Tribute to Bonnemamy - Easter holidays, extensive joy!

Saturday we celebrated Liliane's 70th birthday, it is quite rare that we all get together due to a number of things, but this time it worked out perfectly to the pleasure of all. 

Bonnemamy and Bon-papa kindly invited us for a night on the town, being Sézanne. 

We got a four course dinner, a few good laughs, and the enjoyment of good company, thank you for that Liliane and Jean-Paul. And thank you for all the other things as well, for always being there for us, be it to mind the children for a night or two, sow new curtains or make the award winning carneval suit for the ever so demanding kids :) we do appreciate it!

The weather has been fantastic ever since we came down on Saturday, blue skies and 22-25 degrees. The place feels more like home than ever. 

We love the daily exchanges we have over at Mike and Glenis' place. They run a B & B and sometimes we have the pleasure of getting to know some of their guests. Like Morgan, the almost six year old Welsh boy who is so happy to come over and play with Emil this week. 

Last night we  did a communal barbecue over at their place, very fresh, with the couple from London who live in Wales, his parents, the son who's come from London to introduce his Finnish girlfriend, Mike and Glenis with their two girls and the five of us. 

That's enough words for this time, enjoy the pictures, we got a bit carried away, there are many of them, but this is after a very strict selection process. 

 I will write back soon, I promise!

Garden view from upstairs

Dressed up for the party

Celebrating Liliane

Before he swalllowed the tooth

Cousins

Madeleine and Nathan

Too good to be true

Cherry blossom

Emil watching a bee

Mike and Glenis' garden

Hawk

Madame Paris and her dog Dora

Cooking up a storm

Glenis, Richard and John

Amelia

Barbecue at the neighbours'

Saila

First rent-out :)

Hi there,
It's been two weeks since the glorious spring weekend last time, but that does not mean the house hasn't been enjoyed :)
Last weekend Glenis and Mike had an overbooking at their bed and breakfast and asked if they could use our "cottage". The South Africans were thrilled apparantly...
Beginning of the Easter holidays Thierry went down for a few days with his kids, he sent me these pictures.

We will be heading down again on Saturday, o joy!

Spring in pictures

This weekend was grand. The welcoming we got when entering the garden was just ... wauw... 

The pictures speak for themselves really, all sorts of flowers planted with love by skilled hands (thank you Michou!)  

The fruit trees are all in blossom. The "Reine Claude" plum tree gets the prize for most beautiful, but the flowers on the peach trees were breathtaking as well. 

And Madame Paris told us that we have an abricot tree in our fruit garden. She was cheerful as always, I traded her a jar of homemade rhubarb jam for 12 fresh eggs. She chatted away about the upcoming Brocantes, I can't wait to go treasure hunting again...

Furthermore we celebrated Lili's 7th birthday, had a barbecue in the garden with the kids and Glenis.

On the downside Louis was in bed all weekend with a bad flu... high fever and everything that goes with it, poor baby. He's better now, but not 100 procent.

I cleaned the house nicely because next weekend we (Glenis actually) have foreign guests staying, I hope they'll enjoy the house as much as we do.

Daffodils under a bright April sun 

Emil and MadeleinePicking flowers

Cherry tree

Reine Claude

Peach tree

La grange with her vines

And the tree house is still there

Relaxing after mowing the lawn

 The Rhubarbs

 Very warm

 Play play play... non stop :)

 bumble bee

Happy Birthday Lili!!

Thierry en Champagne

This weekend our champagne castle is inhabited :) However not by ourselves.
Thierry much to our pleasure decided to take his boys down there for some family time...
Michel promised Julien 50 euros for each mole he would catch... imagine he would catch 10 :)
That doesn't lie within the expectations... we just wish them a great time.