Les Grandes Eaux

I have been really enjoying joining in with the Love the Place you Live feature over at Design Mom. The idea is to encourage you to get out and discover something interesting to do in your local area that you might not have realised was there. We are incredibly fortunate to be living just a ten minute drive away from a UNESCO world heritage site, the Château de Versailles, we know it's there, but when real life gets in the way we still need a bit of a reminder to get us out the house and actually explore the riches in our backyard.


Last weekend most of the world was celebrating Mother's Day, but not France, so no one in this house actually remembered about it until after breakfast! It was a lovely sunny day so we decided to make the most of that and the fact that we really don't have any more Ikea furniture to build to get out and see something interesting. We didn't have a lot of time so the parkland at Versailles seemed like a good choice. For a few euros you can drive your car in through the back gates of the château and once you've wrecked its suspension driving over the seventeenth century cobbles, park and take a walk past horses, sheep and gorgeous countryside.




We would have been happy doing this with all the other locals who were out that day, but Georgia and Savannah wanted to go into the palace gardens to see the château up close and as luck would have it we paid our entry fee just ten minutes before the musical fountain show Les Grandes Eaux began.

Louis XIV built so many fountains at Versailles that it was impossible for them all to be running at the same time. When he was promenading through the gardens he had a team of fountain-tenders to turn on the fountains as he approached them and turn off the ones behind him! Today most of the fountains only run for a few hours a day on summer weekends accompanied by music.


The fountains are incredible works of art but they are transformed once the water starts spouting.

These are no subtle water features, Louis intended them to illustrate the grandeur of his rule. They were built to impress!








Are you impressed yet? There's more...




The Mirror Fountain was our favourite. The fountains spout and spin to the accompaniment of music and the oohs and aahs of everyone watching. Like a watery firework display.


Another fountain appears around every hedge...


...you definitely need a map to find your way around!



The grove of Apollo's bath, stumbled upon just as we were getting fountain fatigue. We could have done with some nymphs massaging our feet by that point!


If you've staggered to the end of this post then thank you! Like Louis XIV it's hard not to show off when writing about how we spend our weekends, but I truly appreciate how lucky we are to be living here. As I sit in traffic on our exit from the autoroute it is not lost on me that the coach in front is taking tourists to see Versailles, possibly for the only time in their lives. The girls on the other hand are less easily impressed. Georgia did say that she was glad we had gone to see the fountains but Savannah said it was boring (although she liked it really) and when India got back from her class' field trip to the gardens at Versailles on Friday she said it was 'nothing special'! Sigh, this is why I write the blog to remind us that it is special!

Right, back to the laundry. I've just read that after the Revolution, people used to wash their clothes in the fountains and dry them on the shrubbery. Mundanity amongst grandeur, that just about sums up our life here!

The view from here: Sunshine yellow

We've not been having the best weather recently. This is a pretty typical scene from the week, but on Monday it was sunny and warm. Perfect for a walk down to the bakery to pick up the lunchtime baguette. I was on my own so I grabbed my camera and took the long way round with the intention of capturing some of the charming French features of our neighbourhood for you.


The first thing I saw as I walked out the gate though was this bright yellow hunk of America parked outside my neighbour's house! Never seen it before and quite a step up from the beat up scooters we usually see around here.

Having been dazzled by that I found myself seeing yellow wherever I looked.




Flowers, of course. Dandelions and buttercups are everywhere at the moment.


House signs. Love the old tile peeking out behind the new numbers.


Bonus Berry Blog points if you know what Chevrefeuille is!


A flash of yellow decoration on this house in the trees.


This cheerful chap is a a well known local but I'd never noticed the yellow fleur de lis decorating his wall before.



Past the post office...


...and municipal planting in full golden bloom...


...I reached my destination. Our favourite bakery that just happens to have a yellow sign! I knew that but only really saw it once I started looking out for yellow.


And what did I buy? A tarte aux poires. A yellow dessert to finish off my yellow walk! Yum.

I hope you had a sunny day today!

Hunting animals at the Louvre

It's been a while since I posted about anything remotely French and if you come here for the French life, I apologize.


To make up for it today I bring you the big one.


The Louvre.

We were there on Saturday with 10 other families from the girls' school for THATLou a Treasure Hunt At The Louvre. Quite possibly the most fun you can have at the Louvre with kids, THATLou treasure hunts have you chasing all over the museum looking for art and artefacts from the vast collection with only a photograph, a brief description and the official Louvre map as your guide. Discovered for us by my friend Laura, the treasure hunts are a relatively new Paris activity run by THATLou founder Daisy de Plume. She and Laura worked together to customize the experience for our vast collection of kids and I believe with 40 participants, this may have been the biggest hunt Daisy has ever planned!


On arrival the parents were assigned teams of kids and handed out the game manual. The rules are simple, find as many items on the list in the manual in two hours, photograph your team in front of each one you find and never get more than three metres away from your team mates. The harder the items are to find, the more points you get. Easy!


Get your Converse on because you will be covering all those miles of corridors at a furious pace.


I had Georgia & Savannah, three of their friends and two other parents in my team. A quick look at the map and we were off, searching for art containing animals which was the theme for the day.

We had our first success within minutes Louis XIV on his horse by Francois Girardon. The girls were thrilled and rushed off enthusiastically to find another treasure.


The European sculpture galleries proved to be a good hunting ground for us and we quickly added more finds to our list. This was my favourite, Cupid playing with a Butterfly by Antoine-Denis Chaudet. Love those cherubic hands although the fingernails could do with a good scrub!

I believe we covered every inch of the never ending Egyptian galleries to find the Apis Bull hiding at the end of a corridor.

And then we ran round them one more time to find King Nectanebo II's falcon. Our eighth and final find, he was worth 40 points so we really wanted him, but as you can see exhaustion had set in by this point! One final nerve wracking sprint ensured we were the first team back to the meeting point with just one minute to spare.

And if that has you feeling exhausted, spare a thought for Keith who did the whole thing carrying Florence in the baby carrier. Despite that handicap, his team still beat us, but this really was one of those times when taking part was just as much fun as winning. Either that or all of our feet ached too much for us to care!

In two hours we saw more than we could have ever hoped to have persuaded the girls to see without the incentive of the treasure hunt and while of course, they didn't spend long looking at anything, they had their eyes peeled the whole time for their treasures and noticed plenty of other things to interest them along the way. Enough that they have asked to go back.


Although Keith took the girls to the Louvre at Christmas, this was my first visit since moving to Paris. I've put it off partly because there is so much to see it's difficult to know where to start. THATLou was a great way to get familiar with the museum. I left feeling like I knew it but with plenty to go back and explore.

Month by Month Birthday Mobile

Thank you so much for all the compliments on Florence's birthday party. Ever since India's first birthday I've enjoyed coming up with decorating ideas and making handmade party favours to fit a theme that most suits the birthday girl at the time. Last year I hit upon the idea of making a mobile featuring a photo of Florence from each month of her first year to hang as a centrepiece. It worked so well, I made another one this year and I thought you might like to try it next time you have a birthday to celebrate.


How to make a Birthday Mobile

To make your own Birthday Mobile, you will need:

Photo paper

Coloured card stock

A circle cutter or scissors

Photosafe glue

Invisible thread

Your sewing machine and a printer well stocked with ink!

First comes the hard part - choosing the twelve photos you want to use! If you're more organized than me, you might want to start doing this before the morning of the party. Just sayin'! This year I used a mixture of close ups and, because Florence's appearance hasn't changed as much this year as it did from birth to twelve months, I also used photos of some of her milestones like first steps and walking the dog!



Once you have selected and edited your 12 photos print them out onto your photo paper and you will be ready to start constructing your mobile. I used the mask feature on my computer's layout program to enlarge each image to the exact size I wanted (circle with a diameter of 9cm) but if you don't have that capability you can crop the part of the image you want after you print out the photo.


Cut each of your photos into a circle and cut 12 circles of card stock to the same dimensions. You can use all the same colour or a mixture as I did. Whatever suits the party's colour scheme. I used my trusty circle cutter from my scrapbooking days to cut out each circle, but scissors and a drafting compass would work just as well!


Once you have your set of 12 photos and 12 coloured circles it's time to get stitching. Thread your invisible thread into your machine and sew through the centre of each card circle until all 12 circles are linked in a long string. Just like chain piecing if you're a quilter! Run a couple of stitches between each circle so that the mobile spins when it's hung and be sure to pull out enough thread before you start stitching to use as hanging loop.


After you have made your chain of coloured circles use the glue to attach each photo to the back of a circle in chronological order.

Your mobile is now complete. Find a handy chandelier or other suitable receptacle and hang your mobile masterpiece.


Just in time for the party to start!

This Moment. Fresh evening baguette

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Joining in with Amanda and friends at SouleMama

Turning Two

Well we now have a two year old in the house. Not too terrible so far!

For someone who wouldn't have noticed what day it was, Florence had quite the birthday extravaganza. We spent her big day at Disneyland. Not my first choice of birthday venue for a two year old, but we were there for another friend's birthday party and Florence loved it. She is now a big fan of the It's a Small World ride, popcorn and coke. Sigh!

On Sunday we had a family tea party for the birthday girl.

Exactly one week after I was in New York buying fabric for her birthday outfit she was wearing it. Yeah!


Jet lag got the better of me before I could attempt the matching trousers but I did have time to whip up some 'Bonjour' bunting from the scraps. Inspired by Kirsty's tutorial I cut a bunch of four inch equilateral triangles from the Liberty fabric and shot cottons that I bought at Purl Soho and then stitched them to five yards of colourful twill tape which was another Purl purchase. Easy!


Knowing we'd be out until late the night before the party, I let the local boulangerie take most of the baking strain. These macarons were delicious and matched the colour scheme perfectly!


My Mum also made her cheese scones which were a huge hit. So much so that our guests asked her to write down the recipe. I'm so glad because now I have it and she says I can share it with you:

8oz plain flour sifted
2oz butter
2oz cheddar cheese grated
pinch of salt
7tbsp (approx) milk
dessert spoon of mustard

Pre-heat oven to 220ºC (425ºF).
Rub the sifted flour and butter together until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
Add other dry ingredients.
Combine mustard and milk then add to the dry ingredients to make a dough mix.
Roll out the dough to about one and a half inches thick and cut into rounds.
Place on non-stick baking tray and leave in a warm place to rise for 20 minutes.
Brush tops with milk and place in the oven for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.


When I was growing up, my birthday cakes were the talk of the town. It was usually my Dad who designed and decorated them. He even made drawings! This is the design for the cake for my second birthday. I found it recently tucked in the back of my baby book.


I've made my share of elaborate birthday cakes over the past eleven years, but this being the 21st (!) birthday party I have organized for one of my children, I chose to keep it simple with our favourite lemon poppy seed cake and a marzipan ladybird from the boulangerie.


Florence was much more interested in blowing out the candles than eating it anyway. And singing Happy Birthday ten times accompanied by Georgia who figured out all by herself how to play it on the piano.


I made play dough as party favours, packaged in my vast collection of empty Bonne Maman jars and tied up with more Liberty scraps.


I've been wanting to make my own play dough for Florence ever since seeing this post at Sew Liberated, but I've been put off by my inability to find cream of tartar in France. In the end I made it without and it was ridiculously easy although a bit sticky the next day. The need to add extra flour made it all the more fun though!


Just as much of a hit with the big kids as the two year old.

So there you have it. Florence turns two in style. Rather a long post but being a fourth child she doesn't have a baby book for me to tuck memories into so this is the virtual version.