A day out with the girls

Since there is no school here on Wednesday's, the girls and I like to take the day to explore. Yesterday, we went to a great market, ate at a nice little cafe, rode the Metro and the carousel, and ended with a chocolate eclair! I love wondering around the city with the girls - they are so willing to go anywhere and try anything.

Last Saturday the girls and I, along with another family, took a boat to the Chateau d'If. It's the famous prison from The Count of Monte Cristo, and today is basically France's Alcatraz. It's a fortress that was built in the 1500's, but was used as a prison. Today it's run by the French tourist office, and we had a lot of fun climbing in and out of the prison cells. Afterwards, we took the boat to the Frioul Islands, about 5 minutes from Chateau d'If. Here we hiked, found a private area to swim and climb rocks, and enjoyed some ice cream!

Paul has been back in the US for almost 2 weeks, he'll return to France this Sunday. It's been a long 2 weeks for all of us, but you can see the girls and I have been trying to stay busy.

Alexa is doing much better at school now - mornings only seem to have helped a lot. Her French is finally starting to come out. She sometimes says a French word in place of an English word. For example, the other day she was telling me about her imaginary friend (an idea from her sister!) - she said "my imaginary friend is un chat (a cat)!" Yesterday I asked her something in English, and she responded "Je ne comprends pas" - "I don't understand."

Alana still loves school, and is always telling me about a new friend. She is taking Tae Kwon Do on Wednesday nights. For her it's a double lesson - martial arts and French!