Briançon, France

We chose to break up our recent trip to the Italian Alps by staying overnight in the French town of Briançon, 20km from the Italian border.

At an altitude of 1326m, Briançon is a ski town in winter and sees a lot of hikers and bike riders (sometimes the Tour de France) in the finer weather.

Briançon is a fortressed town, being so close to the border (fortifications designed in the 17th century by Vauban, a very clever fellow who helped King Louis XIV consolidate/defend France's borders).

When we arrived I quickly took some pictures from the ramparts in the day's dying light.

We stayed almost smack-bang in the centre of the Vielle Ville (old town). I took this photo from the kitchen window of our apartment:

See, really central. That's the Collégiale Notre Dame et St Nicholas.

Just around the corner was the town's main street, La Grande Rue. Also known as La Grande Gargouille because of the stone drain down its centre.

This is the second time we've found an apartment online in the old part of a city (first time was Antibes). It's been fantastic on both occasions: we've scored a nice, fairly roomy apartment with kitchen, right amongst all the restaurants and museums/attractions of the city. And they were both reasonably priced - but I can probably tell you why.

The downsides:

1. No parking. These old cobblestoned areas are either 'no car' or 'resident cars only' zones. That's what makes them so nice to walk around. So you have to park outside the walled area and carry your luggage in.

The lovely gate we carried our bags through.

2. Late night noise. I know I said one of the benefits was being close to all the restaurants and attractions, but it's also one of the negatives. The bars all turn up their doof-doof music at around 10pm and this will continue until midnight in the off season (apparently 2am in the high season!). If you are a hip couple this won't bother you as you'll be down at the bar anyway. We also found it wasn't too bad for families with young children - our kids are fast asleep by 8pm so they didn't stir when the music started. It just meant the grown ups slept a little later than usual.

Some disadvantages to be sure, but it is just amazing to stay right in the heart of these ancient cities. And with young kids, being able to nip out and see things without packing the car, planning for a whole day away from your apartment, makes for a relaxing holiday. Just thought I'd let you know something that's worked well for us.

Anyway, back to Briançon. We stepped out for a meal that night and found the city is even more beautiful in the evening.

With the holiday lights still up and the snowy mountain backdrop.

The next morning I was up early feeding the baby.

Street lamp on the cobblestones.

Then it started snowing! I like snow, but I love the act of snowing the most - it just seems magical and everything gets kinda hushed...no doubt my snowless, Australian upbringing contributes greatly to the allure.

I ducked out to get pastries and coffee from the boulangerie 10 steps away (another benefit of the heart of the city).

The city workers were already out and about, sanding and salting the roads and paths. The 2 yr old fancied himself an apprentice.

After our breakfast we took a quick walk through the city...

Down to the ramparts again.

The kids frolicking in the snow, Fort du Château in the background:

We followed the ramparts around to a lookout point southeast of the city, over the Pont d'Asfeld (Asfeld Bridge).

Then we realised we had only 15 minutes 'til checkout so we freaked out and raced back to the apartment. Well, I freaked out. The mister's pretty unflappable.

Looking back on the city as we left.

We drove out of Briançon and had to stop about 10 minutes later to put on the snow chains.

Make sure you practice putting those puppies on in the comfort of your garage before you get out in the field, with snow in your eyes and ski gloves on. With two engineering degrees between us its embarrassing how long we took to figure our chains out the first time we fitted them.

The snow delayed our trip over to Italy but made it oh-so pretty. But that's a story for another day.

Have a great week everyone!

P.S You didn't think you were going to get away without chandelier photos did you?

Taken in the Collégiale. 

Bwahaha!

You complete me...yes you do

A little show and tell to take us into the weekend.

One of the great things about blogging is the friendships you make all over the world. One of the early friendships I forged was with the lovely Diana, who is sewing-crazy, lives in Romania and has her own little business making baby slings.

She sent me an awesome package of fabric and other useful bits and pieces about a year ago. Because she knew I was pregnant with number 4 she also sent me one of her slings.

It's very versatile (type 'ring sling' in Youtube and you will see the million ways you can use it) and I can use it for both the baby and the toddler (just not at the same time. Although that could be interesting...)

I sent a little package back to Diana before we left for the snow, and now that she has it I can show you the embroidery I stitched for her.

Diana is a recovering Echino addict, so it was a no-brainer what type of fabric to choose. Given I only had one piece of Echino in my stash (left over from making this remote control organiser) the choice was even easier.

 

The piece is supposed to be a kind of hat-tip from my blog to Diana; the phrase is from the movie Jerry McGuire (like my blog name) and I used the same font as in my header. And as for what completes us, well, we both love sewing, hence the sewing machine silhouette.

My embroidery journey continues - I busted out some uneven blanket stitch and whipped chain stitch in this piece. I also used perle cotton for my stem stitched words and found them a lot easier to sew (unlike my Enjoy the Journey piece where I used 6 strands of floss).

Thank you Diana for being such a good friend.

Another Friday which means another weekend. Yippee!

Hope you all have a great one!

The Tooth Fairy is Coming to Town.

Hello everyone, we're back! Alive!

In between washing piles of ski clothes and vomit from the 2 year old's car seat (tantrum, chunky pizza, please don't ask me anymore...) I thought I'd pop in and say hello.

After the mild winter we've had here in Provence it's ironic to come back from Italy and find our village under a blanket of snow.  I really didn't think we'd see any of the white stuff this year. The birdbath scoffs at me:

Daffodils still going strong through the snow. 

I'll have even snowier pictures to show you shortly, but in the meanwhile the big news around here is that the eldest (finally) has a 'bit of a sore tooth'. At 7 and a half years old I was getting a little worried, but hopefully this will be the start of a charming gap-toothed smile.

The mechanics of the Tooth Fairy have come up in conversation - I think I might need to sew something to mark this momentous occasion.

On Larissa's blog mmmcrafts I saw this super cute tutorial for a tooth holding softie (a tooth within a tooth, we must go DEEPER). Easily customised for boys or girls.

Or I could whip up a colourful little pouch that would slip right under his pillow.

Find the tutorial for these here at the Purl Bee

If I was feeling lazy I would just buy one of these gorgeous little tooth fairy friend softies from Jenny (who blogs at plants and animals).

You can find Jenny's etsy store here (lots of cute little softies and prints in there).

But I'm actually thinking of something a little different - inspired by this clever hoop I saw on Amy's blog, During Quiet Time.

Perhaps with a pocket for the tooth and one for the money. (And perhaps one exactly as shown for me, later.)

If I make it in neutral fabric colours all the kids can use it (this is a very attractive point for me as I don't particularly feel like making four of the suckers).

All you old and bold parents out there... did you keep your children's baby teeth? All of them?

I have locks of hair from all four of ours and am now wondering if I should keep a tooth or two as well?

I'm also wondering what the heck I'd do with them. Can you open beer bottles with them? I suppose a tooth could prove useful should said son abscond to Mexico with a lady of dubious reputation when he's 18. I'll have some DNA to give to the private investigator I hire to track him down.

Mmm, I hope he looks like Tom Selleck.

The PI, not my son. It would be weird if my son grew up to look like Tom Selleck.

Not to mention it would make my husband very suspicious. (Not as suspicious as if he grew up to look like Hugh Jackman though.)

Back soon with a little tour around Briançon. A bientôt! 

A Visit to L'Art Glacier

Here's a little Provence sunshine for all those in the colder climes at the moment.

These pictures were taken in Spring at L'Art Glacier, a house-turned-ice-cream-café.

You can read about them (a family operated business) here.

It's off the beaten track in Provence but still draws a good crowd.

The fountain kept the littles entertained (how many times do you think the words 'NOT IN THE FOUNTAIN' were spoken that day?)

While the incredible views had the adults enthralled.

And everyone was impressed with the menu which had a whole lotta ice cream.

Our choices:

The Provençal trio of Rosemary, Lavender and Honey ice creams. This was the pick of the menu in my humble opinion. The mister ordered it.

My choice: Salted Butter Caramel, Tiramisu and something else I can't remember now. It was very nice, don't get me wrong, but the mister's was better.

The kids went for an assortment of Vanilla, Chocolate, White Chocolate and Caramel all with a few squirts of Chantilly cream. Mmmm.

If you are out and about in Provence on a warm day, I would recommend you drop in. The sweets and the scenery are just beautiful.

Seen on the way home:

Hope you're all having a great week.

I hope I haven't broken anything by the time this delayed entry posts.

And I hope the wifi is working at our accommodation so I can keep in touch.

A bientôt!

Happy Australia Day!

January 26th is Australia Day. If you know someone Australian, make sure you kiss them! Preferably long and hard.

In honour of the day I'll be eating my croissant with Vegemite. Mmmm.

Well, it's a flurry of organising and packing and cleaning out the fridge here before we head off to the Italian Alps for a week of cross-country skiing. We have found a small, quiet village where we can play and walk (on groomed tracks) and cross-county ski as a family - and bonus - it's forecast to snow on Sunday. Wheee!

I'm packing my current hand sewing project so I can get some more work done.

On the craft front, I have been sewing lots of half square triangles...

And trimming them up to make chevrons (all part of Jennifer's fab Chasing Chevrons quiltalong).

I signed up for Rachel's Curves Class, which starts the first of Febuary. I'll miss the first few days, but I'm sure I can catch up in good time.

Here's something random - did you know there are scorpions in France? I didn't, but now that I've found a few around the house (none bigger than my thumb) I guess I have to. This fella was trying to back out through one of our downlights when he must've got stuck and then (ahem) fried. He's been there for ages because I'm too scared to unscrew it and find the whole family. Sounds like a job for the mister to me.

Crispy critter.

Have a wonderful week folks. I hope to be back in early Feb with lots of snowy photos to show you!

And happy Australia Day! Mwwwwa. (that's supposed to be a kissy sound)

Aix-en-Provence Carnaval

I'm still sorting out my photo files and came across these pictures from last year's Carnaval. I can't believe I forgot to post these!

Spring time in Provence holds many joys but I think Carnaval would be our kids' favourite.

All the large towns hold one and we ventured in to Aix-en-Provence to enjoy their version in early April. We arrived about half an hour early to find a nice spot on the Cours Mirabeau, electing to camp on the grass around the Rotonde fountain at the head of the street.

As the crowds continued to build the hawkers made a good turn-over on balloons, confetti and cans of silly string.

The kids all get into the spirit and come dressed in costumes.

When all the best vantage points were taken the fountain itself became a viewing platform, probably the only time of the year the police turn a blind eye to such shenanigans.

"Nice hat, Bill" "Thanks, Frank"

The parade was late getting started and the natives got a little restless:

But finally the strains of the band could be heard and the floats began to inch their way down the Cours toward the fountain.

The theme for Aix's 2011 parade was Tim Burton's films and here are a few of the floats they inspired:

Alice in Wonderland

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Mars Attacks!

Beetlejuice

The parade came to a halt around the fountain (another good reason to camp out there) but the band continued to play and several characters disembarked to interact with the crowd.

These guys below look like they're carrying some kind of Ninja Turtle shell on their backs - they turned out to be fan-propelled streamer shooters. Awesome!

So glad I didn't have to clean it all up.

This strange contraption housed a sort of trapeze act:

Untraditional Scotsman was wearing underwear beneath his kilt. Spoilsport.

But the ladies were still suitably impressed:

Eventually the crowds dispersed and the clean-up crew was left to tackle everything left behind.

Carnage on the Cours

We only had the three kids back then and they all had confetti in their underwear at the end of the day, which we all know is the definition of having had a good time. I know that's how I rate my night out the next morning. "I can't remember a thing but it must've been good because there's confetti in my undies."

I really like finding forgotten Spring photos in the middle of winter. Gives you a mid-season reminder to keep holding on; it will be warm again soon(ish).

In the meantime we're embracing winter and heading to the Italian Alps on Friday for a week in the snow. I'll try to squeeze in another post before then and if I'm really clever I'll rig one to post while I'm away. Man, these Internets sure are nifty.

Hope you're all having a great week!