Chasse à l'oeuf: Chateau Voltaire

Every Easter, at the marvelous Chateau Voltaire in Ferney-Voltaire, France, there is an egg hunt...

...and like the Chateau itself, the egg hunt is pretty fabulous.

Longtime readers know that when we first moved to France, we spent the first few months in Ferney, and I quickly became a bit obsessed with the Chateau. I'd run or walk past it everyday, peering through the bars surrounding it, wishing that one day we could go and walk the grounds.

And then that first year, back in 2010, on Easter, while walking after a run across the border through some Swiss vineyards, we saw hordes of people at the Chateau.

As we neared the gates that I had so often looked through, we saw that these people were all walking around the grounds of the estate!

{Oswin finding her first egg}

And then we realized it was an Easter egg hunt for les enfants...

...and that we were, at the time, sans les enfants.

And for a moment I got a little sad, because I so wanted to frolic around the Chateau and take a million pictures.

And then we said, eh, let's just try to get in.

And they let us in!

It was amazing. It was the best Easter I had ever had. They even jokingly gave Doc a bag of candy and asked if he had found any eggs.

Well, this year, we have an enfant.

As you all know.

And there was no way we were missing the chance to go back to the Chateau, especially since now we would not be the creepers sans les enfants.

Oswin was tired and not quite as excited about it (at first) as we were, but we promised her it would be worth it for such a fabulous first Easter egg hunt, and into the car we went.

It took her a bit to wake up and get into it, but by the time we were looking for eggs in the small forest behind the Chateau with all of the other families, little miss was awake and staring at everything in awe.

Not because of the splendor of the Chateau, or the gardens or the pony rides off in the distance, but because of the people!

So many people! (At least to her!)

No cows! (There were lambs...)

Big people! Little people! Running! Playing! She loved it.And although she is too little to partake in the running and playing, she loved watching all of the bigger kids get their hunt on. And thanks to Papa, Oswin actually "found" 5 eggs on her own (and by "on her own" I mean, not).

And sidenote: if you've never seen a physicist at an Easter egg hunt before, I highly recommend it. They are unable to turn off the analytical parts of their brain and get really into it. At least in my sample of one physicist, this was the case...

But I digress.

The egg hunt was a smashing success, and what little girl wouldn't love the Chateau as her first egg hunt? I can't wait for her to be old enough to remember coming to the Chateau (if we're here long enough), or to marvel at the pictures like we do. One of these days we'll go in for the real tour and I can drool all over the gilded gold and velvet everything that you can see inside the Chateau, that is, if you push your face up to the glass windows...not like I would know...

Ok I do know. It's all kinds of gilded gold and velvety in there.

If you're ever in our area for Easter, or Paques as it's known in France, definitely check out the Easter Egg hunt at the Chateau. For the cost of 3 euro you too can lurk around the grounds and pretend you live there!

Hope everyone had a great Passover or Paques, whatever you celebrate. Up next are highlights from this year's Paques Parade!

A la prochaine friends...

Honey

Market Day.

 

I've been living for the weekends lately. Doc is so busy with work it seems that the only time I get him all to myself are Saturday and Sunday. We spent Friday night plotting and scheming for what fun things we wanted to do this weekend, and our number one pick was to head back to the Ferney-Voltaire market for the second week in a row.

 

{Yo Voltaire!}

 

I had found a bunch of recipes on pinterest that I had wanted to try, as well as to revisit a few of our own oldies but goodies, so we thought Ferney would be the place to find what we need.

 

 

In fact it was (as per usual), as the Ferney-Voltaire market is one of the few places I've found where it's possible to get beets with the greens attached (most French supermarkets, at least in our area, sell beets sealed in plastic, without the greens, and looking gross.), and they were bio (read: organic) at that. We also managed to pick up over 3 kilos (more than 6.6 lbs!) of assorted figs (purple and green), and over a kilo of what last week were the best black cherries I had ever eaten. However, it should be noted that yesterday Doc informed me that lately everything I've eaten has been "the best [insert food here] I've ever eaten," showing that my love of food is back, at least for now. Needless to say his confidence with cooking has been through the roof lately.

 

 

I was hoping to find some Mirabelles and Reine Claudes (called Greengage plums in the US), as well, as their season is quickly approaching, but none yet. Fingers crossed for next week...

 

{Family portrait: Mama, Papa and Homekid}

 

We also picked up some delicious bio apple juice (don't worry it was pasteurized), which I've been mixing with seltzer water lately. I call them spritzers. Mama likes her bubbly! 

 

 

We made some really great dishes this weekend, including some that we can affectionately call "Keep Mama Cool Or Else," so look for them this week as I'll be sharing some of my favorites.

 

 

And with my belly only getting bigger and the temperatures only getting warmer this week (31 C on Thursday, 32 C on Friday, and 34 C on Saturday!), I'm gonna need all the cool treats I can get.

 

{Voltaire was here.}

 

{27 weeks and 2 days}

 

Hope you all had a great weekend out there, complete with cool drinks and air conditioners.

 

A la prochaine friends...

 

Honey



Ferney-Voltaire Market and Styling the Bump: 26 Weeks.

 

 

We switched up our routine a little bit this weekend and decided to head to the Ferney-Voltaire market, instead of our Thoiry market. For those of you long time readers, you may remember that when we first moved to France, we spent almost 3 months living in Ferney-Voltaire before finding our dreamboat place in Thoiry.

 

 

You may also remember my obsession with Voltaire's chateau...but I digress. As a result, there always has been, and always will be, a special place in my heart for this little French town, as a lot of my French firsts happened here...

 

 

...such as my first French cafe experience, my first French market, and my first time shopping solo in a French supermarket (more intimidating than it sounds, believe me).

 

 

The Ferney-Voltaire market is also a contrast from our Thoiry village market, in that it is much larger and has a bigger selection of pretty much everything.

 

 

So unlike in Thoiry, if you can't find something at one stand, you can probably find it at multiple others in Ferney...

 

 

...that being said, there are also more crowds, and you lose that teeny tiny village feel a bit.

 

{Voltaire's Chateau}

 

{Checking out some figs.}

 

You really can't lose either way if you're looking for that French market feel, at least in my humble expat opinion.

 



Oh and hey, why not shove a styling the bump post into this Monday post as well, shall we? (Read: This is the only day I dressed cute during week 26...)

 

{26 weeks and 2 days}

 

 

Dress: Hatch Collection, Date Night Dress

Hat: Brixton

Belt: Skinny skull belt from a little shop in Manhattan Beach, CA

Basket: Hand made from a woman at the Thoiry market

Flip flops: Havaianas

 

 

A la prochaine friends...

 

Honey