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It was a little tough being without family for Thanksgiving, but we are so thankful to have some wonderful American friends here.  We got together with 3 other families on Saturday since the guys had work on Thursday and each made some dishes for our Thanksgiving meal.  There were 8 adults and 9 kids so it was a full house!

Our turkeys had to be special ordered as they are not normally served here.  Turkey is a traditional Christmas meal, but the butchers do not get them in for another few weeks.  Apparently our friend that ordered them had to request a few things be removed before taking them home…I will leave that to your imagination!

Makenna and her friend Olivia had their own little table next to the adult table, and it was so cute watching them interact with each other.

We had a delicious meal and afterwards the guys watched the Virginia Tech game while the ladies chatted and the kids played.  The little girls were having fun playing dress up and getting piggy-back rides.  Ryan and I really enjoyed seeing Makenna play with the older kids and having fun.

I am thankful that we are living in France and have made some great friendships along the way!

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This past Friday Clermont-Ferrand had a Christmas kickoff night which included the lighting of the Christmas tree and decorations throughout the main square in town, the start of the Christmas market and a parade.

We walked through the square and saw the ferris wheel and lighted decorations, but the tree would not be lit until after the parade.  After waiting almost 40 minutes near the cathedral where the parade was to start, we finally heard a band coming down the street.  The parade had finally begun!  It was a fairly short parade and started with Santa in a car, a band with a woman on stilts and an illuminated outfit that was supposed to be the princess from Frozen followed by several Disney characters including Mickey, Minnie, Donald Duck and the chipmunks.  I’ve never experienced a parade like this because the street was not blocked off and people watching were standing in the middle of the street and right up against the parade.

It was really cold but Makenna loved it.  She was amazed by the Christmas lights and loved listening to the band.  It was getting late so we didn’t stay for the Christmas tree lighting, but it was a great start to the Christmas season and got us into the Christmas spirit!  There is nothing like the festive feeling you get from being in a place like this for the holidays!

I have a meeting with the photography club here where we will be taking photos of the Christmas lights so stay tuned for more/better photos 🙂

I’ve read about the amazing French school lunches in several articles and books such as “Bringing up Bébé” and today the town’s Facebook page shared the school menu for the month of November. Here is the menu for the first week of November:

Monday– pork cheek confit, braised lentils, cantal (cheese), kiwi
Tuesday– grated carrots and tomatoes, roasted chicken, cheese, yogurt, fruit cocktail
Wednesday– rice salad, stewed beef and green vegetables, camembert (cheese), apple
Thursday– endive mimosa, fish with hollandaise sauce, braised carrots, emmental (cheese), chocolate
Friday– rosemary lamb roast, steamed potatoes, vanilla chocolate pudding

I can’t believe this is the type of food being served in school cafeterias!  French children are said to not be picky eaters, and this is a prime example of why- they are served a variety of food right from the start and are offered healthy dishes at home and at school.

I’ve read and been told that the French believe you should have a well balanced diet- no avoiding carbs or cheese etc. and not making dessert something that is a “cheat meal” or something to be avoided.  They enjoy their food, savor it, and don’t binge on certain things because they allow themselves to eat everything in moderation.

Of course, not everything is healthy and a lot of the snacks for kids are sugary.  But I’ve also seen, on several occasions, French children eating cherry tomatoes and avocado like they’re candy.

Now if I could only make meals like the ones on this menu….

Unfortunately for the second time since we moved here last year, there was a terrorist attack in Paris.

Our friends and family in the US knew about it before we did, as it happened after we went to sleep.  Ryan was in Germany for work, and Makenna and I were thankfully home safe.  I woke up to messages from both friends and acquaintances checking to make sure we were ok.  I was so touched that people I don’t even know that well or don’t speak to that often reached out to me.

As soon as I saw the messages, I turned on the tv to watch CNN and find out what happened.  I felt sick to my stomach seeing this horrific news and thinking of all the innocent lives that were lost.  It also scared me that  this is the second attack within a year in Paris, which has made me nervous to plan a trip there.  It also makes me nervous to travel, and of course it is scary that we are living not too far from there and we don’t know if something like this will happen again and where it could happen.

I have tried not to watch too much coverage of the attacks and just read the important updates.  I don’t want to live in fear.  I don’t want to read stories of people who “walked by that area before it happened”….people who are just giving an interview but were not there or did not lose a friend or loved one.  It makes me sick that there were people taking photos of the attacks while they happened and of the victims during the aftermath.  I want to be aware of what is going on, but not swept into the hours of media coverage that are unnecessary.

It is sad to be here after a tragic event like this has happened.  But the amount of support France, and the victims, have received from all over the world is amazing.  This world unfortunately has seen a lot of evil, but there is kindness, empathy and unity that will not fail.

Above are some photos of the memorials and support shown in Place de Jaude, the main square in the city.

A couple weeks ago one of our American friends, Meredith, was so sweet to offer to watch Makenna.  Ryan and I decided to have a date day at a local spa, Royatonic, about 10 minutes from where we live.  Most of the spas here offer spa treatments but also have “baths” of thermal water (local water that is said to have healing benefits) to swim or relax in.

The spa was beautiful and had a variety of different baths.  The baths look like hot tubs, however, most of them were just luke warm.  There was one large pool area with tepid water that had a waterfall, a bath in a room that was lavender scented for relaxation, a bath that was warmer more like a hot tub, a bath with massage jets, one with really cold water for circulation and to cool down after using the sauna, and then several baths/pools outside.  The inside was decorated with fake rock to look like you were in natural waterfalls and baths.

In between trying out the different baths, we relaxed in the saunas and hammams (steam rooms).

During the week they offer exercise classes and baby swim classes in the pool area.

It was so nice to have some time to relax!  Next time I think I’ll be scheduling a massage in the spa 😉

After we left we had a little bit of time to stop for a drink so we went to a little bar near our friend’s apartment called Le Fizzy.  It was a really interesting little place and we tried a cherry flavored beer which was delicious!