Busy Time...One tree less

I've been meaning to blog for ages, but just never managed to find enough time.
Alain has been and still is very busy at work. Last week he was in Holland and this week Oslo.
I went to see my mum for a couple of days just over a week ago, she's getting stronger and back to a usual self.

While I was away, Alain cut Mr H's favourite tree down (hope he doesn't come to see his old garden some day soon)

Photo taken during an hail storm

The tree in question wasn't supposed to grow so big and was rare for this to happen, so Mr H told us when we bought the house.  It suffered in the 1999 storm and had to be lifted and held in place ever since.   I didn't like it, mainly because of the endless falling red berries and leaves and not to mention the bird poo (yes we had our table under here because it was the old flat part of the garden which was also near the house.  Luckily for me, Alain didn't care for the tree either and this is what the area looked like after being cut.

Boring and empty yes, but flat and perfect for our new wooden patio, which incidentally is almost finished and I don't regret cutting the tree down one bit (photos to come later this week).

Harry Potter and Trail Running and Alexis

 While the children were on holiday from school, I lost my temper once with Alexis.  He'd lost and/or had broken most of a box of expensive artist crayons.  I wouldn't have minded if he'd actually used them to draw/colour with, but he didn't. Anyhow, something strange happened afterwards.....Alexis started to read, yes, probably to get back into my good books, he actually picked up Happy Potty 1 and read it, amazing for a little boy who doesn't read much.
It doesn't end there, when he had finished the first book, he asked for the second (had to buy it in the end, could find it, even though it's somewhere here).
On Friday, Alain bought the third one home and Alexis' reading it.  He came home from school, had a snack, and he's in his room.  
Lets hope that after Harry Potter, he'll be more tempted to read other books, he's fussy so it should be fun.  He likes funny books and he's read all of Roald Dahl's, he liked A Diary of a Wimpy Kid and those Monsieur Scknock books, well he loved them.

Another new passion of Alexis is running with us.  Sunday we ran just 6 kilometers (remember last time Alexis cracked after 5 kilometers)...well this time, he cracked again, this time after the first kilometer...too muddy he said, he slipped all over the place and needs some trail shoes if he's going to continue.  We managed 6 kilometers, but it was a little slow (because of Alexis and a little, the mud).
Who got the muddiest?  

La Cité des Sciences Paris

Saturday, we went to La cité des Sciences with Gaby, Alexis and Marie-Kate. 

First up, we visited the exhibition  "Gaulois, une expo renversante or The Incredible Gauls (not my translation)  " and we really enjoyed it.

This is an extract taken from their website, lazy me

In many facets of their daily life and economic or political systems, the Gauls were every bit as advanced as the Greeks and Romans. Contemporary archaeology has provided us with a wealth of new knowledge, following thirty years of discoveries and scientific innovations. The incredible Gauls! is a fascinating exhibition that banishes the cliché of hairy barbarians and shakes up our generally accepted ideas. An excavation site, films, workshops and reconstructions will show you how the Gauls really lived, before the Romans arrived.

As luck had it, we were just passing through when the final children's archeology  workshop was just about to begin. Shy Alexis(first on left) and Marie-Kate(next to Alexis) were pushed in by Alain and that was a good thing...

Time to dig

 Afterwards the children had half an hour to spare, so off we went to LA Cité des Enfants.  Fun place, lots of children and lots of noise.

 And to finish off a wonderful afternoon, we went to watch Ptérodactyles (Flying Monsters) 3D at the Géode (giant screen cinema), great film even if David Attenborough lovely voice was dubbed.

Chocolate factory and trip to Germany

In the town next to our village, there's a chocolate factory.  I've heard lots of great things about this place and sometimes you can actually smell the chocolate wafting up the hill when the wind blows in the right direction.

 With Gaby's impending trip to *Germany coming up, we thought it would be nice to buy some "local" chocolates for the family that she's going (gone now) to stay with.  
The above photo was taken outside their little boutique, cute isn't it?

 We bought a big box of dark chocolate for the family, and these yummy (I know because we bought some for us too) solid chocolate lollipops that are great for dunking in a hot chocolate or coffee...

Finally for her German friend, Lea, I found this small candy cookbook which has some surprisingly delicious sounding recipes and lovely photos to boot, and I just had to get the fraise Tagada's too...

* Gaby left for Germany this morning with most of her classmates from 5eme 4 (year 8) and some 6eme's (year 7) .  She isn't there long, just today, traveling by coach (eta 16:00) plus Tuesday and Wednesday and then back on Thursday, still better a couple of days than nothing at all.

Lunch at Septime

Six long weeks ago, Alain booked us a table at Septime, and finally we went for lunch there this Tuesday.
I'm not the type of person to take photos of what I eat and here's no exception, sorry, you've just got a view above of the open kitchen, where the food is cooked and plates dressed, I've never seen as many cooks and assistants working so well in such a small area.
You can eat a three course lunch menu here for just 24 euros (or was it 26?) or you can choose the 5 course carte blanche, which is what we went and my gosh, we were so happy we did. To begin with we ate white asparagus with lardo di colonnata, to sum it up in one word, I'd say divine.
Next was a an poached egg cooked at 63°c and a mushroom bouillon, yummy.
Third up, a perfectly cooked hake but I not so amazing (too powerful) écume. 
Fourth, it was lamb, three ways, I wouldn't dare to describe it here, it was just heavenly.
And finally, we had HAY ice-cream...glace au foin....with rhubarb. Very subtile and surprisingly good, great to finish with.
Super restaurant, amazing food, vegetables cooked to perfection.   A bit noisy if you want a romantic place to eat, better go to Astrance, otherwise these two restaurants, when it comes to taste, are just awesome.

mini hike near Saint Martin la Garenne

 Saturday we went for a a mini hike with Marie-Kate and Alexis around Saint Martin la Garenne. We took a picnic and hoped the weather would hold up for a couple of hours.
As you can see  the above photo a poster with Francois Hollande on it, it's election time here and he's through to the second round the 6th May, Hollande verses Sarkozy...funny thing was, there were posters of all the candidates apart from M. Sarkozy, someone had pasted a FN one on top of his.

 The plan was to complete a 14.7 km hike, but the weather soon proved to be difficult. It might look as if the weather was nice and sunny above, but oh no, the wind had whipped up and it was freezing.  Good place for a picnic but too cold, so on we went.

 Monkey Alexis, just before swinging from this branch and falling on his bottom

 There was a few great vantage points to watch birds

 And just before the rain came bucketing it down we found refuge in this bird observatory point. Underneath you can see the view we had from there.

We managed to do seven rainy, windy, and darn cold and sometimes sunny kilometers and we loved it and plan to get out and explore more soon.  Next visit, probably Monet's house and gardens which are less than 30 km from where we live.

It's great to be eight

Yesterday was Marie-Kate's 8th birthday and also the first round of the presidential election which didn't please Miss Eight one bit.

After our run (with Alexis) and then voting (after shower) we spent time preparing MK's birthday lunch that she had chosen and baking her birthday cake.

She had a 3DS from us, two games (mamie & papy and grannie), some pretty clips from Gabrielle, books, a watch and a archery set from us too.