Our New Normal: Around Albertville

Ugh, you all must forgive the infrequent posting.  It is a busy season with school, three littles, and all that lies therein.  However, we are doing well (mostly).  This week, I woke in the middle of one night in severe pain in my neck and shoulders, barely slept all night, was laid up all day (missed a day of school!) in severe pain, barely able to move, but not able to get comfortable.  By the next morning, it was sore and my range of motion was decreased, but I could function!  By today it is much better, with only some random soreness.  So weird!

Axel has finally finished pushing through FOUR! teeth, but it seems two more on the bottom might be making an appearance soon.  He is pulling up and beginning to test out his steps while holding on to things, too.

Levi and Amelia are loving school.  Levi went on his very first field trip – his class had been reading about pirates, then they went up to a fort from the 1800’s and played pirates all day.  The location included ropes course, zip line, old fort-y things (like dark rooms and whatnot), and even “big kids dressed like pirates.”  He LOVED it.  Amelia is doing well going to school all day and is even mostly diaper-free.

Matthew is staying connected to the work awaiting him in Kinshasa via plenty of emails and little projects.  Oh, and we are getting ready for our first two weeks off of school, making plans to travel a bit and take advantage of our huge opportunity – living in Europe.  There’s even some talk of what our living situation might look like – the house hunt is on in our absence, in case the ideal opportunity should strike.

Anyway, that’s a brief update…on to the regularly scheduled blog post, the last in the Our New Normal Series (I think)…

Albertville is a lovely village where about 18,000 people reside.  It is best known in recent history for hosting the 1992 Winter Olympics – many signs, including the town logo, still stand around the small town with pride.  I’ve seen the Olympic Hall, though this year they have gutted it and are updating it.  We have really enjoyed getting to know this place.

Being just under seven square miles, it is completely fine to be without a car in our situation.  We are quite pleased that all of our needs can be met by walking, but have taken the bus to the giant Walmart-like store for some necessities.  The bus system is excellent.

So, I have some pictures and highlights to share with you to introduce you to our hometown for the next year.

The scenery is beautiful here!

From the our bedroom window…

From the kids’ bedroom window…

The lovely homes in our neighborhood are a fun collection of French and Swiss styles – Alpine, I suppose

This lovely older home is currently looking for investors to be rebuilt into a retirement home…

The streets of downtown are less than ten minutes away. We head this way about three times each week for supplies…

This photo usually comes up if you search for “Albertville” on Google…well, I took this one, but one exactly like it.

Each Saturday we head to a local market for fresh produce, some meats and most of our cheese…Levi loves cheese of all kinds…even more than I do! France has over 400 officially recognized types of cheeses.

The boucherie truck at the market.

One of our favorite places – laitiere – creamery!

One of our very favorite cheeses, Beaufort is made in a town not too far from here. The Beaufort été is better than the Beaufort (it is aged) – think a sharp cheddar/parmesan, but better…

One of our two favorite boulangeries (bakeries), La Mie Calline. We probably buy from them three to four times each week.

A city building of some type, very regal looking.

A speed limit sign in France, for those a little less traveled. I love little things like this.

A fire hydrant. We saw one open once, on the inside they look the same as ones in the US. Go figure.

We have two of them…just in case anyone was curious.

This sign near the language school campus is a reminder for what happened here and who was lost. There are several around town – I took a picture because it is amazing to see the history in person. This wasn’t some far off place in a history book, it was the people from THIS house.

Here is another plaque posted on a school up the road a bit. I love that the memory is not lost.

This is L’Arly and it runs down one side of town. Just beyond it is Conflans, the medieval city.

A view from Conflans…which will get its own blogpost in the [near] future.