Farm Martzloff

We stayed at the Farm Martzloff when we were in Breuschwickersheim. We had three rooms:

• One for the Daigles
• One for Emily and Muriel
• One for Rowan, Niamh and me

Niamh and Rowan both slept on the floor, which worked fairly well. Niamh rolled under the bed and got stuck there on the 2nd night. I woke up to her banging her head on the bottom of the bed. She went right back to sleep as soon as I pulled her out, so she couldn't have been too traumatized.

Two of the rooms had stoves and refrigerators, which is always nice when traveling with kids or shopping for cheese. Breakfast was included in the very reasonable rates, which was nice. Especially since there aren't too many shopping options in Breuchwickersheim.

The owner raises and races sled dogs, which was a bit of a surprise. I didn't see any dogs on site, so I'm not sure where she kept them.

The farm is associated with Gites of France. I am not sure what a Gite(should have a ^ above the i.) is, but it seems to be somewhere in between a bed and breakfast and a self catering apartment.

Pink Shoes With Sprinkles

This morning I took the kids shopping with me, one of the stops being the shoe store to find new shoes for Rowan (Converse All Stars are apparently hip, but painful). Though the morning started off well enough, the shopping excursion ended with more temper tantrums than I care to count, and Muriel screaming about 70% of the time.

My favorite tantrum happened right off the bat at the shoe store because I wouldn't buy Rowan the "pink shoes with sprinkles" (otherwise known as glitter).

We ended up with the pair pictured below.

In other noteworthy events of the day, Amanda has joined the ranks of people who come to Switzerland, find themselves sucked into the Twilight series, and are completely mystified as to why. Aren't we all?

Tulip Festival

The tulips are on in the park across the street. Here are a few pictures from our afternoon.

80 MPH?

A train that only goes 80 MPH isn't worth it. It will never succeed if it can't go at least twice as fast as a car.

Solids!

As part of our Easter festivities we decided to bump up Muriel's first taste of solids by one day (she's six months old tomorrow). Dinner was:

She really wanted it:

First bite:

There was lots of this:

And this:

So I finally just let her have it:

Happy Easter!

Amanda, Emily, & Muriel's Lyon Adventure

On Saturday Pat was nice enough to stay behind in Morges with the older kids while Amanda, Muriel, and I took a day trip to Lyon, France. We, of course, did not spend a small fortune on train tickets to travel to this ancient city for something as mundane as museums, history, or architecture. Ooooh, nooo (as Niamh would say)! We went for food. Our first stop was the famed Bernachon chocolate shop where we loaded up on pastries and chocolates. Here is Amanda pictured in front of Bernachon.

Next stop was a whopping one door down at the Bernachon tea room where we each had a hot chocolate and a quiche. It was no surprise that both were fabulous.

Afterwards, we naturally felt in need of some lunch, so we made our way to Vieux Lyon on the Metro without getting lost, and were only sidetracked by chocolatiers twice.

I've been wanting to eat at one of Lyon's famous bouchons for a long time, and really wish we could have gone to one of Molly Wizenberg's recommendations, but with the time constraint of only one day we decided on a Rick Steve's recommendation that was a bit more centrally located. I am going to make one of Molly's bouchons top priority on my next visit!

We ate at La Machonnerie where the food was delicious and there was a lot of it. Amanda thought she would go light and just order a soup and salad, but both came in enormous serving bowls that held enough for two or three people. I got a three course menu, which I did not even come close to finishing.

Muriel was surprisingly patient during our two hour meal. I think she was glad for a chance to be on the ground for a bit. The photo on the right is from the final cheese platter course. I choose the creme version, and we think what is pictured below is Crème fraîche. It was good on the bread, although one of us might have had the idea that it would be even better on a Bernachon chocolate. And the other one of us might have readily agreed.

After lunch we felt we'd really better see at least a few of the non-stomach-related sights of Lyon so we wandered (or maybe waddled) around the old town for a bit, which is famous for it's over three hundred covered passageways (traboules).

We also ran across some Roman ruins, pictured below.

We ended our day not long after the ruins, as Muriel caught some sort of stomach bug, threw up everything she'd eaten that day, and then some. Despite leaving on that somewhat sour note (Muriel recovered after a couple of hours) Amanda and I were quite satisfied with ourselves for accomplishing the majority of our missions, as well as our superior navigational skills. I was sad to miss the pork cracklings (from Little House on the Prairie as well as Orangette), but there's always next time!

Zattoo

It doesn't have much in the way of US channels, but it does have BBC one. I hope it works ok.

CSI!

I've often been asked what types of products my employer produces and have normally been unable to adequately explain.

That will all be resolved tonight. Today's episode of CSI features one our products. It should be visible in the lab and I believe it will help solve the crime.

Plan Incliné!

On Saturday we went to Plan Incliné. My understanding is that it is one of three boat lifts in the world. Before this lift was built, boats had to go through an additional 17 locks to get to the Rhine from the west.

We didn't get to see the lift up close, but it looked fairly amazing.

Places we didn't get to visit

Here are a few of the places we didn't get to visit that are on the list for the next trip to Alsace.

• Chateau Fort de Fleckenstein
• La Volerie des Aigles
• Citadelle de Bitche (no url)
• Cité du Train
• Les Secrets du Chocolat
• Ligne Maginot

Morges Easter Egg Hunt

Today we all participated in the Morges easter egg hunt with Sandra, Alyssa, and Coralie. We met in the center of town and then "hunted" through Morges for one each of a green, red, blue, orange, and yellow egg. Hunting was really just collecting each color of egg from participating stores. Once we had one of each egg we were supposed to take our baskets to the train station for a chocolate bunny, but by the time we got there they were all gone. So Sandra and I left the older kids with Pat and made a quick run to Migros for chocolate bunnies.

Here are the kids after the egg hunt:

And here is Niamh back at the apartment later in the afternoon, eating her chocolate bunny. Rowan kind of picked at his off and on, but Niamh sat down at the table and got down to business.

Rowan: en français and a la Hobbes

Today Rowan was eating lunch when he said, in the most natural way possible, "Ooh la la! I have the hiccups!" His journey towards bilingualism is new enough that Pat and I still find it entertaining when he throws the random french phrase into his speech. Especially when it's something like ooh la la--such a stereotypical thing for a french speaker to say. Something that, before moving here, I didn't think anyone actually said in real life.

This picture is from dinner, not lunch, and besides needing a picture to go with this post, I'm also including it because after I told him to stop playing with his toasted cheese sandwich he said "That's what Hobbes does sometimes." Well, how could I possibly say no to something Hobbes does?

Trip Photos

Photos from our trip can be found at Amanda's Picasa page. The current albums are:

• Breushwickersheim
• Vosges
• Balbronn
• Monkey Mountain
• Castle Haut Koening (or something like that)
• Brettental

Whoosh Whoosh!

Here comes the high speed network!

Spring Cleaning!

This takes spring cleaning to a new level.

Road Trip!

The McCanns and Daigles packed up the rented mini-van and headed to France and Germany to visit distant relatives and houses relatives used to live in. More pictures and adventures to come.

Monkeys!

We went to Montagne des Singes on Friday. Visitors walk into a big cage and there are about 280 monkeys running loose. Admission comes with a handful of popcorn for feeding the monkeys, which is what Rowan is doing above. Right after this picture was taken Rowan decided to squat down and make a funny face at the monkey. The monkey was not impressed and took a swing at Rowan. Rowan ended up with a monkey paw(is that the right word?) print on his face. The guide in the background chased the monkey away, but Rowan decided it was time to leave.

Easter Egg Tree

I've been wanting to make an easter egg tree for a long time, and the picture of the above eggs (window display at Dumas, a health food store on the Grand Rue) is what I was going for. Those eggs are dyed with onion skins, I believe.

I did one egg with onion skins and it didn't turn out at all. Then I thought I might like our eggs to have a little color, but since I still like the earthy color of the onion skin eggs I bought one of the natural egg dye kits at a local grocery store. They turned nice enough, but not like I was hoping, so will try again next year.

Uncle Mike!

 

Muriel checks out Uncle Mike.