Le chevalier

Luckily for Action Boy it's not all chateaux in the Loire valley.  There are plenty of activities geared towards kids and despite quite a bit of rain we managed to fit in a few.

We found very interesting troglodyte caves which were partially recreated to how they would have been when they were lasted lived in around a hundred years ago.  It would have been a horribly hard life living in a small, damp cave.

Little Miss D was in furry animal heaven with many cute rabbits, chickens, geese and goats to chat to in the little farm yard.

Despite a rocky start on the flight over, Baby A has been a trooper and will eventually go to sleep in the pram or baby backpack when we're out and about.  However he does find it hard to "switch off" and like any younger sibling, never wants to miss out on anything!

Frenchmen playing the accordion on a cobblestone street is obviously frightening for small boys and so you have sprint away after throwing a coin or two into his hat!

Chinon

 A real hit with Action Boy were the games and activities set up at a 10th century fortress in Montbazon.  These games were great and lots of fun to play (the shelter was also great with the heavy rain!).  The kids also made little leather money pouches which have not left their necks in nearly a week!

Of course the most fun game was the jousting horse!  Nice work Nifty!  The weather was really quite terrible on this day but it did mean there wasn't a crowd so we weren't cramped at all and we were able to take our time!

After passing all the "tests" to become a knight, Action Boy and Little Miss D were knighted Chevaliers de la Fortresse du Falcon Noir.  The serious face must be because of the real sword on his shoulder - afterwards he was thrilled.

Little Miss D was most impressed with the geese and the white baby goat who followed us around...

xx

Coucou!

Hello again!  We're still in France but now have WiFi so here's a little update!

Nifty and Pearl joined us for a lovely week in a 16th Century farm house in the Loire Valley.  This place was delightful - well located, so charming and lots of room for the kids to run around.  From this gorgeous old house we pottered around visiting some of the amazing chateaux and other attractions the region has to offer.  Little Miss D particularly enjoyed discovering the many cute, furry animals in the region but poor Action Boy really had had enough of the chateaux!

Picnic outside Villandry

Villandry

Most of the chateaux have fantastic grounds and gardens which were stunning to look at and fantastic for the kids to run around.  Although they did struggle to understand why they wouldn't be allowed to run through the manicured potager gardens!!

Four types of love garden @ Villandry

Somehow there always seems to be someone selling ice-cream at these places which the children are very pleased about.  Action Boy is earning a small fortune by practising his French ordering ice-creams and croissants.  (He gets 1 euro for each order!).

Coordinated ice-cream and outfit!

xx

Bonjour!

Notice it's justBonjour and not Bonjour/Hi! You see we're in France! Yippee! Hooray! We're on holiday! It's amazing being only a six hour flight from Europe. Although I'd hope that a short flight meant the children would be beautifully behaved but I was a bit deluded! All was forgiven when everyone slept in the next morning! Fanta Pants and I got a 10 hour sleep! Amazing! Internet access is a bit limited at the moment so I'll post photos of what we're up to in the coming days! A bientot! Xx

Je me souviens

You see the phrase je me souviens everywhere in Quebec.  Most prominently it's the slogan on car number plates.  We also saw it written in the grass at the Citadelle in Quebec City over the weekend and it means I remember.  It was explained to us by our guide that it is a reminder to people of Quebec to not forget their heritage, history and of course language.

Quebecois history is complicated to an outsider and over the past 400 years control seems to have flip flopped between the French and the English but somehow this French speaking province joined the Canadian federation but managed to keep it's language intact.

A very interesting example of the flip flopping control is the Citadelle which was a fort initially built by the French then the English took control and today it is home to the only French speaking regiment in the Canadian army.  I guess that explains the beefeater outfits!

Their mascot is a lovely white goat with gold painted ears.  This little guy was by far the highlight for Little Miss D!  Action Boy was more impressed with the weaponry and exploding canons we saw during the tour!  By chance we happened timed our visit with their annual Canada Day parade complete with marching band!

xx

Celine Dion

I have been a proud Celine Dion fan from way back - especially the French stuff.  I'm even prone to subjecting my family to it from time to time.  She is one of Quebec's biggest exports and there has been a bit of talk about her at the moment as she's releasing two albums later in the year.  Even on the CBC radio this morning the presenters were discussing that no one actually admits to being a Celine Dion fan but she sells millions of records and has a sell out show in Las Vegas.  Everyone is obviously listening in the closet...

When CD tours with these new albums I'll be a noddy going to the concert alone (unless I can convince someone to admit to liking her enough to buy a ticket!).  She's known for putting on a good show and I'm sure she'd go all out in her home town.

For those of you interested, this is the new French single... I think it's lovely!

xx

Quebec City

Quebec City is a gorgeous small old city about 3.5 hours drive from here and it was certainly well worth the visit.

It is the provincial capital and easily makes you think of Europe.  Quebec is the only walled city north of Mexico and it is jammed packed with reminders of it's history which is full of battles between the French and the English.

Quebec is very touristy but beautifully maintained and perfect for walking around (and when you tire of walking there is a funicular!).  We were there over the Canada Day long weekend which meant there wasn't anything "official" going on to celebrate but there was a lot of people around and lots of street performers. (Quebec celebrated it's "national" day last weekend?!?).  It was so nice to get away and plug more holes in our understanding of Quebecois history!

xx

Dress ups!

We've just spent a lovely couple of days in Quebec City and one of the highlights for the kids was the dress up session at the Museum of Civilisation.  

This place was amazing!  There was a big room full of beautifully made fairy tale dress ups with all the accessories.  The kids were free to roam around, change outfits and then act out the story with amazing props.

The cauldron had lots of nasty ingredients like dragon wings, rats and snakes to make terrible potions.

While there were lots of princess and fairy outfits, Little Miss D was more taken with the animal costumes.  By far, Action Boy's favourite was the jousting!  This activity was so well designed and the kids had a ball.  Each jouster had to kill the six headed dragon by stabbing it in each of its six hearts and when all the hearts were extinguished, there was the roar of the crowd!

Unfortunately we didn't get to look at the rest of the museum because the power went out due to a thunderstorm!  It was a tricky situation - rain and thunder outside, no power or lights inside!  Luckily by the time we got back to our hotel the power was back!

xx