Oswin's First Time at the Playground

I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but Thursday was the first time that we've taken Oswin to a playground. 

It's just not something that occurred to me as something that she might enjoy yet, since we're in the very early stages of this whole standing and trying to walk thing.

{This is her happy face.}

So, at the ripe old age of 11 months, we took Oswin to her first playground.

It was really nice, because we had the park all to ourselves. 

She wasn't too interested in any of the play equipment, but the grass? 

Most fascinating thing ever. 

EVER!

She was very happy to stand a little bit, to try to take a few steps...

...but her favorite thing by far was sitting in the grass, running her fingers through it, picking grass and clovers, and then trying to eat them. 

She only lasted about 20 minutes, as we were running very close to her nap, but she had a great time. We don't have a lot of play space in our house, and I think going to the playground a few times a week will be really great for her. She loves nature and being outside. She seemed in awe of all of the green space. It'll be good for Mama too, as it entails a 2+ mile walk. And possibly a pit stop at the boulangerie for a treat. 

Correction: definitely a pit stop at the boulangerie for a treat. 

How about you - when did you start bringing your littles to a playground? Are we ridiculously late in doing this? 

A la prochaine friends...

Honey 

The Annual Fenieres Paques Parade



There was no rest for the weary on Paques this year, as we had a parade to attend following the Easter Egg hunt at Chateau Voltaire. Fenieres, a commune of Thoiry, has an annual Paques Parade that is the event of the year in our little town, and we made it just in time.

The parade route is about a third of a mile long...

{The America Float. It's funny to see stereotypes thrown back in your face. Apparently America is seen as the land of skyscrapers, McDonald's, the Statue of Liberty, and M & M's that don't do mornings...}

...with about 7 or 8 floats...

{The Ambulance Float...with a bar on it....tended by teenagers...slinging jungle juice...}

...and takes about 2 hours to finish.

There's always a float that breaks down...

(Spoiler alert: It was the Shrek float this year.)

...and being a small town, the floats stop at pretty much every house...

...because how else could the teenagers driving the floats have time to hand out jungle juice to the parade watchers and catch up with their neighbors?

The parade ends with a tent party in a field, complete with an oompa band, cerdon, frites, cerdon, a DJ, shenanigans, cerdon, costumes, a raffle, cerdon..
.

....did I mention the cerdon?

It's good fun and goes on well into the night. We can often hear the DJ from our house. We never make it much past the oompa band though. A few jungle juices, some frites and cerdon at the tent, and we're usually ready to head home, put on a baseball game, and Skype with family and friends back in the US. This was Oswin's first Fenieres Paques Parade (well, that's kind of a lie, I was pregnant and feeling horrible at last year's parade), and she loved it. Again, like the egg hunt, SO. MANY. PEOPLE. So many noises! So many colorful floats! (Seven is a really big number when you're only six months old.)

The funniest part to me? As you guys know, we call Oswin's alter ego Smaug the Inconsolable. Ever since then, dragons have been a big theme for us. Dragon stuffed animals have been go-to presents for her, and we (and she) love them. Her current favorite is a pink dragon in a tutu that we have affectionately named "Lady Smaug," and low and behold, Lady Smaug turned up on a float at the parade.

Priceless.

We here at the House of Hadron hope you all had a great Passover, Paques, or whatever Spring holiday you celebrate. Here's to another year of jungle juice and tubas from our small french village!

A la prochaine friends...

Honey 

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