Sweetheart of the sun #SummerWednesdays

As luck would have it, our Wednesdays off fell on a scorching hot day when we had plans to visit the coolest place in Paris (in all senses): the jardin d'acclimation. We are frequent summer visitors here and there's always something new to discover.

This year, the new random Hollywood sign (a photo taken by each of us):

mama's shot

Small Fry's

Fingerling's

 And the placement of 30 pianos that can be played by all. Or just Fingerling. For a long time.

 This year we also went on the Abandoned River ride, which had Small Fry howling in fear when we first got on it (for no reason that I could see) and then declaring it 'fantastic' when we got off. There was no doubt he would love the garden's version of the carousel:

To be fair, Wednesdays with both of them are a lot of work and not quite as educational as I had originally intended. But we do always meet up with our anglophone friends and at least the kids speak English together, so I'll tick that box.

What I didn't capture on camera was Wednesday afternoon. That involved a music try out class for each kid...and Small Fry trapping his fingers in the door at the music school. It was an accident but he screamed for ages and we had to get ice from the restaurant next door. He was miraculously healed in an instant when bonbons appeared.

Life begins at 40 #untilthenit'sjustresearch

May 23rd marked the Great Man - El Puma's - 40th birthday. And as they say, that means that he did all his stupid stuff before the internet. To me, he's still 18 but with 22 years' experience. 

And as (bad) luck would have it, I had to be in Vigo that day for a conference, which included a 6 hour one-stop flight Monday night, a midnight arrival, a 4.45am start at the Vigo fish market (Europe's largest fresh fish market) followed by the actual conference, and then the return 6 hour journey via Madrid. I missed the candles, the cake, the presents. But I made it.

So while I was away, this is what I saw:

Blue sharks. Caught locally and managed well, apparently, but still quite a shocking amount of them if you're not used to seeing sharks at a fresh fish market.

The import market

Red snappers, still with the hooks in their mouths

Boats landing

Shrimp storage

I was at home for a grand total of 12 hours before we headed off to Nantes for a family weekend to celebrate the two birthdays on the Gonzales side: El Puma's and Maëlle's on the 25th of May. 

Well we were almost thwarted by this bomb scare at Montparnasse. It was an unattended bag but in the end we could access our platform via another route and we set off with only a 5 minute delay.

Once in Nantes, where Mamie lives, we spent 3 days in absolutely glorious weather - 33 degrees - which is exactly the sort of weather that requires a garden...lucky!

And Shirley joined us for the Ascension day holiday from Ile de Ré with two of her 3 boys. It's always lovely to catch up with old and good friends, and especially this lot.

And the rest of the time, it was all about the birthday boy (and girl).

First on Thursday with 40 candles to blow out: 

 And then the following day at the beach:

First swim of the year! (even for me, which is saying something...it really was THAT hot)

 And afterwards at a waterside café where we had birthday cake and more candles:

 And finally, some extra shots from the weekend:

Peruvian style

As for the present? Watch this space!

The wings of fortune #keepingitfantasticallyfununtiltheveryend

This week was our last, with our dear, dear friends. They are moving back to Canada to live their dream (she's Canadian) and we really miss them, and their very cool cargo bike.

We had a final playdate with the kids 

Wednesday morning = time to go to the soft play area while most kids are in school

We had our last bike run home from school (the babies sit in and the boys scoot home):

 Final bath time together:

Final playdates:

 And of course we couldn't let them go without a big, big party. First for the littlies:

Molly reading her My Friends in Paris book that we made for her to remember us by:

And of course, the biggies:

A slightly different type of party

And my kids making their "Goodbye Funny Face"

The Goodbye Funny Faces can go, but I wish our friends weren't. They've lived around the corner for the past two years and we have made some very, very special memories. But I am so pleased they knew the life they wanted and went for it when the opportunity came up. We will miss you! And we have great plans to visit next summer!

Talking heads #10daysin4pics

It's hard to sum up the past 10 days or so...it's just been life carrying on as usual (albeit in stunning 28 degree weather) and although it's been interesting, there's not been that much to say really. So here's hoping a picture tells a few hundred words at least, if not quite a thousand.

First up: date night. At the ice hockey world championships. Not everyone's cup of tea to be fair, but El Puma and I used to regularly attend sporting events (tennis, swimming, olympics etc) that it's kind of fun (and a break) whatever the sport.

The ice hockey world champs are currently being held in both Paris and Cologne, so we ended up going to see Finland vs Czech Republic, which was actually FANTASTIC. I learnt more about ice hockey in 2 hours than I will ever need to know, but the clincher was that Finland scored twice in the first half and once in the second, while the Czech Republic scored once in the early second half and then twice in the last 3 minutes, taking the game to extra time, and eventually to penalty shoot-outs, which they won. SHOCKER. You might not equate 'nail-biting' with 'romantic' but it was still fun.

Next up, on one of our Wednesday outings we joined a couple of other families at the Parc des Chanteraines, near Genevilliers, just outside Paris and only a 15 minute journey by train away. It's a massive purpose-built park with actual rolling hills, a humungous adventure playground, a little steam train, a petting zoo, stables and an enormous lake. It was boiling hot (long sleeves below are for sun protection!) and we had a wonderful day out, complete with ice cream. Total meltdown on the way home mind. Worth it.

And then my two little monkeys at 22h30 when they were meant to be long asleep. They both nap at school and it wrecks our evenings. Wednesdays are different though. On Wednesdays there are no naps and both kids are usually asleep by 7. We love Wednesdays.

And finally, summer holiday planning. Yes this is real and it actually makes sense (to me). This is how we will be spending our summer: which essentially works out as a couple of days in Paris, 1 week in Brittany for the kids while the parents go to a wedding, mum and babes head to Scotland for The Wedding Of The Year, daddy joins at some point, all return to Paris and mum and babes head to Brittany for the last half of August, and daddy again joins at some point. Yee-ha!

And that's you all caught up in just 4 images.

Be baptised #instyle

We never went to Carine and Alexis's wedding. We never knew them 12 years ago. But I think I can imagine how it was.

And that's because we got to experience version 2 this weekend.

It was a long weekend due to Victory in Europe day, which I should probably have reflected on, especially as our new President-Elect, Emmanuel Macron, had just defeated the far right Marine Le Pen in France's Presidential election. 

But we had just come back from Normandy having celebrated the baptism into the Catholic Church of Carine and Alexis's two daughters. Which was actually a massive great big French knees-up.

The eldest daughter is 9 and she is called Eloïse, while Julie has just turned 5 and was Small Fry's best friend from the age of 1 to 3 at the Halte-Garderie. She then went to the local public school around the corner while we traipse the 1.4 km to the jardin d'enfants every morning and afternoon (and well worth it too).

But anyway, I got to know Carine through our kids and over the years our two families have met up fairly regularly...birthday parties, festivals, picnics and brunches. But still, I was a bit surprised and very honoured to be invited to the girls' baptism. 

They decided to celebrate it in Carine's home village about 1 hour away from Paris, first in the tiny town's mahoosive cathedral, followed by the local Church Hall.

And it rained and it poured all weekend, which made Small Fry's attire absolutely perfect:

 It all got underway with a fair bit of singing and an awful lot of talking in the freezing Church. About three-quarters of the way through all the kids were invited to the front to help pour the water into the font. Small Fry made it all the way up (and got the sign of the cross in water on his forehead) but Fingerling chickened out and was left stranded at the front of the Church...the subject of much photography I noticed.

 Doing the deed:

 And then posing afterwards with one of the godfathers and a cousin:

 And then that's when the party started. First the apéritif which took a couple of hours, and then 5 courses, plus a sorbet course between the fish and the quail (yup). I mean, the food was amazing. The drinks were on tap, and the kids were all on a central trestle table with 2 babysitters who made sure they ate, drank, and danced.

You can lead a horse to water...

 Eloïse also performed for us on her violin alongside a cousin on the guitar, while Fingerling watched in rapt attention (she's a musical one that one)

 And just like at a marriage there was a huge cake to be cut with lots more photographs...

And just like at a marriage, there was dancing, a very, very late night, and a full-on second day: breakfast/brunch/lunch/snack/and early evening meal all rolled into one long day of eating and drinking. Good job we were taking the train or we'd never have made it home legally.

And like every good wedding (ahem, baptism) there was a football match, games for the kids, and lots of space to run around.

And to top it all off, the whipped out a candy floss maker and handed it round. I mean, come on! Hands down the best baptism I've ever been to. And better than a lot of weddings...

We're now paying the price in kgs and late morning wake ups, but, WORTH.IT.