This Moment. Ice cream for breakfast

{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


Why not?

This Moment. Escape

{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


We're heading off into the sunshine today.
See you back here in two weeks.

Mini France

More Eiffel Tower pictures for you today. With a twist. No we haven't turned into a family of giants. This is the Eiffel Tower at France Miniature a sweet little park about half an hour west of Paris and just a short drive from our house.


The main feature is, like the title says, Mini France. A 3D map of France filled with models of all the top sights in France from the Eiffel Tower to the boats in St. Tropez harbour. This is Versailles. Still not that mini - can you see the girls peeking over the west wing?

A pretty village in the South West that I thought we could visit on our way down to Spain next week. Forgot to note which village though. Anyone recognize it?!


That's Mont St Michel over there on the right. I could go on, but the models are not the only thing to see at France Miniature. The main reason to go as far as India, Georgia and Savannah are concerned are Les Attractions. Fairground rides conveniently located just off the coast of 'Brittany' which give you great views over all of 'France' and more importantly are fun and included in the (quite high) entrance price.

We were there on an overcast Monday and although the park was pleasantly busy it wasn't at all crowded and the girls got to play on as many rides as they liked for as long as they wanted. Florence even took a long nap in the stroller, Keith dialled in to work for a meeting he couldn't get out of on his day off and I finished off my photography homework. A typical family day out!

Dubbed the washing machine by the girls this ride spun you round and round and they went on it about ten times.

The prize after a difficult climb up this bouncy climbing wall...


...was to slide down the tallest and steepest slide I have ever seen. Georgia did get a bit stuck and had to rescued by a kindly French teenager thankfully saving me from the humiliation of having to try and get up there myself!

A surprising detail that the girls had remembered from their visit last year is this poubelle that talks to you every time you drop a piece of rubbish in it!


Perhaps the best part, or most alarming depending on your point of view, is that you get to operate the rides yourself. I can't imagine that ever happening in the USA but the system worked, everyone stayed safe and it developed a nice camaraderie between visitors as kids waiting for the ride would help out complete strangers to keep the line moving.




The girls first visited 'Mini France' as they like to call it with my Mum when we were house hunting last year and they fell in love with the place. The atmosphere there takes me back to my childhood holidays in France when parks like this seemed to offer so much more excitement than tiny Jersey. It might not be as thrilling as Disneyland on the other side of Paris but in it's own way it's just as magical. Well worth a visit if you are in the area. Even the café serves decent food. Well it is France after all!

In other news, I am thrilled to have been invited to be a guest blogger at Farm Fresh to You's blog. Hop on over there to see my review of the Capay Tomato Festival and lots of other gorgeous farm stories.

Paris in August

How's your week going?


We've been struggling with jet lag ever since we got back from the US. Staying up until 2am to watch the Olympic Opening Ceremony on Friday didn't help.

We are loving these London Games. Most definitely a home games for me, but which team to support has been the subject of hot debate in our household of British and USA passport holders. India is staying loyal to her one and only British nationality, Georgia roots for both countries and Savannah maintains she is 1000% American! If anyone bothered to ask her, Florence would probably say she wants to see a French winner. I've mentioned before about how being an ex-pat makes you ponder your national identity but there's nothing like watching an Olympic final, in any sport, to make it clear how you feel. Safe to say the stressful occupation that is being a British sports supporter remains mine, but there were two gold medals for Team GB today. Most impressively for Bradley Wiggins in the cycling Time Trial just two weeks after he became the first ever British man to win the Tour de France. Amazing! Inspiring? I should really get off the sofa and find where I left my bike!

We haven't spent the whole week glued to the TV. On Sunday we met up with American Mom in Bordeaux and her three girls and husband. It was lovely to meet another blog friend for real and our middle girls, in particular, got on like a house on fire. Can you guess where we met?

Here's a clue.
Les Jardins du Trocadero.
This is one of the most famous views of Paris. Hardly undiscovered, but the gardens either side of the famous view and fountains contain some hidden charms which we had never explored before.

Keith's Mum is visiting this week so we have been out an about checking more and more off our bucket list. Will share more of that soon. Just as soon as I've seen what happens in the Graeco Roman Wrestling!

Lions and tigers...

and turkeys...


and deer...


and llamas...

and bears. Oh my!


We're back in France after a quick trip to New York to see the American Girl Store, The Statue of Liberty and Wicked!


The weather is beautiful, the baguettes are delicious and we are all happy to be back in our own home!

Farm Fresh to You

We have just a couple of days left in California before we return to France. When we first arrived, with four weeks stretching ahead of us it seemed like we had so much time and I expected we would fill much of it doing some of the touristy things we never got around to whilst living here, like visiting Alcatraz or walking across the Golden Gate Bridge in its 75th anniversary year. The four weeks have flown by though and those activities will have to stay on our bucket list as we chose to spend our time staying local, near friends and our favourite swimming pool, a ballet camp for India and a quilting camp for Georgia and more sleepovers for the big girls than we can count!

Last weekend though, we did fulfill a long held desire to attend the Capay Tomato Festival, hosted by the farm, Capay Organic, that used to deliver us our weekly box of organic vegetables. We started getting the box about four years ago and it completely changed the way we ate. I already loved cooking at home, but starting our menu planning with the vegetables we had available rather than the meat seemed to be a much healthier approach and never quite knowing which seasonal vegetables were going to turn up in our box really got the whole family trying new foods on a weekly basis.

We had attended lots of open days at the farm in every season whilst we lived here, but the heirloom tomato festival in the summer never seemed to fall at a good time for us. This year though we finally made it with our good friends who share our love for the contents of those boxes.


The farm is about an hour and a half's drive north of San Francisco and in such a pretty location. Tractor rides took visitors around the fields, filled at this time of year with summer squash and asparagus.


There were plenty of activities for the little ones. Arts and crafts, hula hoops, herb salt making and Florence's favourite...


...bubbles!


The main event though was the Heirloom Tomato Tasting.

Not only did the family who run Capay Organic pioneer organic farming in the region, farmer's markets and fresh produce delivery, they also reintroduced heirloom tomatoes to the market. Here's how...




What a great story!


Now, although those organic boxes have got my kids eating carrots, pistachios, spinach and even kale, India, Georgia and Savannah still maintain that they hate tomatoes and cannot usually be persuaded to eat them. I think they may have been converted though after this weekend. All three girls tried and liked the huge variety of tomatoes on offer.


Georgia sporting some Bastille Day fireworks!


Someone who doesn't need any persuading to eat a tomato though is Florence. She adores them and she was in tomato tasting heaven here.





The party continued with live music.


Just a few more tomatoes.


And dancing.


A wonderful day out in the fresh air with good food, great company and more tomatoes than you can eat.

Miam! Miam!

This Moment. Bubbles

{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