Wednesday, April 08, 2015

L'Etretat

Tuesday morning we had to head home to Germany. But on the way we stopped to see the cliffs at L'Etretat.
It was a beautiful day for a walk along the pebble beach.  From where we stood, this was the view looking left.

And this was the view looking to the right.


We climbed up the left-side cliff for a while, but didn't go all the way to the top.  There are no guardrails or really anything to keep you from plunging to your death.  The kids were warned ferociously to hold hands and stick to the path, but I confess, as we climbed higher and higher I felt more and more ill, and Rob agreed we should probably head back down.


The waves have beaten away at the base of the cliffs and created these overhangs. The tide was low and so we walked out to explore.


I told Charlotte to smile for a selfie with mom, but she was more nervous here below the cliffs than she was up above them.

To quote Charlotte, "nature is soooo awesome!"

  

We just about got the whole family in this shot at one of the safer lookout points- you have to look closely behind Rob's head to see Amelie.

 Overall northern France was a wonderful, too short, trip.  We didn't make it up to the Normandy beaches or to Rouen (martyrdom place of Joan of Arc and Monet's cathedral series of paintings) and I would have especially liked to go to Monet's home in Giverny- but it doesn't open for visitors until May and was waaaay out of our way anyway.  Driving in France is pretty stressful, and expensive.  The tolls are constant and the scenery pretty, but all very similar (rural farmland.) The kids were good, but with eight or more hours each way.... well, we are super glad we went, but we won't be in a hurry to do another driving tour of France anytime soon.

Mont St. Michel and St. Malo

Mont St. Michel was the destination in mind when we planned this trip. And it did not disappoint.

This was our first view of the abbey from the parking lot.
From Wikipedia, "According to legend, the Archangel Michael appeared in 708 to St. Aubert, the bishop of Avranches, and instructed him to build a church on the rocky islet. Aubert repeatedly ignored the angel's instruction until Michael burned a hole in the bishop's skull with his finger." 

Then Aubert got to work.  The abbey originally housed Benedictine monks with the town growing up below.  It all sits on a rock in the the English channel.  At high tide it almost becomes an island and at low tide pilgrims (and now tourists) like to atempt the muddy walk from the mainland.  (You have to go with a guide as the tides can come in quickly and be very dangerous and there is apparently quicksand in places as well.)  We stuck to the shuttle and bridge route.  Amelie is more interested in the doggies.

It really is awesome looking though.  I took a lot of pictures.

Charlotte and Toby wanted to take a picture that looked like they were holding up the abbey.

Then we began the walk up to the abbey.... through the gamut of tourist shops.  Only 50 people currently live in Mont St, Michel.

The fitbit said we climbed 34 flights of stairs.

Rob carried Ami in the backpack the whole way up!
(I carried her on the way down.)

Morning sun over the abbey with St. Michael atop the tower, sword in hand, ready to vanquish Satan.

Inside the chapel.

This little garden is a nice spot of nature in all that stone work.

Originally this giant hamster wheel was used by the monks to pull supplies up through a window.  During the French Revolution, the monks were evicted and the Abbey used as a prison.  Prisoners then had the privilege of powering the human hamster wheel.  In the 1860s the prison was finally closed and the site became more of a tourist destination.  (Though the Benedictine monks did return and still reside in the Abbey.)


We loved Mont St. Michel... but it is so very covered in tourist shops.  Afterwards we drove over to St. Malo and enjoyed an ice cream cone and a visit to the playground.  St. Malo is a walled island city that was notorious in the middle ages for piracy.  St. Malo was almost completely destroyed in World War II but has been rebuilt.

It took us 30 minutes to find a parking spot outside the walls and the restaurants were packed with tourists.  But we enjoyed the park and some conversation with the locals. 


Au revoir St. Malo!

Fougeres and Combourg

Our first stop was the town of Fougeres.(I will be skipping Frenchy accent marks in my typing of these blog posts.)
This bell tower dates from 1397.  It is one of only three in Brittany and is significant because the town's merchants pooled their money to build it.  This gave the lower classes access to keeping time.  Before that, only the church and upper classes kept track of the time.

The church and its grounds were lovely on this Easter morning.
 

This is the view from behind the church, across the valley to the Chateau de Fougeres.

Mandatory playground break.

Coming up to the castle entrance.
This castle was a fortress built for defensive purposes. The boys loved talking about the archers who would have been posted behind those slits preparing to shoot any approaching attackers.  The first (wooden) structure built on this site was built in the eleventh century.  This stone fortress is built on top of a granite outcropping and has a partial moat around it and was used until the late 1400s when the French took it back from English control.


People must have been littler back then.


This is the view from inside the fortress, across the valley.  The church we waled from is in the upper right corner of this photo.  Charlotte, Toby, and Jake really proved they can walk the walk on this trip.

After a break for baguettes, pains au chocolate, and oranges, we headed over to Combourg.
The Chateau de Combourg was built beginning around 1025. It is still privately owned, but we took a tour with a guide inside this childhood home of Chateaubriand.  I didn't take pictures inside, but I would describe it as kinda dark and shabby.  Maybe even creepy.  Apparently, when Chateaubriand was a boy he complained to his parents of the creepiness and noises and they essentially told him to stay in his room and get used to it. He had nightmares about it into adulthood. They even had on display a mummified cat's remains that were found walled up in the wall.  (My kids' favorite part of the tour.)

The grounds were lovely though and had this awesome climbing tree.
I almost got all of the kids looking at the camera.

Easter 2015

Easter was a wee bit different this year. We went to the Primary Easter egg hunt and picnic at our church the weekend before Easter.  Jakey and I filled 500 plastic eggs for this shindig!  We set up a few other games (beanbag toss, petanque, etc) and the kiddos all had a really good time.

It was fun to have a laid back event to visit with people.


And, of course, eat candy. 

Then, just before Easter, we packed up ye olde minivan and headed for northern France.  This was just on the corner of where we stayed.  That milk cow in the background was enormous!  I wish I could've gotten a closer picture of her.

We stayed in a cute little gite.  This is like an old stone farm outbuilding that has been fixed up inside to serve as a guesthouse.  The kitchen was way cute.

 And the shower was awesome.  Seriously, the nicest shower of anywhere we have stayed in the past 10 years.

Some of the furniture was pretty basic, but it was comfortable and homey.

And the Easter Bunny does apparently come to France. (I may have suggested to the kiddos that he might not.)

Plenty of candy, Play-doh, and some new activity books to enjoy.

Oh, the joy of Mad Libs!

After a little time spent enjoying a chocolatey breakfast, we decided to begin exploring Bretagne and Normandie. 



Thursday, April 02, 2015

18 thoughts about Amelie at 18 months

Amelie turned 18 months old a few weeks ago!  So here are some things that you may, or may not, know about our littlest little one.

1. Amelie has a lot of nicknames: Ami, Ameloo, Amma Pajama, Squishy... but by far the most used right now is just plain old Lou. Sometimes Lulu. I find it terribly amusing that my beautiful, sweet, darling girls answer to Bubba and Lou.  I like it.

2. Lou understands everything we say to her but doesn't say much... especially in public.  People notice this regularly and comment on it.  The other day at a friend's house I noticed she only had one shoe, so I asked her, "where's your shoe?"  She responded with upturned hands and a shrug and ran off.  A minute later she returned with the missing shoe.  Likewise, when she needs a diaper change she either points to her bum or just brings me a diaper and wipes.

3. We are going to start potty training very soon.

4. Although she is a girl of few words, she does use the words she has to great effect.  Calling Rob Dee-dah instead of Daddy is adorable and gets her picked up by him every time.  She also says Mommy, Dahdit, Tee-Toh, and Jaytey. So she can get anyone in the family's attention easily.  No and Yes have been around for a while, but just this week she added Mayme. She uses ME to refer to herself (short for Amelie,) and can request her favorite foods: Cheesy and Treat. For example, if I open the fridge I will likely hear, "Me! Cheesy!  Me!"

5. You must never, ever eat chocolate in front of her without sharing. It's a bit like feeding a gremlin after midnight. 

6. At her 18 month check-up she weighed 11 kg and was 84 cm tall.  In American, that's 24 lbs. and 33 inches, or 50th% for weight and 85th% for length. Guess she needs some more cheese and treats.

7. Amelie loves stuffed animals.  Her 2 favorites are Lambie and her music playing Seahorse.  She sleeps with these every night and likes to bring them to breakfast as well.  She will cuddle with all of her stuffed animals though and likes to hold her dollies and rock them in her rocking chair singing, "Laa, laa, rock, rock."  It is freaking adorable.

8. She may be tone deaf, but this just adds to how much we love to hear her sing.

9. She loves her Daddy.  When she sees his truck pull in the driveway she begins to dance and pound on the glass patio door.  As soon as he is in the house she reaches up, calls "Dee-Dah, Dah!" and complains until he drops everything else and picks her up and walks around the house with her.

10. She loves to give slobbery kisses and big hugs but she is surprisingly uninterested in cuddling.  She gives and receives some quick affection and then she is off and running again.

11. She loves videos of cats and dogs but real live animals make her nervous.

12. She loves to help around the house. As soon as I open the dishwasher she comes running to put away the silverware (she drops them in the drawer, and then I put them in the right spots,) put away the kid dishes (they go in a low cupboard so kids can help themselves,) or put the dishwasher soap in to run it.  She loves working in the garden.  She also likes to take folded laundry to people's rooms... it just usually isn't folded anymore by the time it gets there.

13. She loves to pick out her own outfits and is very partial to dresses and a pair of pink crocs that used to be Charlotte's.

14. She thinks she can jump, even though her feet never leave the ground.  She grins and giggles and bounces up and down and loves it.

15. She also thinks she can play video games.  The big kids give her a Wii-mote that is out of batteries and she happily plays video games with them.  Pretty much anything the other kids are doing, she wants to do too.

16. She loves bath time. Especially with bubbles.   

17. Her hair has grown into this funky Mrs. Brady-style mullet that I don't really know what to do with and her eyes have turned from gray to hazel.  She is our only non-brown eyed baby.

18. She has really made our family feel complete.  We all love our baby girl and her smiles and hugs and kisses.  Can't imagine our family without her.