Sunday in Paris

 On a very cold yet beautiful Sunday, we all bundled ourselves in the car and thirty minutes later ended up here.  Yes, Sunday we played at being tourists, and boy, there were huge amounts of people who were waiting to visit the Eiffel Tower.  Luckily for us, we had bought and printed our tickets in advance, so no waiting

Before reaching the Tower we had  to dodge the many joggers that were out in force despite the near freezing conditions.  What a place to jog, personally I wouldn't like to, but I can see the attraction

After visiting the second floor, we managed to get the children to agree to go to the top, I never took any photos though, too cold.  Back down on the second floor somehow we found ourselves in a tourist trap souvenir store, 2 bracelets, 1 pencil, 1 pen, 1 keyring, 1 giant chocolate euro and a packet of Eiffel tower shaped sweets later, we left, hopped in the car and came back home to a piping hot Chili Choc Carni (Nigella Lawson recipe) made by Alain, and it was delicious.

Ferme de Gally

Saturday, we went to pick our own fruit, vegetables and flowers and La Ferme de Gally which is about a 20 minutes drive from where we live. Boy, this place was really busy, despite the frequent downfalls of heavy rain.

On the way to the farm, you can see the Eiffel Tower in the distance

The farm isn't organic, however, they don't use pesticides unless absolutely necessary.

As it was our first time and it was rather late in the day, we didn't buy much, but we'll be going back for more soon.

The children moaned a little (they always find something to complain about) but they enjoyed picking their own fruit, especially raspberries.

Flowers are sold by the kilo and this was Marie-Kate's flower harvest.

Marie-Kate hiding in the weeds next to the cabbages... well I think they were weeds

We were supposed to go to explore the farm's mazes afterwards, but never had enough time, glad really as it didn't look that good and was expensive, and would have cost us over 26 euros. We have certainly seen better mazes, like the one a Thoiry and Cormatin ...

A window with a view

Living in the heart of a village is new to all of us. For the first time, the youngest children can walk to school which is a stones throw away while the older three catch their school buses on the same road.

Our next door neighbor raises hens and each morning his enormous rooster Chirac. He usually begins to crow around 4, and then he continues intermittently all day long (and probably all night, but I'm fast asleep).

A famous impressionist painter once lived in the house almost opposite ours, over a hundred years ago. If the house were just a little lower, we'd be able to see the Eiffel Tower in the distance, instead we see the house, which is architecturally appealing to the eye, so I'm happy with that.

This is the view you get if you look out through the children's bathroom window, it once was the village hall but now it's the village school ( I said it was quite close). This is one of my favorite views.