Month: September 2016

Recess with giant children and fire trucks!

The other day during recess, we were walking through a big park that used to be a stud farm (built around 1880) with gorgeous buildings and wide open spaces.  Now it’s used for various cultural events throughout the year, including a circus next week!  Anyway, we followed the path to a little space off to the side in the grass, where three giant children marionettes made of wicker looked as though they were playing a game of soccer (football).  

The sign nearby said, “Trois Enfants Jouent, Oui” (three children playing, yes).  They are the creation of an artist named BeNoît Mousserion.  We had fun taking pictures next to them…

and pretending to be the soccer balls! 🙂  

They are huge as you can see!

Today we had recess down by the lake again.  🙂  Nothing better than a recess full of soccer, gaga ball (with no walls), and French skipping (a.k.a. Chinese jump rope or elastics), except when three firetrucks show up!  We could tell right away that there wasn’t any kind of emergency, so we just stood and watched for a while, along with plenty of others who were walking through the park.

When a bench became available a little closer to the action, we moved up.  The firefighters (“sapeurs-pompiers”) were busy unloading hoses and spraying water into the lake.  There were quite a few people who were stopping to talk to them, so we decided to see if we could get a picture.  G asked in French, and the fire fighter we asked responded with a friendly, “Oui, bien sur!” (Yes, of course!)  He led us to the rig, opened the door, and let the kids climb up.  Then he had them follow him over to the other side and had L hold the hose with the water shooting into the lake.

C’etait super!

Colorful bikes — très joli!

  

Knitting and sewing field trip

WARNING: POST CONTAINS LARGE AMOUNTS OF CRAFTING INFORMATION.
MAY NOT BE INTERESTING FOR ALL READERS.

Oh my what a day! The kids and I did school this morning and then went on a three-hour field trip that may or may not have been related to sewing and knitting and may or may not have included croissants and pain aux raisins for a snack!  Well, as you may have guessed, it did, in fact, include all of this!

Our field trip was highly educational in terms of map reading, patience, and idea-producing! We love exploring the city and starting out on one road to discover we already knew about two other roads that would get us to the same place!  First stop, a great kids shop that also offers classes.  In fact, G is going to take a class there tomorrow afternoon (as kids here are off on Wednesdays, as I’ve previously mentioned), which should be fun!

Marked by a sandwich board and directing us down a cute little alley, we walked past a coffee shop (that we’ll have to stop at next time) and into a great store full of knitting and sewing materials! We purchased some yarn for teaching the art of dishcloths and some fabric for hand sewing hacky sacks and/or beanbags.  We also bought some embroidery floss necessary for the cross-stitch projects of family and friends.  And, I found yarn and needles to start the poncho! (Some of you know the pattern!)  We found another knitting store along the way with different yarn and needle options…now I just have to decide which yarn I like best and what needles to use.

At yet another shop, we learned about some events going on around Annecy this weekend (High Five Festival, including Big Air — a freestyle ski contest being held on a 42m platform!) from the very helpful and friendly shop owner. The shop offers items made locally and around France and also offers kid classes.  L is going to take an origami crane class on Saturday.

On Saturday mornings, we’ve been getting a baguette at a specific vendor at the market. They have a shop, so we stopped there for a snack — croissants and pain aux raisins!  We sat by the canal and enjoyed the view — it never gets old!

Our final stop of the afternoon was a fabric store that carries a nice variety of fabrics and notions and also offers kid classes!  While we missed out on “une robe salopette”(overalls dress), there will be one coming up to make a “snood et bandeau cache oreille” (an infinity scarf that can act like a hood and an ear warmer headband). FYI: Snood was a new word for us…both in English and French! 🙂

To round out the day, after dinner, we walked back to the old city for a “glacée” (ice cream) at our favorite place.

 

 

Sunday at Lake Annecy

As we missed the stand up paddle (SUP) board race on Saturday morning, we made sure to get going on Sunday.  The morning was just perfect!  The water was sparkling in the sun and the temperature was mild.  

We got to watch a 6km technical race with at least 100 participants! They started at 10:30am with the first place person completing the race right around 12:30pm!  They just kept going!!  6km is a lot of paddle boarding!  The course had the participants zigzagging in and out and at one point of the course, they had to get out of the water, grab their boards and run across a small peninsula and then jump back in the water to complete the course.  There were lots of people cheering and taking pictures.  It really was fun to watch!  (Here are some pictures that I took…Mike will post his pictures soon… 🙂 )

ABOVE:  Guys heading out of the water from one side of the course and then back into the water to the other side.

BELOW:  This guy is doing a “pop-a-wheelie” with his board to make a tight turn around the marker!

 

Later in the afternoon, we headed back to the lake…this time with our swimming suits. Well, some of us had swimming suits.  One of us forgot to pack a suit, so went with the athletic wear instead…We decided we should take advantage of the beautiful weather and seize the opportunity for swimming and time in the lake before it cools off too much.  

Some of the sponsors of the race had SUP boards that anyone could try, so the kids and I tried out one of the big (catamaran-like) boards.  They take a little getting used to, as you have to worry about balancing yourself and reacting to the movements of at least two other people…including some who didn’t care if they fell in…

In addition to lots of swimmers, sunbathers, sandcastle makers, and SUP boarders, there was a guy biking around selling coffee, etc.  It was a cool setup, so G ran and snapped a picture. 🙂  I think this would be lovely around Como Lake!! 🙂 

We ended the evening by making a batch of riz au lait (rice pudding).  C’etait parfait! 🙂