France, week 3 — Tuesday

Our final Matrix effort (this time, my drunken idea to have the clothes on), before Ben and Katie head off for home.

France, week 3 — Monday

The boys get stuck into building the dry stone wall connecting two terraces with a large flower bed— we'll have somewhere to plant flowering shrubs next year. Thanks for your muscles Ben!

France, week 3 — Sunday

Bubbles for breakfast drunk in honour of Ben's birthday. We looked after the children in the evening so Ben and Katie could grab a birthday dinner. In the evening Bea, decided to slip into something more uncomfortable—a fairy dress of Ili's. The rest of the boys followed suit and jumped into Katie's frocks and all pranced around merrily.

France, week 3 — Saturday

Actually left the comfort of the poolside today, and walked from the house to the village of Le Fel through the sweet chestnut forests. Really beautiful. Children walked well and had walking sticks carved for them on the way. Took us over three hours to get to Le Fel, and on the way we met with a 'neighbour' in the next hamlet who is setting up a conservation area and was very interested to hear about our lizard friend under the terrace (he lives in the same hamlet as Harry the pool cleaner) who he suggested was a Spanish Ocellated lizard, and quite rare in France. We also managed to squeeze in a quick wine tasting in Le Fel before Papa run back in 36 minutes (that bit is important) to collect the car and pick us all up from a cute little park at the pretty hilltop camp site.

France, week 2 — Friday

Not sure who had the idea to do some Matrix stunts into the pool (Papa?), but we had some superb fun doing it.

France, week 2 — Thursday

Pool activities got crazier by the day. The kids stayed up late with us tonight to watch out for shooting stars (in the picture they were painting their shooting star box). The first week we'd seen them aplenty, and in one night I remember seeing six. But of course, after all the swimming, the children were all knackered and crashed out one by one on the outdoor sofa.

France, week 2 — Wednesday

The boozing regime that started with Mum and Dad continued, and we quenched our thirst on a regular basis with Ben and Katie. From what I recall, Ben discovered just how fast you could roll down the steep bank one evening—and all we heard was the drunken thud at the bottom. All very amusing. The children got on well, and in particular Bea and Finn made good companions. Over the week they rescued drowning insects and huddled over injured crickets, and tatty butterflies that they netted off the pool.

France, week 2 — Tuesday

Mum and Dad left in the morning to travel back home. Ben and Katie arrived in the evening the same day. All the work in the garden is paying off, and some great sunny views have been opened up. Bea has a swallowtail butterfly here, which we saw pretty much every day coming to drink around the pool, or settling on the lavendar.

France, week 2 — Monday

Chris and Gawack working up a sweat for a beer.

France, week 2 — Sunday

Ili exploring the garden at dusk, and Gawack getting the BBQ going.

France, week 2 — Saturday

Before Freya arrives, Bea discovers that what will eventually become her bed, floats and is great fun to jump on.

France, week 1 — Friday

Plenty of time for piggybacks.

France, week 1 — Wednesday

Ili taking her first dip early evening, which turned out to be her favourite time for swimming. Bea chills out, taking it all in his stride. Chris and I managed to grab an evening stroll and a liquid picnic (apparently I came back a tad tipsy). 

France, week 1 — Tuesday

After only a couple of days, Bea is already swimming without his mask, which he never usually swims without—his first swimming achievement in the pool. Ili gets used to the water gently. The bottom picture is Bea with one of his many lizard friends. He found a wriggling lizard's tail one day without the rest of the body and was of course fascinated.

France, week 2 - Monday

Papa got started clearing the trees around the pool. Who said it would be a holiday . . . ?  Bea got to work painting the terrace.

France, week 1 — Sunday

Sunday brought sunshine — let the fun and games commence!

France, Week 1 - Saturday

Great to meet up with Mum and Dad who were in a very relaxed holiday mood. Arrived to a cool first day and even lit the barbecue to keep us warm at night.

Off to France in rain and rainbows

Left from France in the driving rain, which didn't cease until after our arrival at midnight. Great for rainbow spotting though (check out Bea's head!). When we arrived I had a suspicion that Mum and Dad would have arrived early and be camping in Entraygues village — I was right — we pounced on the camper van and woke them up for a very early morning beer.

Last dance

Parents were invited to the last of the music and dance session today. Again, Bea said he was shy, but he didn't look anywhere near as shy as at yesterday's performance. We're getting ready for France, and managed to persuade the children to take their little pet frog — the sole survivor from our tadpoles — back to the woods (although of course they wanted to bring him to France and make a pond!). Bea had settled into a regular routine collecting aphid-covered shoots from bushes on the way home from Kindergarten. Well done Bea!

Leaving party

An evening at Kindergarten tonight for the second year childrens' leaving party. Very bravely the teachers had put together an impressive little theater show with the children—the story of a young boy leaving home to travel the world visiting different countries—so the children danced and sung songs from around the globe. Beathan was a sailor and was a lot shier than I thought he would be and almost sunk from view behind the side of the boat for the large part of the performance. It was very cute watching the children when first on 'stage' scan the audience to find their parents and see their faces glow after spotting them.

Puddle jumping

Got caught in a torrential downpour today while cycling/scooting along the lakeside with Antonia and her mother Annette, but the children enjoyed the puddle aftermath. We literally had to huddle under a picnic blanket under a tree in order to stay dry until it eased off. Will be the last playdate with Antonia for a while due to holidays and the new term schedule. 

First dip in Lake Zurich

Now the lake has heated up to over 20 degrees—a very fresh 21—it was time for a dip! Bea spent ages trying to catch a fish in his bucket, Ili spent just as long watching him and we all had a good bob around in the water. Papa joined us after work and we took it in turns swimming with Bea out to the raft. There was no stopping him, and from one raft, he wanted to head to another, then another . . .  Great to be in the lake at last, and great swimming from Bea.

Bea and papa on the first raft (papa sitting, and Bea standing).

The fun of the fair

We ambled slowly through the old town today, heading for the bumper cars at a little fairground down by the lake. We got 'stuck' in a little restaurant for brunch—looked too nice to pass—but finally made it to the fair. It always surprises me how keen and uninhibited Bea is with such 'scary' rides as he's usually so cautious, and after the bumper cars he spied a ride he wanted to try. While I was still seriously questioning my judgment over how much fun it would actually be for both of us, somehow Bea and I ended up sitting in the carriage on a sort of spinning rocket launcher awaiting our fate. After a lot of tame spinning, it developed a rather fierce climb that felt like it was going to flick you off across the fair before plummeting back down to leave your stomach behind, again, and again, and again. I wanted to yell my head off and half-expected Bea to do the same but could hear Bea chuckling so I knew all would be well. On Bea's second ride — yes, he wanted more — Papa didn't fare half so well, and had to go home sharpish through fear of passing out a rather pale shade of green. Had an interesting end to the day as Bea's friend James had an exhibition of some of his photography this evening. Was a smart little show that he'd worked on with his papa (who works as a professional photographer). Nice to see such originality.

A bowl of cherries

Life doesn't get much more Heidi than today! We spent it up in the mountains at the family home of the grandfather of one of Bea's Kindergarten friends (Vincent) for a get together with a few other families to pick, eat, and collect as many ripe cherries from the orchard as we could stash away. Bea was in his element as we took his climbing harness, and the children took it in turns to swing around the cherry trees dropping down their rich pickings. And the cherries were awesome—we ended up with purple hands from the juice, and somehow papa's feet turned purple. It was eye-opening for me to see inside one of the traditional Swiss mountain houses (beautiful wood ceiling paneling, thick timber floors—you could smell the history). But it's not all mountain goats and cowbells—you're never that far away from modernity here, and sitting down having our BBQ lunch we could hear the cherry-picking machines further down the valley rattling the trees into submission and catching the crop enmass. We headed back, reluctantly, to Zürich for the Genossenschaft evening party (celebration 150 years of the cooperative). But the party was all good fun, minus the fact papa ended up at the children's A&E for the second time this month providing moral support for a friend who's child had a nasty fall at the party and needed stitches. Life's not always a bowl of cherries.

Ili with our cherries, collected near Steinerberg, central Switzerland.

Bea up a cherry tree.

The children's lunch table.