All five of us walked to the bakery this morning. I let the kids each pick something out. Cal and I both picked a tartlette which is a tiny fruit pie. Asa picked a chocolate eclair. Here the chocolate frosted eclairs also have chocolate filling. The one with vanilla frosting has a pastry cream (Bavarian cream) filling. Esme picked a meringue and Nova couldn’t decide and just picked out a piece of candy and then proceeded to eat half of Esme’s meringue.

I ran to the grocery store to get bug spray and bug bite remedy. The mosquitoes are out here. Although they have mostly left us alone, we did get a few bites this morning. At the store I noticed this “anti-cat” spray. There are a lot of cats running all over the place in France. I’m not sure if they all belong to people or if they’re strays. Probably a combination of the two but apparently some people need to keep the cats away and use this product.

We ate lunch and packed a dinner and headed to the Grand lac de Laffrey in the mountains. The water was really cold (63F/17C) but the weather was hot today (around 88F/31C). Cal and Tahys went in deep enough to get their hair wet.

Nova admiring Tahys’s sister’s dog.

Then we had an ice cream and the kids played on a sailboat meant for kids to play on. They rent sailboats here and Tahys might have sailing lessons this summer.

The boys got in the water again too. Then they invented this towel game where they use their towels in what is kind of like a sword fight. I was sure someone would end up whipped hard enough to make them cry but all was well because no one figured out how to turn the towel into a whip.

They had a squat toilet here which I’ve heard referred to as an asian-style toilet.

The kids have been doing this thing a lot where they ask each other questions like “what’s your favorite dipping sauce?” or “what’s your favorite animal?” etc. It’s something they usually do while we are waiting. It’s kind of fun because sometimes it’s just two kids like Asa and Nova and sometimes they all join in. Nova is fun to ask questions to because her answers are unpredictable. Like she might say unicorn to answer “what’s your favorite time of day?”

Today Cal said, “Who is the coolest person in the family and you can’t say yourself.”. Asa and Cal said “Mom”, Esme said “Dad” and Nova said “Esme”. They wanted Dad’s vote and I assured them Mom and Dad would vote for each other because we can’t pick favorites. And that’s how I was voted coolest member of the family. Only when I video chatted with Nole tonight he set me straight and voted for Esme…so I guess it’s a tie.