Donna - Kline Family Visitors

What would be a trip in the Kline family without a few visitors? Our trip to France was no exception. In August Eden, Rick, Alexander and Hannah came to Eguilles on their way back to Dubai from Toronto. It was so nice to have them at the house and for the cousins to play together. The highlight for the kids was going to Zoo de Barben to celebrate Alexander's fifth birthday. Alexander loved seeing the elephants (his favourite animal) and going on the train ride. The highlight for the adults was drinking a few glasses (or bottles) of wine while lying at the pool. And for Eden and I, a day of shopping and a great lunch in Aix.

Mom fell in love with Paris years ago and demanded (and guilted) all of us into meeting her and Steve there. Like good daughters and grand daughters we did! Mom could not wait to show her grand daughters around Paris and take them on a shopping spree. So, in early September, Deb and Natalie along with our family of five met up in Paris. (Unfortunately Eden could not come and we missed her) I have such great memories of the boat ride down the Seine, having dinner on rue de Buci and at Cafe Lipp and walking for six hours with Deb (and Sophie) while Mom and Steve had a day at the Musee Dorsay with the girls. And of course, who could forget the shopping spree!

We left Mom and Steve in Paris and ventured to Eguilles by train with Deb and Natalie. It was just two nights and a bit of a whirlwind visit, but so much fun. We lunched in the quaint village of Lourmarin and shopped at the markets in Aix. I have such good memories of Deb and Natalie walking with Andre, Sophie and I as we dropped the kids off on thier first day of school in France. Deb was in tears as she watched Samuel cry and struggle to say good bye. And I will not forget the sight of our beautiful daughters in hysterics on the Cours Mirabeau as we tried to take a nice picture of them.

Mom and Steve arrived in Eguilles from Paris. Steve really wanted to explore some of the wineries in Provence and Mom humoured him and came along for the ride. I never thought my Mom would survive three nights in our tiny village, but to everyone's amazement she did. We kept her busy enough, touring the town of Chateau Neuf du Pape (Steve got his wish), having a drink at the Set Club and lunching by the Mediterranean sea in the village of Cassis. After three days, Mom was dying to get back to Paris for an extra week without an entourage.

So another Kline family vacation ended full of visitors. We will add it to our many wonderful memories and recount our adventures over Sunday dinners to come.

Gabrielle - Julia and Rachel

From Septemer 20th to 27th Rachel and Julia came to France for a vacation. When I saw them coming off the train it only took me 5 seconds to get down the stairs and give them a hug. I was that excited! The plane and train pretty much tired them out but even so, we still went out for dinner that night in Aix. All of us had so much fun. Even Sophie was out late with us.

We can't forget the fun we had at Accro Passion. The excitement and nervousness together made it exhilarating. That was one of the most fun times I've ever had. Also, the spinning tea cup in Salon de Provence was crazy. I thought we'd be going round and round for ever. That was so funny. My head is still spinning. Whoo.

The rainy Cassis day was a thrill. Especially when we ran out into the rain and got all wet. I still can't believe we were considering going on a boat ride in the rain. I think we were a little bit cuckoo.

I had a great time in Paris too! What I loved was playing sweet or sour on the tour bus and also the best steak frites place when Rachel, Mom and I sent a text to Jessica saying we were shopping for shoes. We were really just getting there late because the taxi dropped us off at the wrong restaurant. We were running singing..."We're late,we're late, for a very important date." And, we won't forget the giant dessert. Yummy!

On one of the nights, we went to see a show at the Moulin Rouge. We didn't eat there but we did have drinks. The waiter laughed at us when we jumped at the opening of the champagne bottle. We all wore the same hats that we got in Salon de Provence. It was so fun.

At Notre Dame there were birds eating out of a girl's hand so Julia and I tried to do it with a Zone bar, but it didn't work. A man came along and gave us a piece of bread and some rice grains and there were so many birds on our hands. It was crazy but so cute.

What I considered an amazing experience was climbing the 624 steps to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower. Too bad we couldn't take the steps to the top. That would have been quite a leg exercise! Oh well. We wouldn't have had the mad rush to get Pam in the elevator if we took the stairs the entire way.

Thanks for coming to France. I really liked it. It was one of the highlights of my 7 months here. I will look forward to doing fun things like that in Toronto when I get back.

Samuel - Les Hiboux D'Aubagne

On the first week of September we drove to Aubagne to see if I could play hockey with Les Hiboux D'Aubagne. The first thing I realized is that the Aubagne Arena is located in beautiful surroundings. The picture above is the view right outside the "patinoire." Once we got there, we met the people in charge of the league and they were all very nice. The President of the Aubagne Hockey Association played all over France and even played in Quebec with l'Universite de Laval. Even though I can only play until I leave on December 1st, everyone welcomed me to their team.



It was very nice to put on the goalie equipment once again. It felt great. Once I got on the ice, I realized that my teammates were good. In fact, it turned out that they are actually very good skaters and skilled hockey players.



There is another goalie on the team, his name is Leonardo. We also have a goalie coach. He is teaching me how to stay up more and how to cover the puck without going down. There aren't many differences between Skelly and my goalie coach here except that Skelly tells me to go all out and my goalie coach wants me to stay back a bit.






I will be the goalie for the team in my age group as well as for the older team. I am going to play six or seven games with the teams before I go back to Canada. Our first game is on September 28th in Nice.

Gabrielle - Vivian

For two weeks including my birthday Vivian was in France to visit us. We arranged the trip for her and everything. When we picked her up at the airport in Marignane I was so excited to see her. I had been counting down the days until she came. When I finally saw Vivian in the flesh it seemed unreal.

Once we were at the house we showed Vivian everything.I didn't let go of her in case she was going to leave. She saw how Sophie had grown. Something that no one was expecting happened. Sophie remembered Vivian! It took 5 minutes max. Vivian surprised us then with a box of Canadian goodies when she arrived. Starbucks coffee, Goldfish, Movies, Lipton noodle soup, sports cards for Samuel,sticker books for Sophie, and Kraft Dinner. I want to thank Vivian again for all of the treats and let her know that we haven't finished them yet. We are using them sparingly. She gave us Canadian food so we made Vivian try Baguette and all the french breads that we like. We went to many new towns and places we like with her too.

One of the places was Nimes. It is a regular place except it has a huge, old Roman Amphitheater. We took an Audioguided tour of it. I found the whole thing amazing. When we finished the tour we were looking for a place to eat because it was 2:30 in the afternoon and we found a SUBWAY sandwich shop. We ate with joy. I found it so good to have a sub again.

Nimes wasn't the only place we went to. We took Vivian to Aix en Provence and Salon too. No one could forget Paris. That was something to remember.

When we took Vivian to Paris it was remarkable. We saw the Louvre, the gardens, Notre Dame, L'Arc de Triomphe, and the river Seine. I was so happy to have Vivian there to experience it with me. It was perfect. I loved it. I am sure she had a great time and thank her for coming. I had an amazing time from staying up and watching Herbie Fully Loaded to the Eiffel Tower.

Andre - L'Ecole de Surville

Andre - Ma Soeur et Francis

Anybody who knows my sister will realize what a momentous event it was for her to come visit us. But her visit to Eguilles was the last stop on a fantastic journey through France. First, she went to Nantes to visit her penpal. Helene has been corresponding with her for 34 years - no this is not a typo - and they met for the first time. That must have been something. And next, Paris!

After five days in Paris, visiting all the great spots; Le Louvre, The Eiffel Tower -which was Francis' favorite - La Seine, Les Champs-Elysees, it was time for le TGV en route towards Eguilles. I finally realized I was not dreaming when I saw my sister and Francis get off the train. I was happy to see them and quite proud of my little sister (actually she is my older sister).

While Eguilles is not Paris, my sister and Francis got the Grand Tour - La Mairie and its amazing view of Provence, the village, Samuel's patisseries, the local stores. New on our list was a visit to the local doctor and the 2 local pharmacies - Francis got some kind of infection in Paris. Helene also visited Gabrielle's Club Hippique.

My sister and Francis also went to Aix-en-Provence. My highlight was to take both of them to Lourmarin and then drive up the mountains. We also went to Cassis.

When my friend Robert left, I was a little bit worried about the local merchants. I thought his departure would hurt the local economy. Little did I know that Francis eats even more! I expect the owner of our favorite patisserie to buy himself a house in Cannes or Nice within the next few days. Francis will also be happy to realize that despite all his efforts to avoid being photographed, his picture is now on our blog for everyone to see - and this, for eternity!



But it was time to go. Too bad, but I knew my sister and her son were in good hands with my cousin Monique and Celine waiting for them at the airport in Dorval.

Andre, Gabrielle, Samuel - Robert et Nadine

At the end of July and for the first few days in August, we had special visitors from Montreal - Robert and Nadine. We have come up with the 10 best things about their visit:

1. While we can't manage to see each other in Canada, I got to spend some time with my best and longtime friend Robert.


2. Finally meeting Nadine and finding out what a great and nice person she is.


3. Going to Chateauneuf-du-Pape


4. Going to see the Roman ruins of Glanum


5. Realizing that Robert no longer sleeps until 2 pm, he is down to 11 am now.

6. Realizing that Robert needs a nap before dinner

7. Gabrielle and Samuel got to show off their new French-speaking abilities

8. Showing them around Eguilles, especially the patisseries and the Set Club.

9. Seeing how much they love France

10. Having fun in the pool with Robert and Nadine.

Now, since this was such a special visit, we could not stop at 10.

The 11th best thing about their visit - and maybe the most unforgettable - was watching Robert eat a gigantic piece of a cake called Tropezienne!
(we wish we had a picture but the piece was too big for our camera)