Mother's Day and a Poem

The card

My children usually recite a short poem on Mother's Day. They are pretty used to learning texts and poems by heart, something I can't remember doing at school back in Sweden. I think it is a very good excercice. They get used to standing up in front of their class mates and get a feeling for the rythm and rhymes of poetic language.

So this morning my almost-five-year-old stood in front of me and proudly recited the following - which I wish all mothers could have shared with me - ending with a big hug. No need to tell you my eyes where filled with tears of joy and pride.

J'ai cherché dans les poèmes ; I looked in the poems
Comment dire je t'aime ; How to say I love you
J'ai trouvé des mots savants ; I found words of wisdom
Bien trop longs pour mes cinq ans ; Much too long for my five years
Alors, j'ai cherché ailleurs ; So, I went looking somewhere else
Et j'ai trouvé dans mon coeur ; And I found in my heart
Les mots que tu m'as appris ; The words that you taught me
Quand j'étais encore petit ; When I was still little
Maman, je t'aime comme ça! ; Mother, I love you like that!
Je le dis avec mes bras ; I tell you with my arms

Crab hunting at Socoa Beach

We had other plans, but when we saw the 31 degrees in the weather report, we decided to go to Socoa Beach with our Basque friends Stéphane and Mariejo. Socoa is the beach just South of Saint-Jean-de-Luz. We had lunch just beside the Socoa Fortress and then headed for the beach. Here we are, end of May, but feeling like it's August and high season. The beach was crowded, the water full of people swimming and the breeze warm. We felt like staying there for ever.

The channel when we came, the tide is still high...

... the same place as we leave.

Our restaurant, Cidrerie Ispeguy

Fresh cod

Like a squirrel in a tree

The little tree house.

I never had a tree house of my own, but I still remember the giant oak tree where I went to play with my little sister. Someone had installed a wooden platform high up and the only possible entrance was through a rope with knots. We climbed up, pulled up the rope and felt safe. We stayed up there for hours, feeling like we owned the world.

Last week I was happy to bring my children to a somewhat similar experience. We went to stay the night in a real tree house, very confortable, close to the Lake Léon, Les Cabanes du Menoy. We had beautiful calm weather and enjoyed our squirrel experience fully!  Let me tell you the story in a few photos. A dream for all of you who have kept enough of the spirit of a child to marvel at this special place. In the evening we all sat together on the terrace, listening at all the different sounds from the forest.

The tree houses are made by Nid Perché without harming the trees in any way.

Our big tree house

Here we take the stairs up...

... to get to this view

... and relax and listen to the birds...

On one side we look at the the trees....

on the other we have a view over a small pond. At night, the frogs went wild from time to time and made us all laugh.

Other children have made drawings of the tree house, so Clara went outside, sat down in the grass and started sketching.

Then a calm moment reading.

What is this? The best part!

At the end of the rope.....

... a breakfast basket!

Filled with coffee, hot chocolate, juice, bread, fresh croissants.....

... and home made jam in the cutest little jars I ever saw.

Jardin Public, a green oasis in Bordeaux

I love Bordeaux and its beautiful architecture, but sometimes you just want some shadow and grass, a bit of water and trees. That is when you go for a stroll in Jardin Public. It has a stream of water where you can go for a slow ride, a couple of play grounds for the children and a fabulous terrace at l'Orangerie. A must to stop for a coffee and watch the people jogging as you stretch out in the long chairs. The proprietor is new, so I can't say much about the food, but the coffee was long and lazy.

Guignols, a theatre for the children.

Jumping high

The children finally got their trampoline. All my friends in Sweden have one and when I got a good price, I couldn't resist buying one for them. We will see what happens when novelty has passed, but so far, the first thing they say in the morning is to ask to go there.  I tried it myself and I couldn't stop giggling, it was real strange the feeling to float in the air for a second with each jump. It is supposedly a very good excercice, for adults too, so I will have a try now and then....

A tent in my garden

In my part of Aquitaine you find many campings and I am determined to let my children discover the joys of sleeping in a tent, contemplating a starry night... but it is important to make one step at a time. The first step is to sleep in a tent in our garden. Here you see Bjorn waking up after his first night - that he spent with his father. At breakfast he told me that he no longer needs any light in his room at night. I'm not afraid of the dark anymore, he said. To be continued!

An (almost) perfect day in Hendaye

This was the 26th of July last year. A perfect day... almost. If someone at some point says: It felt like a scary movie - I guess that day won't make it as perfect.

My Swedish friends and I started out slow with croissants, pool and barbecue before heading south towards Hendaye, the last outpost of France before the Spanish border. I took the exit for Saint-Jean-de-Luz to show them some of the incredibly beautiful Basque coast line. The road was deserted which felt strange end of July, but the temperature was at 34 degrees Celcius. Either you had made it to a water point or were lying unconcious indoors.

As we arrive to Henday we realize that we are not exactly on our own. Every person within 100 km had decided to meet up at the Hendaye beach. It took nothing less than a miracle for us to get not only one parking space, but TWO close to each other. The sea was calm, the water was warm and behind us lay the Rhune mountain. Such a beautiful place....

Not contented with one miracle in a day, we later tempted our luck again, to get a parking close to the little ferry that crosses the water to the Spanish little city Fuentarrabie. And we did find two places again, incredible. We walked slowly towards the ferry, admiring the palm trees and the marina.

Fuentarrabie (Hondarribia in French) is especially well known for its old fishermen area Marina and the abundance of high quality tapas bars. The kind of bars to win Spanish National tapas awards. You also find a beautiful beach and a walking area along the water, not the mention the old town and its renovated Parador. With our hungry children we headed for the tapas! A few tapas and an ice cream later we got back to the ferry and started driving home.

Now you are wondering where the scary movie part was in this sunny day... well, it starts right now, as we arrive on the highway. There are big trucks everywhere. Never seen anything like it before and this is a road with lots of trucks, but not like this. In the dark they looked threatening... I wanted to fill up my car with gas, but there were so many trucks I didn't even manage to get near.. I held on tight to my steering wheel and concentrated on keeping on track between all the trucks...

Then I learned that all the trucks are stopped during the weekend and allowed to start moving again on Sunday evening. Good to know that the highway close to the border France-Spain should be avoided after 20H on Sundays...

Stay in a Castle in Bidart

My Swedish friend Charlotte has the most amazing place in Bidart.

A parc of 14 hectars, a castle and a renovated farm that has kept all the initial charm with beams and stone walls, yet adding modern confort. Charlotte has herself decorated each of the rooms. She has had an ecological attitude from the beginning, using ecological material and geothermic heating. Her hotel was the first in Pays Basque to obtain the eco cerfitication label.  I wanted to make this right, she says, I wanted to stay true to the basque culture and be respecful towards the environment.

There is also another building called the Conciergerie, which has room for 14 persons. When I went there, a golf playing group of friends had rented it. A faboulous dining room with a huge table and an indoor pool completes the picture.

Have a look at her site. The photos are pretty, but I assure you, it is even better for real!
Domaine de Bassilour

Amusement parc in Gujan-Mestras

I've written about the oyster fishing village Gujan-Mestras before, but now it is time to add something different. There are no less than three amusement parcs in this area, Aqualand with 8 ha of pools and all sorts of water games, biggest parc in Aquitaine,  Coccinelle where you can play, watch magic tricks and a farm where you can feed the animals and last but not least, Kid Parc, an adventure island for children 0-12 years.

We went to Kid Parc last summer. The kids loved it! I liked it too, especially because I felt that the size was human, so you quickly got an overview of what there was to do.  I have now promised that we will go there again. I have just not given a specific date yet...

Burn baby burn

I say we barbecue a lot in our family, but it is actually my husband who does the barbecuing part. This weekend I wanted to have a try myself, with some pork ribs and duck ribs. The fat melted down and created some impressive flames. The pork ribs were badly burned, but I managed to save most of the duck ribs. Still, after rubbing off the burned parts, the children finished all the meat, eating with their hands and getting their little faces all done! Thank you Anna for supporting me in this adventure and a high five for your fabulous marinade! I would give you the recipe, but honestly I don't know what went in.... soy sauce, honey, sweet chili sauce... what else?

I won't do any more barbecues before my husband is back. Too dangerous.