C'est fini le blog! The blog is over!

Comme vous l'avez remarqué, je n'écris plus sur le blog depuis bien longtemps. C'est parce que notre aventure canadienne s'achève dans 2 semaines et demi! Doug a eu le poste à Toulouse, donc on déménage à la fin du mois. Pour ceux qui ne sont pas au courant, nous attendons un petit bébé aussi pour début janvier. On saura le sexe lundi prochain. Quoi d'autre? Doug est à Rio pour une semaine, il rentre samedi prochain. Ceci sera mon dernier message, merci à ceux qui nous ont suivi et gros bisous à tous.

Doug back in Paris!

Doug is going to be back in Paris for a week as of sunday. He will be interviewed for a post-doctoral job in Toulouse.

To be continued....

Doug retourne à Paris pour une semaine à compter de dimanche. Il a réussi à avoir un entretien pour un post-doc à Toulouse.


Affaire à suivre....

Clara trop mignonne

De retour a Quebec apres un voyage prolonge en France de 3 semaines pour Clara et moi en raison d'un petit sejour a l'hopital. Rien de grave, une double otite et deshydratation/denutrition pour mon petit ange qui va beaucoup mieux.

On a eu de la chance hier il a fait super beau, on a donc pu profiter du soleil.






On est encore creves par le decalage horaire, mais on se remet petit a petit. Cette semaine Clara fete ses 2 ans, j'ai du mal a y croire!

Bises a tous.

D day

Ca y est le grand jour est arrivé! Nous partons à 18h30 de Québec, avec une escale à Toronto. Arrivée à Paris demain matin à 9h50. Inutile de dire qu'on a hyper hâte de retrouver le chef de notre petite famille, le seul, l'unique Douggie!
La semaine c'est super bien passée, hyper busy mais bonne quand même. Petite frayeur hier soir quand Charlie a réussi à s'échapper au moment où je sortais pour mettre la valise dans la voiture. Mais bien heureusement mon esprit rusé l'a destabilisé et il a fini par rentrer la queue entre les jambes, hihihi....
Nous sommes prêtes pour le grand départ, j'espère n'avoir rien oublié et surtout que le voyage sera tranquille.
Voici quelques photos de la cabane à sucre où nous sommes allées déjeuner dimanche dernier avec mes collègues:
Clara, de très bonne humeur!

La cabane

On a même fait un tour de carriole après, histoire de digérer un peu. Et oui les oreilles de crisse, c'est un peu lourd : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grillades_de_lard

Carmen adore la tire, elle en a mangé au moins, j'sais pas en fait, mais elle a quand même 3 bâtonnets dans la main...

Chantale avec Béatrice dans les bras, et derrière elle Stéphanie et sa maman qu'on aperçoit à peine.

L'entrée de la bouillerie, où ils font chauffer le sirop d'érable pour faire la tire :

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tire_d%27%C3%A9rable

Les grandes tablées de la cabane

Clara, qui n'a pas fait de sieste, s'endort à moitié à table, en plus au menu rien ne lui convient, à part le jambon.

Du coup elle s'allonge par terre dans la carriole pour essayer de dormir!

Mais finalement son amour pour les animaux est plus fort, et elle se précipite sur eux dans la petite ferme pour enfants.

Allez, à très vite pour ceux qu'on ne va pas tarder à voir, et à bientôt pour les autres!

Photos Clara

Breaking News

Du nouveau pour les vols vers Québec: La compagnie Corsair offre des vols à des prix défiant toute concurrence:

Profitez-en!

J-8

Yessssssssssss, I'm coming back to the motherland in 8 days, I can't wait! Clara has made clear progress with the potty training, it' really cool. Her hair has grown enough for ponytails now, she's so cute. I'm going to put up some pictures tonight. Doug is flying over to France on saturday night, his "competitions" are on monday, after which he will be working with his old colleagues in Orsay for a few days, until Clara and I get there. Then we're off to my dad's for a few days and then to my mum's for a few days, while Doug spends the week in Toulouse.
This summer will definetely be our last summer in Quebec, so for those of you who would like to come for a holiday this is your last chance. We will be on holiday between July 10th to july 20th and be renting a cottage in the countryside with some friends if anyone would like to join us.
In August Doug will be attending an international astrophysics conference in Rio de Janeiro and I will be joining him for a holiday, if anyone is interested to come and have some fun in Brazil.
That's all for now, hopefully I will be posting new photos of Clara and her ponytails tonight!
See ya!

Update

Salut tout le monde,
L'emploi du temps est charge en ce moment, Doug bosse la plupart du temps, il se prepare pour les concours fin mars, et essaie de finir mille choses en meme temps. Le voyage en France s'annonce super bien, Clara va pouvoir passer du temps avec ses grands-parents, je suis trop contente, et aussi avec sa tata et sa cousine Elsa.
Le printemps commence a pointer timidement le bout de son nez, la neige a un peu fondu, ca fait du bien.
Bon je vais au dodo, bonne nuit!

Amazing aquarium

We went to the Quebec Aquarium yesterday and observed some amazing creatures, as you can judge by the photos. Don't forget to check-out the rest of the photos on picasa...

Emilie loved the sea horses and jelly fish most.




Not as much snow this year as there was last year, but still, here's the view of our house!

Bye for now.

Out and about in the Frozen North.

Long time no blog. Sorry.


Clara has grown up quite a bit and is quite talkative. Here she is grinning with her friend Babouche (in her hand).


Here's Babouche up close.



This weekend we went out snowshoeing without snowshoes. The snow was very compact as it hasn't snowed very much. Clara had great fun.




So did Doug.
and Emilie.

We walked along a river with about 1.5 meters of snow on top of it. The river would break out now and again in a waterfall or a pool.


We stopped after about an hour in a wooden refuge complete with wood fire. Clara had a banana, she made the other hikers in the refuge chuckle.


That's all for now. BCNU.

Santa Claus

The weekend was excellent, starting with the dinner and dance at the farm, and a ride from Anapharm on a yellow school bus. We played games to win prezzies and had lots of fun singing and partying!

On Saturday Anapharm's Santa was handing out prezzies so Clara was there to receive hers, but she was scared of Santa and wasn't happy sitting on his lap. On Saturday night, Christelle (a french girl from work) and Guillaume (her boyfriend) came for dinner and we had a really nice time. Doug treated us to his best bread yet, and made butterscotch pudding for desert, yummy...

On Sunday the toy library's Santa gave his present to Clara, which went a bit better than the day before, and we sat down to watch a little play with Mrs Claus and rudolf the red-nosed reindeer, it was really cute.

Clara made a friend called Emily, and we made friends with her mum called Yvonne, who is from Toronto.

For the last week we have been under around 40 cm of snow. Last night we got a nice layer of ice on top of that! Here's Doug braving the elements to clear a path for his family.

Meanwhile, Clara has a new interest in fashion. Here she is showing off her latest collection.

Happy Birthday Anthony!

Gros bisous a toute la famille Maignal par la meme occasion. Virginie, appelle-moi quand tu as le temps, j'ai l'impression que ca fait une eternite qu'on ne s'ait pas parle!
Here not much is new, Doug is giving a lecture tomorrow and lost all the work he had prepared for it today when Powerpoint crashed. This means he has to do it all over again tonight. Poor Doug...
We're expecting another 25 cms of snow before tomorrow night, great. As if there wasn't enough already! Tomorrow night my team and I are going to Ferme Djerba for dinner followed by a disco, what a program!
Clara's being naughty so I'd better go sort her out.
Bye for now.

Thank you Liz

Thank you so much Mamna for the sleeping suit, it's very pretty and fits her perfectly!
We're having lots of snow at the moment, it actually took me an hour and a half to get home from work because of the snow. Another 15 to 30 cm are expected to fall before tomorrow night, it's a bit early in the winter to be seeing this amount of snow, and also the temperature was still around -15 today, which is below normal. It's now gone up to -8, what a relief!
Doug made a really nice loaf of bread today, the best so far, he's really happy. He's going to carry on experimenting with breadmaking, the ultimate goal being to succeed in making a perfect baguette, which is really difficult, but I know he'll get there...
By the way I'm sure you've noticed that the blog is only in English nowadays, well, that's because i don't have time to translate everything and we've put a useful little tool at the bottom, to translate our messages, it's not perfect but it helps...
My Christmas party on Saturday was really good, the dinner was nice enough and the band was excellent, I couldn't be dragged away from the dancefloor.
I'm really quite tired this week so I'm going to try to get to bed early tonight. Yeah right!
More soon from Les Marshaux!

Colder than your freezer at home

We woke up this morning to a nice sunny day, pretty snow cover but a freezing -20°C (-33 with wind chill) outside. Ugh. It's not getting much warmer today, either, and Clara and Doug are taking the bus home! If you want to sympathise, put on your woollies and go sit in your freezer.

Welcome Leo!

A little bit late, I publicly announce the birth of baby Leo, Mathieu and Camille's little baby. He's very cute, we're going to see to see him and the happy parents after Christmas as we are going to Toronto.

Having Liz over until last friday was really great, and Clara really misses her mamna (that's what she calls her) (so do we actually).

Tomorrow night I'm going out to Anapharm's Christmas party, should be fun.

Till next time!

Ils sont trop mignons! They are so cute!

Premières neige cette année: le 22 octobre / First snowfall : October 22nd

On a vu tomber les premiers flocons aujourd'hui, tous petits, mais bel et bien de la neige. C'est quand même super tôt. En plus j'ai entendu hier un météorologiste qui annonçait un hiver très froid, et beaucoup de neige. Non non non, je n'en peux plus de ces hivers....
Sinon hier il a pas mal plu, donc c'était pas très rigolo d'aller dehors, j'ai montré à papa le centre commercial, super! Dès que je serai à nouveau en congé on ira se faire la visite de Québec. Demain je pars à Montréal avec Stéphanie pour le concert de Madonna, ça tombe un peu mal mais tant pis.
A bientôt

The first snowflakes have fallen today, very small ones, but snowflakes nonetheless. It's so early. I heard yesterday the weatherman say that this winter is going to be very cold and snowy. No no no, I can't stand these winters...
Yesterday it was raining the whole day, it was not much fun going outside, so I took my dad to the mall, it was great ;) As soon as I'm on holiday we will go for a tour of Quebec City.
Tomorros I'm driving to Montreal with Stephanie to go to Madonna's concert, bad timing, never mind.
Bye for now

Papa est arrivé!

Ca y est, il a atterri il y a quelques minutes.... Pour l'instant je suis encore au boulot, mais c'est bientôt les vacances et je vais pouvoir passer du bon temps en famille, je suis trop contente.

He just landed a few minutes ago... For now I'm still at work but soon I will be on holiday and will be able to spend some family time.

C'est l'heure du grand départ en vacances! / Time to go on holiday

Un dernier message avant mon départ cette nuit. La semaine sans Doug s'est bien passée, ainsi que ma coloque avec Stéphanie. Clara a bien aimé l'avoir à la maison, même si au début elle trouvait ça bizarre... Ma valise est presque prête, je suis hyper chargée comme d'habitude. On ne veut rien oublier alors on en prend trop. J'espère que le voyage va bien se dérouler, qu'ils ne vont pas être trop chiants à la douane, et que Clara va être un petit ange. Je peux toujours espérer! Il nous tarde d'être enfin réunis avec Doug qui en principe sera là à l'arrivée. Photos et récit du voyage à notre retour.
A bientôt.

One last message before we leave tonight. This week without Doug went well, with my room mate Stéphanie. Clara enjoyed having her around, even though she was a bit confused at the start... I've almost finished packing, I've got so much stuff. When you don't want to forget anything you end up taking too much. I hope the trip will be uneventful, that they're going to be nice with me at customs, and that Clara will be an angel. Dream on...
We're looking forward to be reunited with Doug who should be there for our arrival. Photos and tales of our trip when we get back.
See you soon.

Depart de Doug / Doug has left

Ca y est Doug est parti ce matin pour Los Angeles, il arrive vers 11 heures heure locale, puis location de voiture et direction Santa Barbara. J'espere que ca va lui plaire et surtout qu'il va nous trouver de bons vins. Felicitation a Patricia et Jerome pour la naissance de Marie, qui est nee le 24 septembre a 00h19, pesait 3,4kg et mesurait 51 cm. Il me tarde de voir des photos d'elle, depechez-vous d'en mettre sur internet.
Ce matin je vais a la piscine avec Clara, et puis apres on va chez Doris (une amie de Stephanie), qui elle aussi vient d'accoucher, pour dejeuner et voir le petit bebe Raphael.
Gros bisous

Doug left for Los Angeles this morning, he will be arriving at 11am local time, then he's renting a car and driving off to Santa Barbara. I hope he will like the region and that he will find some nice wines for when I go over.
This morning I'm off to swimming class with Clara and then to Doris' (a friend of Stephanie's), who just had a baby, to have lunch and see baby raphael.
kisses to all