Telepherique du Saleve (attractions around Mieussy, xmas holidays)

On the way from Geneva airport to Mieussy there is a large cable cart called Telepherique du Saleve. So about 25 min from the house. We had promised Rick we would go one day and as there was not much snow yet, but we did have bright blue skies, we decided we might as well do it in winter considering it was open.

The kids loved the ride up. And also were happy to watch the view for a little while.

Because we had to change out our rental car later that afternoon we had gotten there quite early. It looks quite nice up there in the sun.

But it was super cold!

Dressed for the part more or less the kids where ok away from the wind

There are many trails and walks on the mountain and we opted to do a short one taking us around the peak to another viewpoint.

Duuk was pretty brave, and Kaat pep-talked herself through the walk up at least - saying to herself "I am a big girl, I can do this" and "Keep going, keep going".

Rick though was a drama, in tears, complaining about the worsest day of his life, and never having any fun etc. He was soon waaaay behind. And 2/3rd up Duuk also starting to give me questioning glances about what we were trying to do.

 He was likely starting to get cold and did not even enjoy tree climbing anymore.

 In the end Rick did agree to pose with "his" mountain the Mont Blanc, and we collected a huge amount of pinecones together and when I agreed to tell him stories the whole way down the way back became more manageable.

By the time we made it back it had gotten a lot warmer and quite a few parapents where getting ready to jump.

So we warmed up Duuk with some blankets from the small coffee shack, fed the kids some hot chocolate and let the warm up by running around in the playground. The net result was more smiles then tears, especially also including the ride back down, but I will not be planning any major mountain walks for the summer!

Relaxing in Mieussy (xmas Holiday)

We had a fabulous 2 weeks in Mieussy. Not much snow, particularly the first week. But we did not care. Plenty of other things to enjoy.

Mucking about in the garden.

Sword fighting

Spending time with papa

Playing out adventures in the dark and putting up xmd decorations

Showing your brother the important things in life

Reading books and extending our dear head collection

Building stick houses with sticks (Rick called the house in Mieussy the stick house)

Zoning out with a movie

Eating lots of good food, and putting the heating to max such that Kaat could continue to wear her standard Bangalore outfits in freezing France.

Enjoying some belated SInterklaas chocolate letters the grand parents brought over

Shopping winter clothes and some other stuff to take back to Bangalore

Building stick houses with cookies & cake (Rick made the green roof chalet)

Baking, decorating and consuming chocolate cupcakes

Playing in the car

Dancing

Playing "Pang" with OmaRijke who visited for a few days

Hanging out with the big nephews also for a few days

And with uncle Wybe Jan

Upping the competition on the best cookie made stick house

Fun, Fabulous and very relaxing!

Getting to Mieussy (xmas holidays)

As some of you may know we had a lovely long break over the holidays, about which I yet have to post. Not sure exactly why, but the fact that the Diwali break had been early (mid oct instead of 2nd half nov), that xmas functions here start at the end of November, or because we had a lot of endings but no new beginnings in the 2 months, somehow the weeks before the xmas holidays appeared endless. And not in a good way most of the time. But finally the day arrived, we had to work still all day, but in the middle of the night we would leave for our peaceful paradise!

The selfless from the office that day demonstrated we were more then ready

By the time we had left the office and were looking forward to 3 weeks away we already were in a better mood.

 A 4am departure time from Bangalore is far from ideal but even by 8am in Dubai after little to no sleep we were still in a festive mood.

 Duuk loves the airport and particularly that what we all hate most - being bus-ed to the plane as there are not enough gates available.

 Don't worry - he did sleep some in the plane.

We arrived in a wet and cold and grey Mieussy - and we loved it! Fresh air, seasons, peace and quiet.

 Super tired from the trip, and everything else. But sooooo happy.

Well, what is not to like if this is what you wake up to.

Kids happy, about having time with us.

Later in the day we had to go for the big stock up to the hypermarche. Somehow we timed it such that all had just crashed from the excitement, the jet lag and everything else.

Rick actually never woke up, as he had watched 6 movies on the plane of course, Duuk however clearly had slept well in the shopping trolley and showed us that it is very normal to use the car as a playground.

 Guess that happens when you hang out with the driver a lot -:)

And so, within 36 hours of leaving Bangalore, we were happily settled in France. Looking forward to 2 weeks at home.

Trio

This week a photographer was coming around to school to take some pictures of all kids and so that day I got to pick the clothes and we cut the boys hair the night before. As we are not convinced the staff will leave it at that and hence it is likely that our kids show up in the school pictures with unrecognizable hair styles (although not so easy with the boys' short hair) and pulling weird faces as they do not like unknown photographers, we decided to have a quick go ourselves before we raced off to the office, with just my phone camera. Quite fun results actually!

The oldest two were clearly up for posing...

a lot 

 Duuk was busy, very busy, so he had no time.

 We managed eventually to negotiate a deal and Duuk joined in.

 Wow - look at that -:)))))