The Road Not Taken

 We took Mr. Liberty out for his first adventure last weekend. We decided on the name for several reasons.  First, and most obvious, that is what the car represents to us – FREEDOM!  Secondly, it reminds us both of France (liberte, egalite, fraternite) and of the US (we love the Statue of Liberty in NYC – which is also from France and the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia).  So, why MR Liberty? Well, it is only fair since the last named car, Nellie Belle, was a girl.  Zander says that the boys have to have a turn to be in the majority of our family.  You may be surprised to hear this, since, on the surface it seems the boys are already in the majority – but that is only because you are forgetting our very female cat, Simone.

I’m happy to say Mr. Liberty performed admirably and it was fun to drive through the countryside on such a beautiful day. Zander took a few of the photos on this post – I will indicate which ones. We were hiking to Port au Bois – along the Loue River. (Z photo signpost) I crave rivers and was seriously in the mood for some time along the running water.    It took about an hour’s drive to get to this particular section of the river. Many years ago portions of the Loue were redirected and used for canals to pull cargo and crops along. (Kind of like New Hope, PA)  The canals were now mostly drained and the area was now covered with lovely green fields and grazing Montbeliard cows.  We walked along the top of the dike but had to be careful because there were lots and lots of stinging nettle plants growing along the edges of the path.  Zander, ready for warmer weather, was wearing shorts and kept getting stung – poor guy!  Pretty soon we got to this bridge which, for some crazy reason, was covered in gigantic monarch butterflies.  I can’t imagine why they would have been there since they are rarely found in Europe, but what an amazing experience. Great shot, Andre!  Gotcha…

There were lots of people fishing nearby.  We walked upstream a bit to play on a rocky island – there were tons of beautiful river rocks, seemed to be made of some kind of marble – they reminded me a bit of the rocks on Jasper Beach where I went with my parents as a tween.  The kids were thrilled to find so many treasures to collect and, of course, throw into the water.  Andre’ is particularly good at skipping stones. Only about one in 5 of my tries actually skip at all but he routinely gets 4 or more skips from a rock.  After a few minutes an irate French fisherman told us to stop – we were scaring the fish!  Well, we did stop (after a couple more tosses) but, hey, he was like 100 meters up from us and it’s not HIS river, is it? Swim fish, swim for your lives!

We wandered along the path some more seeing lots of wildflowers (so many they will be in a different post) and these great mushrooms. It was a nice hike because it had no real destination and it was all flat – we took our time and just enjoyed the river.  We got to a fork where a still existing canal split off from the main river and we had to make a choice.  The kids asked me how to decide and I tried to remember the Robert Frost poem but could only remember the first two lines “Two Roads Diverged in a Yellow Wood, and sorry I could not travel both”  and the last 2 lines – “Two Roads Diverged in a wood and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” We tried to decide which was the road less traveled by, and we talked about what that might mean. Then they did eeny, meeny, miney, mo (OK…. that’s one way to figure it out….) I feel like our sojourn here is the epitome of making unusual choices (OK – maybe not the epitome –we could be living in a nudist colony or as hermits or something – but still – it is a bit off the beaten path, right?) It is interesting to reread this poem as an adult – I remember studying it in high school and I don’t remember seeing the 2 meanings of the poem (described eloquently here, http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/frost/section7.rhtml) I, being a philistine (Andre’ tells me this term is derogatory towards the ancient people of Philistine – but really, they are all dead, isn’t this taking PC a bit too far?), prefer the more obvious interpretation – dare to be different!  But, I do see the irony as well – sometimes people put so much drama into things – when really both choices are ‘just as fair’. And also, quoting someone I’m sure, nothing in this world is final – but death and taxes.  Anyway, here it is for your reading pleasure, along with a shot of my miniature adventurers joyfully embracing the road ahead.

The Road Not Taken (Robert Frost 1920)   

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

 

Poetic digression over (for now).  We stopped and had a picnic lunch and then moved onward to another section of the river (sans cranky fisherman) where we threw more rocks and enjoyed the little waterfall.   Then we headed back towards home, passing lots of beautiful trees infested with mistletoe.  In case you are  wondering what a mistletoe infested tree looks like, here is a picture left.  The mistletoe is all the puffy green balls.  Andre’ has been reading Superfudge to Zander and there is a whole section about mistletoe in there. It was neat to hear how Zander knew what it was from all our adventures.  Taking this walk, we saw very few other people, and no other families but we did see evidence of camping. This fire is typical and, to me, looks like it belongs on a warning sign featuring Smokey the Bear – remember kids, only YOU can prevent forest fires! (Hello??? You are not supposed to start them without clearing a fire ring!!!)

 

Now came the best part of the day, less than 5 minutes from the car we saw this….. 

Don’t let the first glance fool you – look closer and you will see that the first piece of water is, indeed, only a puddle – the second is…..(you guessed it) a canal!  Yes, that’s right folks – a little river running over the road we need to cross to return to Mr. Liberty!  Yes it is April, yes the water is frigid, but, clearly, there was only one thing to do – and, as you can see, we did it!!!

Even though it was not too deep, Daddie and Griffin hated it – their feet were too frozen – but Callie, Zander and I were invigorated! C and Z went back in and splashed around for another 15 minutes or so – while the rest of us watched.  We were all laughing out loud at their antics.  The cows that were  upwind of our shenanigans stayed as they were, but the ones that could smell us soon came wandering over to check out who was disturbing their usually peaceful existence. 

 

I love the way my feet feel after I walk in a frozen stream, especially after I put my socks and shoes back on – they feel so cozy after their dunking and the skin on my feet feels tingly and almost sparkly-  it’s like a foot massage!

 

The cows came right up to the fence (Zander took the leftmost shot) and we spent many minutes just watching them graze.  I have never done that before – it was really fun and very peaceful.  FriendDeb – we hope you are enjoying this part of our blog – and that you come visit someday to see these happy French cows!  We are happy to report they do eat dandelions and we also noticed that they lick the grass before they eat it – checking for bugs, perhaps?

We got back to the car and headed towards home and saw some signs for a Gallo Roman Furnace.  This is exactly the kind of thing we are happy to have a car for so we decided to visit.  We went through a little town or two.  Zander had the camera and took tons of (bad) shots but this one of the ancient watering trough came out great. He also leapt out of the car at one point to get a shot of a town square featuring a statue of a giant chicken – how often do you get to see that?  It was in memory of lost children of the village (connection there is…? Not seeing one) Unfortunately – it came out so blurry it is not even recognizable, but the memory lives on. Then we continued to follow signs on a seemingly deserted road for a few more kilometers.  It was absolutely beautiful – I called it a cathedral of trees. It was a gravelly road with pot holes and we went bravely onward without seeing anyone or anything.  But look – ahead in the yellow wood, the road is diverging! The sign said to turn off the more common road for the ruins –and so, we did.  But, as soon as we rounded the corner we stopped, realizing this was the real road less traveled – for a reason!  This time there would be no eenie meenie minie mo - transversing this muddy path was not going to be in the realm of possibility for our little sedan.  So sad, I really wanted to see that Gallo Roman Forge – but, we must not be foolish, right? Well, unfortunately, our fate was sealed.  That’s right, we were already stuck in the mud. I got out to look and our wheels were spinning!  Great – the first time on the road and we get stuck – this adventure stuff can be blunderfully dangerous. You never hear about buses or trains getting stuck in the mud, do you?  I couldn’t believe it – the first section of the road didn’t look muddy at all to the naked eye. I guess it was “in leaves no step (or tire) had trodden black” so we couldn’t see the muck below. We were not able to make it back to the road without several minutes of panic followed by me and Zander getting out and pushing with all our might until we could roll to a drier section – and thank heavens that worked.  Sometimes the road more traveled by is there for a reason.  I was sooooooooo scared!  I didn’t take any photos because I guess I was too traumatized.  We went back to safer roads and headed home, only further adventure being stopping at a fromagerie for some good cheese and at the mall for a map of Paris (one week to go!!!!)

3rd day is the charm

Here we are, finally at the end of the long weekend.  I know all of you faithful readers are sick of me posting 4 or 5 posts at once but it seems I only have time to catch up on the weekends with my posts – and also that André (my editor—so blame him for spelling, grammar, or readability mistakes) only has a chance to read them about once per week!

Here are a few tidbits from last week I forgot to mention:  First off, there are lots of NON-wildflowers springing up around here – most notably tulips. I got a great shot of these which bloom right near our house. I am half wishing we could be back in Holland right now to see fields full of them.  Secondly, here is a shot of the special, wheat laden Easter treat that was given to Griffin by his teacher at school on Friday.  How can they NOT see how cruel this is?  Here are some cookies kid! Miam, Miam! (Yum, Yum in French) Remember, don’t eat any. Joyeux Pacques! There, sarcasm over, now I can move on.

Spent the day hanging out at home with hours on the computer looking for a smoke free affordable car (preferably one that also is diesel and has a moon roof to satisfy André and Zander, respectively).  I found quite a few prospects, most of which André vetoed, but ended up with 3 potential winners.  Of course, only one could meet us today so we headed out, fingers crossed.  The owners were located right near Fort Griffon – a good sign, right?  Well, I guess so, since it turned out to be a much better car (in my opinion) and at the same price.  It is larger, more comfortable, much much cleaner, has fewer dents, the tires look good, radio, cd player and clock work (they didn’t in the other one), it started more easily and has a more powerful engine, it comes with a tow hook and snow tires and has been with the same owner and his dad since it was bought new so we have all the service records.  It is also diesel (requirement for André) but, due to the larger size, it is not as fuel efficient as the other car, we can only go about 593 miles on a tank instead of like 700 – but still – that’s a lot of miles.  On the negative side, there is no moon roof (Zander is crushed), it is older and it has more kilometers (like 280000) and it is not a Volkswagen (our brand of choice).  It is actually a Peugeot – which is a French brand.  I think it is cool to drive a French brand when we will live here in France.  Did I mention it was cleaner??  We can just hop in and drive off – no coffee bombing necessary - hooray! They are expecting twins and already have a 2 year old so fitting 3 baby seats in the back would be impossible.  I am lucky Z and C are now just in boosters – much easier to squeeze.  Anyway, we will seal the deal tomorrow night. The other folks were mad.  I feel bad we told them yes when we ended up changing our minds (OK, let’s be honest, I twisted André’s arm into looking more), but I know it will be a better car for us.  I hope we can take it to lots of fun places. The kids celebrated by climbing up the portcullis like gate barring entry into Fort Griffon.   I celebrated by looking for a new wildflower – and I found one growing at the edge of the parking lot. I think it is L’Anémone Fausse Renoncule.  Catchy, right? I was trying to find the nickname for this and couldn’t but did find out from wikipedia it is poisonous – 200 mg can kill an animal of 10kg  - watch out!  In other flower news, one of André’s coworkers has solved the mystery of the tall purple flower (thanks Julien) – it is actually called “Cardamine des prés” or, more popularly, Meadow Cress or Horse Cress and I believe this since I can verify it online!  See website http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?where-kwid=0000+0000+1107+0624&one=T  The question remains, soooooooooo then what is a St. Georges???? 

Here are a couple shots of the car.  As you can see, it is very plain and boring looking – not like us at all.  I wonder what we will name it?  Any ideas out there?  Well, it’s a 1993 Peugeot 405, one of the last cars exported to the US from France.  This one is a diesel and should get around 40 miles per gallon, or 900km per tank – that means two round trips from Philly to Seaford on one tank of gas – woohooo!

We went home and had our Easter dinner, a day late since yesterday we were out so much! Menu was: pear-apple sauce (deliciously created by Zander), deviled eggs, sautéed violet leaves (tastes like spinach), rolls with butter from the French butter dish and homemade jam and a leg of lamb.  The kids decided they hate lamb (even though they have loved it the past 10 times they’ve had it) so now I have a giant chunk of leftover lamb and no one to eat it!  The best part, of course, was the Cookie Cake – cookies sent by Grammie.  (Griffin had Jello jigglers) I was hoping the cake looked like an Easter egg, but the kids guessed it was a road.  So, I guess I’ve not caught up with the master cookie cake maker just yet!  Here are the dessert smiles.

 

It’s been a fun weekend.  I can’t wait to have wheels, we have so many more adventures we are looking forward to once we can take day trips.  I feel sad, though, to have missed having Easter with my family.  I really miss them so much. Callie was crying and crying for Grammie tonight. Only 2 and 1/2 months to go.

Easter

 

So, we got up early for the egg hunt and basket discovery – special thanks to Grammie and Grandpa for their contribution to the candy pig out. Peeps and jelly beans – YUM! (Here in France, chocolate seems to be the only type of Easter candy)

     

For breakfast, we had hard boiled eggs and candy (what else?).  The kids play a bit with their new toys while I did some research on how hard it is to get smoke out of a car.  There seems to be about 1000 ways – I will list some highlights here in brief…

• Ozium
• Febreze
• An ionizing machine
• Scrub and shampoo the entire thing – once a week, for several months
• Cut up an apple and leave it to dry under your seat
• Leave fresh orange peels to dry under your seat
• Simmer a crockpot full of onions and a bit of water for a day in the sealed up car
• Leave Dial soap under your seat
• Put unused coffee grounds in a sock (clean I assume) under your seat
• Use odor eliminating shampoo
• Open the windows
• Use cat pee remover
• Replace the seats
• Replace the headliner
• Pray
• Wash in Vanilla extract mixed with water
• Get it detailed
• Buy those fun shaped air scenters to hang off the mirror
• Wash in vinegar
• Kitty litter scattered all over vacuum, repeat
• Change cabin filters
• Don’t bother with detailing since it doesn’t work
• Murphy’s Oil soap
• Leave it out in the sun with the windows cracked on hot sunny days
• Take up smoking
• Dump baking soda all over inside of car,leave it for a few days then vacuum, repeat
• Put fresh eucalyptus in the car and change it every 2-3 weeks
• Buy another car
• Put a tray filled with vinegar under the hood of a cooled engine and leave it as long as you can
• Foggers
• Take 1/2 of a can of coffee, put it in the car, close all the doors and set it on fire (using a bomb fuse, I suppose – this I want to try just for the fun of it)

Needless to say, after all the advice, I felt like I’d rather be the bunny, pictured above, right, than attempt to rid the car of this stench.  I decided we should look a bit more – a prospect André (who loved the idea of the super duper efficient vehicle purchased with almost no work) dreaded.  Besides, I was the only one who felt sick in the car so was it really that bad??

But, on to greater things – we were headed off to the Goeffre de Poudrey caverns and the Dino-Zoo. (Yes, these are both to be open on Easter Sunday – who are we to question why?)

It was really, really difficult to get good shots in the cavern.  André did a pretty good job on this underground lake and on the large shot, above. Point and shoot girl (aka, me) doesn’t even attempt these kinds of things. The lake is part of a system of underground rivers and springs that ultimately feed a river above ground.  Long ago, people used to come down here to get drinking water and, even up until 1970, the water flowing here was pumped up to be used as the drinking water for the restaurant nearby.  The tour took about 45 minutes and much of that time we were just staring around, as you can see.  It was an amazing place, only discovered in 1899 and absolutely immense – more than 2 million cubic meters in size.  It is the 4th biggest cavern in France. The rock formations were beautiful and they even had a light and music show to display them in the best way possible.  The ceiling was completely flat, like a giant lid of limestone over the whole thing, apparently this is unusual, almost 90% of such caverns have vaulted ceilings.

It was fun to get such a sense of time in such a place.  Each century the stalagmites (from the bottom) and stalagtites (from the top) grow only 2-3 centimeters – this means these formations have building up for tens of thousands of years. I wonder how creationists explain away these types of things…. but I don’t care enough to look it up. We then headed back up the doline (an enormous sinkhole that gives easy (well, easy compared to most caves) access to the cavern.  The bunch of scree that falls down into the hole when the sinkhole is formed is called a talus.  We had our picnic at the handy tables provided.  I have to say, I do a ton of picnic making. I like picnics since they are cheap and I also don’t have to do dishes.

We then headed over to the Dino Zoo.  Did you know that the Jurassic Period of dinosaurs was named after the Jura Mountains?  Which run through Franche Comté?  Which is where we live?  Well, neither did I, until now.  The Dino Zoo doesn’t actually have any fossils – just lots of fiberglass models of dinosaurs, all outdoors and arranged by when they appeared in time.  It was a really fun place. They had a few to play and climb on, but mostly, we just walked past models and read signs.  They also had speakers hidden with scary dino sounds coming out here and there, which was fun.  Griffin kept saying “J’ai peur” (I’m scared!)

                

 

This was my favorite dinosaur – the Diatryma Gigantea.  In French, it is known as Grande Oiseaux Terrifant or  Big Terrifying Bird.  Turns out that this overgrown ostrich was the most dangerous carnivore on land for more than 20 million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs.  It didn’t fly, but it ran fast and pecked up the defenseless little early mammals with it’s giant, hooked beak.  How, may I ask, is it that I have never heard of this creature before?   I mean, I know eagles and the like are fearsome predators, but I tend to think of birds as peaceful creatures, meant to be eaten, not something that could eat me!  Another interesting aspect of the park is that it moved beyond dinosaurs to early humans and creatures like Mammoths and Megalopolis (giant deer) and onto the evolution of humans.    The kids were fascinated by the early humans. I wonder if there are creationists here in France?  All the art, living areas and information reminded me of when I started reading Clan of the Cave Bear – I love that series – I even tried reading it out loud to André (he wasn’t impressed). I wonder if Jean Auel ever came out with another book? 

The forest around the Dino Zoo was beautiful and included a stream – it really made me miss the Wissahickon.  I also found some new wildflowers.  The first (nice shot André) is a wind flower or anemone.  They grow in plentiferous bunches, carpeting the forest floor.  The second, butterbur, I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen before – it grows next to streams.  The third is La Muscarie à Grappe (Grape Hyacinth) and is growing along with the familiar Corydale and some violets.  The last is more cowslip – but, strangely, it had no discernable scent! It looked the same in every other way, and I even picked a stem to see if that is what causes the odor, but no dice.  Callie’s theory is that it only smells at one time of day.

                                                               

 

Then we played in the playground for a bit (Zander was in heaven since they had swings) and headed over to the egg hunt.  This was a major reason why we were at the Dino Zoo on this particular day – it seems that egg hunts are rare around here and this was the only one we could find.   The path to the egg hunt was lined with giant signs featuring French egg proverbs, e.g., vole un oeuf, vole un boeuf (there’s no such thing as a small crime—it’s as bad to steal an egg as it is to steal a cow).  Frankly, I think that’s bull—if you stole an egg they’d probably never notice—but a cow?  Well, arriving at the egg hunt, we saw the Easter Bunny was walking around, and Griffin enjoyed seeing him.  The hunt, however, was a total disaster. I think we will have to organize our own next year since these people were just absolutely clueless.  There must have been 100 kids in each group (5 and under and 5 and up) and  maybe only 50 eggs – poor Callie didn’t find even one and Zander had 3 stolen from him – out of his hand or right out of his bag!  Luckily a kind older girl gave Callie 2 eggs (when she saw her sobbing) and I found 3 with Griffin (we gave 2 away since the younger kids got zero).  Then, in the older kid area, a man started walking around tossing out handfuls of eggs.  This resulted in a mini mosh pit of kicking, screaming, children fighting to get one (or, for the pushiest, their 10th).  Made me so mad!

 Finally we headed for home, stopping on the way at the top of Mountfacoun, where André on the day I thought he was dead.  Even though it was foggy there  was still an amazing view.  We could see the ruins of the castle below.  We vowed to return once we had our car and do some real exploring.  When we got home we couldn’t believe it wasn’t even 5pm so we had a movie night with Pirates of the Caribbean – a bit scary, perhaps but we skipped here and there and I covered Griffin’s eyes!  Zander loved it, of course.

Hope you all had a happy holiday as well.