Amelia and I took a walk around our local town of Saint Hilaire du Harcouët, in Basse-Normandie, France. We shot a quick video of our tour. In this video, Amelia points out some of the landmarks in Saint Hilaire, and we walk through the Wednesday morning market. It was a nice day for it!
(and yeah… she did get the hiccups near the end there…)
This past Saturday was one of the nicest days we’ve seen here in northwestern France in 2013. Today is certainly not one of those days… I went for a jog this morning after dropping the kids off at school, and it was only half a degree from freezing. Brr! Though I guess I shouldn’t complain… I hear my friends and family back in Ontario have been seeing snow.
Considering how nice a day it was outside on Saturday, we as a family decided to take a trip to the hills of Monthault in Brittany, quite near where we live. There are some really nice hiking trails near the town, including one that leads to an amazing megalithic site. A friend has hiked there, and she told me that to her, it felt like a place of great power. I definitely wanted to see that.
The hiking trail we took was called “Les Buttes de Monthault” – The Mounds of Monthault. We parked our car near the trails and headed up the hill. We had a great family walk, but I’m sorry to say that I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere, because after a nice long trek we ended up arriving back at the village of Monthault having wound up on a completely different trail… something about the colors of Monthault? I have no idea how that happened, but I certainly didn’t see any interesting mounds out there! On the plus side, we had a great time hiking up and down the hilly trails. The countryside in this region is quite beautiful.
Amelia was my stalwart hiking partner for the entire walk. She talked my ear off the entire time! She has become quite a creative young lady with the stories that she can spin, one after the other.
At any rate, it was a lovely day, and I’m looking forward to the return of the springtime weather we had over the weekend! Maybe when the sun comes back out I’ll try once more to find those ancient rocks…
Amelia, my hiking partner, strikes a pose
the countryside surrounding the village of Monthault
The church in Monthault – I love the steeple!
This strange bee-fly hybrid insect that I don’t even know what it is landed on my leg; I should probably look it up and try to figure out what it was and if it was out to get me
today was a pretty nice (albeit somewhat chilly) day, so we spent the afternoon at the forest of Fougères in the eastern part of Brittany. The forest is quite large, and within it there is a good-sized lake with a beach for the kids to play at and a short pier where people gather to fish. Around the lake is a hiking trail with exercise posts set up at intervals beside the path (as I mentioned in a previous post, this is quite common in France).
Trees in the forest of Fougères
Moss on the trees
Shetland pony meets Shetland sheepdog
now we’re at home; it’s evening, and the kids are working on their crafts. Meanwhile, we’ve got the wood stove going to keep the place warm. And that’s the news for today.
It’s the middle of February, and the rainy, gloomy days typical of winter here in northwest France are winding down. Yesterday was a beautiful day – clear skies, not too cold, and not raining – so we went for a walk in the woods in a park called the Vallée Humide de Bois-Ainaux. It is a forested wetland in the northeast of Brittany (Ille-et-Vilaine) with a variety of different natural sites to see and educational areas for the children to play with and explore. It’s a great place to visit on a clear, cool day, and we were the only people in the park throughout the entire afternoon. Of course I had my iPhone with me, so naturally I took a bunch of pictures.
I’m going to start with a picture of me, as I notice I don’t post many pictures of myself on my own blog!
Me walking through the woods in Brittany on a not-quite-spring day
And here is a picture of Amelia and me… after I got Yvonne to take a picture of me, Amelia wanted one of the two of us in the same place.
Amelia and I hanging out in the woods
Here is Callum by a pond in the middle of the forest. Inside the pond were thousands of frog eggs (frogspawn), ready to turn into tadpoles.
A pond full of frog eggs in the middle of the forest
The kids found some big boulders in one part of the woods, so they did a little climbing.
Climbing some boulders in the woods
And finally, here is a picture of our Shetland Sheepdog, Lilou. We kept her off her leash for most of the walk, and she was very well-behaved… at one point we thought she was going to jump into the frog pond, but fortunately she came to her senses and decided against it. Nice work! Otherwise she ran around, sniffed stuff, and let out a lot of energy.
Lilou, our tri-color Shetland Sheepdog
the reason I say almost winter in Normandy is because technically winter doesn’t start until December 21st. I always get zinged by this, because it gets so wintry here in France much earlier than December 21st, and even more so where I’m from in Canada.
today is definitely one of those pretty-much-wintry days… there’s a light frost on the ground, which is beautiful to look at, and the pastures near where we live are glistening and white. If you dress warmly it’s a great day to take a walk in the sunshine, which makes the grounds sparkle, but isn’t quite strong enough to melt the frost covering the ground.
here are a few pictures that I took of frosty mornings in France (with my iPhone, so the quality might not be all there).
A tiny river through the farmland beside our house
A fencepost beside our driveway
Frost-covered fields in the morning
A statue in the town of Saint-James, overlooking the countryside
another year has passed, and we’re still living in Normandy. The kids are well on their way to being bilingual in French and English, which I’m very happy about, and we’ve had some tremendous adventures living in France and learning about the French culture.
while we’ve been living in Europe we’ve taken a few trips, much of it near where we’re living in northwest France. We went to Ireland in the spring, touring Dublin, the Shannon/Limerick area, and circling the Ring of Kerry. We’ve toured England, including London, Bath, the Midlands, and Chester. And we’ve traveled around much of Wales, visiting Snowdonia in the north and Cardiff in the south. One of the coolest parts of that trip was visiting the Welsh slate mines.
since earlier this year Yvonne and I have been working on a new site together – Mixminder – where we’ve been providing curriculum, worksheets and activities for elementary school classrooms. Yvonne, who taught in the US and Hungary before she became a QA analyst in Charleston, has been working very hard at creating products, also creating her own art for the things that she makes. It’s been a lot of fun to do this; we’ve been meeting and collaborating with plenty of interesting people from the teaching community.
Though of course it’s been a busy year, there’s not much further to report! I’ll end this post with a few pictures from our travels.
The Cliffs of Moher, in Ireland
More of the Cliffs of Moher
At Bunratty Castle, near Shannon
Snowdonia, in Wales
Inside Harlech Castle, on the coast of Wales
The keep at Cardiff Castle
today I’ve started using the WordPress Image Uploader to upload and manipulate images. Up until now I’ve resisted doing so due to some innate need to control everything by hand (re: resizing the images into thumbnails by hand, using SFTP to get them uploaded onto my server and then linking to them using HTML). Well, no longer! So far the Image Uploader seems to make things much easier, and there’s also a handy WordPress Image Gallery that you can use to display sets of images.
enough about WordPress features… here are some pictures from our recent travels around France and England.
the other week we went to the Zoo de Champrepus, a zoo near our house here in La Manche (Basse-Normandie). For a small zoo it was actually quite good; there was hardly anybody there, so we had a nice private tour of the grounds and managed to get up close and personal with some of the residents.
The arch at the Zoo de Champrepus
the highlight of the trip to the zoo was a visit into the lemur grounds within the Madagascar exhibit. You could walk right up to the lemurs and hang out with them, and they wouldn’t run away or otherwise react to your presence. The lemurs were funny; they would wander around the grounds when it was cloudy, but as soon as the sun would come up they’d prop themselves up to bask their bellies in it.
A sunbathing lemur at the Zoo de Champrepus
meanwhile, here is a fellow making fresh crèpes for us at a weekend carnival that took place in the town of Saint-Hilaire-du-Harcouët near where we live. The most interesting thing about the carnival (to me at least) was how carnies from all over France came to set up their booths, rides and attractions inside the town. The side streets of Saint-Hilaire were overflowing with trailers and camper vans full of the workers running the festivities and their families. I know that my stalwart crew tends to move around quite a bit, but in comparison to these people we’re downright sedentary.
Making crèpes at the carnival in Saint-Hilaire-du-Harcouët
a few weeks ago we took a trip to England to stay with some friends of ours (the family of a high school friend from Toronto) who are living in the town of Reading. While we were there the families toured London and went to LEGOLAND in Windsor. It was a great trip; I’m sure it was refreshing for the kids to get to hear people other than their parents speaking in English to them!
one fun aspect of the trip was taking our car on the ferry from the port at Ouistreham (near the city of Caen) to Portsmouth in England. Even more fun was the trip back, where we got a cabin for our family of four on the ferry. The kids loved it… plus I got to take a nap.
Leaving the port of Ouistreham
while in England we traveled to the city of Bath to see the ancient Roman baths. It was fascinating to me to see structures so ancient, and to imagine what life must have been like back in the old (like, REALLY old) days. Callum, for one, really digs that sort of stuff.
The Roman bath in Bath, England
on our way back from Reading to Portsmouth to catch the ferry back to France we paid a visit to Stonehenge (yes, I did just link to that). After visiting the Roman baths (old) it was interesting to visit Stonehenge (even older). Architecture has really come a long way in the past few thousand years.
while visiting the ‘henge I conveniently forgot my phone in my car and was unable to take a picture of it. So when we got back to the car I snagged my phone, ran back through the tunnel under the road that leads to the site, and snapped a quick photo of the path leading up to it. It’s not much, but hey, it’s better than nothing. Maybe.
The path leading to Stonehenge
and as a parting shot here’s a picture of the best pub in Paris, where my friend and co-worker Ian and I visited during a business trip to Paris… the Great Canadian Pub!
The Great Canadian Pub in Paris
the big news from our family is that, as of earlier this month, we have moved from Paris to a small stone house near the town of Saint-Hilaire-du-Harcouët in La Manche, Basse-Normandie (department 50). The differences between our old lifestyle and our new lifestyle are staggering… while in Paris things were quite busy, with lots of cars and scooters and people, here in the countryside it is extremely quiet and we’re surrounded by cows. Here’s a picture of the place where we’re staying (click for larger):
the property on which our house stands contains a river that serves as the border of the French regions of Normandy and Brittany, in the northwestern part of France. Our kids are enrolled in a Catholic private school in the nearby town, and so far they seem to be doing quite well there – their French has definitely improved since we arrived in Europe in January. It’s been great to have experienced Paris, with its trains and crowds and bustling lifestyle, and then to make the switch to this area, which is one of the most peaceful I’ve encountered. We really like it here so far.
last weekend we went to Le Mont Saint-Michel, an island off the coast of Normandy that features a walled town and an ancient abbey. We had a great visit there – it was certainly one of the most interesting places I’ve ever visited! Afterward we went to a nearby beach, where the kids played and collected shells. Here are some pictures of the place (click for larger):
our other big news is that we now have a Shetland Sheepdog (Sheltie) puppy named Lilou, who we bought from a reputable “éleveur” in the Franche-Comté region in the east of France. She is still quite young (now only three months) and full of energy, but already we’ve been teaching her tricks (sit, down, stay, and come) and she’s been catching on quickly. Shelties come in three colors: sable, blue merle, and tri-color; Lilou is of the tri-color variety. The kids have learned a lot from being “puppy owners” – they take her for walks, teach her tricks, and basically carry her around the house wherever they go. Here is a picture of her at eight weeks of age:
finally, this afternoon I took the kids to the nearby metropolis (relative to where we live, at least) of Avranches to buy some running shoes and fall jackets at the Décathlon. While we were there we visited a jardinerie (garden center) and found out that they stocked something the kids have been obsessing over lately through books and websites – carnivorous plants! We bought two different types of pitcher plant (Nepenthes) and a Venus Flytrap (Dionaea Muscipula). When they caught sight of the display in the store their faces lit up like light bulbs. Here are the kids in the back of the car with their new plants:
I’ll admit that the pictures I’ve posted here on my blog I’ve stolen directly from my Twitpic page, which I’ve been sharing pictures through via my Twitter page. If you’re a Twitter user, follow me if you care to – I’ll be adding more pictures from France as soon as I take them!
today marks the day that we’ve officially been living in Paris for a month, so it’s about time for a brief update with some pictures. It’s been great so far – we’ve been having fun experiencing the language and culture, not to mention the cheese.
we spent our first two weeks in a two-bedroom apartment in Versailles, home (of course) of the Palace of Versailles, a pretty fascinating place full of interesting history. While we were in Versailles we searched for a full-time place; we ended up finding a four-bedroom house (somewhat of a rarity in Paris and its suburbs) in one of Paris’ eastern neighborhoods. We’ve furnished it, albeit somewhat sparsely, mostly with furniture from IKEA. What can I say – that place is crazy and very crowded (even on a Sunday evening) but if you’re looking for decent build-it-yourself furniture with names you can’t pronounce, IKEA is your go-to destination.
so that’s it for the update (I did promise it would be brief). Up next, a few pictures from our adventures.
here are some Eiffel Tower pictures (clicking on them makes them bigger of course)… a picture of the tower from below (as taken by Yvonne) and pictures of Callum and Amelia, on the tower, with their mini Eiffel Tower figurines.
a picture of the Disneyland Paris castle – it is pink!
the dragon lurking beneath the Disneyland Paris castle (don’t be scared – it’s not real).
here’s a picture of Callum and Mia and the unhappiest card guy in Alice in Wonderland. I’ll let you figure out why. Mind you, he certainly looks happy…
the gang (minus me) on the teacups. Yvonne made that face for the camera’s benefit – they really weren’t spinning that quickly!
finally, here’s a picture of Callum with his LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0 robot and some other stuff he created with his kit. He’s really taken to building and programming robots – Santa really hit the mark last year with this gift.
that’s it for now (though that’s quite a bit, by my standards anyway). We’re currently at home watching Looney Tunes on our new TV – if ever there was a show that was tailor-made for Callum, this would be it. He can’t stop giggling!
This evening I took a quick trip to the Carrefour, the local grocery store here in our (temporary) neighborhood in Versailles. While there I bought three things: a chocolate bar (with caramel), a box of Jaffa Cakes, and a small bottle of Chimay Blue. Okay, I’ll admit it… I was feeling rather snackish.
I got into a checkout line with my items and prepared to wait. In Paris, from what I’ve seen at least, long checkout lines are the norm… whenever the lines seem to dwindle down to what to my North American senses seems to be a reasonably sized queue, they start closing lanes (I’ve been at the tail end of two lanes that they’ve closed in this manner). Ahead of me was an elderly French lady, probably in her late 70s or early 80s, and ahead of her, a lady about my age or a little older, with a fussing baby. The elderly lady’s items consisted of vegetables, fruits, more fruits, more vegetables, two types of baguette, and some Omega 3 butter-like spread. I’m not usually self-conscious about what I buy at a grocery store, but compared to what this lady was buying (healthy and good for you stuff) my beer and chocolate seemed like a pretty poor showing.
At any rate, when the elderly lady saw how few items I was buying, she quickly told me to go ahead of her in line. Mind you, this is an elderly lady telling a young(-ish) man to step ahead of her in line… normally it should be the reverse! Of course I refused, but the lady insisted quite strongly I go ahead of her, and it seemed to me that it would make her very happy if I did so, and so I did.
When the lady with the fussing baby ahead of me was finished checking out, before she left, she turned around and thanked the elderly lady (who was now behind me – stay focused here) for letting her step ahead of her in line. That’s right, I was the second person this elderly lady had let in front of her. The elderly lady responded with “it’s no problem… I have kids too.” (for those interested in the French language, the French way to say “it’s no problem” is “il n’y a pas de quoi”.) And before I started checking out, the elderly lady started chatting merrily with the lady behind the cash register, and of course as soon as they both heard my accent (which happens as soon as I open my mouth to say just about anything in French), they started chatting with me too, asking me where I was from and what I was doing in France.
There’s a lesson here that I can’t quite put my finger on, but from what I could see this elderly lady was pleased to be able to let us youngsters (comparatively anyway) speed our way through life, while she herself took the time to do nice things for other people and to enjoy her time wherever she happened to be, even if that place happened to be the checkout line at a crowded grocery store. It’s a lesson that some of us (myself included) could probably stand to learn earlier in our lives, while we still have decades ahead of us to take advantage of the joys it can bring us.