A Mountain Picnic

Yesterday we had a lovely day with Georges and Gaby, our French "grandparents". We drove up to the Alp d'Huez and continued up to a lake where we could have a picnic on the grass near the edge of the lake which was like carpet. The weather was perfect - clear and warm. It would have been hot down in our valley so it was a good day to go up into the mountains to escape the heat.
The mountain views are spectacular, so I had difficulty choosing just a few photos to put on the blog.
We had our traditional picnic fare of egg-and-bacon pie and salad, tarte aux pommes (apple tart), with orange juice and Perrier water.

Lakeside picnic

There was plenty of fishing activity around the lake (permit required), but we didn't actually see anyone reel in a fish. Schools of tiny little fish at the edge of the lake was the closest we got to the beautiful rainbow trout that were pictured on the fishing information signs. We paddled in the water, although one little boy did more paddling than the rest of us and ended up with very wet jeans. With the jeans removed he spent the rest of the day in just a nappy. [Don't get me started on this one! Yes he is still wearing nappies. Yes school starts in three days time. Yes he has to be toilet-trained in order to start school. Any miracle toilet training fairies out there?]

Hugh with Gaby, before the jeans got too wet.

After the picnic we walked around the lake, and saw the two other lakes nearby. The scenery was absolutely amazing, and there were plenty of other people (and their dogs) walking, or riding mountain bikes, but I'm surprised there weren't more people around. Maybe most people like to go to the beach, rather than the mountains, for summer holidays. But I loved it with the walking opportunities, and with all the hotels in Alpe d'Huez I reckon it would be a good choice as a summer honeymoon destination. (Only problem is if I wanted another honeymoon I would need another husband, and I think one is enough!)
On the way home we stopped at the Refuge de Sarenne and had a drink.

Roger and a lot of empty glasses. I love the slab of rock for the table.

We were able to climb a small hill across the road to get a good view of the valley and a glacier on the opposite mountain. We also met a group of Swiss motorcyclists, one of whom kindly let our moto-mad Hugh sit on his big bike!

Hugh - M. Moto!

Meeting Penny

The Telfers with "Soupe du Jour" Penny (holding Jasper) and Lily (in front)

Yesterday we went to Annecy for a day trip, and we met Penny, whose blog I link to at "Soupe du Jour" . (She beat me to blog about our meeting HERE.) Penny comes from Australia too, so I enjoyed listening to the Aussie accent and chatting in a way that I can't in French. I am very impressed by how well her little girl Lily can speak French. They have been here for just over a year and she sounds French already.
We arranged to meet them in the park for a picnic, and the kids didn't take long to start playing together.

The picnic

Odette and Lily push their little brothers, Hugh and Jasper, on the swings
watched by Bonnie.

The climbing tree

Lily, with her local knowledge could show our kids cool spots like this tree that is great for climbing. In fact the wood is shiny in parts where so many little feet have been climbing it over the years.

We have "met" several families through the world of blog, but this is the first time we have met any of them face-to-face. I love the internet for putting me in touch with so many lovely new friends.

Frens and Greetje showing Roger the route they travelled on the map

Roger's friends from Holland have come to visit. He met Frens when he went on a young farmer's exchange to work on the Mittags' farm in Minnesota in 1980.
Frens and Greetje arrived after a very hot day, and Frens said the previous night that they spent in a hotel in Grenoble was the hottest he had ever been. When they checked in the receptionist had asked if they would like an air-conditioned room for 3 euros extra. Frens didn't think he would spend the extra money, but it was a decision he regretted.
Yesterday was just the opposite. It rained all day, and we were stuck inside the house.

I have lots of Blog posts to add from the last week, but they will have to wait until after the visitors have left. School has finished and the kids are on holidays so I should have plenty of time to Blog. (!!) Do I really believe that?

Farewell Jeff

"I don't want to go-o-o..."

Jeff left on Sunday morning, so we drove him to the Grenoble airport. The airport is a long way from Grenoble, presumably because they had to go 45kms before some flat ground could be found to build it on. Once again we appreciated the services of Tom-Tom (our GPS) to find our way to our destination.
Jeff was a little sad to leave because he insisted his stay here was the HIGHLIGHT of his entire trip. He loved meeting the locals, playing pétanque, and walking/riding in the mountains. But he had to go, despite his friend's email asking us to keep him here. Actually I don't think we could keep up with his pace for too long...

Water Pistols

Four girls in a bath

Bonnie's friend Fanny came for a sleep-over last night. The girls stayed up VERY late, but as there is no school today we didn't mind. Then this morning they got into a gun-fight with some boys in the street. The boys are a year or two older and their weapons were superior. Their tactics were more sophisticated too. When they took Fanny hostage and demanded that she squirt the other girls or she would get hurt it was time to call in reinforcements. So Mum was called out of the shower and marched down the road wrapped in a towel to rescue the hostage and repatriate the water-soaked girls to a warm bath.
No-one had the camera out to catch me in my towel (it scared the boys off though), but I got it out to take a snap of the girls in the bath.

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Besançon

When we left Dampierre-sur-Linotte we went to Besançon for the night and stayed in everybody's favourite - an Etap Hotel. This time we had to have two rooms, but only because one room wasn't big enough for all of us. (Only three beds and two pillows in each...) Actually it is not Sophie's favourite accommodation but our budget doesn't fit the style she prefers...
Although we went to Besançon we didn't have much time there, and we didn't explore the town at all. But we caught up with Rowena Putland, the daughter of our neighbours back home, who is living there with her French husband Thierry.

With Rowena Putland and Thierry Morel at the zoo in Besançon

We met them at the Citadelle, where there is a zoo, and spent some time browsing there before the rain drove us home. Apart from the outdoor zoo we also saw the nocturnal exhibit, which was all rats and mice, and the aquarium. I haven't got any photos of the exotic animals, but it was fun watching various types of monkeys and baboons playing around. They exhibit such human characteristics; like the mother smacking her child over the head when he teased the baby. And then when I tried to have a close look into one of the enclosures with glass windows all I could see was my reflection!

I am not sure if Thierry was trying to throw Sophie and Bonnie
over the wall, or trying to stop them from falling...

The farmyard exhibit was something we didn't have to travel to a zoo to see (Nan, check out the peacock...) but there is a photo of Hugh and Odette crawling through a tunnel in the rabbit cage.
We went back to Rowena and Thierry's apartment and had take-away pizza for dinner. The kids watched a DVD, we had wine and cheese, and then left before the kids fell asleep (because I didn't want to have to carry anyone down the stairs...)
Thierry had some ideas for excursions the next day, but we had to decline because everyone was very tired and we had to drive back to Ste Marie d'Alloix.

Rowena and Thierry in their apartment (sorry guys,
I know its a shocking picture...)

Bronze

I still haven't got through all our photos from the first week of school holidays, and already it is the last day of the second week...
Dampierre-sur-Linotte: Stephane described his work for a company that makes bronze statues. They cast the works of sculptors/artists, and Stephane's job is finishing off the sculptures once they have been cast. We were able to see some of the finished works, like this caricature of a lawyer striding towards the courthouse across the street in Vesoul.
He pointed out the technicalities of the process, showing us where the joins were made, and which pieces were cast separately.
We found another one of the statues at the citadelle in Besançon, and another on the street in Besançon.

A big man or a small boy? - or both?

Sunday on Wednesday

Gaby and Georges on their balcony with a foggy view of Grenoble in the background

Today it felt like Sunday because we went to Georges and Gaby's (Stef's parents) place for lunch. It was the first time we had visited them at their house, and Georges was a bit concerned that we wouldn't find their place (if you read our post "No School on Wednesdays" you will know why), so he was standing out on the street to welcome us. He had no need to worry, because we had Tom-Tom to guide us!
We had a nice lunch, although the girls weren't too keen on eating the radishes. (They had been served them one day at school cantine and they didn't know what they were - it took me a while to work out that the little red and white balls they described to me were in fact radishes.) When Hugh grew restless of sitting at the table Gaby did the good grandmother thing and got out some Lego blocks for him to play with. All the kids ended up constructing a house out of the blocks before we left.
After lunch we had a walk to the village church and Mairie at Venon. The picture shows Gaby pointing out landmarks in Grenoble to Roger from the forecourt at the church.
Then we had a look in their garden where Gaby had found a special mushroom (called a "morille" in French, but known as "morel" in English). It is prized for cooking but apparently can be confused with poisonous mushrooms so I probably wouldn't be game to eat it.
In the garden Hugh found something much more exciting - a ladder! Roger had to hold onto his feet to stop him climbing higher...

Chateau

We visited our first chateau while we were with the Viennet family (pictured below). The chateau at Champlitte was open as a museum, with rooms recreating scenes from the 18th Century. The girls and I have decided that we would like to live in a chateau, so we are looking out for suitable real estate. If you have the same desire you could look at the Prestige Property Group's list of 120 chateax for sale in France, or ChateauxProperty.com or chateau-for-sale-france.com.

Agriculture

During our travels through the Franche-Comté region we saw lots of land with young crops - mainly cereals. Here is a picture of some canola growing in a field, and some silos (which I snapped through the windscreen as we drove past). There were hundreds of hectares of crops, but usually in small plots, with no fences - so I presume that these fields are continuously cropped.

Cows coming in for milking

The area is also famous for its cheeses, and both Stephan's and Annick's fathers had been cheese makers. There were many dairy farms. Most of the cows we saw were brown and white, a local breed called Montbéliard.
(Click here to find out more about the Montbéliard breed.)

Our hosts organised a visit to a dairy farm for us. The farm was only small, with about 30 or 40 cows being milked. The milk goes down the road about 5kms to a fromagerie where it is made into cheese.

The by-product of cheese-making is whey, and Annick works for a company that dries the whey into powder and exports it around the world. In her job distributing the products she speaks both English and German, as well as French, and she is currently learning another language (I can't remember if it was Polish or Russian). However Stephan only speaks French, so he and Roger (who only speaks English) had quite interesting chats!

A Walk in the Countryside

Walking in the countryside...

Running in the countryside...

A sheep...

The first morning in Dampierre-sur-Linotte was fine and we all went for a walk around the village and down a rural lane. Here we saw a sheep, just in case we were homesick. As you can see in the photo it bears little resemblance to one of our merino sheep on the farm back home in Australia.

We also saw big piles of firewood along the edges of the lane. The local community has a lot of forest, which is managed and harvested to allow all the residents of the village to have an annual supply of firewood. Stephan said that he is going to take out their expensive oil-fired central heating and replace with a wood-burning unit before next winter.

Penfriends

Sophie has several penfriends around the world, and one of them is Noëllie, who lives in Dampierre-sur-Linotte. Sophie and Noëllie have been writing to each other for a few years, and chatting on the computer with MSN/ Windows Live Messenger for several months, so they were very excited to finally meet each other in person.
We travelled to Dampierre-sur-Linotte on Monday and were welcomed very warmly by the Viennet family. Stephan and Annick have three daughters and Noëllie and her little sister Marthe are about the same age as our girls. At first the children were a little shy, but by the end of the evening they were playing together to such an extent that they performed a circus spectacle for the adults.

The Viennet's house in Dampierre-sur-Linotte

Farewell Ash

We are all feeling a bit sad today, because Ash, our dog at home, died. David, who's been living in our house and looking after her, emailed this morning with the news. She had an accident jumping off the ute and got run over by the sheep feeder apparently.
Ash was Roger's number one sheep dog, and the only one we kept when we left the farm. She was also the only the dog that the girls aren't scared of. Hugh liked to play with her and he would roll around on the ground with her. He would give her biscuits to eat and he has on occasion tried to clean her teeth with a toothbrush.
I have found a few photos with Ash in them for her final farewell.