Our last few days in France were spent on our own after our friends all headed home. We enjoyed the quiet of the Chateau and outings to see Da Vinci Park, which featured models of many of his inventions, and a cool world music museum that had giant instruments that we could play. The highpoint was definitely our hike with Aprille Glover, an artist from Jacksonville who we met last year that lives in a cave with her husband in Lavardin. She showed us her art studio in a cave, a 3,000-year-old Druid cave and the ruins of a Roman fort. Best of all, she gave us an unauthorized private tour of Lavardin Chateau, which was closed for the season. I'd photographed the majestic ruins on a hill during our last 3 visits, but had never been inside. Considering this chateau was built in the 1100's and destroyed in the 1500's, it was amazing how much remains. Ashlynn especially loved the goats that live there. What a great vacation!
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
It Pays to Know the Locals...
Our last few days in France were spent on our own after our friends all headed home. We enjoyed the quiet of the Chateau and outings to see Da Vinci Park, which featured models of many of his inventions, and a cool world music museum that had giant instruments that we could play. The highpoint was definitely our hike with Aprille Glover, an artist from Jacksonville who we met last year that lives in a cave with her husband in Lavardin. She showed us her art studio in a cave, a 3,000-year-old Druid cave and the ruins of a Roman fort. Best of all, she gave us an unauthorized private tour of Lavardin Chateau, which was closed for the season. I'd photographed the majestic ruins on a hill during our last 3 visits, but had never been inside. Considering this chateau was built in the 1100's and destroyed in the 1500's, it was amazing how much remains. Ashlynn especially loved the goats that live there. What a great vacation!
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Chateau life...
Life's pretty sweet when you're hanging out at a Chateau. While we took advantage of being in the Loire Valley by visiting several wineries and public chateaux (including the one where Leonardo da Vinci lived for his final years), we spent much of our week in our own backyard. Here you see Veronica and David during their Frog Show, which would have made their teachers proud. While the kids played a lot of walkie-talkie hide 'n seek and Indians, the adults were busy with ultimate Frisbee golf and bocce ball. This year's midnight ghost tour did a good job of spooking many of the big kids. A good time was had by all.
Thursday, April 27, 2006
A Royal Easter Egg Hunt...
Ok, technically the Chateau du Plessis-Fortia built in 1635 in the Loire Valley wasn't a royal castle, but we felt like royalty staying there. When we kicked around what we should do for our Easter break, we just couldn't resist the idea of dragging some new friends to the Chateau where we hosted Jimmy's 40th party in 2005. Amazingly, we ended up with 5 families joining us with kids outnumbering adults. The Easter Bunny had a good sense of humor as shown here with an egg high up in this topiary bush. Easter dinner was a gourmet feast for 28 in the formal dining room.
A Dutch April Fool's Day...
Here the girls are in the quaint fortified city of Brielle. Every April 1st the city celebrates the 1572 victory over the Spanish occupation with a giant street festival and this year we were lucky that it fell on a Saturday.
It was a beautiful day to watch the locals dressed in medieval costumes re-enacting the rounding up of the Spaniards. We were reminded that we weren't in America anymore since the 8% microbrews were only $2 and the parade ended with the simulated hanging of the Spanish leader.
It was a beautiful day to watch the locals dressed in medieval costumes re-enacting the rounding up of the Spaniards. We were reminded that we weren't in America anymore since the 8% microbrews were only $2 and the parade ended with the simulated hanging of the Spanish leader.
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Life on the River...
Jimmy might not be able to read Dutch, but he managed to figure out the on-line classifieds enough to be able to find 2 used canoes--1 for us and 1 for friends. Despite the cold rain, he and Veronica couldn't resist paddling the 30 minutes into Leiden Centrum. We all went paddling on a dry Saturday into the market for veggies and flowers; seemed like a crazy way to go shopping. Now we're dreaming of warm summer nights that we can paddle into town for dinner.
Our Commute Has Really Changed...
In an attempt to truly experience life in the big city, we don't own a car and are using public transportation and bikes to get around. The commute to school takes about 40 minutes one way between walking, taking a train and transferring to a tram. When the weather's good, Jimmy can ride his bike the 9.5 miles to work in 37 minutes. It's definitely a huge change from how we lived in Cary. We're looking into a car co-op rental that'll allow us to rent a car by the hour--like when our friends visit and we need to help carry their luggage from the train station. The hardest part is that our schedule's no longer our own; although we've got our school commute down, it's still common for us to have to run to trains at other times of the day.
Monday, April 10, 2006
What Great Museums!
We truly love Dutch museums. Amazingly, this small country has over 1,000. It's no surprise that the art museums are first rate since they are full of Rembrandts, Vermeers, Eschers and Van Goghs. We've also thoroughly enjoyed museums featuring trains, mummies and ships. This photo was taken on the top floor of the Maritime Museum overlooking the Rotterdam port, one of the busiest in the world.