Montpellier

We just got back from an awesome week in Southern France with our friends Sofie, Joris, and Lisa.  We ate amazing food, played at the beach, hiked, toured the city, and tasted delicious wines and olive oils.  Here are a few pictures...

Bronwen sing the little teapot and kookaburra song...

More pictures from the bike race...

Here we are waiting for the cyclists

wine tasting along the race route by a local vinyard.  The giant wine bottle is full of balloons that they released when the cyclists passed it.

Sofie, Joris, & Lisa

Cheering the women!

Sofie's parents had chocolate bunnies and eggs for the kids (Sofie's dad is a chocolatier)

Pictures from this weekend...

Saturday we went to Breda, Holland just over and hour away.  It was a picturesque town with canals a tons of great stores....

our walk into the city center

snack and beer break

dancing in the street (I never pass up an opportunity to dance with my little ones:)

Sunglass shopping

 

Today was the Rond van Vlaanderen, a  bike race in the Flemmish Ardennes.  The race passed by Sofie’s parents house in Brakel so we headed over there for lunch and front row seats.  Steve and Joris rode over on bikes (about 50 km) while I drove with the kids. 

Of course, I arrived too late and the roads were closed around their house so I ended up parking a few km away and walking in with the kids. What could have quickly turned into a disastrous event actually turned out to be an incredibly pleasant afternoon.  We ran into a horse farmer (not sure what they're really called) who was so friendly and not only offered us a place to park but also let us come to his stables and pet his horses.  He also invited us to watch the race with his friends in his fields and gave race flags to the kids.   I was blown away by his generosity.  That was just the start, the whole walk in we were greeted by fellow spectators and residents who wanted to know where we were from, what we were doing in Belgium, had we ever been to this race, etc… the walk wasn’t long in distance but it did take a while as we stopped so many times to visit along the way.  It was a very warm and fuzzy dayJ

The anticipation of the arrival of the riders made the race very exciting but  it passed by very quickly.  Our lunch was an amazing moussaka prepared by Sofie’s mom and was followed by some good outdoor play time in their nice yard (with deer and chickens).  I have to say…today was a good dayJ

B & A at the stables

Fields along our walk

Our walk in the country with Brakel in the distance

Chocolade...

Bronwen taught Alex to say "chocolate" in Dutch which is "chocolade." I love it!

How can I say no to this face?

St Pattys day...

St. Patty's day tea party-we found oreo cookies in the "international" section of a grocery store which called for good china of course.

 leprachaun poop cookies, a spin-off of Kathy's unicorn poop cookies...

Dance parties aren't what they used to be...

Geutelingens...

We went to Brakel, a village next to the village where our friend Sofie is from, to taste the famous Geutelingen with Sofie, Joris and the kids.  I've posted a link to an article written by our friend Robyn (an awesome food writer) about Geutelingens and the tradition surrounding them:



http://www.flanderstoday.eu/content/bite-65

About 6 or 7 years ago Steve and I visited Paris for New Years and we ended up at this little Irish pub almost all four nights. The owner/bartender was so nice and bought us drinks and toasted our "honeymoon" as we were calling it at the time (Steve was sick on our real honeymoon so it didn't count:). We decided to pop in since we were in the neighborhood and we were not disappointed. The owner was there and again bought us a round of kilkenny and gave toys to the kids. He was just as nice as we remembered. We took a picture with him in front of his bar 6 years ago on New Year's Eve and again on this trip but with our two additions. I hope he and his pub are still there years from now when we come back to visit....