in France and the US, blah blah blah. Once they were dispatched, the embassy staff were quite efficient and we were out the door in no time. They even gave us a recommendation for a restaurant for lunch: La Manille. We walked there and were greeted by cooing (the yucky part of Alex's face was hidden under his snugglesuit) of the Maitre d', which always puts us in a good mood. We ate upstairs, and everything was wonderful. Chloe had some kind of fish special, but I was too engrossed in my perfectly cooked steak to pay much attention to it. Since Alex was being so good and sleeping the entire time, we even got dessert! I had a tarte au citron and chloe had a chocolate cake with creme anglais, with two espressos. Also, halfway through the meal we saw the security guard from the embassy, who clearly poached the resto recommendation from the attachee who gave us the name.




Driving back in the snow was a little sketchy.