Thulani in France - Part 6

Thulani is feeling a bit nervous for Paula since she has her big "End of Year Concert / Spectacle" tonight at the Foyer Rural in Ligueil when many of the pupils of the Music School will be performing together and individually. She has to leave in one hour to set up all the instruments, tables & chairs and get organised for the 8pm start tonight. Also we have an orchestral rehearsal at 7pm ...... YIKES !!

We attached a photo of our small orchestra at our rehearsal last night. Thulani took the photo (so he's not in it , sorry !)

Yesterday he had a nice afternoon at our lovely Maison de Retrait, which is called Balthazar Benard and Thulani was able to enjoy some more music, played by Louis (in the red tee shirt) and his mother who plays the Saxophone. They will be performing together
tonight as well, playing a Gounod's Ave Maria based on the first Prelude by Bach in C major. (do majeur en français. Thulani has been interested to learn solfège while he has been in France). The elderly people get lots of concerts and what they call "animations" from the music school pupils. It is really good to connect the young and the elderly together as often as possible. It benefits both groups at either end of the age spectrum !! What a wonderful initiative! Paula worked for 2 weeks at this retirement home last summer and she loved it but in September she her job as piano teacher in Ligueil.

The last photos show our good friend Raphael in his stripey sweatshirt. He has the same name as the Pastor of our Church ! Raphael is an active member of the church too and lives in Loches and is married to a pianist and accordeon player. In August he will fit double glazed windows in our house because he is a "Menuisier" a carpenter and he does excellent work ! This will make a big difference to keeping us warm next winter.

Finally a photo of Thulani on our computer !! We got an e.mail from Karen today, asking when she is likely to expect the little chap. She wants to take him on holiday to Crete with her and Paula is envious !!

Thulani has just one more day with the horses on Monday morning, then he leaves middle of next week. We will miss him.

Thulani in France - Part 5

Thulani had a wonderful day today. His favourite day so far in France !! As it is Sunday, Paula asked him if he would like to go to church with her, and he wasn't sure because he didn't know what denomination he was, and also worried that it will all be in French and he wouldn't understand it ?! He said that last Christmas he went to a lovely Christmas concert at St. Mary's Parish Chuch Columbus Ohio and he LOVED the music.

Paula put his mind at rest and said that there was always lots of lovely music in their service and that he would be very much welcomed. She showed him their website www.evangeliquedeloches and he said it did look very friendly, so he agreed to go and what a great time he had there !! The congregation were all so happy and even though he didn't understand everything, he got the idea of true celebration and joy. The first photo shows Thulani with Pastor Raphael Anzenberger outside the church, and the second photo is a lovely little girl Lylia, who was also attending her first church service (because she's only 13 days old !). 

Paula told Thulani that there is an English service next Sunday, so if he is still here in France he could attend that too if he wants to.

Now a little bit of information about the Royal & Impregnable Fortress of Loches. The Keep was built in the early 11th century. 36 metres high, it is one of the most imposing buildings of the Roman period and the best preserved Keep in Europe. There are dungeons, tunnels and a medieval garden. The Royal Quarters, jewel of the French Renaissance, was home to the Valois and accommodated famous women such as Joan of Arc, Agnès Sorel and Anne of Brittany. The royal quarters contain fine collections of Flemish tapestries, armours and paintings.   

A high point for Thulani was also visiting La collégiale Saint-Ours, (ours meaning "bear" of course !) and parts of that ancient church dates back to 1030 and 1135 etc. This year Loches is celebrating the 600th Anniversary of the birth of Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc) in 1412. More about her in the next e.mail (we need to do some research !!) After the sight-seeing in Loches at the church, Paula & Thulani went down to the town and enjoyed a bit of outdoor, typically "tables on the pavement" café life and he enjoyed the atmosphere enormously !! He said " this is the life !! " Luckily it wasn't too hot today as it has been raining quite a bit recently.

The day was rounded off perfectly by chillin' out in front of the TV to watch an English film called "The Queen" with Helen Mirren playing Her Royal Majesty (of course it had been dubbed into French). There is a British series of programmes and films on the channel "Arte" and to celebrate Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee, this was a good choice. You can see Thulani sitting on the TV paper giving the film a "pick of the week" spot !! He's really looking forward to going to England now !! .....

Thulani in France - Part 4

Today (9 June) Thulani went to the riding stable again and we took a photo of a newly born foal. Thulani is actually not in the photograph., because we were afraid he might get dirty if he went into the straw. Also the mother horse was a little bit anxious and we didn't want to disturb her. Next week we plan to make another trip to the Haras de Muschamp stud farm and give you lots more information about breeding horses.

Thulani in France - Part 3

Thursday and Friday were reasonably quiet days after our busy Wednesday when Thulani made really good friends with Daisy, Eddy's dog in Bridoré and when he enjoyed many different styles of music from Paula's piano pupils. In our next e.mail we will send you some fascinating information about the ancient castle in Bridoré which is extremely pretty.

But for now, we just need to send a couple of photos of Caspar our cat, who was fascinated in Thulani's world travels and had never seen anything quite like Thulani before. Caspar arrived in France with us on 14th July 2009 and has enjoyed 3 very happy years here in the countryside. He originally came from Battersea Dogs Home. He was a rescue cat and has been with us for at least 10 years, so he's not that young anymore.

These two photos were taking by Franciso, who is working here in France with the horses at present, but as he's originally from Argentina, he was really interested about when Thulani stayed with Natalia, Ines, Clara, Sofia & Ana in Patagonia. Francisco is leaving France to go to Ireland quite soon and he wondered whether Thulani is planning to visit Ireland ? He says Ireland is very well worth a visit, if possible.

Thulani is very much hoping that Caspar the cat will appear on his travel blog .... Tomorrow we'll be visiting Loches, so hopefully there will be more photos and some information about Joan of Arc.

Thulani in France - Part 2

 Day 1  Arrival in France   ~ Tuesday 5 June 2012

We were SO excited when our Facteur (postman) knocked on the door at lunchtime today with a box covered in Polish stamps and I knew that the much awaited Thulani had finally arrived !!  It was like Christmas all over again and I was interested to see that the postmark from Poland was dated 24 May which was the day before my birthday.  I was originally hoping that Thulani might arrive on my birthday.

We unpacked him very carefully and then proceeded to enjoy the two bars of Polish chocolate which were kindly sent by Anna and her family who had hosted him before us.  I will plan to send some French “chocolat” to England when I finally pack him off for his next visit !!  I have already managed to upload a photo of Thulani to the internet and took another photo of him with some cute little bear friends from my house …… Not forgetting a photo of Thulani enjoying his first taste of a proper “Baguette” (the lovely French bread !)

Days 2 & 3 Wednesday/Thursday 6th&7th June 2012

Thulani loves the beautiful local Touraine stone which is called 'tuffeau' but not sure if that's how it is spelled.  Our lovely old "longère" is built from this stone and I love it.  It is quite a cold house in the snowy, harsh winters that we get here (although not as bad as Norway !), but it is perfect for the very hot summers that we normally have.  It is a lovely cool home but at the moment the weather is very unseasonal, with lots of wind, rain and storms. 

We also have a birds nest in our rose bush which had four blackbird eggs, which now contain two rapidly growing  baby blackbirds and with the strong winds blowing outside today Thursday, we are a bit worried that the blackbirds will not survive the swaying ......

Wednesday is Paula's busiest day of the week, as she starts teaching at 10.30 in the morning.  The primary children don't go to school on Wednesday morning and the Collège students (secondary school) come home at lunchtime on Wednesday, so Paula is teaching ALL afternoon non-stop !!  Then she plays with a "Funk Groove Band" at 7.30 after her last pupil.  I am hoping to upload some of the photos of my pupils, but of course, I first have to ask permission from their parents.  We have our End of Year Concert next week on Friday 15th June and I'm hoping Thulani will still be here to enjoy that ? ...... In the photos that follow you see Thulani on one of her student's piano, as well as making great friends with Daisy the dog of another of her pupils .....  Thulani on the drum kit was a highlight of his evening last night !

More photos tomorrow as Thulani is looking forward to visiting some horses .....

Thulani in France - Part 1

Here is my first attempt at sending a photo of the little man sitting on our kitchen table. the day of his arrival in France
(Tuesday 5th June 2012)

He needs to spend a quiet day before we start to introduce him to all the exciting things he will
be doing here in France. First of all he needs to learn a few words in French. first word is "Bienvenue en France, petit Ours" Welcome to France little Bear ! Can you believe the word Ours means Bear ? And yet he is not Ours, he is everybody's !!