Mucking about in the Dordogne

A wonderful 8 km family hike - complete with loads of blackberries

Back to school items in Le Clerc (lab coats!)

A gorgeous meal out (at La Bruceliere!!) with our dear friend Jean

Playing in Alice & Joao's pool

Making waffles in our inherited, authentic Belgian waffle maker

Mucking about includes some excellent wine opened for some dear friends

and of course great food - like Seb's potato dish

Checking out how much work will be required to repoint our garden wall

The annual pruning of the roses 

A purple sort of day - are we part of Dordogne pourpre?

Dressing up as monsters in huge canvas sacks...

It was so lovely to be back in le petit village

Grandparent Camp 2017 - some later additions

A few more photos of the sailors and the trip to Hopewell rocks. 

Don't their sweatshirts/the East Coast lifestyle look great?!

Best buds / Meilleures amies

Nit & wit

So.... Sophie finally had a confirmed case of lice. Friends are amazed that we got to 10 and 13 without any outbreak (there was a possible case 5 years ago but we only ever saw one possible louse egg - but we did leave it all in the trusty hands of the grandparents as we parents scuppered off for a trip).

It's been arduous - laundry and goopy hair conditioner and combing it out X 6 (each time a process of about 45 mins but we often read Harry Potter). But we seem to be done. I got them too but I am taking it as a badge of motherhood - I clearly like to cuddle my kids!

Euro-camping: it rained, and rained some more

We were delighted to be invited to join our Basque/Welsh friends in some "camping" this summer. So on Tuesday we headed off for 2 nights of "Euro-camping" (North Americans, think along the lines of KOA).

It started with a 3+ hour drive - and a stop at a restaurant beside the motorway for some vending machine soup ("decent" was the assessment)

We arrived at Esperbasque in time for drinks and pizza from the local truck. We were so far down the queue that shortly after ours was served the truck zoomed out of the carpark! Our lovely friends had lent us their extra tent and set it up! So all we had to do was snuggle down with some more of volume 7.
And it rained and then cleared and then rained and then was cloudy and then rained some more and cleared briefly and - well, you get the idea. It was an exceedingly damp camp out.

We went for a hike on Wednesday, and the kids played on the trampoline and petted the horses & puppies and swam in the pool both days.

The lovely, resilient Claire 

Her girls enjoying some saucisson with Sophie (but not the wine!)

Colleagues over the decades

Our view during one of the brief sunny spells

Much of the time was spent...

But by Thursday morning, we decided to strike the tents and head to Olivier & Claire's house just 40 mins away. There we had a lovely curry, a game of Labyrinth and admired the new family room at the back of their mountain house.

On the way home we decided to stop at Salies de Bearn to take the waters at the 19th century municipal pools. Lots of fun and affordable too!

The boy returns from Paris - updated

We have little photographic evidence of his 4 days in the City of Lights.

Musee de la chasse et de la nature - one of Lisa's faves

quintessential Paris

Last Saturday evening the train discharged a bag full of empty wrappers (Lisa's email about return preparations: "he bought enough junk food to feed a small army") and a very happy lad. His kind host also wrote: He was an excellent guest! Considerate, tidy, interested and interesting. Seriously, he can visit us anytime. 

[Tidy????!!!] To his father's annoyance, the teen had spent virtually every centime - including gifts for us and himself (cough, cough).



















Beautiful sunset over the Dordogne to welcome him home.

Annual trip to Decathlon

Once a summer we head to Decathlon to pick up some great bargains on sports wear. This year's haul was sports sandals, running gear, hiking boots, boating/beach shoes, hiking foods! whistle/compass/thermometer combo!

Les enquêteurs

Yesterday, Papa took Sophie and 2 of her friends to Cadouin for an afternoon of animations. We were pleased that the timeframe was NOT the medieval ages for once but the 1930s. A poltergeist was running around the village and they needed bright minds to solve the mystery. Fortunately, fun was had by all, even though they didn't win the coveted camera prize!

And he is off!

Our teen headed to Paris this morning for a few days with Auntie Lisa. First the choo-choo and then transferred to the TGV in Bordeaux. All went well and he arrived smoothly. Now he will stroll the boulevards of the City of Lights for the next 3 1/2 days.

Not sure if we will receive any photos to update the blog but he has his device...