Berry Picking

Thanks for your guesses folks! It is actually blackberry season here in the 77th department, and there is a huge bramble patch at the end of our road which was untouched by human hand.... until I arrived! This village seems to be full of people who spend their time driving to and fro everywhere (usually Paris) or in their beautiful house/garden so there are very few people wandering the streets and doing such mundane things as picking berries. No problem, all the more for us!
I picked nearly a kilo last week but somehow we managed to eat them all before they got into a pie....oops! So this time I enrolled Bertie to help as we streeeetched for all the higher ones.

Look at those delicious berries, who could resist them?Well, we exerted all our self'-discipline (helped by Tatie's stern eye!) and here is the result that she threw together. I am off to enjoy it now!

Guess What I Was Up To Today....?

Behind Our House

We went for an evening stroll up the hill behind Bertie's sister's house (Evs might remember having taken much of the same walk with us a few years ago). Not a bad view really!

It was a much longer walk than we had thought so quite a lot of complaining from one LissaLou on the way up, but a bread and nutella stop improved things vastly! JoJo was particularly excited by the cows below - animals are definitely his thing right now.We decided to take a short cut over the above field, only to be met by a wire fence between us and the path. Uh oh! Nothing for it but to squeeeeeeeeze on through! Then we met another one! This time we caught Bertie in the act of squeezing!

Two hours later we made it back - 8pm and the sun still high in the sky. Can't get used to this northern hemisphere! (Nor can the girls, they are convinced they shouldn't be going to bed until it is dark....)

In The Marne Vallée

It really is so beautiful and peaceful here (except for our kids of course!). Out the window we look down onto fields of corn that are being harvested, further beyond is the Marne river weaving its way along, and beyond that the occasional train coming to or from Paris.

Bertie's sister and BIL moved here the summer we got married, and in 8 years it has been lovely to come and see what changes have taken place in their home and garden, which were pretty much a new-build shell to start with.
(taken by CassCass)

This time it was the guest room that changed, with a very comfortable bunk bed, the lower part acting as a couch in the day which is a great space saver. The walls are now yellow and green and the bouquet of lavendar and mint my SIL kindly left for us are a wonderful finishing touch.

In the garden, Bertie has been hard at work ever since his arrival. The most important thing he has done (in our opinion!) is put up the remaining parts of the swing set. For two years there has been one sole swing, now there are also two different boat swings, meaning five cousins can have the time of their life swinging away! Very useful when you have as many small nieces and nephews as this family!
We visited Meaux a few days ago by bus - the girls almost exploded in excitement boarding the bus, much to the amusement of a little old lady waiting there! We wandered around (accompanied by much complaining from LissaLou - she does not do wandering!) and visited the cathedral. The girls were very taken with the stain glass windows and statues - LissaLou expressed shock at the latter, telling me they weren't allowed. On further investigation, she had remembered our recent reading of the Golden Calf episode in the OT. So good to know some of what she hears sticks! One thing we loved in Guadeloupe was picking and eating fruit for free, and we have been delighted to carry on this tradition here. We have enjoyed little plums from by the river and pears from the nearby wood, and shocked the SIL by eating elderberries by the dozen! (Are you sure they are edible??!) Today has been Party Day, with all the family here en masse, celebrating a nephew's birthday. Food and drink in abondance, sun sun and a little bit of rain, and little girls running excitedly all over the place with their cousins. Topped off by a very late night - good job we all still all on Guadeloupe time!

Maison De La Banane, Grand Etang

Last week's Wednesday trip (aw, I'm going to miss this Family Tradition!) could have happened any day now that Bertie is off work, but funnily enough it was still Wednesday.

I had been looking forward to going to the Maison de la Banane for ages, but the last time we tried it was closed. Finally success, but at a price - it is a costly €8/€6 for entry, which is more than anywhere else. Would it live up to our expectations, and be worth the euros....?

We were welcomed with a banana each (naturally!) and we also got to try a red one, which was very nice tasting if odd looking. Then we were showed the plantation and giving some fun facts (some of which I knew from all my earlier research!):

*bananas grown on hillsides are sweeter (but all that extra work!)
*they take 9-12 months to grow
*they grow between 5 and 15 metres
*there are nearly 1500 types but only some can be eaten and we only seem to get one type imported to us in the West, which is Cavendish
*each regime of bananas can weigh from 25 to 50 kilos
*bananas for exportation get their maturing slowed down by being kept at 13 degrees - their taste and colour is very different from ones allowed to riped naturally
*they get put in blue plastic bags as they grow as otherwise a little bug gets inside with little or no sign on the skin that it is there

We were sent off to enjoy the garden, which was very beautiful, and all sorts of different banana trees. The girls (with their cousin) were most taken with a little kitten who followed us everywhere and was promptly named Bannie. Happily there were few other visitors there subjected to their cries and shrieks of Bannie around the place!

After the garden was the information room then a Maison Creole full of rooms and things from antan lantan (the olden days, but it only really applies to the late 1800s and early 1900s!).

All very interesting, especially all the products made from banana leaves, but I was disappointed that we didnt get to see the plantation packing line in action (though we were highly tempted to swing on the line carrying bananas to the packing room!). I also thought we would get more of a tasting session but it was not to be.

Afterwards we headed inwards and upwards to the Grand Etang which is a lake on the way up to the Chute de Carbet. So peaceful and tranquil. And then we arrived! Oh the noise those children made! I am not sure if it was due to us that the six families who visited whilst we sat there picknicking all left within five minutes!

The girls paddled in the water, JoJo paddled in the mud, and they had fun on and under a bridge but sadly no walk around the lake as Mr Driver had forgotten his trainers. We previously visited in 2000 and didn't manage the walk then so it looks like it will have to wait a few more years...

Les Saintes

Our trip to Les Saintes was a spur of the moment thing two weekends back following an invitation from church friends and a great way to spend Bertie's first Saturday without work since September (except Christmas and Easter).

Les Saintes is one of several islands Guadeloupe also has under it, including Marie-Galante, La Desirade and previously St Martin and St Barthelemy. I say island but it is actually made up of two islands, Terre du Haut, where all the tourists visit and where we visited in 2002 and Terre du Bas (which is actually more mountainous) which is unknown to us. We went with some friends from church who are from there and stayed in their family's house. Here are a few thoughts from the visit.

It is a tiny place!!! There are two small towns, Grande Anse and Petite Anse. Of course, Petite Anse is bigger than Grande Anse! We stayed in Grande Anse and all there is are a few shops and a lovely village square, a restaurant and....the FINEST playpark we have seen in a year! I can't begin to describe how beautiful and well equipped it was! And do you know the irony? There are hardly any children on the island, mostly retired people!

We were in walking distance of two beaches, very nice! Our friend grew up in a house right across the road from one of them, what a view!

The island suffered an earthquake in 2006 which devastated it, but has mostly been rebuilt now. There are a few signs left though - there is a beach which is now just a dumping ground for all the bits of brick and iron from collapsed houses, a road along the coast to some pottery ruins just crumbles into rocks, and there are empty plots of land where houses once stood.

Everyone is related on the island! Every person who went past, or car or house we saw, received a nod and a muttered "c'est un cousin"! This worked in our favour going over, when our friends' cousin was taking money, therefore charging us the lower residents' price! Speaking of the boat, well I am not sure that I can, it was awful! The sea to both Marie-Galante and Les Saintes is so rough and bumpy, it felt like being on a rollercoaster at a theme park. I was so pleased not to chuck up, but it was a close thing! Apparently the journey to La Desirade is even worse, which may explain why we have never visited!

We took a tour around the island - with a cousin! - and saw Petite Anse with the Mairie, primary school, college and police station. Lyceens have to go to the mainland (Guadeloupe) where they board for the week. There are some people who commute over each day on the 6am boat - they must have stomachs of steel is all I can say!

There are also beautiful forests and mountains and views to be seen. We stopped off at a Mare (small lake) to look for tortoises or turtles. Very soon, up to 30 pairs of beady eyes could be seen in the water bearing down on us, as they waited for the bread that we would surely have. Very sadly we didn't! If we looked closely in the trees above, we saw iguanas, for which the island is famous. Too close and they would crash noisily down into the undergrowth. Finally we saw some fish called lapiya (?) which are apparently aphrodisiac when consumed!

The island is very, very dry. In fact, all there is is fish! Our friends told us that when they lived there, it was normal to have court bouillon (fish in sauce) for lunch and fried fish for tea and possibly even breakfast! We certainly enjoyed some delicious tuna. Other delicacies are tourment d'amour, a lovely tart with coconut inside, and a kind of fudge made with tamarinds. However, one to be avoided at all costs is the mancilinier tree, including its leaves, its fruits even its sap. It is toxic and not to be ingested, touched or even stood underneath during a shower. There were many around so I wondered how many unsuspecting people miss the signs and actually touch them.

All in all it was a very peaceful and relaxed weekend, far from the noise and bustle (!) of Guadeloupe and much enjoyed by us all. We were particularly thankful to find our cars okay on our return, having heard that 20 cars in the car park at Trois Rivieres had been trashed the night we were away. No such behaviour on Les Saintes, that's for sure!

Les Chutes de Carbet

We have the Zafira back again after a few weeks of yet another car (our neighbours keep laughing at Bertie who looks like he runs a car hire place!) so off we went last week with Stella for a walk in Basse-Terre.

There are 3 Chutes de Carbet, the 1st is very high and the route up described as difficult and sportive - I have undertaken it twice and it is hard hard work, and there is one really tricky bit that keeps me worrying for the whole climb! I never am able to enjoy being up the top as I spend my time worrying about the climb (or slide!) back down! So we weren't going there.

The 2nd Chute is much smaller and accessible by a well planked path. A €1 charge has recently been added, but you can't bathe in it as you used to be able to. That wasn't on our list.

Our goal was the 3rd Chute - Bertie went with his family and LissaLou three years ago but I chickened out and stayed at home with CassCass, so this was my chance to enjoy the easy walk and bathe in the refreshing cold water of the river. We set off with the lovely surprise of a wild raspberry each that Bertie found next to the car park. Within moments, the rain started pouring. Torrential rain. And it didn't stop! Happily, Stella is wonderful company for the girls and had them singing Dora tunes all the way, meaning a most cheerful walk nonetheless, even through mud mud mud. THey were particularly cute with huge leaves as umbrellash

Then, ten minutes from the end of our hour long walk, just as we arrived within earshot of the deafening noise of the waterfall, there was the sign:

STRICTEMENT INTERDIT

So what do you do? Well, everyone else apparently ignored it and went on down all the same! But they didn't have a 10, 5, 3 and 1 year old with them, and they did tell us that whilst you could see the waterfall, you couldn't bathe. So much to everyone's disappointment, we turned back. Honestly, it has been closed since Jan - would it have been too much trouble to have put a sign up at the start of the walk??!!

Instead we headed to the Plage de Roseau, a black sand one for the second week in a row. The kids had a wonderful time stuffing mud in their swimsuits to give themselves extra body parts (!) but Bertie proclaimed that we would return to the golden shores of Grande Terre next week!

La Cascade Aux Ecrevisses & Deshaies

Monday 6 April

In sharp contrast to the warmth of the Atlantic Sea was the freezing cold of the river, but equally enjoyable as we scrambled over rocks, sat on massaging pools of water (strangely like the spa at Archway pool!) and in CassCass' case, sat playing with and sipping the water! We feasted on a roast chicken collected on the way whilst admiring all the greenery of the forest.

Then we moved on along La Traversee, enjoying the scenery outsideand in

Our next stop was Deshaies where we enjoyed the scenery and watched incredulously as the girls bit by bit whipped off their clothes and made a somewhat unscheduled stop in the sea! Ah, to be young and free!

Our search for a good old cuppa was finally fruitful, in this elegant cafe by the sea. So what is BF's dad looking so glum about?
Just take a look at the bill. A good look.Yup, you did read that correctly. No need to hurry to the opticians. An astonishing €16.30 for 3 cups of tea and a can of Ordinaire. Including three jugs of (warm) milk for the princely fee of, gulp, €1.60 each! You can bet that we got the girls to drink every last sip of that milk! You can also bet that we will not be returning there again in a hurry!

On our way home, we stopped off at the viewing point to admire the curiously named Tete a l'Anglais and to wait for the sunset

Worth the wait!

Poisson d'Avril

We in the UK have April Fool's Day, actually only celebrated until midday. Here in France, they have April Fish, and pranks are allowed the entire day. Fortunately we weren't subjected to any. Bertie did however get an April Fish of his very own when he went fishing at La Pointe des Chateaux and then in Le Moule with a friend of his and his fishing-mad nephew that evening.

His sole catch, barang,* was described by his dad as the oldest fish in the sea! It is certainly reputed to be one of the boniest. In any case, he roasted it for our friends and we all appreciated it greatly!

*the creole name - no idea what it is in french or english

Out And About In Basse-Terre

Today we headed off to Sofaia which is known for its thermal springs, great for those with arthritis and rheumatism (for readers with a map, it is just a bit below Sainte-Rose on the northern part of Basse-Terre). It was very exciting as the route there was one that not even Bertie had ever taken before. We were expecting a basin to bathe in but on arrival we discovered that this has been replaced by a communal shower! Okaaaay....we decided to leave that for a day when the water goes off and headed off to the beach instead.

[I was going to photograph the shower but there was a lady taking a shower - in her bikini I hasten to add - so I didn't quite like to!]

On the way down we got to enjoy the most marvellous views of the Grand Cul Sac Marin (the big bit of sea to the north of Guadeloupe) and Anse-Bertrand over to the right. Unfortunately the photo can't convey how wonderfully fresh the air was too, bliss!

We decided on the beach at Deshaies - Mum and Evs will recognise from our photos that this is the second beach we stopped on with them on our whistlestop tour around Basse-Terre.

The sea along this side of the island is very rough and though it was a bit calmer here, we still had to hold tightly to JoJo to stop him being swept away and the girls kept close by. At one point all five of us stood in a row holding hands and being battered by the waves! JoJo was esctatic each time he got smashed by a wave (strange boy!) and kept going back for more!

After drying off we wandered around the town of Deshaies (two streets) which is very pretty - I like the way you get a glimpse of the sea between each house, it reminded me of Mousehole in Cornwall.

Since Sunday, JoJo has been more on his feet than his knees - much less wobbly and not always with his hands out front like a zombie! So today I decided to get him walking and dug out a pair of ... sandals! He was so cute tripping over them at first but then got the hang of it.

In any case there were plenty of folk on hand to keep him upright!

Our next stop for lunch was another beach visited previously - Plage des Amandiers near Ste Rose. There are great picnic huts here - though it has to be said the kids spent more time wandering around than sitting and most of JoJo's lunch ended up covered in sand.

Here is the inspiration for the name of the beach - one of many amandier pays on the beach with leaves in glorious shades of red right now. The girls helped Bertie collect the amandes and then he broke them open with a stone - closely watched and imitated by JoJo. A tiny but tasty amande is the resultThis is probably the nearest we will see to autumn here - just look at all these leaves from the overhead amandiers!

The nearest the girls will get to sledging here!

Enjoying a rare moment sitting

I am quite pleased with this one - that was the view from our picnic table. Since I didn't have my camera last time we came it was nice to make up for it todayYou may remember that last time we were here, LissaLou's sandal got swept away (we reckon it is over in New Zealand now visiting Esther!) so we learnt from our experience and all removed our shoes before enjoying a game of How Close Can You Get To The Sea Without Getting Wet! The huge waves swept in and had us dashing up to shore, which had JoJo in fits! LissaLou loved the game but CassCass (remembering our past experience perhaps) kept a safe distanceThe world is a safe place when Daddy is holding your hand

We got home to discover....the water has gone off! (And remained all day and night, meaning cold showers for those poor girls). Hmm, we should have stopped by Sofaia after all!

From My Balcony Sunday Morning

Who wouldn't be inspired by such sights?

I am not sure if it was just by chance or good planning, but how well designed to have a balcony from which you can see sunrise on the right and sunset on the left!

Beautiful Guadeloupe

Just to assure you that there is more to this beautiful island than striking, here are some pictures from our day out last Wednesday, driving across La Traversee through the mountainous Basse-Terre then up round the west coast before returning home.

We stopped off at la Cascade aux Ecrevisses and had a great time bathing in the freeeeeezing cold river! (Didn't see any ecrevisses - shrimps though!)
After a picnic lunch we carried on to Pointe Noire and looked out westNever can resist a few coconut trees!Then we headed north to Deshaies and admired the pretty bay there

I think this boat's name is I can't hear...the mind boggles!

Bertie's sister Nadia and her daughter and friend were kind enough to take Mum and Evs in their car and it was very funny driving behind their erratic stop-starting as they enabled Evs to take lots of photos at random points in the journey. We were slightly concerned when we saw cameras shoved out of both windows but happily no casulties.

Nadia's car struggles up hills whilst ours had worn brakes (since replied, hurrah!) so we screeched our way down them. I suggested to Bertie we tie them together but he didn't seem to think that this was such a good idea...

This was the first day of major rain since the Londoners arrived - typical! But it cleared in the afternoon and all in all was a lovely day.

A Nice Day Out

Our church organised a morning walk and afternoon bathe for Ash Wednesday - happily everyone had petrol to get us there and our friends gave us a lift to sort out our lack of car space. We began the day at a place called An Ba Bwa La (looks exciting but simply means In The Woods!) which actually begins at the train station for the little Beauport train we took through sugar cane fields. No sign of the train though - presumably on strike for a better way of life.
Our walk was a good two hours and (we reckon, based on our exhausted feet and burnt arms and necks) at least four miles. At least! The scenery was beautiful, with all sorts of delightful plants to admire and photograph. On the far right top and bottom is the mahogany tree and its seed - looks nothing like the wood I must say. The bottom left photos are of a baby version of the passion fruit - delicious! No idea about the names of the others but they look pretty.There were also plenty of sugar cane fields to admire - these should be being harvested right now but...you guessed it, they are not due to the strike! However, the owner was driving through and he kindly gave Bertie a couple of canes to enjoy. Mum enjoyed using them as a Lechy stick!
The second part was through the woods and much cooler to our relief. Unfortunately, LissaLou spent a good hour of the walk moaning and crying - must work on her walking skills, as it is something we love and intend to do lots of in the future.

Baby JoJo was in our backpack for the first time and loved it - look at the cheeky boy stealing a bit of bread from the pocket!

After completing our walk and enjoying our well-deserved sandwiches, we set off for the beach. We returned to Porte d'Enfer a place that Bertie and I visited as a young, carefree couple in 2000 and have never been back to since - what a difference a few extra children makes!

It is a beautiful calm lagoon, great for children, with a grassy area all the way down the side complete with trees for shade and huts for picknickers (though you have to get there very early to bag one of these!) and a distinct lack of sand, hurray! At the end of the lagoon is the actual Porte d'Enfer, or Gate to Hell, where the Atlantic and Caribbean meet and the sea becomes ferocious. Venture along here at your peril! For some interesting details on the name (in french) have a look at this blog I happened upon.

Mum and Evs went for a walk along the cliff to Trou a Man Coco where you are meant to see water crashing in but for some reason they didn't (oh of course, it was on strike!). I must look at my photos from 2000 and see what it was like on our visit. The girls enjoyed the sea, Baby JoJo had a happy time scrabbling in the dirt, and Bertie made a great comeback to triumph in a game of Petanque with some of the other guys!

We stopped off at a viewing point of the magnificent coast before returning home.
Ah!
Mum and Evs have the proper Mother & Daughter photos but I quite liked this angle! Can you guess who is who....
We all slept very well that night! The only downside is that Bertie lost his mobile phone somewhere on the 2 hour walk...so we may be doing it all again!