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)

All - Tour De France

On July 27th, we all got up early and jumped on the train to Paris to watch the last stage of the Tour de France. We got to Paris early, had lunch and found the perfect spot to watch the cyclists go up and down the Champs-Elysees eight times. Although we have watched the Tour on TV for many years - it is impossible to appreciate how fast those guys ride until you see it live. We were all amazed to see that after 21 days and over 3000 kilometers, each rider was still going all out, riding at over 50 km/h on the cobblestones of the Champ-Elysees. We saw all of our favorites - Carlos Sastre in the Yellow Jersey, Valverde, Voigt, the two Schleck brothers, Hincapie... A great day we will never forget. (Click on the videos below)

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.