First Day of School!

This week, Aaron and Linnea began school at ACS Egham, Meade's school. They are in the pre-K program. They had an orientation yesterday and a half day today. Both of their teachers are American (so Aaron will probably lose his English accent!) and very good. There are only nine children total in their class. They had a fantastic time today and very excited to be going to "Dada's school."

Camping in France

At the end of July, we headed down to France to camp for two and a half weeks. Our ultimate destination was Lyon, which is in southeastern France. Meade’s good friend from college, Bertrand, who is French, happens to be living in England with his family just 20 minutes from us. So, we spend time with him, his wife Yvonne and their 2 kids, Lu, age 3 and Etienne, age 6. They invited us to stay with them at Yvonne’s parents’ home in Lyon during their time there this summer.

We took the car ferry over the channel to Calais and from there went on to a campsite near Arras, which is in northern France. Campsites in France are quite different from what we are accustomed to in the U.S. It is common for the amenities to include a swimming pool (sometimes both indoor and outdoor), a games room, a restaurant and bar, and often, you guessed it, a bouncy house! Linnea and Aaron were quite pleased to discover that the first campsite had all of these.

Next, we went down to the Champagne region and in route visited the prosperous town of Epernay, the self-proclaimed capitale du Chamapge. We toured the Mercier Champagne House, which is the most popular brand of champage in France. The kids loved the cellar tour via train; we enjoyed learning about the production of champagne. We did not realize what a long and complex process it is, no wonder it is so expensive! We camped further south near the town of Langres. Langres is is an interesting place with its six towers and seven fortified gates. From there, we headed down into the province of Burgundy, where we spent the majority of our time. With its vineyards, rolling hills, and quaint villages, Burgundy is a gorgeous place. We visited the capital of Burgundy, Dijon, a beautiful city filled with lots of culture and history. We somehow did not get to try any of their famous mustard. We camped a couple nights at a lakeside campsite with a water slide, swimming pool and lots of sunshine. Aaron was quite daring and was the first to brave the huge water slide. Next we went down to Palinges, and camped at a lovely little site in which the owner treats every visitor as his own personal guest. Aaron and Linnea befriended two little Dutch boys in the campsite adjacent to ours, (who spoke no English and played with Aaron ad Linnea endlessly). However, the rain (which previously was just an intermittent visitor, mainly at night), thundered in and showed no signs of leaving soon, so we decided to head down to Lyon one day early and meet up with our friends, Bertrand and Yvonne and their family.

Yvonne’s family lives outside of Lyon in a big, country house with a huge garden and swimming pool. Yvonne's sister (who lives in the Dominican Republic) and her children were there as well, along with various other relatives that would pop in and out. Most of the family spoke some English, or at least Spanish, so we were all able to communicate fairly well. We set up camp in the backyard, as the house was pretty full, and we had grown to quite like our little tent home. Other inhabitants of the back garden included a couple of chickens, a kitten, a dog, a duck and a goose (why not?).

I would say that the main themes of our time there were relaxation, fellowship and food and drink. I have never eaten so well for so many days. Lunch and dinner were both two hour plus affairs, consumed under a big old tree adorned with white lights. The kids would eat a fairly leisurely lunch with us and then play as we continued on, and they were always asleep by the time wee sat down for dinner at 9pm or later.

Our meals generally involved: pre-meal- pastis (anise-flavored liqueur which is meant to stimulate the appetite), then wine (chosen specifically for the meal) and an aperitif (I love that word) followed by the main course and then salad. Next, they would pass around a platter of cheese (both soft and hard) along with baguette. Sometimes, instead of the platter, we enjoyed fromage frais with cream and sugar on top. Fromage frais is a very young cheese with a similar consistency to yogurt which they would buy from a dairy farm down the road. But that wasn't dessert, which generally consisted of dark chocolate or occasionally ice cream with liqueur on top, along with coffee. For me, it was exactly as I had always imagined French people eat, but possibly better. And, nope, they are not overweight......

A couple pounds heavier ourselves, we left Lyon to return to Palinges for a few more days of swimming in the lake, playing at the playground and trying to continue consuming as much good cheese, wine, baguettes, salami, and chocolate croissants as possible before returning to England. On the ferry back to Dover, Linnea and Aaron actually turned down baguette (which used to be a treat). I think they were ready to go home.

Camping in the New Forest

To prepare for our upcoming camping trip to France, we camped in the New Forest in southern England for a couple nights in mid July. The New Forest is interesting in that it is the only area of England left untouched since Norman times. There is lots of unfenced land, which is quite rare in England. Also fascinating is that it was declared a royal hunting preserve by William the Conqueror back in 1079, and that law still remains in place. Part of the land is owned by “commoners” who historically reared ponies as work horses. Most of the ponies today are left to graze the land at will and so there are wild ponies, along with horses, cattle and sheep that roam around as desired. They are everywhere, even in the campsites eating bread that some unsuspecting campers left out.

We discovered that the twins are great campers. We did a little walking and a lot of playing and exploring and came home feeling ready to embark on our next adventure.

Twins' Birthday

We had a birthday party for Aaron and Linnea on the 4th of July while Kristine and the kids were still here. We had the party on the backyard. Our English friends thought we were crazy to plan an outdoor party in July, but we got lucky- it was warm and sunny. There were about 15 children- mainly friends from pre-school and neighbors. We played games like pin the tail on the donkey (which we modified to pin the English flag on London) and pass the parcel, did a little limbo and some dancing and had lunch. Linnea and Aaron had a great time and are ever so excited to finally be FOUR!!!

Kristine and kids visit- Isle of Wight

Meade's sister, Kristine, and her kids, Kyle (8) and Jessica (10) were our next visitors. They were here for
2 and a half weeks right after Meade got out of school. We spent the first week on the Isle of Wight, a small island just a few miles off the southern coast of England. As there were 7 of us, and our small sedan would not fit everyone, we decided to rely on public transportation to get there and back and also to get around the island. While overall this went well, it involved four forms of transportation to get there (taxi, two trains, ferry, and bus), frequent two-hour one-way bus journeys to travel part-way across a 20 mile-long island, and a bit of hitch-hiking to get to our cottage from the bus stop with all our luggage after Aaron skinned his knees while dodging traffic on a very narrow country road.

We rented a cottage in a holiday park that had an indoor and outdoor pool, large indoor soft-play area, activities for kids, and lots of other great things for kids and families. Highlights included the warmest week of the summer (yes, it even exceeded 80 once), visiting the beautiful beaches, walking several kilometers along a sheep-grazed meadow to a spectacular rock promontory called “the Needles,” and exploring a bit of history by visiting the Osborne House (queen Victoria’s summer retreat that houses her largest collection of art and furnishings) and Carlisle Castle (a quintessential castle atop a hill complete with a moat and drawbridge). We spent the remainder of the time seeing local sights and Laurie and Kristine got away to Paris for two days while I (Meade writing for once) assured myself of never wanting to be a single father with four kids. It was great for the cousins to be back together again – it was like they had never been apart.