Château de Kergroadez

When we were in Brittany during the April school holidays, we visited a nearby castle. It was Château de Kergroadez. This is a privately owned castle. There is guided tour for visitors and activities for children. It can be rented for events and the castle plans its own escape game. 

We adults took the guided tour while the boys learnt to be a knight. It was a small castle but nevertheless, it was full of history. You can read more at its website.

The roofs and windows were newly restored. The walls of the castle were very solid and stood against the Brittany weather and even fire. 

If you are going to Brittany near Brest, this castle can make a good afternoon outing. 

Chateau de la Madeleine

Chateau de la Madeleine is half an hour's drive from our home. I know about this place but never thought of visiting it until Carmen mentioned about it. 

So we headed there last friday afternoon. This castle is perched high on a hill in the Chevreuse valley. The view from the top was beautiful. 

Though the castle is in ruins, it is still worth the visit. In the garden, there are many information boards sharing about being eco-responsable locally. Example like accepting weeds in the garden instead of using harmful weed killing chemicals. 

The boys had fun imagining the old glorious day of this fortress. A1 found a stick and pretended to be an archer launching his arrows through the arrowslit. A2 took pebbles and threw into the well wishing that he could be the fastest runner among his friends in this world. His brother told him that the wish had to be kept a secret for it to come true. But A2 being himself could not keep a secret. The wish of a 6 year old is so different from an adult. I would wish to be prosper. :) But now it is no longer a secret....:(

This free castle visit is short and yet interesting. There is a souvenir shop and free activity book for children.

As we were leaving the castle, the boys and Carmen picked up dandelion flowers to blow. They had such fun trying to blow them fast and strong.

One more castle visit down. We were joking that when Carmen has visited the castles in my area within a 2 hours and a half's drive radius, I would have to move house, to another area with lots of castles.

Looking for the king in Chambord

School holiday is here. With the boys' friends and their mother, we took a road trip to visit Château de Chambord and Zoo de Beauval over the weekend.

I get along well with Nina and my boys get along very well with her two boys. As Nina has a small summer house nearby Zoo de Beauval, she invited us to stay over and visit the zoo on sunday.

On Sat, the six of us got into the Touran and headed for Chambord. We had a picnic along the way at a play ground like what we did as a family two years ago. Our guided tour was booked for 2.45pm. The target audience was aimed at children and what a delightful time the kids had. The tour guide was the nanny of King Louis XIV's children. She explained to the group that the children were sick and she had to look for the king. As she brought us around in search of the king, she explained the facts and function of the castle and the lifestyle of the royalties back then.

At the king's chamber, the nanny taught us how to do a bow or curtsey if we were to meet the king. The children and the adults took turns to practise. It was funny watching the boys took it seriously.

A2 volunteered to check if the king was in his changing room and managed to enter the prohibited area. The boys were saying he was lucky.

When the nanny left at the end of the tour, we walked around the castle grounds before heading to the summer house. Nina's youngest boy was 4 and he was looking out for the king. We were told he might be out hunting since he was nowhere to be found in the castle. The older boys however understood it was just a story.

We were fortunate to have a clear day. It was cold but dry. When we arrived at Saint-Aignan, we quickly started a fire in the fireplace to warm up the house. The three older boys were excited to be able to sleep together on a sofa bed for the night. Though they had a long day, they were still chatting away when lights were out. 

The guided visit was really well done for little children. The nanny was perfect in her role. However, it is only available in French. For french families, this is something worth doing.

Château de Breteuil

Château de Bretuil is a small cosy castle about 30mins drive from our house. When my mum was here in June, we visited this castle togather. Here, one could choose to visit the castle or the garden with displays of Charles Perrault's fairy tales in the outbuildings or both. 

We chose to visit the castle and the garden. The visit was guided and our tour guide explained the rich history of this place with important people making important decisions here. There were wax figures and the tour was interesting even for children. I tried my best to translate to my mum the interesting facts.

In the garden, there were stories of Little Red Riding Hood, Blue beard, Cinderella, Puss in boots all over  and the boys enjoyed listening to the story and watching the props.

The maze in the garden was a highlight and the boys set off on their adventure by themselves. After a few U-turns, they finally made it to the center. It was funny watching them trying to come back. 

There were many flowers and fruit trees in the garden. So it was not surprising to see a squirrel.

In the late afternoon, there was story telling out in the garden. The boys enjoyed listening to the story. But A2 got bored after 15 minutes and went to the big playground to play.

We enjoyed our visit to this castle. This is really a great family outing for any French family with young kids. 

Fall is here

We ordered firewood for our winter. Our neighbour(the last house at the background) told me that this wood supplier provided good, dry wood. So we ordered 5 steres of 40cm wood which would fit nicely into our fireplace.

As the wood were cut smaller in size, thus lighter and easier to transport, everyone in the family helped out. In no time, we had the wood stacked up beside the garden shed waiting for the first cold night for us to start a fire. That shouldn't be long. 

On 19 September, we attended the Singapore 50th birthday event organised by the Singapore Embassy. Seb enjoyed the good wine served by a witty barman. The boys played with other children their age and at one moment, was sitting in front of the laptop which was projecting the National Parade. Somehow my boys loved the Singapore National Parade. When I showed it to them on Youtube on each national day, they could watch the whole program for a good two hours.

As for me, I met up with Singaporean friends and got to know new ones. I also met the new ambassador who was really friendly and approachable.

 Each kid was given a special edition SG50 lego set. My boys were lucky.

After a day in Paris, I joined my girlfriends to catch the night lights in Chartres. This yearly light show is ending in mid Oct. Though the light show was almost the same each year, I still enjoyed the ones at the Chartres Cathedrale.

We had a late dinner at a creperie which was full of humour. Just look at the wall decoration.

In the streets, there were living statues. With the chilling night, they had to be so cold staying so still with so little clothes on. We were hoping they won't catch a cold.

 We ended the night late and I reached home around 1am. It was a long day.

The next day, we had friends over for lunch. As it was the Heritage weekend, most museums and castles were opened for free. We headed to the Rambouillet Castle for a free visit and also walked to Laiterie de la Reine (The Queen's dairy). We understood that over here, milk were kept fresh if ever the Queen would want to come for a drink from Versailles.

We had a good stroll of almost two hours. The boys were complaining but they were good walkers. What a busy weekend. And this weekend was no exception. I shall explain that in the next post.

Cycling in the domain of Chambord

We drove to Chambord on Pentecost holiday. Chambord is about an hour and twenty minutes' drive away. Along the way, it rained and we wondered if the weather forecast was accurate. We were planning to cycle on a cloudy but not rainy day. When we were about a few kilometers away, we stopped by a supermarket, bought lunch and had a pinic lunch by the bank of the Loire river. There was a playground and the boys played after their sandwiches lunch.Once we headed back to the car, it rained again.

 Upon arriving at the domain of Chambord, Seb and I each rented a bicycle and as a family, we cycled around the Chambord Castle. The dark clouds slowly cleared.

After stopping every five minutes to take the different angles of the beautiful castle, Seb was getting impatient with me. It was difficult to resist taking photos as the castle was too beautiful. We rode around the main grounds of the castle before heading to the forest trail.

 Along the way, there were look out spots to watch swamp animals. We spotted ducks, swans and coypu(water rat).

 There were also look out posts for viewing wild animals like deer and boars. However, we did not have the patience to wait for the random animals.

Once on the forest trail, we decided to take the blue trail but the boys started to complain. Seb asked them if they were tired or lazy. They both said they were lazy. So we followed the green trail which was shorter. When we got back to the castle, we returned our bicycles and settled down for ice cream and coffee.

As A2 had a small bicycle, he had to pedal three times more than us to catch up. As I was behind him, I noticed that a lot of tourists watched him pass by with a smile on their faces. He was one sportive boy working his legs more than us. Just adorable.

We drove back home and the boys slept in the car. Once we reached home, the boys cycled in the garden while I cooked. Next time, we would stick to the blue trail or even take the red one I told Seb. These little boys really had endless energy.

Neuschwanstein Castle

Since we drove to Munich from France, we took the opportunity to visit Neuschwanstein Castle. This castle was 123km from Munich. Nicole joined us and helped to reserve the tickets.

 

The castle only allows guided visit. Good thing Nicole bought the tickets online as the queue at the ticketing office was very long. We arrived an hour in advance for our guided tour. We grabbed a quick lunch. The kids' grandmother bought them each an ice ceam.

 

The weather was fine that day. That was essential.

 

We took a bus up to the castle grounds. It took 5 mins instead of a 45mins hike up. From the Marienbrücke (Marie's bridge), we had a good bird eye's view of the castle.

The guided tour lasted 35mins. It was rather rush as there were tours every 5 minutes due to the crowd. So one could not stay long to admire the beauty of the rooms. The view from the castle windows were enchanting. We looked out to steep cliffs and mountains. Very romantic and breathe taking.

 

After the visit, we took the horse carriage back down. We then drove back to Munich. But not before buying the kids each a knight on a horse from the souvenir shop. A1 is into knights and dragons at the moment.

 

This castle is worth a visit if you happen to be in the Bavarian area.