October Holidays

Although the girls have a much longer day at school most days, one of the cool things about the French school system is that every 6 weeks they get 2 weeks off. The kids of course love this and it allows for trips and travel at different times of the year. Since I'm currently working from home it's not too hard to accommodate the change in schedule. I can imagine what a pain it would be though for all those who are working and not taking the time off.

We didn't go anywhere but we did have some fun day adventures. The break also conveniently started on Teah's birthday and continued through Halloween.

Starting with Teah's birthday, if you've been following along on the blog for awhile now then you know that birthdays are quite the undertaking here. Teah actually ended up celebrating the whole weekend, first with us, then her friends, and then with the family.

Of course she's up before the sun to open her presents!!

Me and my birthday girl.

After school we headed to the indoor play gym.

I think I deserved a birthday "gift" too! ;-)

The next night a few friends came over for a birthday sleep-over. Unfortunately I was too busy playing hostess to take many pictures.

And the day after, the family came over for lunch. Teah with her tonton and papa.

 

Mamie's Gateau Roule with raspberry jam, as requested by Teah!

One of the days during the vacation we decided to take a tour of the Chateau Ripaille. A castle dating back 800 years and right in our back yard, in Thonon. Surprisingly Marc and I had yet to see it. So......it was at the top of our "Day Adventure's To Do List".

The chateau! Believe it or not, this is actually my first French castle!!

Taking a family selfie is no easy task with the Detraz clan. I'm surprised we're all actually looking and smiling!

I literally could have spent the entire tour in the kitchen! It was renovated in 1900 to what it looks like today. A bedroom and bathroom off of this space would literally be all that I would need. LOVE!

I mean seriously......that wrap-around stove!!

And the pastry station. Everyone needs a dedicated baking station, right?!

More highlights from the castle. Apparently, the billiard table lived here for awhile. Fun!

And this gorgeous ceiling in the "Ladies Waiting Room"! If you've watched Downton Abby, I'm guessing this is where the women would go after dinner to socialize, play cards, what have you.

Oh, and this....I mean, I can see a lot of uses for a large sitting area in my bathroom! Across from the bath was a sofa! So useful, am I right?

Strolling through what was once the moat, listening to my audio tour! There were so many beautiful photos from this day I couldn't share all of then. I think you'll just have to plan your own visit here someday.

And ending the day with a treat the size of your head. Seems about right!

Then there was Halloween!! If you remember from my post last year, Halloween in France is definitely NOT like it is in the U.S. I think it's starting to gain some popularity but it's still not widely celebrated. For example, I still haven't found a place to buy pumpkins. Next year, it will be my mission to find some version of a "pumpkin patch". Last year the girls did not get to go trick-or-treating but the village of Anthy did celebrate the weekend before with a Halloween monster hunt & party. It was a bit out there but totally fun. Unfortunately they didn't do it this year. So.....we decided to give trick-or-treating a try. It was actually kind of comical trying to decide which houses the girls would go up to. Many were dark and did not look open for business. We decided to stick with the ones that had some kind of Halloween decoration up. Mind you it was only 7ish but several of the houses were already out of candy, so they either gave the girls some of the candy from their kids loot or at one house she actually handed out cookies. The other "awkward" thing is the girls didn't know what to say. Apparently nobody has heard of "trick-or-treat" so they would ring the bell and then just stand there smiling holding their bags up; kinda hilarious. Eventually we learned that the accepted phrase is "bonbon ou sort" (candy or spell).

Witchy Teah getting ready to head out. Lola got ready at a friend's house.

Met up with Lola and her friend before heading out.

On the quiet streets of Anthy. I do love the spooky back-drop of an old French village at night. It added an appropriate ambiance to Halloween night I think.

Some of the houses got in the spirit. This is the one that gave the girls some cookies.

All in all, a pretty fun night. I think though we've decided to try to rally some friends next year to actually see if we can get a block together to really DO Halloween (American style)!

The next day, the 1st of November, we decided to take advantage of what relatively nice weather remained to go camping. Marc had been dying to take us camping ever since we got back. He actually did go hammock camping one night with a few buddies but not with us yet. So.......I rallied, we packed up the car and headed up ~40 minutes into the mountains.

Marc setting up the tents. I helped but.....not very much. ;-)

It was a beautiful spot and as expected we had the whole place to ourselves. Lola and Teah spent the first half hour or so running up and down that mountain. I think this was taken right before Lola rolled down the mountain. Thankfully she didn't hurt herself other than some scratches and uber dirty clothes. Ahhhhh, the joys of camping!

It was chilly but thankfully warm in our tent & sleeping bags. I half expected us not to make it all the way through the night BUT we did!! The girls were awesome.

My view the next morning outside our tent. That blue in the distance is Lake Geneva! We're looking down over the plateau above Evian. We packed up camp, headed back down the mountain, and ended our "adventure" with pastries in town. My kind of camping.

Our last day trip was a drive up Vallee Abondance! There are 3 valleys leading from the lake up into the Alps. We've explored the other two quite extensively but I had yet to head up the 3rd. So.....our final day trip was to drive through the Abondance Valley, ending at the ski town of Chatel. I do believe that this was my favorite valley yet. The views were stunning. I apologize I didn't take more photos to share with you.

This was in the town of Chatel. We've already decided to drive back up this Valley once there's snow to see what it's like in the winter. I'm sure amazing! I'll try to take more photos then.

We parked, walked around a bit, and had lunch at one of the few restaurants open during the off-season. It was delicious!

All in all, a fantastic holiday. Although I hope to be able to travel to some farther away places during future holidays, I love that there's still so much to explore right here! I am definitely not taking for granted how lucky we are to have moved to such a stunning place.