Sunday's Walk

I'm finally posting a few photos of Sunday afternoon's walk to le parc Saint Bernard et le jardin de la Villa Noailles. It's taken me awhile, both because the last couple of days have been busy and because by the time I've had a moment to update the blog after the children are asleep, I've been exhausted. But today is a bit freer, as the class excursion isn't happening until evening (une fete de la musique -- photos to come in the next few days), I'm posting in the morning. We got to sleep in today (and by "sleep in" I mean that it was 7 when we were awakened by les petits, and not 6), and we're having something of a slow start. The kids are watching French cartoons ("Scooby Doo" and "Garfield" in French) and Nathan and I are catching up on emails and other online tasks. It's nice to have a laid back morning; it reminds me of summers when I was a kid, when my sister and I would wake up later than normal to sun coming in the windows with a still-cool breeze, eat our Lucky Charms in front of "Scooby Doo" or "The Smurfs" (or "les Schmoupfs" en Francais), and only rouse ourselves from our television stupor by mid-morning in order to pull on shorts and tee shirts and go outside to ride big loops around our cul-de-sac on our bikes.

The other reason this lazy morning is nice, of course, is because our sleep still isn't parfait. Vivi continues to have trouble getting to and staying asleep. Last night she wasn't asleep until 9:30, which is better than 12:30 to be sure, but still not great. She was then up with what seemed like a night terror at 3, and I ended up sleeping beside her again. We co-slept with Finn until he was nearly 2 years old, and when I was pregnant with Vivi Nathan and I decided that co-sleeping was a mistake we wouldn't make again. Now, I realize this is one of those loaded parenting issues--like breast or bottle, spanking or not--that can make even the most docile and agreeable parents defensive and combative. So let me just say that I have nothing against co-sleeping in general. In fact, there were lots of wonderful things about it, especially when Finn was an infant. But for us the side effect was 3 months of misery when we finally decided he was too big to sleep comfortably beside us, and I didn't intend to go through that again with Viv. Nevertheless, here we are. (Lesson #8, 567, 456 of parenting: control is an illusion.) I noticed this morning that she's cutting a monster tooth and her gum looks a little like someone has punched her in the mouth, so I'm hoping she'll sleep well again once the offending pearly white appears.

Our other recent affliction is my apparent allergy to all sunscreens--not a great allergy in a place as sunny as southern France. I slathered myself in a new sunscreen yesterday after developing a reaction to the kids' sunscreen I tried last week, and by afternoon my back was covered in welts. I've had a few friends email to say they've had similar problems, and that the more expensive the sunscreen, the fewer the reactions, in general, so I guess I'm off to blow a few euros on some premium sunscreen today. (Curse my pasty complexion!)

We're also off to the grand Casino today--that is, the grocery store. As I've said before, it's a long walk, but we'll be able to restock our supply of anchovy olives and stinky cheese, and that is worth the walk.

So, without further ado, here are the Sunday photos of the park.

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Below, the cubist garden.

Overlooking the city of Hyeres.

Beneath one of the lovely shade trees in the garden.

Finn is actually being reprimanded here.

The garden is full of mazes, the walls of which are box hedges and other foliage. The kids had fun running through the narrow corridors of the mazes, calling to one another. ("It's like I'm Harry Potter in the Triwizard Tournament!" said Finn. I know, I know: the kid's obsessed.)

One of the many giant aloe plants here.

Nathan caught this photo of us all looking like we've escaped the madhouse on our walk back to the apartment.

On our way home, we decided to stop for some gelato in the old ville.

We took the gelato to the kids' favorite fountain, where Vivi promptly made a chocolate monster of herself.

Here's the city's statue of Charles I, who was granted rule of part of this region, and, apparently, bought Jerusalem. Now he stands post in the square, and serves as a good roost for the local pigeons.

We closed the day by Skyping with Nathan's parents -- a good way to finish our weekend!