La Classe Vert

Levina went on a week long field trip Aveyron with her school last week.  Aveyron is a department in southern France, about 4-5 hour drive from Bordeaux, known for its medieval castle and museums.  Now here's a place she can brag about and the rest of the family have nothing to say.  It was a 5 day and 4 night trip.  They departed on a big coach bus from school at 6:30 am on June 19th.  It was quite a scene at the send off.  Some younger kids (grade 2s) had a difficult time leaving their parents overnight for the first time.  Some tears were unavoidable.  Levina and her friends, on the other hand, were eager to get the coach.  They couldn't wait to get away from their parents for this multi-day trip.

About 4-5 Hr Drive From Bordeaux, One Way

Three Good Friends About to Leave Their Parents 

for An Overnight Field Trip for The Very First Time

The Coach Accompanying Them for The Week

A Total Chaos At Loading Time 

Something You've Gotta Get Used to in France 

Parents received updated information regarding their kids' daily itineraries and activities via https://www.ondonnedesnouvelles.com/dashboard where parents could login and view all the pictures and updates.

Evania's Class Grade 4 and Grade 5

The "Mansion" they stayed at, total of 92 beds, 26 bedrooms of 2 - 4 beds with a pool, 

located near a one hectare park where they played football, basketball, volleyball, 

and even pingpong among their jammed packed daily trips.

The Dining Hall Where They Had Their Meals Everyday, 

Sitting Down, Actual Proper Meals, Eating Like Adults. 

Good Eating Habits Built at A Young Age

The Medieval Town Behind Them

Learning to Construct A Bird House

Outside Their Chambres

Visiting a Wolf Sanctary 

Where They Saw Wolves From Canada haha...

Visiting A Museum of Bugs And Insects

Learning and Investigating

Levina's Fav Thing to Do

Getting A Kayaking Crash Course

Visiting an OLD farm house on the way back to Bordeaux,

where they learnt how printing was done in the old days.  

Bottom right is their chauffuer for the week.

Weeks Leading up to the Spring Break

It's been very busy the past two weeks.  Two weeks before the school spring break.  Lots of happenings!

Levina's school is in preparation of the spring carnaval flash mob, making head pieces and practicing the dance moves.  She really has taken an interest in dancing lately, especially the tiktok ones Evania's been showing her.  She would practice them over and over again.  The flash mob moves were child's play.  Her teacher played her in the front coz she was rocking them.  This was the first year that all elementary schools in Chartron were participating in the carnaval.  It was quite exciting as an observer who doesn't speak the language.  I was lost in the multiple massive emails to the parents, trying to figure out the details (time/place) of the event.  French people don't like to communicate via emails but when they do, good luck to decoding the messages.  The emails from school are always very long, and they go round and round about the event.  And in the end, no specific location was disclosed for the event.  Luckily, I was able to get it from a local parent.  I had to double check with her that the address wasn't included in any of the emails.  That's how it goes, according to her. LOL

Her class has recently finished learning about ecology(recycling).  Everyone in the class got officially certified whether you like it or not.  She came home with a piece of paper certificate - Ecologist "should I recycle it"?  And she did it before I even had a chance to rely.  How fitting!  Her teacher also brought us some good news.  Levina had started chatting to her friends in French in the past two weeks, more so this week. She's more and more immersed each day.  It's the news we've been waiting for since day one 😀  She's probably been the busiest one out of all of us in terms of social life.  Been on a few play dates and birthday parties.  In fact, Nick and I met some great parents through her.  The school is a wonderful place to make friends, for kids and parents alike. 

Let's talk about the big kids.  Evania just finished a two full day exams.  Apparently, French kids have to take Beret exams for high school. Although she's only here until June, her teacher asked her to take Beret Blanc (practice exams).  I didn't think much of them but from talking to another parent, Beret exams are big deals here.  Everything was in French.  She was tested on history, geography, Science, Physics, and Math. If she passes even if they're just for practice, we must celebrate (our friend insists).  We shall see.  For soccer, Evania's team played a game against a team from Libourne (30 min east of Bordeaux), and due to injuries she got to play almost the entire game.  Although her team lost 2:1, she played a great game.  One of her teammates came up to me after the game, shaking my hands and saying "Evania, very good, bien fait".  That was very mature of him, I thought.  Her coach also came up to me and started talking to me in French.  He forgot that I didn't really understand a word out of his mouth.  I just politely nodded and smiled.  In the end, I replied "Merci, bonne journée, au revoir" when he was done.

Noah hasn't played many games since we got back from Morocco.   He was sick, and had to get an ultrasound (that's another story), so missed a few practices and didn't get to play games for a bit.  However, the first game he got to play, he got 4 goals on the scoring board, and a bunch of assists.  He and another teammate had great chemistry on the field, always finding each other.  It's the same kid that never brings water bottles to practices/games and always asks him for water.  And Noah always shares.  If you know Noah, he's a bit of germaphobe.  Under special circumstances, he MAY let me drink his bottle.  So this kid must be pretty special.  Good to know he's made a friend on the team.  Or he didn't know how to say in French!!!

Noah also accidentally found himself learning a new instrument, base guitar.  I borrowed it initially for myself from the library.  That's right.  You can borrow musical instruments here from the library, ranging from strings to keyboards.  I started learning the basic scales and a few cords, but guess what.  Noah took over...started playing songs from watching YouTube.  Within a span of 3 weeks, he's playing Say It Ain't So, ok not quite playing smoothly, but not bad for a true beginner.  

So Spring Break for the kids here is from Apt. 10 to 21.  Evania's friend, Nila, is coming to visit us all the way from Victoria.  We're all looking forward to having her here for the next 10 days.  After that, Nick's Mom, sister and brother-in-law are coming for another 10 days.  Between these two big visits, we'll be spoiled with good companies, good food, wines and cheese, and hopefully great weather.  

Day 2 in Morocco

Day 2 - Explore Fes, and get lost in Medina.

Our airbnb was located in a very quiet residential area.  We did not stay anywhere close to the new city (Ville Nouvelle) or the old city (Medina de Fes).  It was really nice as we got to interact with the ordinary people (not the pushy Moroccans looking to make a few Dirham, but the ones willing to help not looking for a return), and eat at the ordinary restaurants (without inflated tourist pricing).  We leisurely got out of the door (after all we're on a vacation right), looking for a place to have breakfast.  It was so warm, and we were so happy to feel the sun.  It was such a great start to the day.  Outside our airbnb were beautiful orange trees, and that reminded me of Spain.  

right outside of our airbnb

Levina loved the colorful flower pots

After strolling a couple of blocks, we came to a major road.  At the intersection, there it was, Cafe Piscardor.  It looked really empty, but was spacious and had comfy seats.  We debated whether we should go in or not, give it a try or not.  We looked at the menu and looked around to see if there were any better options close by.   Kids voted YES (they just wanted food).  That was a good call!  And it became our go-to breakfast place for the next few days.

I was happy to try my first Moroccan mint tea!  

So good, but asked for sans sucre for our future visits

Chocolate Chaud always the right choice

Nick's breakfast packed with proteins

Evania and Levina went for the fancy crepes with Nutella

Noah finished this plate of awesomeness LOL

My tortilla packed with proteins 

and a nice touch on the fresh salad was.

Each of our breakfasts came with a fresh squeezed OJ, a hot drink, and a bottle of water (we took those for the day.  Not recommended to drink the tap water in Morocco).  Our final bill was 170 Dirham (less than 17 Euro) for the entire family.  For that price, we could probably feed 1.5 kids for breakfast in Bordeaux, only.  I love Morocco already!

We were eager to get going.  I couldn't wait to see what Medina de Fes had in store for us.  Getting to it was the challenging part.  In Fes, there are two types of taxi, the red taxi taking 3 passengers max and the white taxi taking 6 passengers.  We needed a white taxi.  However, we stood at the major intersection for a while, and only the red taxi went by.  Not a single white taxi.  Google map suggested that we get to Medina by bus.  However, there was no sign of the bus stop when we got to the suggested location by Google map.  Out of frustration, I had Evania stop a Moroccan woman for directions, not knowing if she spoke French or Arabic or both.  It turned out she spoke really good English.  Yah bonus!!!  She was happy to take us to the bus stop.  Very kind of her!  she was excited to learn that we're from Canada.  She has a son that lives in Montreal.  What a small world!  She just became a grandmother, and was preparing to visit them soon.  We chatted all the way to the bus stop...well, the invisible bus stop.  The locals knew where it was - a metal pole with a sign that had completely faded from the sunlight over the years.  No bus info was visible whatsoever.   We were told to take bus 45, which would take us directly to Medina.  Bus 15 came along and stopped.  We were going to go on since it wasn't the one we wanted; however, the bus driver waved at us, gesturing us to get on the bus.  And we did.  He could take us to Ville Nourvelle (the new city).  Alright, that was a bit closer to Medina.  We could definitely take a ride.  Now it comes to paying for the bus tickets, 17.5 Dirham (less than 2 Euro) for all of us.  I thought that was a really good price.  However, when other locals got on the bus, we didn't see anyone showing a bus pass or paying for bus tickets.  It got me wondering....LOL

It took less than 10 min to get to Ville Nouvelle.  This was what awaited us when we got off the bus.

Av. Hassan II, the major boulevard in Ville Nouvelle

The green space runs all the way through the boulevard.

It was such a beautiful day.  We were in Morocco.  Nothing else was more important than just being present.  We decided to just walk to Medina.   Right before reaching Medina, we came upon the Royal Palace.  It was so prominent that you can't miss it.  

Of course, we have to pose in front of the golden gates

The Royal Palace isn't accessible to the public.  The Moroccan King has over 50 palaces throughout the country.  He probably visits Fes less than a handful of times a year.  So the entire palace sits empty most of the year.  Pretty wasteful if you ask me!

The further we walked, the narrower the streets became.  At some point we found ourselves in front of Semmarin Medina Gate.

Bab Semmarin, South Gate to Medina

The narrow streets are filled with handmade Moroccan merchandise.  It was jaw dropping.  We couldn't walk a few steps without stopping.  

Medina is a labyrinth.  It isn't for everyone.  It's not for the faint-hearted.  It's not for families with lots of kids.  After a couple of hours of exploring the tiny streets, sometimes shoulder to shoulder with strangers, sometimes smelling the familiar unwelcome human scents, sometimes forced to make ways for the donkeys, sometime completely lost even with the help of Google Maps, kids were getting anxious to get out of there.  They needed fresh air even though we were outside, but we didn't even feel like we were outside surrounded by so many people unless you look up and look for the blue sky.  On our way out, we came across Seffarine Square, coppersmith square.  I was glad we stumbled upon it without looking.  It's the place you get to watch the handy coppersmiths at work, admire their creations, and listen to the music created by their instruments.  It was fascinating.

We had to end the day with some good Moroccan food.  Walking by this little food stand, as always Levina was curious about the food.  And of course we had to try it.  It was either beef or lamb, the smell was amazing, and it costs nearly nothing.  I wish I could teleport the smell through the photo.  

For dinner, we found this Moroccan restaurant hidden away just out of Medina.  I say hidden because it was hard to locate it.  We had a local guy show us the way.  It was a beautiful Moroccan house.  It was very cold inside as it was built with stones with high ceilings.  One thing I'm not too used to yet was that the temperature drops drastically when the sun goes down.  Besides being a bit chilly there, we loved the Moroccan decor, and especially the food.  We ordered three different types of Tajines (beef, lamb and chicken), and each Tajine came with 4 or 5 different side dishes, very tasty, but hard to identify the spices used in each dish.  It was the most expensive meal we had in Fes, but well worth it and was still a lot cheaper than a typical dinner in Bordeaux. 😀

Day 1 in Morocco

Chasing the sunshine, we decided to take a quick trip to Morocco, the most visited country in Africa.  After a short two-hour flight from Bordeaux to Fes, we found ourselves in this very exotic muslin country.  We used Fes as the base, and did day trips out of Fes located in central Morocco.  Most people travelling through Morocco in one direction, either from North or South.  Every few days, they relocate to a new city.  We only had 7 days in total, not long enough to cover long distance travels, and moving from one city to another would lose lots of valuable time.  We'd rather focus on one small region, get to know the area, the culture and the people.  

Day 1 - Arrive in Fes

Our flight was 30 mins delayed.  We didn't arrive at Fes airport until midnight.  For a 30 Euro one way flight (Bordeaux, France - Fes, Morocco), that wasn't too bad.  The owner of our airbnb had suggested that we exchange some Moroccan Dirham at the airport as it was the weekend.  Banks are closed on the weekends and most businesses do not take credit cards, so if we want to survive the weekend, we need cash.   So we did.  BIG mistake!!!  Never ever exchange money at the airport.  They DING you big time.  The exchange rate was not in our favour to say the least.  We later found out that we lost about 10% for doing that currency exchange.  We could actually have used our WISE card to get Dirham in cash from most bank machines.  Even with the service charge by the 3rd party ATM and the regular fee from WISE, the exchange rate was still a lot better than the one we got at the airport.  So, lesson #1 - DO NOT exchange currency at the airport EVER!!!  And I just can't stress enough that WISE card is absolutely the best multi-currency travel card out there.  Anyone who travels lots, does not want to worry about getting the best currency exchange rates or getting dinged by credit card companies or other bank charges need to get this card.  

Our driver (arranged by our airbnb owner for 20 Euro) picked us up with a small mini-van.  As soon as we stepped outside the arrival, we felt the warm humid air surrounding us instantly.  We were still in our winter jackets LOL.  All I could think of was ditching my down jacket.  Kids were excited about the palm trees uniformly lined in the middle of the road.  It was well past midnight, but we were wide awake, feeling very excited.   

Checking in at our airbnb, a Moroccan 2 bedroom, 3 bathroom palace (kids called it) was easy.  The owner was still up and waiting for us.  He was a Moroccan in his 60s, speaking no English, but fluent French.  He showed us around, and in the end I was thinking what are we going to do with all this space?  We went from a tiny 2 bed and 1 bath (often lineups during critical times) to this GRAND palace!!!  I had no idea when I booked it. Well, let's enjoy it thoroughly in the next few days.

We didn't even use this space during our stay there.  Too much room LOL