Wow! It's been awhile since I've posted! Not gonna lie, it was nice to have a little break from the interwebs while we went off to Italy for a week, and then while hosting my belle-mama and beau-papa (mother-in-law and father-in-law)! However, in between those two events was a little holiday called Easter, and I think I can safely say that the french know how to party when it comes to Paques!
We had gotten back from our road trip to Italy at 1 am that morning, after taking about a 45 minute detour to avoid paying 35€ to drive through Suisse for a total of 5 minutes to get to our house in France. I of course then went into crazy plant tending mode upon our return, (as we had been gone a week), and still had to shower after going straight from a long dip in the mediterranean to the car, so I didn't see any zzzzzz's until 4 am. We were exhausted when we got up, and threw around the idea of staying in our jammers on the couch all day to recover from our trip, but luckily we had our buddies the H's to get us moving and out the door.
So you see the "officer" on the left? The pitcher is full of mystery punch. And the "nuns"? Giving out mystery punch to all the onlookers...
We were at the beginning of the parade, and EVERY float pretty much handed out their own brand of mystery punch...it was a bit hard to keep up...
[Puttin' the kids to work...]
[He works hard for the money...]
This float broke down about a third of a mile from the start of the parade. And yes, there were obviously WWII cracks made once they began pushing the tank downhill...
[Hi neighbor!]
My favorite float was by far the hunting and fishing float. Not only because our neighbor was on it, but because what they gave out was a deifnite accompaniment for all of the mystery punch that we had consumed...
[Oh yeahhh...]
...mystery fondue.
[Pic via Jim H.]
Another reason we loved this float? Our favorite fermier was driving the tractor...in his wife's clothes...
[Pic via Jim H.]
[Pic via Jim H.]
[Pic via Jim H.]
I apparently made a funny.
Yep, that is a REAL french cop.
[Pic via Jim H.]
No drag queens were (surprisingly) injured/tasered/billy clubbed in the making of this picture.
After the party comes the after-party...
[A la Toy Story 3.]
[Pic via Jim H.]
Hands off my Kool-Aid girlfriend.
[Cerdon at the ready.]
I'd never been to an Easter parade before this one, but I'm already counting down until next year's celebration. I just wonder what the drag queen will wear...
PS - Special thanks to Jim H. for letting me use a few of his pictures, as well as to the H's for dragging our lazy derriere's out of the house for the party.
Sidenote: 1 new follower + 3 blog posts = 5 seeds, for a total of 10 new seeds planted. Woohoo!
A la prochain friends...
[Signs leading to the Easter egg hunt in Ferney...]
We weren't sure where it was going to be held at, but we followed signs until we go to this one - yep, it was at Voltaire's Chateau. Happy day! I didn't have to peer over the wall for once, I could actually go inside!!!
[Voltaire's Chateau + egg chasers.]
[View towards the Swiss Alps.] 
We got some funny looks as we entered because:
[Found one!!!]
[Voltaire's Chateau.]
[Voltaire's Chateau.]
[Dan at Voltaire's Chateau.]
[Holy tall hedges Batman!!!]
[Don't know why I'm posing like a 5 year old...]
[Explorer Dr. Dan!]
[The grounds at Voltaire's Chateau.]
[Family portrait in front of Voltaire's Chateau.]
[Don't think there were any eggs hidden in here...]
[The guy who let us in at the entrance must have found our presence there somewhat funny, because as we left he asked Dan, "Did you find any eggs?" And Dan replied, "Oui." To which the man replied, "Well then you get a prize!" He then threw Dan a little bag of Banania candy and he had a good laugh.
[Impending storm and Dracula clouds over the horizon as we went for our run...]
[More Dracula clouds.]
[Chickens.]
[Happy belated Passover and Easter everyone!]