OUR KIDS LIFE IN FRANCE, AND OURS - getting there slowly

The picture on the bottom shows what the outside & downstairs looked like prior to moving in, all except the image of the beams,(top right of bottom photo), which is what the whole of the upstairs looked like. The photo on the top is the upstairs getting there!

The house was coming along bit by bit, and looking better every day. The grass in the garden was beginning to get greener, and we had been out and bought swings & things for the children. This was a good idea and it kept them occupied in the garden for hours. We soon began to get a steady stream of French children visiting, curious to see how the English live, not that it's any different to how they live. It was, and still is, lovely to hear the kids interacting with people of another language, how they chop and change from French to English without even thinking about it.

My husbands brother came to visit next. He had been holidaying in Spain and dropped by for a couple of weeks. This was perfectly timed as there was some heavy duty work coming up that needed 2 strong men, and the children hadn't seen him for a while and as the twins birthday was looming, it would be a good opportunity to do something special together.

"If he comes while we're at school, can he come and pick us up?", asked our daughter. He did turn up early, and so duly went to the school with us to get the kids. The school gates opened and the kids burst out like water out of a leaking pipe and literally jumped on pour old uncle, almost smothering him. "This is my uncle, he's been to Spain, he's English too, and he doesn't speak any French, so we're going to teach him, and he's going to stay at our house, and we're going to have fun.....", was all you could hear the kids twittering to their friends, with intermittent giggles. We managed to get home eventually, in one piece, and i cooked a special meal that evening, which, for once, everybody appreciated. "What are you getting for your birthdays?", asked uncle. Bikes. New bikes. Shiny new bikes. Specifically, one red shiny new bike, and one blue shiny new bike. Expensive, I thought. Hang on, he said what are you getting not what do your want!! They would have to wait and see.........