Imanol

This precious little boy was just 5 days old when I photographed him. He does not like being without clothes on, and even though I had the heat cranked up so high that the adults were sweating...he was just not having it! So, although I didn't get a lot of the shots that I had planned to, I did get some great ones that I had not planned. Imanol is the son of some really close friends here in France, and they asked Matthew to be the godfather! We first met Imanol when he was just one day old, and he would not wake up no matter how hard we tried. This time, though, he decided that he didn't exactly trust me and my camera. You could see him fighting sleep, and just when we thought he was finally asleep, one eye would pop open to see where I was.
This blanket was made by Bertrand's grandmother.
Don't you just want to play "This little piggy went to market..."??? :)
I see all the time when I look at other infant photographers' websites and blogs, pictures of the dads (and sometimes the moms) without their shirts on. I love the look of the skin-to-skin contact with the baby. But I have always been too nervous or shy or embarrassed (probably all three!) to ask another man to take his shirt off! Bertrand seemed to be the perfect guy to try this out with. First, he is French. It might be a stereotype, but it seems to be true for the French people that I know. They are just more comfortable with their bodies than Americans. Just go to a French beach and you will see what I mean...it is even true for those who probably shouldn't be comfortable with showing the world what they've got! Second, Bertrand is a close friend, and I have been around him many times without his shirt on (the beach in Corsica, bbq's at his house, rugby practice, etc). I am so glad I did get the courage to try these shots, because I am in love with the result!
About 2 seconds after this picture was taken, Imanol peed all over Claire's hands! Sorry Claire! :)Congratulations again Bertrand and Claire! We love you guys!

Cookie Swap

Thursday night Jen and I hosted a 'Cookie Swap' party at my apartment. We had a great group of women come and the cookies were delicious. Everyone brought 3 dozen cookies to swap. Jen even created these amazing recipe books with all of the cookie recipes.

CookieSwap - Slideshow Maker

Imanol Luc Jean Julien

Matthew became a godfather on Wednesday! Bertrand and Claire had a little boy named Imanol (pronounced ee-man-ole). We got a call on Tuesday afternoon telling us they were headed to the hospital. Tuesday night we went to bed with the promise that Bertrand would call or text us when he was born. Wednesday morning we got up with still no word! Around 6:30 am, we finally found out that Claire had been in labor for 16 hours before finally having a c-section. Both mama and baby were healthy, with Imanol weighing in at 8 lbs 6 ozs, and measuring 20 inches. Thursday we went to see them in the hospital. Here are some pictures from our visit.

Imanol - Slideshow Maker

La Fête des Lumières

Each year on the 8th of December (and the weekend closest to that date), Lyon has a huge festival called "La Fête des Lumières". You can read all about the festival (in English) here. Because of the insane crowds that this festival attracts, we decided to take the train from Clermont. We arrived Friday night around 8:30pm and took the metro to my cousin's apartment in downtown Lyon. We had a very fun raclette dinner at Chris and Elodie's apartment and didn't get to bed until almost 2am! After a quick breakfast, Chris and Elodie headed out of town. Matthew and I spent most of the day walking around town. We took a quick trip to an Asian market Chris told us about. I have been really missing sushi, so I decided I would learn to make it myself...but that will be for another blog...

Saturday late afternoon we headed "up the hill" to visit my other cousin, Sophie, and her husband, Yan. In Lyon, there are two prominent hills. One is called Fourvière, also known as "the hill that prays" because of the large basilica that sits at the top. Sophie and Yan live on the other hill, called Croix-Rousse, or "the hill that works". Croix-Rousse gets its name because of the silk workers that lived and worked on the hill. Another interesting note about the hill, and Lyon in general, involves a network of covered passages called "traboules". These passages allowed the silk to be transported from the workshops to the river. These traboules served a much different purpose during World War II. They are often credited with helping prevent the Germans from taking complete control of the area. If you are visiting Lyon, many of these traboules are now open to the public. Okay, enough history, lets get back to the lights!

So, after walking up what seemed like nearly vertical streets, and climbing stairs on a seemingly never-ending staircase, we arrived at the top of the hill just as the sun was setting. There was a beautiful view of the city, the Saone River, and Fourviere.

The next picture is of the top of a church that Yan told us about. Apparently the church was built, but never used. There was a, shall we say, breakdown in communication. A road was built directly in front of the church, which didn't allow for the originally planned staircase to be built up to the front doors of the church. The church sits empty, with its inaccessible front doors sitting 3 meters above the street level.
We walked past the church on our way back down the hill. This is a horrible photo, but it shows the doors high above the street level!

As it got dark, we walked back to that same lookout to see a garden of huge neon flowers.
Sophie was still recovering from the flu, so after walking us down the hill, they went home and Matthew and I joined the millions that had come to Lyon. Throughout the downtown area, there were several light shows that were projected onto buildings. These "spectacles" had different themes and were all set to music. It was really hard to take pictures of the shows, but here are a few to give you an idea. This particular show's theme had to do with time and the seasons.

Sunday, we had a really nice lunch with my uncle and aunt. We also had the pleasure of meeting one of Colette's cousins, Denis, who tries to come to Lyon each year for la fete. After a great weekend, we took the train back to Clermont.

A big "Thanks!" to Chris and Elodie for letting us stay in their apartment while they were out of town. :)

LyonLumieres - Slideshow Maker

Celebrating Thanksgiving in France

Since the guys didn't have Thanksgiving Day off, we (Matthew and I, and two other American families) decided to celebrate Thanksgiving on Sunday instead. For some reason, I volunteered to be in charge of the turkey. If we had been in the US, this would have been no problem. I would have gone to Bi-Lo, used my turkey points, and picked up my free turkey. Matthew would have headed to Wal-Mart and bought gallons and gallons of peanut oil, and the biggest dilemma of the turkey cooking process would have been what to inject the bird with before deep frying it to a golden, juicy, crispy 10-15 lbs of yummy-ness.

But, alas, we are not in the US. So our turkey adventures started several weeks ago. Matthew and I (yes, I made Matthew go with me for this little French speaking errand) went to the local Chamalieres butcher to order our turkey. We had been told by French friends that it is tradition for the French to eat turkeys at Christmas, so the idea of ordering a whole bird wouldn't be unusual, we were just about a month too early. Matthew explained to the butcher that we were Americans and there was a holiday we wanted to celebrate, and eating a turkey was tradition. The butcher told us he would have to call his poultry guy, and we needed to call back and confirm. Pas de problème! Whew! That was easy.

Matthew called back the following week (still giving the butcher about a 10-day's notice). Again, he was told that it was no problem, in fact the only problem might be finding a bird small enough for our request. So, Friday morning arrives, and confidently, I head to the butcher to pick up the turkey. I am met with blank stares like they have no idea what I am talking about. I do finally pick out a phrase that I took to mean that they were saying Matthew never called to confirm. Well, my French is definitely not at a level that I can try to argue with them the fact that Matthew had indeed called to confirm. He asked me if tomorrow (Saturday) would be too late. "Non, ça marche. Merci beaucoup!" Saturday morning, Matthew and I (yes, I took Matthew with me, just in case...) went back to the butcher. Even though it was Saturday and the place was packed, as soon as we walked in they all recognized us (those crazy Americans that want a turkey in November!), waved us to the front and produced a turkey wrapped up and in a plastic bag. The lady at the register says, "cinquante.....euros...". Cinquante-something? Surely I heard wrong. (for those of you whose, if it's possible, french is worse than mine, cinquante is fifty!) Nope, I didn't hear wrong, the turkey was 56 euros! Let's do a little math. If we convert the euros to dollars, that would be about $84. The turkey was about 5 kilos, which converts to 11 lbs. So, this bird was $7.63/lb! I know I saw a commercial where Wal-Mart was selling turkeys for $0.38/lb! Now, not only did we spend our life savings on a turkey, but the pressure was really on. I had never cooked $84 worth of meat!

Sunday arrives, and it is time to cook the bird. After a small meltdown, Matthew helped me pull myself back together. We decided to cook the turkey in the crock pot (after a lot of research online). In order to fit the bird, we first had to dismember the turkey into big chunks. Into the crock-pot went onions, carrots, celery, lemon wedges, and garlic. The meat was slathered with a butter herb mixture, and one cup of white wine was poured over the top. Lid on. Heat on high. 5 hours later, Voila! We pulled the pieces out onto a baking sheet in order to reheat the meat and crisp up the skin once we got to the Pages' apartment.

We had a great night with American friends and LOTS of American food (broccoli casserole, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, rice, gravy, turkey, sweet potato casserole, Jiffy cornbread- thanks Mom!, and sweet tea). We also had "ham", but you can read Jen's blog for her Thanksgiving meat adventure (and to see pictures from the night). We also had pumpkin pie and apple cake for dessert. It is definitely hard to be so far from family during the holidays, and Matthew and I really looking forward to being home for Christmas! Hopefully there will be a free fried turkey in our near future!

Weekend Trip to the Languedoc Region

Matthew was able to take a few days off from work, so we headed south to the Languedoc region of France. The Languedoc is a great area of France, home to the oldest working canal in the world (Canal du Midi), the tallest aqueduct ever built by the Romans (Pont du Gard), the most famous naturally carbonated water (Perrier), and the list of superlatives go on and on...

Matthew and I headed to a city called Beziers. Beziers is not, shall we say, a "tourist hot-spot". In fact, as Matthew told people at work where we were going, he got the same reaction as, well, Clermont gets! Nevertheless, we were excited to head to the Mediterranean for some warmer weather, some relaxation, and some wine tastings! On our way down, we attempted to find a vineyard that a colleague of Matthew's introduced us to last year- Domaine La Tour Penedesses. Thank goodness for our GPS! We finally found it, tasted some great wine, and continued to Beziers.

Beziers was the birthplace of Pierre-Paul Riquet, the architect of the Canal du Midi. Friday, I planned a bike ride for us along the canal. The "trail" was 15 km...one way. We rented our bikes and set off on our little biking adventure. Let me just mention now that I have not ridden a bike in at least 6 years! We started off on a paved trail along the canal, wound our way through a little village, turned off onto a dirt road that took us through fields and vineyards, and we ended up in a little beach town. We had lunch at a restaurant that looked over the harbor, and then started the 15 km back... I was quite sore by the time we returned to Beziers! After well earned relaxation time, we headed out to dinner. We found this little restaurant called Le Patio. It was one of the most beautiful restaurants I have ever been in. Because it was the "low" season, we were one of only 3 tables in the entire restaurant. We had an amazing meal, with local wine- bien sûr!

Although Beziers does seem to be one of the poorer cities we have visited, I was really impressed with their efforts to increase tourism. Everything (menus, city guides, signs, etc) was offered in at least French, English, and Spanish. The Office of Tourism also provided maps that outlined different self-guided walking tours through the city. You could choose different walks based on your interests. There was a Romanesque and Gothic tour, a Garden tour, a 19th Century tour, a canal tour, and a 'Beziers over the centuries' tour. The walking guide also included pictures of various landmarks along with a little paragraph of history or information. We chose the 'Beziers Over the Centuries' walk. We started in the "Plateau des Poetes" pubic garden, built in 1870. It is a beautiful park complete with sculptures and a bird sanctuary. Next we headed down the Allees Paul Riquet, to the theatre, built in 1844. The tour took us down little winding roads past Gothic chapels, past the Town Hall, and through a covered market that dates from 1889. Our walk also took us to the Madeleine Church (XI-XIVth century). This church was the scene of the most bloodthirsty episode of the Albigeois Crusade, as the Catholic church tried to rid the world of Cathars. When one of the commanders of the crusade was asked how to tell the Catholics from the Cathers, the commander supposedly replied, "Neca eos omnes. Deus suos agnoscet"- "Kill them all, God will know His own". The people of Beziers were exterminated and the city was left in ashes. Ok, so there is your history lesson for the day!

Saturday afternoon (after the infamous mussel lunch...) we drove to a little village called Florensac. The winegrowers of Florensac have joined together to form a wine co-op. They have also built a huge building that is the home of the co-op, called Vinipolis. In the main room there are about 6 tasting stations set up with computers that walk you through the wine tasting process. The computers also provide information about the different wines available. Then it was back to Beziers for dinner. We took the recommendation of the hotel owner and went to a tiny French restaurant called Les Antiquaires. The restaurant could only seat 24 people (I counted). Even though it was the low season, we didn't have a reservation and luckily got the very last table that was not reserved. The food was perfectly French, and perfectly wonderful.

Sunday, on our way out of town, we stopped to see some of the more impressive sights on the Canal du Midi. The first was the Fonseranes Canal Locks, which date from the XVIIth century. This series of seven locks allow boats to navigate a 21-meter change in level! Next, we walked along the canal to the Pont-Canal. At this point in Beziers, the Canal du Midi intersects the River Orb. In 1857 a bridge was built over the River Orb to allow boats on the canal to cross the river. That's right, it is a bridge for boats! It was hard to take a picture from beside the bridge, so I found this aerial photo of the locks and the bridge to give you a better idea:

Les 9 Ecluses des Fonseranes (The 9 Fonseranes Canal Locks):
Le Pont-Canal:

http://www.canalmidi.com/aufildlo/fonceran.html

Here are some more pictures from our weekend:

Beziers - Slideshow Maker

I Heart the French Health Care System

Two weekends ago Matthew and I had a weekend get away (I will be blogging about that soon, hopefully!). On our drive home Sunday, I started to feel very achy all over. By the time we got home, I started thinking I was coming down with the flu. I had the fever, the all over body aches, the chills followed by sweating...but I did not have any of the cold symptoms. By Wednesday, most of my symptoms had subsided, but I was having severe pain in my stomach. Matthew came home from work early and called the doctor. There is an amazing service here called SOS Medecin. You can call this service and a doctor will come to your house! Within the hour, a doctor was in our living room (No waiting rooms with who knows what kind of germs. I spent my time waiting for the doctor in my pajamas, on my couch, watching TV!). After some very painful stomach mashing, he determined that I had either an intestinal infection or appendicitis. He told us I needed to go have blood drawn to determine if it was an infection. After explaining where to go, he told us "never mind", and that he would have the nurse come to us! We paid him his 32 euros (that's it! 32 euros to have a doctor come to your house!!!). An hour later, a nurse shows up to draw some blood. She only charged 7 euros! That night, the doctor called to say the blood work showed it was an infection, and set up an ultrasound for the next day to make sure the infection wasn't in any of the major organs. Unfortunately, I actually had to get dressed and leave the apartment for the ultrasound (can you tell how spoiled I am getting?). After all was said and done, the verdict was salmonella poisoning. Probably from some mussels I ate while we were on our weekend get away.

As the US tries to adopt a new health care system, I must say that I am loving living in France!

C'est Taboo?

Yesterday I went to an afternoon "chit-chat". A chit-chat is a group of women (or I guess it could be a group of men...) that get together and have discussions on any number of topics. These "meetings" are a popular way to practice a foreign language. There is a chit-chat group through the IWC, and I have been to several of their meetings. This particular one was organized by Robin and her new upstairs neighbor, Valerie. Valerie is French and has several French friends who want to practice their English. As anyone who has ever heard me speak French can verify, I personally need all the practice in French that I can get! There were about 15 women that met at Valerie's apartment. We had several countries represented (France, US, Canada, India, and New Zealand). In addition, many of these women have spent time living in other countries (Nigeria, Thailand, China, England, etc). The discussion today was about what topics are taboo in different countries. We talked about everything from money, to politics, to sexuality, to religion, to sex. These chit-chat groups always make me laugh because we are supposed to speak in the language that we are trying to learn. However, when you are trying to debate something, that is so hard! And, it doesn't matter what the topic is, when you put that many women in a room together, not everyone is going to agree (case in point: several couldn't even agree about what the definition of "taboo" is. That was finally settled after Valerie pulled out a very French dictionary, and by French dictionary I mean that it had a picture of a topless woman on the front, something you would never find on the front of an American dictionary! That would be taboo! But I digress...). It never fails that everyone reverts back to their native language, starts speaking very fast, and before you know it you have 5 different conversations going on at one time because the French can't keep up with the conversation in English that is going 90 miles/hour, and the English speakers can't keep up with the conversation in French that is going (at what seems to me) 200 miles/hour!

There are always a lot of laughs too. Like today, we were talking about weight and anorexia, and of course the topic of Americans' weight and food portions at restaurants was brought up. Valerie (whose English is very good, by the way) was trying to tell a story about her husband's business trip to the US recently. She was saying that he went to a restaurant, and that he had a bitch...
Excuse me?!? A what, Valerie?
She thought she said "meat", and couldn't understand why all of the English speakers were laughing, but we all heard the same thing.... Anyway, she was trying to make the point that his piece of meat was huge, and the plates were much bigger than you will find in a French restaurant.

It was a fun afternoon of chatting. Although, I am always so afraid to speak in French, these group meetings usually are more beneficial for my comprehension practice, not speaking practice. Which is just silly, because these French women are just as self-conscious about their English as I am about my French. One of these days (probably about a week before we move back to the US), I will get over the embarrassment and just start speaking!

Halloween in France

We have been told that Halloween has become more popular here in France the last few years. Trick-or-Treating still isn't that popular, but the costumes are! Jen and Bene decided to host a Halloween party this year at Bene's house in Aubiere. Bene convinced a few of her French neighbors to hand out candy to the kids, as our group made our way to downtown Aubiere for a costume contest and night of Halloween activities put on by the city.

Trick-or-Treating in Aubiere

After the festivities, we made our way back up to Bene's house for some good old-fashioned Halloween games like 'bobbing for apples'. Matthew and I dressed up as Fred and Wilma Flintstone. It was really sad that most of the kids didn't know who we were supposed to be, and the few that did know, it was only because of The Flintstone vitamins!

Fred and Wilma Flintstone

Cop and Robber, Clarrette and Preston

Bertrand and Claire at their first American Halloween Party.
They created their outfits in just a few hours
(and yes, that is Claire's real hair under all that paint!)

Time to Catch Up!

A photo Matthew and me from Steve and Margo's wedding.

It has been a really long time since my last blog! Sorry! The main reason is that I spent a little over 3 weeks in the US. I had a great trip home, and it was great to see family and friends. I even got to go to 2 Clemson games while I was home (although during the 1st one, we were evacuated from the seats because of lightning, and I sat through the 2nd game in the pouring rain). While I was home I also took a ton of photos! Here are few of my favorites from the photo sessions.

The first shoot I had was with my dad for Operation: Love ReUnited. My dad is a volunteer photographer for Operation: Love ReUnited, a non-profit foundation of photographers who help deploying or returning soldiers and their families capture images to remember their time together before or after a deployment. Dad was contacted by Kris, whose husband is serving in Afghanistan. Kris was around 28 weeks pregnant and her husband had yet to see pictures of her pregnancy. Dad and I met Kris in downtown Greenville for a very special maternity shoot.
I also met a friend, Stephanie, and her beautiful family, in the Botanical Gardens in Clemson for some fall photos. Unfortunately the leaves did not understand that I was only home for a few weeks, and decided not to change colors according to my time line. Oh well!


I also met MaryAnn and Marcus in downtown Greenville for a maternity shoot. The baby is due December 22. Luckily Matthew and I will be home for Christmas this year, and we can't wait to meet the little one!




One Saturday (when there wasn't a Clemson game), Dad and I met some very close friends for a post-wedding photo shoot. Clint and Cherie got married in July, and unfortunately Matthew and I weren't able to fly back for the wedding. I am shooting my first solo wedding here in France next summer, so Clint and Cherie agreed to get dressed back up and let me "practice" on them. The weather was absolutely perfect, and I think they enjoyed taking some relaxed photos, since this time they didn't have to worry about all of their wedding guests waiting for them at the reception!
Here are a few of my favorites from Dad's camera:


I also had the joy of photographing a 6 day old newborn, the daughter of some close friends. Sweet little Amelia was just perfect. She wasn't sure about the whole "photo shoot in her birthday suit" thing, but once we put the tutu on, she really turned on the charm!



One of the main reasons for this trip to the US was to tie it in with a trip to Pittsburgh for one of Matthew's college roommate's wedding. Steve and Margo have such a cool story. Steve spent a semester studying abroad in Australia. The same semester, Margo was studying in New Zealand. During a break from school, Steve headed to New Zealand and ran into Margo while hiking. Margo was with a group of girls, one of whom Steve knew from Clemson. It was destiny! The wedding was about an hour outside of Pittsburgh at The Barn at Falling Water. Although it rained up until the morning of the wedding, the weather cooperated just in time for a gorgeous outdoor wedding.

The Barn at Falling Water.
Margo was such a beautiful bride!
Such a magical place for an outdoor ceremony.
Margo and her sister found this door at a salvage store, stripped it down, painted it, and distressed it. The florist created an amazing wreath, and Voila! Such a neat idea for a backdrop for an outdoor wedding.


We have a similar picture taken at our wedding, of Steve picking Matthew up. I love Margo's expression in the background.
Clemson roommates, plus the wives!