Alemann Adventures

 Puy du Fou Puy du Fou is a theme park with zero rides, but many world class historical shows. We thought we didn't have time to visit (it's closed for the winter) but so many people that we spoke to told us how amazing it is so we tripped over there (5 hour round trip) on Sunday. It was definitely worth the visit even if we only saw 7 of the many shows available.  Its difficult to see from the photos how amazing the shows were, each one had great actors, special effects and surprises. There were also lots of animals involved including ferrets, deer, wolves, geese, dogs, sheep, birds, goats and many many horses. Jousting competiton The Brits attacking Falcons from the bird show So many birds in the air Wolves in the Viking show Gladiators in the colosseum The stage turned into a giant ship Tree fighting with swords in the Arthur show Tranquil fountain show Bell ringing clock Churros!

 Chartres Chartres is a town about 2.5 hours North of us. We visited on Saturday as we needed to pick up some snow tyres for our upcoming trip to Switzerland. To make the most of it we visited the local homeshow - very similar to those in NZ but on a much bigger scale and with lots of food and craft stalls added in. We bought a brilliant art work of the Chartres cathedral to bring home with us. We then at eat a little traditional French eatery with the set menu. Absolutely delicious and a great cosy atmosphere. We must have been in a touristy area though because everyone in the restaurant spoke English, It was weird knowing that our conversations would be understood by everyone for a change. Then it was on to what we really came for - Chartres en Lumieres (Chartres in Lights). Every night from April to January to city lights up its historic monuments with colourful moving projections. We had been to this once before last time we were in France but the kids were too young to remembe...

 Futuroscope Another day, another theme park! We traveled to Poitiers (about 1.5 hours from Chemery) on a rainy Saturday (luckily it cleared up for most of the day). This park didn't focus on rides per say but on the experience. Most of the attractions included some sort of giant (really giant) screen and the park was full of futuristic architecture to house said giant screens. The day finished with an amazing night time show using projections onto fountains, awe inspiring technology!  We realised at lunch time that we are becoming accustomed to the French way of life. We were waiting in a 45 minute queue and getting a little hungry. At 12.30 we got our pre-made baguettes out of our bag and realised that all around us people were doing the same. Sophie counted around 40 other people all eating baguettes in the same queue. Fun fact: the word baguette is used here for anything that resembles a stick shape. So the bread, drumsticks, chopsticks, magic wands and several other thing...

 Pig Festival Our little village likes a good party and apparently a Pork Eating Party is a big deal. Saturday night saw a spit roast dinner, concert by 'Les Crazy Pigs' and fireworks followed by an all day market, classic car parade and pig BBQ on Sunday. The village band also showed up to serenade the meat eaters and all the decorations were pig shaped!

 Paris The weekend after we got home from our mega tour of Europe we headed off again - this time to Paris for the weekend. Daniel's parents had flown in a few days before and we met them before they headed off for their European holiday.  We only had one day to see all the sights Paris had to offer. We used a hop-on-hop-off boat to get along the Seine and see some of the highlights. These included the Eiffel Tower, Arch de Triumph, Louvre and Centre Pompidou. We ate dinner at the restaurant that Daniel's grandparents used to frequent when they lived in Paris. We may go back later in the year as we barely scratched the surface of what Paris has to offer.

  The last week of our mega trip. Very sad to say goodbye to everyone but time to head back to Chemery for the kids to start school again.  Another great week of visiting with people and exploring what the area had to offer. New Forest Wildlife Centre Sweet Shop in Lyndhurst The Karpies - a magic couple of evenings Lynn and Ralph 💕 Mini Golf for the win Reliving my childhood Mary Poppins at the Mayflower Winchester Science Museum I stood on that same bridge as a kid Family Dinner