Zis iz la diff-erence

It would seem the French insist their rent be payed in advance, no negotiation. When we wired six months lump sum to the owner for an unseen house, we hit send, crossing our fingers that we had chosen the right house.

Now we're locked in for the next six months. We had seen photos of the house, which evoked charm and character; original Basque-style architecture, outdoor living and cosy red shutters on all the windows. A studio for art and music and a working piano. The owner's brother was even a piano tuner! When we moved in it was all true. The house is quaint and terrific. We just didn't know it was on a freeway-like main road.

Cars (and buses) whiz up and down like it's a freeway, but the road is the width of a median strip. And the footpaths are almost non-existant. "Single file, single file", we say every time we walk out of the house with our children. To soften the blow, our neighbour two doors down, is the Boulangerie, although we must be careful - we can't afford to get any wider. Our children think there is a French sign at the end of our road that says, "Drive like a maniac". To calm our nerves we have the, "Cave a vin" (bottle-o) as our neighbour on the other side.

Our fabulous babysitter, Paola, is as much babysitting us, the parents, as our children. Rob told Paola that he would like to busk on the streets whilst in France. She didn't know what busking was, so he tried to translate for her. After a lengthy explanation, Paola said, "Ear-in-ah... Fronce, zis is what we call-ah... begging".

There is an impressive sports stadium near our place, called Stade d'Aguiléra. After a game of tennis one day, I went to the bar of the stadium and ordered a drink, in my Fr/inglish. The barman took my order and nodded, (there can't be too many interpretations of the word Campari). He walked outside into the fresh air and lit up a cigarette. I thought, "He must be going to a special outdoor cupboard to get the Campari for my drink". I stood at the bar and waited, and waited, and watched him suck down on his cigarette for a long five minutes. The other staff members walked past; laughing, lighting up their own cigarettes. Eventually he ambled back inside and made my drink.

In our new house: the girls and I cooked Rob a birthday cake

Phoebe took this photo at Rob's birthday dinner