BEAUFORT

Kids are on holiday and Grandma and Grandpa are here so a few day trips are in order.  We went off to Beaufort (where my favourite cheese comes from), it's such a beautiful village that makes excellent cheese.  We went first to see the dam at Roseland.  I've posted pictures here before of the excursion we did with Manu in 2010 when we first got here, but my parents had never visited so off we set.  Quiet a twisty road in fact I thought my father was going to jump on my lap at one point, it gets a little narrow, but the expert driver that I am I got us there no problem (ahem ahem).

My parents with Benjamin and me at the Barrage de Roseland.  That's Italy behind the mountains.  The dam is used mainly for hydro/electricity.  You can still see a tiny bit of snow left on the mountains.

This is Beaufort, it's really pretty and in Savoie which is the department next to Haute Savoie where we live, in fact we live on the border of the two.  This is the cheese factory.

NEXT DAY......I took the kids including my neighbours kid - Pierrick to the jumpy castles in Les Saisses for a bit of a breather.  What a rip off 9 euros each.  My goodness.....................

They had a ball though.

DINNER.................

Mackerel  - they were really good.

GRANDMA AND GRANDPA RETURN

Yip my folks arrived last Wednesday.  Kids are excited and my parents are exhausted by all the banter that goes on, two boys can be hectic, but they are enjoying them.  Ben's been ill, he had tonsillitis and then a week later went down with scarlet fever.  Great.  Anyway by Tuesday he'll be out of quarantine and we can liberate him as the doctor said.  He seems liberated to me, one down day and then poof he never stops.  Such a sweetie.

Ben took the picture hence the grimace but mostly they look happy.

Scarlet Fever boy.

Grandma and Ben.

So now it's cooking, cooking, cooking, which is a nice change from eating the left overs kids food.  Not having Manu here I can't be bothered to cook myself anything so I just eat what ever.  I did have to clean the stove and rest of the house though.  Ship shape I am so proud of myself I have posted a photo of my gleaming stove.  Manu won't believe it.  I must be honest with you though, this took me three days.

Caprese Salad with real Buffalo Mozzarella and my basil from the balcony thanks to my sister and mother in law.  Delicious.

My version of a Crepe Cake, if you are my mother in law it is layered with ham and mushrooms, spinach and bechamel O' and cheese, if you are my sister in law it's layered with spinach, mushrooms and bechamel, if you are me it's layered with left over mince and lentils, bechamel and cheese, either way they are all superb.  I still think my mother in law has the upper hand in this dish though.

Basically it's about 8 crepes, don't sweeten the batter and leave the sugar out though, then make a bechamel and what ever else you want.  You line a deep baking dish with foil and oil it.  Place the first crepe down and cover in Bechamel, then the next crepe and cover with your filling of choice (sliced ham, caramelized onions, creamed spinach, sauteed mushrooms whatever. And you continue like this.  Cover in foil and heat in the oven on about 180C for 30 minutes.  Turn out and cut slices with a sharp knife.  Enjoy.

More tomorrow but right now I'm off to bed. Night night.

Fete de L'ecole

This is celebrated in every school in France towards the end of the school year and usually involves a little concert.  We had a concert, games for the kids and a bbq for the parents it was great.

Singing

Sam the penguin

Lunch

We also finished up with Jujitsu this week.  Samuel is now a yellow belt after all his hard work.

Waiting for his new belt

New belt and certificate.

THE BUVET

Finally I have arrived at a stage in my life in France that has time for work. I've spent the last two years trailing up and down a mountain pass four times a week taking my eldest son - Samuel - to various appointments and extra lessons. Finally he was diagnosed with Dysphasia in April, which is a problem with the central language center in the brain; we are now on the right track. He repeated this year of school which seems to have helped tremendously and also went to a French class twice a week for three hours a lesson. All that stops in July. The only thing I continue with is the speech therapist. So no more flying to Sallanches and time for me. SO.........I have gone in with a friend and put a tender in to run a little restaurant in the park called a BUVET. Scary thought after running a restaurant for 10 years I never thought I'd do it all again, but this is on a very low scale and for the summer months only. Not to mention it's next door, in the park.  We take over in November. 

So this is it. A tiny little building we will rent from the Mayor. We are going to concentrate on Children’s parties and BBQ's in the evening once a week. Daily I'll be doing gouter at 4pm, which is very big here basically it's juice and cake for the kids. I don't want to be in competition with the bakeries, can't imagine I would with my terrible pastry skills, but my homemade cake, muffin, cookie skills are much better so will do that. Also Gallettes which are savory pancakes made from buckwheat flour and made with different fillings - cheese, ham, sausages and of course the French favourite -Crepes. And that's it. We are responsible for the mini-golf which is brand new and the tennis. Should keep us busy. We were asked by the mayor to take our kids last Friday for pictures so we banged around the mini-golf course. He asked various zany artists in the area to contribute to the course with statues. It's great.

One of the artists finishing his piece.  It moves.

To celebrate our friend Seb came round with pizza -

 

NON-STOP NON-STOP

Seems like year end (school year end that is )is a whirl wind no matter which country you are in.  Football BBQ, Jujitsu BBQ, Retirement drinks for teachers, Fete d l'ecole.  It never stops.  As a result poor Benjamin has tonsillitis, too many late nights and too many picnics at the river.  Can you actually every have too many picnics.  Me thinks not.
On Saturday I took the kids with my neighbour to the little fairground here just for the weekend.

The bouncy thingy

The Avalanche

It went so fast I thought they were going to fall out

Candy Floss - Barbapapa here, and a toffee apple is La Pomme de l'amour, too cool the French language.

So that little Soiree finished at 10 pm and on to the next day which was a BBQ for the end of year football.  Not so impressive, mostly people gathering in their little groups I spent the day alone eating with the boys and watching a little match of Football which Benjamin won a medal for.  So he was well chuffed.

Football and medals

I ducked out of the football early and took the kids to the river with friends.  By 4pm I was in desperate need of a drink, found the whole socializing on your own thing quiet stressfull.

Refreshments kept cool the Alp way

Sailing down a river

Pierrick taking aim

Mud tatoos.

Fun fun fun.