Montaud

Rode Montaud from Veurey for the first time since 2011. It felt ok but was again suffering with the pollution

Zoe Skiing

Today was the second day of Zoe's ski lesson. Her first day went a little poorly: according to the instructor, Zoe cried for the whole lesson! Chloe told me that despite this, she did very well. I was on call at work, so could not go. Today, however it was my turn (Chloe had PTSD from bringing Alex and Zoe on Saturday). Anyway, after convincing Zoe that she just had to go for long enough for me to take pictures so that I could get send them to Nana and Jicha (who I promised would be really impressed), we drove up to Meaudre. It had been absolutely dumping snow all night long, so it took a while to remove the snow from the car and the roads in St. Egreve were a bit of a mess. The road up to the plateau was, however totally clear. I guess they keep it well cleared for all the ski traffic. After Lans, we made a right to go over the col du Croix Perrin. This road was totally unplowed and very slippery, but no match for driving slowly, four snow tires and traction control. Some complete morons stopped in the middle of the road -- 10 meters from a chain turnout) to put their chains on, nearly causing accidents in both directions. This was right at a bend in the road! It is vacation time now, so there are a lot of clueless drivers about. Anyway, we eventually made it to Meaudre, which is a tiny town with a tiny ski resort. On the walk to the lesson, Zoe was already beginning to get apprehensive, but the prospect of showing off for Nana and Jicha (and a lollipop) changed her mind. The instructor put the bib on and off she went.

In France, there is an organization called the ESF: It is an organization that molds floppy and unwilling babies into stylish hot-doggers. I was a little worried that it would be the Ski version of Les quatre cents coups, but it was awesome. The lesson is only an hour and a half long, so I stayed at the side after being reprimanded by one instructor for coming too close. I took pictures and watched the pros at work. The instructors have a very effective and amazingly child adapted lesson plan. There is always something new for the kids to try, but at the same time (unbeknownst to them), they are learning the fundamentals of balance and movement on skis.

Observing the instructors, you could tell that this system has been extremely well thought out, and that the instructors have been well trained. When things started going wrong and a child started melting down, they would respond gently but quickly, and with more patience than I could muster after picking up the hundredth kid with skis going in opposite directions and bawling. I saw one kid making a daring escape, only to be chased down by an instructor and coaxed back to the group. The little one had made it an impressive distance towards the exit and had even managed to remove one ski! Instructors here are not like the average US instructor: they are not here just for pizza money and a free season pass, but for a lifetime career in the ESF and it shows.

Anyway, I got to see Zoe master the top tow:

Skiing through obstacles

and then proudly finding her daddy at the end of the lesson


She is in the "Piou-Piou" section. There will be a test at the end of the week, which if she passes will qualify her for the Ourson level (which also has a test)… then there are a bunch of other levels like Flocon, etoile etc etc. I think i might be more excited than Zoe for the Piou-Piou medal!

Bento

First attempt at walking the cat: not a huge success

A ride up to Mont St. Martin

Legs felt ok, and it was warm (11 or 12 degrees)

I warmed up on the bike path next to the river, which was quite pleasant. There were throngs of people out enjoying the weather: kids on tricycles, grandmas and grandpas out on bikes with grandchildren, and even a peloton of little kids in full race kit.

Ice and Galvie

As I was walking in to work I noticed some ice that had formed from runoff. It had a really interesting pattern:


It reminded me of Galvanized steel (image from Wiki), which is steel with a Zinc Carbonate

I'm guessing that the processes in which they are formed are pretty similar i.e. nucleation at various points and then growth until adjacent crystals obstruct further growth.

Carnival

It's Carnival time again. Zoe wanted to be a "Unicorn Princess" so I bought some felt, a needle and thread and sewed her a Unicorn horn. Alex has a fantastic Spiderman costume, but I felt guilty not making him anything so I sewed him an awesome hat (with elastic strap). In the process I stabbed myself several times with the needle of course. The next day Zoe refused to wear the unicorn horn. Kids.

Snow

Lot's of snow and cold temps recently. Nothing much new and we have been so busy at work that we have not managed to do much on the weekends. We did manage to finally throw a house warming party (it snowed during the party!) though. Last week was our lab ski day and I took some video via my new GoPro:

More climbing gym

The new game is to tie up the kids and have them untie the knots.

How not to carry a cat

Cat+Paint

Tonight I was relaxing in the bath when Bento jumped onto the side of the tub. This always makes me nervous because he has fallen in before, and the last thing you want is a terrified cat desperately scrabbling it's way out of the tub with claws fully deployed. I was therefore watching his every move very closely, and I noticed that there were some green spots on the side of the tub. This confused me because even after a session of rollers and a full day of work, I didn't think I would be so tired as to not notice a big green spot on an otherwise perfectly white tub. It turned out that Bento had managed to dip one paw in a paint dish on the kid's table and had proceeded to leave little green paw prints throughout the apartment.

Climbing gym

and a very funny tag for a bouldering circuit

Lego

Zoe has started playing with Legos a lot. MUCH better than Barbies!

Snowman

Made a snowman with the Chateau kids+Zoe+alex
Later, I peered out the window and silvered one of the kids (neither of the below kids, who are wonderful and well behaved) casually stabbing the snowman in the torso with a stick. The next time I looked out of the window the snowman's head was gone.

A new family member

I present … Bento!

Back from the USA

And greated with yet more Bouygues Telecom incompetence! No internet @home again. I'll update once it comes back.

SFO

Another nice long flight home. At least we got to check out the very cool exhibit about mountain bikes (including a lot of stuff about Joe Breeze, who I rode with earlier this year!)

Packing

The hardest part was the bike. Also, we had to weigh everything since there were so many kid gifts

Sukiyaki

I miss sukiyaki a lot too. I'm not sure what I did to aggravate Zoe here, but she was clearly not happy with me. Note the learning chopsticks which the children appear to have already lost.