Three days in...

A typical day in Salies de Bearn

Our day starts with a lazy walk to one of many patteserie's in our little village - pain au chocolate, croissants, fiselle and the obligatory baguettes. We have been trying different pattesserie's out to find our favourite one. The best baguettes are crispy and light but they are all pretty good as you can imagine. The kids have cereal and pain au chocolate and the grown ups dip their croissants in their cafe au lait's.

Next up, Jason goes for a run in the early morning cooler temperatures and Jo, Chris, Molly and Jamie do yoga upstairs. Ben and Jack do boy stuff - you know, boy stuff.

We all then shower and thats where any sort of routine ends. The rest of our days are taken up by all of the following;

- popping around the corner to our "local" cafe. Cafe au lait in the morning (2.40 euros) or large beers in the afternoon (4.20 euros). The owner speaks about the same amount of English that we do French which is nice. we ask him to speak to us in French so we can continue to learn the language. He very politely corrects what we say which is fantastic. The best one was when Jason was explaining that why we were here in Salies and not somewhere else and that we were here in Salies with the family. Jason then refer to Christine as 'ma mari" which of course means "my husband". The correct way for Jason to refer to Christine is as "ma femme"

- taking lazy walks through the village only to come across chestnuts and hazelnuts in the trees and on the grounds which we scooped up and took home to devour. Actually, the chestnuts tasted like the black stuff you scrape off the oven tray when you haven't cleaned it for a few months. We put this down to our roasting technique rather than the chestnuts themselves.

- eating the most wonderful produce, meats and cheese on a daily basis. SO amazing.

- driving through the country side to hit the beach at on the coast. A great day spent swimming and reading.

- making friends of the local old geezer on our little street - Jacques. He happens to have the same name as little Jack so instantly bonded with us. It took a while for him to come around though due to little Jack ringing his doorbell 5 times then running off.... Now, hes our best friend, hes taken a particular liking to Jo :)

All in all, we are just relaxing and doing whatever comes our way. We are already planning excursions into Spain (San Sebastian and Bilbao next week) and Bordeaux the week after.

The heinekins are 9 euro for a pack of 24 and you can find very acceptable vin rouge ou vin blanc for 3 - 5 euros. Its not expensive to exist here which is fantastic.

This is just the most amazing little place. We are truly blessed to be here and cant think of a single thing that we would change. The village is very French so the total immersion thing is challanging at times but definately preferable to the alternative. Contrary to popular belief, every single French person that we have come across has been wonderful. They really appreciate you making the effort to speak their language. Many of them do not speak a word of English so in most cases, you dont have an option!

Must go now, off out to dinner with the kids very shortly. A little bistro around the corner called "Les terraces". Cant wait.

Bye for now

Love The Schwarzies