Gotta love going to a play in a historic building with friends and being served wine and nibbles before it starts. Surprisingly, Deja managed to stay engaged for the entire 15 minutes and never fussed. Afterwards, there was a raffle with wine, cheese and chocolate as prizes. Obviously, we’ve done something right raising these kids.
I confess. I was a little nervous when the kids invited Ginger and Bobby to come along to their play. There was no doubt that their own parents would love whatever they’d come up with, but I was leary about inviting others in case it was goofy. I worried needlessly. The play was charming and thoroughly entertaining. Ashlynn and Andrew were young kids playing bocce who travelled through time as they chased their ball through a strange door. Veronica and David were first a servant and butler in 1843, then a fine lady and Benjamin Franklin in 1770 (it is documented that he stayed at the Chateau and is credited with bringing the lightning rods, which were the first in France.) Everyone did a great job remembering their lines. Bravo!
Veronica spent hours writing a script and directing the kids in a play called The Chateau Adventure. They worked together to make posters that they placed in the halls and sold tickets for 10¢ each plus raffle tickets. They also cleaned the unused attic of the Petite Chateau to use as their theater. Needless to say, we were all impressed before the first act even began.
For the first time, we had five nights alone with our British buddies (although Ginger and Bobby were still around and did join us for some meals.) And for the first time, the four of us adults managed to get away and have a nice dinner in Vendome.
We were thrilled that spring had sprung and it was occasionally warm enough to eat outside. Sally introduced artichokes to the girls and Ginger actually got me to eat stuffed mushrooms. In addition to spending a lot of time eating and drinking, we tried to get outside as much as possible. Embarrassingly, the four kids managed to beat us four adults at Ultimate Frisbee and extreme bocce. They may be short, but they sure work well together as a team.
After the 10K, Vivynne, Tony and Ariana joined us for a simple lunch in Lavardin. We visited the 11th century church, which had recently discovered frescoes hidden behind all the painted walls around the church. Unfortunately, the castle ruins were closed. However, we did get to visit Aprille’s art studio in a cave. We also saw her Japanese tea house and garden built on the hill above the cave with a direct view of the ruins. Just before we left, we got Aprille to take the only shots of the whole gang this trip.
Monday morning we got an early start as Aprille and Bill (who unfortuately had missed Easter dinner due to a cold) had invited us to take place in an organized 10K walk in their village of Lavardin. Ariana wasn’t feeling well, so Tony and Vivynne stayed behind while the rest of us set out for a beautiful walk through the French countryside. Sally and I laughed at our husbands as they threw Frisbees to the kids down the country lanes. At the halfway point, there were sandwiches, goat cheese, chocolate and wine despite it only being 10am. The rapeseed (known as canola in the US) was in full bloom and made for great photos.
We had a few new activities this year at the Chateau, but the biggest hit was definitely David and Andrew’s metal detector, which provided hours of fun. Here Max, Andrew and Ashlynn are testing it out searching for foil eggs they may have missed in the hedges.
Veronica and David got into the act later in the woods (and so did Jimmy and John) where they found several rusty horseshoes, lots of nails and 3 rotted coins ranging from 1911 to 1923. The coolest find was a mini hand-held periscope. Our imaginations ran wild as we read the history of the Chateau and conjectured that it might have been owned by the Dutch couple that hid Allied pilots at the Chateau during WWII. Sadly, their story doesn’t have a happy ending as they were turned in by a carpenter they had hired; the wife died in a concentration camp and the husband died en route. While our story won’t be included in the historical records, the Chateau will always be part of our family history.
We arrived back at the Chateau on Friday night, and Sally, John and the boys arrived the next evening. It was our smallest Easter egg hunt yet with only six kids, so the Easter bunny mixed things up by putting the chocolate eggs on the front lawn. Strangely, many of the eggs had pock marks on them as if they’d been pitched onto the gravel from a third floor window. 
Vivynne was once again the master chef for the Easter feast and made leg of lamb and chicken. Jimmy was in charge of the killer chocolate cake. Ginger and Bobby, who are staying at the Chateau from March through June, also joined us. Veronica is missing from this photo as she played photographer from her favorite spot--the windowsill.
We invited Aprille and Bill Glover, Americans living in nearby Lavardin that we met in 2005, to join us for dinner one evening at the Chateau. We were honored when they invited us to their home in return. While we’ve eaten in a restaurant cave several times, this was our first time dining in a cave used as a home. As you can see, it’s small, but very cozy. The couch opens into their bed and behind the curtain is the toilet and shower. From their window, they have a view of the ruins of a 15th century chateau. They’ve lived there since 1999; Bill even wrote a book about their lives entitled Cave Life in France. Nearby, Aprille has a larger cave which houses her artist studio where she sculpts and makes multimedia projects. In addition, they have another cave for storage and share a 4th with friends as a wine cellar. It was fascinating to get a glimpse at this unusual lifestyle.
While it never snowed while we were at the Chateau, it was cold and the reflecting pond finally did freeze. Of course, we just had to walk on it and get some photos. However, leave it to Jimmy to decide to design a full photo shoot complete with oriental rug, antique table, candelabra and wine. We’re sure there’s never been photos like this taken there before!
After just one night in Paris, it was time to venture down to the Loire Valley to hunker down at the Chateau for almost two weeks. Just like two years ago, we stayed by ourselves in the Petite Chateau (built in 1791) trying to stay warm with two space heaters and a giant fireplace. This year, instead of cookies for Santa, the girls left out creme caramel. Luckily Santa didn’t hold that against them and still brought them some pieces for their fairy set. A bag of Ocean Spray cranberries cost $5, but that didn’t stop us from having cranberry sauce with sweet potatoes and chicken for Christmas dinner.
Unlike past visits to the Chateau, we took very few photos this time. The weather was cold much of the week, but that didn’t stop the kids from playing outside daily. As usual, we rarely saw them other than at meal times. We played a little extreme bocce and went on several long walks during which we saw a hare, a dozen deer and a pheasant all on the Chateau grounds. We were thrilled that Sally, John, David and Andrew were able to join us for an entire week. Ashlynn was excited to have her classmate Ella along and her parents Anno and Refiya were a great addition to our group.
During my 1st visit to the Chateau in 1998, Jimmy enjoyed scaring me as he led me around the attic, basement and clock tower with just the light of a candelabra, and the Midnight Tour was born. His best was in 2005 during his 40th birthday celebration since he had Carolyn Sparano as his sidekick and lots of unsuspecting victims. Usually he does a separate tour for the kids, but this year’s was for all ages so it couldn’t be as creepy. For comedy relief, a few friendly ghosts popped up in a dark room.
There’s no doubt that my favorite part of the ZooParc is the flying bird show. For 30 minutes, birds soar not only across the stage, which happens to be a large pool of water for the seals that perform afterwards, but also over our heads onto perches at the top of the stands. While the first part of the show with the falcons and hawks is similar to shows we’ve seen in the US, we were truly shocked the first time a turkey vulture and condor flew straight over our heads. Good thing we remembered to duck!
Who would have guessed we’d have to go to France to see a trained American Bald Eagle for the first time? While it didn’t fly over our heads, it was majestic as it flew over the field behind the stadium and over the pool, then caught a fish the trainer threw in the air.
We’d last visited ZooParc de Beauval in 2005 and have anxiously waited to be able to share the experience of this awesome zoo with Andrew, David and Ella. Although I took a lot of photos of the white tigers and other exotic animals, you’re stuck looking at photos of our favorite animals above.
The kids spent an extra long time with the orangutans. It was quite humorous when they pulled out the map of the zoo and shared it with the apes. We couldn’t help but think that this might be the final piece that they needed to finally plan their escape--the apes that is, not the kids.
Amazingly, we had three birthdays to celebrate in a row while we were at the Chateau--Sally’s, Samantha’s and Jimmy’s. Sally surprised us by having this amazing cake made at her favorite bakery in Holland and hauling it 500 miles. We celebrated Jimmy’s birthday with a group dinner at the cave restaurant in Lavardin, where the owner surprised him with a cake and champagne.
When we found out that the Chateau would once again be available over Easter, we gathered up a group of friends and headed back to the Loire Valley. Spring had not yet sprung and it was still cold, but luckily it was dry most of the week. The cold didn’t stop the kids from playing outside almost non-stop or the Easter bunny visiting. We failed to get many photos and this one of our Easter feast is the only photo of the entire group.
Although it was difficult to drag them away, we were able to get the kids off the Chateau grounds a few times. We wandered around Vendome and up to the ruins of the old chateau. We enjoyed a picnic lunch, a crafts festival and some wine tasting in the quaint medieval town of Amboise. And we went to an ostrich farm. The girls were disappointed because only the juvenile ostriches were in the field and they were very skittish; the poor adult ostriches were all squished into the main barn. Here you see the kids trying to demonstrate that ostriches have tiny brains. You be the judge if they've succeeded.
While the kids were playing with styrofoam swords, the dads were taking turns learning how to fight with real swords (albeit not sharp swords); at least we had a doctor with us just in case. Us moms stayed out of the way and played photographers. We didn’t do much other sightseeing in the Loire, but Vivynne, Tony, Jimmy and I managed to dump our kids and had a day of exploring Saumur, famous for its sparkling wines and mushrooms. While the tour of the wine caves did make me thirsty, the tour of the mushroom caves just helped remind me why I don’t eat them.
