Alemann Adventures

 Pastry Making We've become quite friendly with the boulanger (baker) - I guess that's what happens when you pop in to his shop several times a week for baguettes, croissants and pain au chocolats. He has started learning some English on instagram and enjoys practicing on us. He was kind enough to let the kids help make the day's pastries. Of course we went back and bought some when they were ready. They looked a bit wonkier than usual but tasted just as good. He then invited them back after school on day to make some Christmas goodies. They made not-gingerbread men out of brioche. Not to sell, just for them!

 Chambord The Chateau de Chambord is the most impressive castle in our region. Built by Francois I, he only spent about 42 days there in his 30 year reign. It's architecture was inspired by Leonardo Di Vinci and inside is a double helix staircase. We haven't been in on this trip but the gardens are free to explore so we have visited a handful of times just for a walk. Fun fact: the castle and grounds were sealed off to the Nazi's in WW2. So as they poached most of France's deer population, 90% of the countries red deer now descend from the Chambord stags. We also managed to find the castle webcam which has taken a photo every 10 minutes for years. If you look on their website at the right time you will see us doing some weird poses. We've have felt so fortunate to live in such a beautifully stunning part of the world, not only the architecture but the forests too. A bonus is that on the drive home there is a chocolatier so it has become part of the trip to stop and ...

 London November 11th (Remembrance Day) is a public holiday in France so we took the opportunity to have a long weekend away. We were all pretty tired from the traveling the week before but our time here has been about making the most of every opportunity so off we went to London for a few days. It was a good time of year to go, the Christmas decorations were up so we got our first taste a Christmas in winter, yet everyone was still going about their normal routines so it wasn't as touristy as it could have been. Day one we visited the Tower of London, Hyde Park and Harrods. Day two was wet so we spent a lot of time in the Natural History and Science Museums, visited and interactive Minecraft experience and caught a West End Show in the evening - Hercules. Day three we explored on foot, feeding squirrels in the park, Buckingham Palace, Parliament, Westminster, Damian Hirst's gallery, South Bank, Leicester Square, Hamley's and Selfridges. We really enjoyed every second of it...

 Valencia We had a couple more days of the school holidays left so went a bit further south to Valencia. It was a 12 hour drive back to Chemery so we only had one day to explore. We made the most of it, seeing the old town, newer Science and Arts district and stopping to see the Gulliver playground and the Holy Grail (as part of an interesting tour of the cathedral.