Carnaval Saint-Quentin-la-Poterie Style

I read that there are 32 Saint Quentin municipalities in France and they had to come up with some name changes to differentiate them all for the postal service. Our Saint Quentin is one of the oldest pottery making regions so, in 1886 the 'la Poterie' was added.

Today was a big celebration in town. The kids and I walked to where we saw everyone else walking and  watched. We weren't sure what was happening or why but it looked like a lot of fun. Nearly

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My new bad habit (or) Internet Comments: It's like junior high with anonymity

I have a new - and very bad - habit. I've started reading comments. Not comments like the one's on our blog, which are funny and smart and and supportive and very worth reading. I've started reading the comments on news pieces. Have you read any of these? Don't, it's a bad idea.

Today as I was checking my email, a news story popped up about Colin Carson, a 13 year-old prodigy, who is having issues with his college concerning his age and his ability to travel to South Africa for course work. I read the article, which was interesting, in a

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Scotland to France on the Eurostar -- Part Deux

The next day I left the kids in our hotel and took a shuttle to the Renault Auto Lease office at Charles De Gaulle Airport. It's an incredibly efficient system. We leased a car for about ten weeks -- much cheaper than renting. Once I was in the office, the whole process took about four minutes. I walked back outside, my car pulled up and I got in. I reached forward to enter the hotel address into the GPS system... Wait there's no GPS. And no map. I really thought there was going to be Sat Nav in the car. I can read a map fine, I learned in Mr. Bunte's fifth grade geography class, but I don't have a map and now I need reading glasses and the signs are in French and I took Spanish in high school and I can't even speak that and Brenna's not here, so who am I going to yell at when I take a wrong turn?!?

Unfortunately I wasn't paying attention to the roads when I was on the shuttle from

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Scotland to France on the Eurostar -- Part Un

The kids and I got to our new home in France about six days ago -- barely. We Took a train from Edinburgh to London where we changed to the Eurostar -- the high speed train that goes under the channel. On the regular ScotRail train out of Edinburgh, it stops at the station and you get on. You know, it's a train. Stop. Get on. You stow your luggage and sit down. Stop. Get off. On the Eurostar you go through airport-like security -- metal detectors and luggage x-rays. Then they give your bags back to you and you drag them onto the train yourself, just like normal. Since you get the bags back, ALL luggage is the same as a carry on.

At security, I started getting nervous when

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Why Really?

Brenna here. Bob and the kids have moved into our new place in France, and as usual, Bob had quite an adventure getting there. It involved x-ray scanning, luggage searching, customs officials, a few knives, and one very kind London policeman. Also

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