L'éléphant rock (The Elephant Rock)

The forest of Fontainebleau is famous for its vast boulder collections. Climbers come from all around the globe to climb these amazing rock formations. Saturday we took a little drive to the village of Larchant to visit l'éléphant rock. We have been here before but Saturday was really fun because we went with two different families and good friends from our neighborhood in SLC, the Reeds and the Ensigns. What fun to be in France with some of our best friends!

There are lots of lizards living in the cavities of these rocks and the kids were just dying to catch one. I felt like the "champion of the world" when I caught the lizard. I'm not really a fan of lizards, so my kids were really impressed. Everyone wanted a chance to hold him, but when he opened his little mouth and tried to snap the kids shrieked and let him free.


On top: Lilly, Sophie & Jeremy
In front: Tifiny, Logan, Dallas, Richard, Spencer Jesse, Olivia, Janet, Clara & Annie
Richard and Spencer enjoying a little sun.

Vallée de la Loire (Loire Valley)

No school Monday. We took advantage and left early in the morning to drive 2 1/2 hours to the Vallée de la Loire. This region has more than 1000 castles and palaces - Some of which are still inhabited by the French bourgeoisie and others that are open for the gawking public (that would be us). Before we started our journey Richard Ensign came up with a "game" to play during our visit. For each fairy tale story character or symbol we could find we earned points. If we wore the princess hats we brought from home we earned extra points. Richard was so enthusiastic he started with the hat. While he was purchasing his tickets to go to the chateau the ticket agent even commented on his attire. It was a great game and brought out the creativity in all of us.

We chose three big chateaus to visit. The first was Chateau de Chenonceau. It is the most famous of the Loire and has been built over the river. There is an old Cinderella type movie called "Ever After" that was filmed at Chenonceau. It's an absolutely beautiful setting. They have fresh flower arrangements in every room and you can really sense the opulence of this place.






After a good game of "chase" through the hedge maze we moved on to Chateau Cheverny. The family who owns this chateau still lives in one of the wings. Spencer thought this sounded dreadful. He is so glad that he does not have to live in a stuffy, fancy chateau! The highlight at Cheverny was the dog kennel. There are 70 hunting dogs barking, howling and begging for attention. The kids loved it. Right next to the kennel is a trophy room stuffed with antlers and wild boar. When Taylor suggested that we go see the trophy room Lilly said, "Are the trophies for the dogs who eat the fastest?"




Our last chateau of the day was Chambord. We opted to just view this one from the outside as we felt like we had seen enough rooms for the day - Just to put this chateau into perspective it is the largest of them all, with 440 rooms and a fireplace for every day of the year! Really it was so interesting to just study the intricate roof lines. This was a really fun field trip to share with our good friends and neighbors Richard & Jeremy. We all decided that we're glad we live in a simple little neighborhood with comfortable homes!

Joyeuses Pâques (Happy Easter)

Easter makes me happy, but I love the way the French say Joyeuses Pâques. For me Easter is a joyous holiday filled with hope. We certainly felt that way on Sunday. Richard and Jeremy Ensign (neighbors & good friends from Browning Circle) arrived Saturday night. Jeremy and the kids lined up on the bridge awaiting orders to start looking for their Easter chocolate.


Richard helped Lilly and when it was all over everyone had a different chocolate to display. Richard had the bell: In France they say that the church bells fly to the Vatican on Good Friday. When Christ was resurrected on Sunday the bells fly back to France ringing out Easter chocolates all over the land for children to find and eat! Taylor got the fish which was filled with tiny fish, Clara & Olivia received chickens, Lilly a bunny and Spencer & Jeremy got the least traditional...a chocolate soccer ball & cleats.


Church was great. Spencer had to give a talk and he did a wonderful job, all in French. After church we had an Easter dinner with the Punnells, Reeds, Ensigns & the missionaries. It was a fun big group. We fixed two kinds of quiche, cinnamon rolls, salad, fresh veggies, baked brie, springtime strawberries, fish & honeycomb. Richard commented that the combination of fish and honeycomb was tasty & to think it's been suggested for thousands of years together!



Xavier Punnell grew up in a family who owned a boulangerie (bakery). He was trained as a patissier. What luck for us because he brought his big kitchen aid & utinsells and he fixed us the most melt in your mouth dessert ever, chouquette. It is like a cream puff that is dotted with pearl sugar & sometimes chocolate. Really you didn't even have to chew once. Just pop it in your mouth and voila! heaven.

CHOUQUETTE
1/2 litre d'eau (water)
10 grams de sel (salt)
200 grams de beurre (butter)
300 grams de farine (flour)
8 to 10 oeufs (eggs)

Melt water, salt & butter until it boils. Add flour & mix well until soft. Put back on stove 2 minutes stirring constantly. Add 1 egg at a time. Stir well after each egg. Keep stirring until firm so that the dough doesn't fall (draw a line with your finger in the dough...if the dough comes together it's not done & add one more egg until the sides of the dough stay up).

Put batter into piping bag and pipe into flattened little balls on parchment lined cookie sheet. They are not tall and puffy like cream puffs, but rather a flat ball. Make sure to give enough room between each ball so that it can rise in baking. Pour pearl sugar over the batter and then quickly turn pan upside down so excess sugar comes off from the pan. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes. Voila! Eat and enjoy.

(you can add small chunks of baking chocolate with the pearl sugar if you want)
After our grand feast we had a fun little egg hunt with the little plastic American eggs that Margaret Ensign sent with Richard. The kids enjoyed it all, but were a little perplexed as to where the "golden egg" was hiding. They tried to get it out of the missionaries, but didn't succeed. Spencer found it in the end. Joyeuses Pâques!

L'œuf (The Egg)

One of the great symbols of Easter and spring time is l'œuf symbolizing the empty tomb and new life. We had a lot of fun with eggs this past weekend. Friday after school the Dowel's invited us over for an egg hunt in their big back yard. Pip hid hundreds of little chocolate foil covered eggs and chickens for the gang to find. Saturday the Thomas family invited us over for an Easter egg extravaganza. The kids colored and decorated about 75 hard boiled eggs. The colors were rich and deep thanks to the brown shells. The last egg shown here is obviously a nice rich brown chocolate egg. You can find an assortment of chocolate eggs, bunnies, chickens, fish, etc. in almost every store in town.

Pluie de printemps (Spring rain)

Good Friday started with 'pluie de printemps". When Lilly showed up at school with this bouquet of Easter flowers for her teacher the entire class breathed out a soft "ohh laa laa"! It was a sweet moment. In return Lilly got to bring home her handpainted basket complete with a spring chicken.

Arrival in España

The kids had two weeks off from school at the end of February beginning of Marchfor winter break. Everyone here goes skiing, but we decided to leave freezing France behind to find the sun and fun in España. On our drive down the Costa Brava to our rental apartment we stopped at Tossa de Mar for lunch and a little playtime on the beach. Taylor introduced the kids to tortilla de patata (kind of an egg/potato thing). We ate at an outdoor cafe and the kids collected all kinds of sea glass from the beach. Clara made this great mosiac with her glass treasures. This starts the beginning of our journey in Barcelona and it ends with the post labeled Montserrat.

FCBarcelona Game

Spencer has been dreaming of hitting at FCBarcelona football (soccer) match. Both he and Olivia worked hard to earn tickets to the game. When we arrived in Spain I said, "hey, I want to go too!" So we called and got last minute tickets for the entire family. It was a blast! 90,000 people were there to watch the 10pm game. When they started singing the team song at the beginning the entire stadium was rocking. Taylor bought a big banner and the kids wore their Barcelona jerseys. Lilly was interested the entire night. At one point she turned to Taylor and said, "That Messi guy is really fast!" She was right. He can run like crazy and manage the ball like no one else. Barcelona was behind all night but during the last three seconds of the game they scored to tie the game! The crowd went wild and we cheered our home.

Barcelona

Day 2 we met up with Mark & Tifiny Reed and their 5 fun kids. Talk about a great vacation! Barcelona is one of our favorite cities. It's so cool and funky looking with the crazy architecture of Gaudi dotting the streets. We took the train in from our rental apartment and spent the entire day on foot. The kids were great troopers as we hit all kinds of sights.


The Sagrada Familia is still under construction after all these years. Construction began in the late 1800's! Really this place is an engineers nightmare or greatest challenge. Taylor held a contest to see who could guess how many steps to the tallest tower...this created some competition and fun as we toured the scene.


Taylor wondering why they just don't finish this darn project!



This was a fabulous open market in the center of Barcelona. They had fresh fruits from all over the globe. We sampled lots of delicious berries, fresh squeezed juice and cactus plant...not many were crazy for cactus.





La Rambla is not a place to walk quickly. It is to be taken with great stride and enjoyment. We stopped to watch the performers - the birds and reptiles for sale - to enjoy the flowers, etc.

Taylor and Mark were the navigators. It's not easy to get a group of 13 people all over a major city, but they did it.
Lilly and Sophie found these fabulous Spanish flamanca dresses and shoes. They twirlled the streets of Barcelona bringing smiles to all the onlookers.



After hitting the Picasso museum we headed home...we were tired from all of that fun!