Alex and John French Nouvelles 2018
Joyeux Noël pour votre 2018
What have we been up to in Europe this year?
For January 2018 Thomas and his classmates had a ski school week in the Alps ‘class de neige’, proving to be a lot of fun. Also in January – for me it was ‘welcome back to the life of a fulltime mum’ so organising activities for Thomas’s holidays. Football camp is perfect for this and since France won the World Cup.
Football fever of course is Thomas’s world including since last Christmas playing on the PS4 ‘Fortnite’ an online game with is friends, in controlled time slots. We have yet to organise a good time to play with his cousins down under, quite a challenge to schedule with the different time zones and college days.
In March we did some snowboarding trips after the Big Freeze, then the snow quickly melted away.
Thomas’s first year at college (6eme) finished in June with pleasing marks and rewarding comments from his teachers. His sports teacher encouraged him to continue into running and athletics. For English he took ‘The Big Challenge’ test with the pupils at his college, getting 1st in the 6eme at his college, 2nd second in the Loire region and 152nd in France (awaiting photos) Sadly also in June, our beloved adopted cat ‘Milk’ died L
August – our 3 week summer holiday was again at Seignosse / Hossegor https://www.facebook.com/alexandra.menzies.3/videos/vb.1662453486/10215476849388703/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab with perfect accommodation and weather. We took the opportunity to catch-up with friends who live in the Landes region.
September – Thomas started his new college year in the 5eme. For the 8th Sept we decided with friends to go in the ‘Lyon Free Bike’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C77LwmLVoz0 riding our bikes through areas that are normally closed off to cyclists and exploring secret tourist spots.
We both are still working at our companies, Alexandra at http://www.janemclucas.fr/ as a Business English Teacher and John’s agency contracts him to visit factories around France https://www.zodiacaerospace.com/fr/ as a Project Manager.
It takes me an hour’s drive to get to work, avoiding the ‘autoroute’ and for John it’s the long commuting distances around France that haven’t changed since last year, no trains this time but by car. Generally he’s away for the week but recently he tries to leave late Monday afternoon and arrive home late Thursday evening.
Since we live near ’Le tour de France’ routes our exercise objectives have turned to cycling up these steep hairpin bends at least twice a week. Plus John tries to use the hotel’s gym & pool where he stays at and I enjoy runs up to the vineyards near us.
For DIY on the house more windows were installed plus other small projects and recently we got a masonry to cut through a main wall from the kitchen to the living room ,(we love this spacious change) Next more surprises ahead on the house…then sale it and head off to NZ, I’m still looking for that magic wand.
Wishing you all an enjoyable festive season (especially for Nana & Poppa in Wellington)
Joyeuses Fêtes et Bonne Année 2019.
John, Thomas & Alexandra. xxx