Gabrielle - Italian Voyage

Before leaving for France the Hunts and Turcottes organized a trip to Italy. Since then I have been waiting and counting down the days until our trip. The departure from France came faster than we expected. To drive to our rented villa, Poggio Martino, in Tuscany is 8 hours direct so we separated it into two days.

The first day, we drove 4 hours, through tunnels, to Genova. We stayed in the Bentley Hotel where we met a nice man who was a big help to us. We took a walk around the 4 level city although we couldn't go to the top and bottom levels because they were too far. We found a park and the area where the designer stores were, for mom; Back at the hotel we had a very delicious dinner and a good night's sleep to get ready for our next day's adventures.




Next morning we packed up and headed for Poggio Martino. It was stressful. It took us 9 hours to get there and we had to ask about 6 different people for directions. One man who we will never forget works for the city fixing the sewers. He only spoke Italian so he explained where to go using few words and many hand signals. We asked two more people after that but if the man who works for the city hadn't given us the main idea on where to go we wouldn't have got there that night. As we arrived I saw Julia and knew we were in the right place.

In Italy we had lots of fun. We went to a rustic town called Montepulciano and tourist filled Siena, but in Montelcino we had a surprise. We met a 13 year old boy named Grayson who looked exactly like Samuel. First I noticed they had the same shirt on, then when he and his mother sat down at the table next to us we saw Grayson's face and he and Samuel looked like brothers. Everyone was laughing. It was hilarious.









Another town we went to was Cortona. It is 10 minutes from Poggio Martino. We hiked up high to Santa Margherita Church and the views were amazing. We did it twice once with Angela and once with mom;





At the villa we went swimming, twice at night, and played pool and Foosball. We would play on the hammock and run around at night. We met the owner, Jacopo, who is very nice and helpful.

Julia's birthday was great. We hung around the villa for some of the day but we went to Cortona too. Samuel and I gave her gifts of a bracelet, notepad with her name on it, horse towel and a horse bookmark. We tried to arrange a horse ride on her birthday but it ended up being on Friday.

On our last full day together was the horse ride. We had a great time. I rode a former steeplechaser named Pepe. And Julia rode a former jumper. Instead of a trail ride that we want we ended up staying in the ring doing whatever we want. The lady instructing us said we were very good riders.



On Saturday it was hard to part but we, the Turcottes, headed for Florence. We stayed at Hotel Villa Belvedere recommended by Paul and Angela. In Florence we went to the Duomo which was amazing. It was designed partly by Michelangelo. We saw the David in the Academy along with other statues made by Michelangelo. Sophie had previously spotted carrige rides so while mom went shopping in the designer stores we went on a ride. We saw the river and went through a beautiful little alley. It was a shame to leave without seeing all of the other sights but we will come back soon.




We drove to Genova the next day and back to France the next day. It was great to be in Italy but time to come back.


I loved seeing Julia and had an amazing time. I miss her so it was great to see her in person. It was great to catch up and I can't wait to see her again in Toronto.

Gabrielle and Samuel - Cirque Phoceen

On July 6th there was a circus at the skate park in Eguilles. It was small but the performances were amazing. The clown was not good at all but that was the only bad thing. One circus actor did 5 different acts. He was very good. He did tricks with horses and a camel and 2 acrobatic shows. In one of his shows there were 2 little kids about 4 years old. They did simple acrobatic tricks but one kid did a handstand on a man's arm. It was cool.

Closer to the beginning of the show a woman named Sabrina did ballet on a rope. She was phenomenal. Sabrina's tricks were really sophisticated and you would need lots of balance to do what she did.

Gabrielle's thoughts about Cirque Phoceen are "There are not many circuses that size that are so good. I loved it and could see it again. The clown wasn't the best but overall it was fantastic. The horses and the rope ballet were my favourite although the camel was sort of freaky. I am happy to have gone to the circus and will remember the experience."

Samuel's thoughts about Cirque Phoceen are "It was really good even though it was small. The acts were great but my favourite act was when people took turns doing handstands and tricks on imbalanced chairs. I also liked the camel even though it was kind of scary sized."

Samuel and Andre - Studying in French

I was very proud to see Gabrielle and Samuel going to their first French classes in France. The week of Summer French School was held at a bilingual school called CIPEC, located in Luynes, France. This was about a 15-minute drive from our house. For a whole week, Gabrielle and Samuel spent three hours each morning improving their French. One thing they learned was that they were pretty good already.

We knew that Gabrielle was already very good and even though there were kids at that school that had spent the previous academic year studying French, no one in the class could keep up with her!

Samuel was surprised to realize how good his French was becoming. As he kept telling me every day, there were "a couple of annoying guys" in the class that had been in France for a year and did not know a word of French. Nice to see that Samuel can be as "charming" in French and in English...

On top of going to French lessons every day, Gabrielle, Samuel and I also went to see the movie "Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull" in French at the local community centre cinema. We all loved it and more importantly, every one could follow the story. All and all, a very good French week.

All - Rick and Michelle in Eguilles

It was a very good surprise to hear that Rick and Michelle decided to take the TGV from Paris to Aix to visit us. We picked them up at the TGV station and drove them through town to our house. We pointed out all of our favourite spots on the way to Eguilles and showed them around town. That night,we took Rick and Michelle to the Set Club and then, Donna cooked a great salmon dinner and we had a great time hanging around. The next day we walked through Eguilles, stopped at our favourite bakery - Banette - and decided to go to Club Hippique.

Gabrielle showed them around: " I told Rick and Michelle all about the stable, my recent experiences and introduced them to my instructor - Alain - with whom they had a good conversation. They talked about the differences between having a horse farm in Canada, the climate, and hay prices. The kind of conversation I am always interested in. I was really happy to show Rick and Michelle my stable and to hear what they had to say about horses. It is nice to talk to other horse people once in a while. It was great to see that Rick and Michelle had a great time and really wanted to know what I had to say."

We came back home and Andre went to get some molten hot lava bomb Baguettes for everybody. Samuel was, of course, particulary pleased:"It was really fun having Rick and Michelle over. I liked showing them everything about our town. I was amazed at how many interesting things Rick knows. I enjoyed talking to him. Michelle took great pictures with her super-cool camera and we uploaded them onto our computer. I am glad they came."

Donna, Rick and Michelle went to Aix: "we walked around and stopped for a cool drink. It was a beautiful, hot summer day in Provence. Rick treated Andre and I to some fresh coffee where the beans were roasted on the premises. After 7 weeks in France, I was happy to have a full mug of non-espresso coffee. We were recalling the first time we met and realized that it was likely 18 or so years ago. It is so nice to have long standing friendships like these and it was wonderful to catch up and create new memories for ourselves and our children. The kids were sad to see them go and so were Andre and I."

Everyone got back home where Andre and the kids were waiting for another good evening: "I kept thinking about how amazing it was for all of us to be together in Eguilles of all places! We have such a hard time getting together in Canada but somehow Provence brought us together. The last evening was lots of fun. First, we had to talk about Sophie and how much she loved going to Rick and Michelle. It is comforting to see that she is already a good judge of character. We had so much to talk about - future plans, funny stories, memories, crazy ideas. First thing we knew, it was 1:30 in the morning and Rick and Michelle had to catch a train at 6:18 am. Too bad. I tried my best to convince them to stay until Tuesday (or Wednesday, Thursday) but as always, Rick never listens to my advice... I really appreciated that Rick and Michelle made the long trip to visit us, and we are grateful for their continued friendship."