FrenchWards: Super-Halloween-Visit-Birthday-LOTO!!!!

Nous sommes ici encore!!

When we left you last we had just returned from Paris and were trudging our way through the rest of the Toussain holiday. The last weekend of which was HALLOWEEN! Yes, they have it here, yes it is a very scaled down version of it. Malheureusement for the enfants, we picked the exact wrong route for Trick our Treating and they got very few "hits". Some children managed to do quite well however, so it was operator error, i.e. us. Having said that, the candy that was given out here would be seized by the authorities in America, put in a safe location and burned for fear of bombs, poison, razor blades or ebola. It was free floating gummis or jelly beans, the occasional walnut and then some wrapped taffies.

I loved that almost all the costumes were creepy. I'm not sure I saw anyone dressing as something just because they liked it. It was pretty much all blood and gore and witches and bad people. No one decorated until the day of, and even then it was a novelty. "Trick or Treat" translates to: "Des bonbons ou un sort" (candies or a spell).

We were invited to carve pumpkins with the neighbors on Halloween day which was, as always, a delight. All the pumpkins sauf one were the edible kind and the innards were meticulously scraped into a bowl and everyone made soup. We made pumpkin seeds, they were novel and most folks seemed to like them. At the end of the carving all the children ate crepes before completing their costumes and heading out. We left the neighborhood party and went to another party and proceeded to not feed the children for the first of 2 nights in a row until 10 or so.

The following night we visited a farm run by a bonnehomme named Olivier, more fondly known as Coin Coin, which means quack quack. He runs a poultry farm that specializes in foie gras. Other than it being very educational, mostly fun and more time with friends, I found it to be un petit peu horrifying. That being said, the foie gras was phenomenal and overall the geese have a great life on a farm with a great view of the beaujolais and are treated to all the corn they would ever dream of eating. Again the children ate at 10 or 10:30.

Then we wrapped up the weekend with a very quick visit from Bob's brother John. It was so great to see him. The boys were over the moon about it. We all wished he could have stayed for a long time and brought his family. La prochain fois.

I have mostly recovered from that weekend. The children enfin went back to l'ecole and we had a minute to rest before Micah's 6th birthday on the 5th of Novembre. He went to the pool that morning as he does on Mercredis and by that afternoon was in bed with a decent fever. Jasper and Bob went out and bought some playmobile from Grandpa Bill and Oma and Monopoly Lyon from Nona and Papu while the little guy rested. He continued to miss the little party I had tried to plan for him on Friday night but recovered for an awesome Raclette dinner at our host/neighbors home on Saturday.

We have subscribed to this cool website that provides a sort of scavenger hunt of clues on various hikes and walks through the country, forest, and cities. It provides some motivation and cool site seeing for the whole family. We did one of these in a town called Joux and also one in Lyon in the very cool Croix Rousse section of the city. We didn't finish the Croix Rousse mission because we got very distracted by the last day of the 6 week long carnival of the chestnuts, Fete de Marrons that happens there. It was very much like the Cache County fair, only freezing and everyone was speaking french.

I almost forgot about the super-loto this last weekend. The school PTA puts on a "super-lot" event for apparently the entire region, where one pays 10 euros for 4 cards, adult or child, and proceeds to play loto for approximately 3 hours. Cultural, painful. The kids lost interest in about 7 minutes leaving us to play many, cards of loto. Don't forget that french numbers are not all that straightforward. We were with the parents of Jasper's good friend Timeo whom helped us when we should falter with our 8 cards. Their older daughter Chloe lended a hand while Jasper, Timeo and Micah ran wild with the 50 other children bored out of their minds. 43. I was the number 43 away from winning the all expense paid trip for four to Disneyland, Paris. More than likely a blessing, but still...

This is where we are now. I haven't mentioned a spectacular bike ride along the Soane with friends and I have spared you my tortuous stomach flu tales and Bob's continuous plunge into the decrepit-ness of age. Let me know if these things interest you and I can add some more photos.

And so:

The making of the creeper costume

First you have to cut the little squares.

then you have to glue the little squares

This is a creeper in case you didn't know. He's a bad guy in Minecraft, he creeps.

Pumpkin carving party, once again the master of cermonies, Christophe

The dirty work

The Americans

Who's that LURKING?

Lil' punkins

and of course crepes!
Courtesy of Adeline, merci beaucoup!

They might look as cute as they come but....

as the sun sets on the rue this all hallows eve..

and the citrouilles are lit

OUT CREEP THE CREEPERS

AND THE BLOOD SUCKERS

(pause for pumpkin art)

AAAARREEEEAAAOUOOUOUUUUUU!!!

Find the American

The pumpkins weren't the only things lit...
Happy Eloween!!
(That's not an accent you hear, that's actually Elodie whose costume says that courtesy of the Canadians)
Elodie gets the photo cred on the pumpkin carving shots

des bonbons ou un sort-ing

doesn't quite roll off the tongue the same

The haul the next morning, probably half the size

Should be tested for cyanide

The walnuts provided for great entertainment the next morning

Fall fun in the yard

Shout out Pagnucco in my maroon hat!

And the roses keep on blooming..

La Plume des Perelles (see following post by Bob)

Dejeuner with Uncle Jon

Birthday Boy

in his birthday suit

after a fun day at the pool

with his friends.

Birthday dejuener

Birthday BED

Birthday Brother builds birthday boy's toys

Birthday dinner (sushi and ibuprofen)

RAIN CHECK ON THE CAKE

SUPER-LOTO

Micah, Jasper and Timeo

Recognize the room from Conscrit?

Did you know that the number 97 in french translates to four twenty seventeen..in french?

Clue finding in Joux

Looking for clues in the town

Better than finding a clue

Local fauna

Celebrate étrangers

Here's to the fish folk, this was a lake full of fish

DAM

Shout out to Montana

Final clue, can we go to Celine's bakery yet?

Yes we can. Somehow this has become our favorite bakery, mostly because we found it when we were reeeaally hungry our during one of our first adventures here.

Sweet victory

CROIX ROUSSE-hunting for clues

We found the middle-eastern food section UK, it's waiting for you.....

Lyon bizarre

Room of marriages

confetti of marriages

Another boring view

Elephant art

Fete de Marrons

What kind of geeks look for clues in the middle of a carnival?
We learned that this is JM Jacquard who created a way of "digitalizing" silk production.