The Gospel according to Lucie

During our visit of the Toul cathedral, Lucie pointed to a statue and had a few words to say about it.

We would like to state flat out that we did not say these words to her, and that she spontaneously came up with this interpretation of the artwork. We thought that it was so worthwhile that we went back and asked her to repeat what she'd said. So here you go.

cheat sheet:
dodo = sleep or sleepy
messieur = monsieur = man or mister.

Lucie in the woods

Day 4 and heading home

On our last day, we had a bit of a drive to get back to Paris. We headed back to the 'hell hole' (see previous posts) for a short walk in the morning, and then hit the road to Toul, where we'd planned to see a church and stop for lunch.

It was very warm, and Lucie wanted to strip to her bare essentials.
She did a fair bit of walking on the way down, despite the rough path. We confess that it was a tactic to tire her for the drive ahead, and it mostly worked.
Lucie, Michele, and a dandelion
A couple of pictures of the woods

Lucie was touched by a ray of light. We leave you to reach your own conclusions about whether or not she in fact is the second coming.
We stopped to look at a bug.
She really likes being carried.
Toul, to be honest, was not 'worth a detour' as our Michelin guide claimed that it was. The town was sleepy, we ate mediocre overpriced food, and there wasn't much to write home about. We did let Lucie run around in the cathedral's cloisters, but she was pretty beat.
To be fair, the renovation of the cathedral is interesting, as somebody has decided to look for the original paint pigments on the stones. They repainting the interior with the old gaudy colors, which is unusual and fun.

Route des Cretes - Day 3

On day three of our weekend, we headed to the 'Route des Cretes' (Road on the Crest), which winds along the top of the Vosges at the border between Lorraine and Alsace. It was very pretty and the weather was gorgeous. We headed to the Ballon de Guebwiller, which every French schoolchild learns is the highest point in the Vosges, at some 1424m above sea level (that's 4672ft for the non SI barbarians out there).

It was nice and warm, but there was still a bit of snow. So, of course, 'le daddy' (as he's known) carried Lucie up the hill. [monday morning conversation: "so, what did you do last weekend? oh, you know, carried my baby up the hill..."]
At the top everyone was hungry
We found a nice stranger to take a picture of all of us.
The snow was still there on the way down.
We then headed over to another mountain, le Hohneck, which is a little shorter but also had snow. We parked the car at the end of that switchback that you see in the back. Michele did a good deal of pushing, so it's unfair that Gregoire gets all the credit.
When we stopped for a rest, Lucie took advantage of her father's tiredness to pin him down.
Victory!
Oh no! What have I done? Did I just beat up my father?
The view from where we rested.
At one point, Michele had had enough of our shenenigans and decided to leave.
She came back, and pushed Lucie back to the car.
When we got back to the farm, Lucie had gotten braver with the 'appa' and decided to feed them leaves. We had to be vigilant because the most easily accessible leaves where nettles. As much as I (Gregoire) believe in learning things that hard way, I can't bring myself to letting Lucie innocently grab a bunch of nettles...
Lucie also learned to blow on dandelions. She's pretty cute.
Another view from the top of the mountains, just because it's nice.
Bonus picture of Lucie with a flower on top of the Ballon de Guebwiller.

Lapins

Let's see if you can figure out how to say rabbit in French... Lucie has.

what about chicken?

Ascension weekend, day 2

On the second day of our weekend, the weather started out rather dreary again, and we went for a walk to a place called 'the hell hole' (Le trou de l'enfer). Count on the French to give nice names to places... The hole is essentially that, a deep, steep valley with lots of trees - nothing hellish about it.

Lucie and Michele walking down into the hell hole...
Moss
As I said before, Michele did her fair share of lugging the baby. We're thinking about buying one of those baby hiking backpacks...
Greg carrying Lucie out of the hole.
That was a close escape! it's well worth a hug. More precisely, we'd been walking for about an hour and little Lucie was tired.
She just wanted to be picked up.
We headed over the mountains to another valley to have lunch with one of Greg's coworkers and his 3 daughters. Lucie napped in her brand new car seat.
After lunch, we went for a walk - uphill once more. By this time, the weather had become nice and sunny, if not overwhelmingly hot.
Lucie did a fair bit of walking, and made friends with one of the girls.
The family at the top of the hill.
There are some pretty views and sights.

Lucie goes to Les Vosges

For the weekend during which the heathen French celebrate the ascension of Christ to heaven by all hitting the road at the same time on a Wednesday afternoon (Christ always ascends on a Thursday -- has to do with dying on a Friday, a large good number (40), and all that), we all trekked out 4 hours east of Paris to the beautiful Vosges mountains. Think of the Appalachians without the toothless locals and better cheese, and you've got Les Vosges (they've even got cars on cinder blocks if you look closely).

We stayed in a self-catered apartment adjacent to a farmhouse near Gerardmer. Lucie got to play with all of the animals, and we had tons of fun. On Thursday, the clouds and rain were out, but we still got to see the animals, if sometimes through the window. Lucie looking at the chickens (or "poule" as she calls them).


All of the animals are free to roam and eat grass, except for the rabbits. We saw pigs and cows, who were quite friendly if you had something to give them. If you've never tried to do this yourself, you should know that a cow is very strong and will try to make away with the bucket if you're not careful.
You might also get a kiss.
Lucie was very happy and clapped.
We headed up the hill for a short walk in between rainbursts. On the way up, Gregoire pushed Lucie who was happily sleeping.
On the way back, Lucie pulled Michele downhill.
To be fair, Michele did her share of uphill pushing, but it was funnier this way.
The meadows and the view were pretty.
coming up next: sun, rabbits, snow, etc...

A few older pictures

Lucie's going away for another long weekend (this is the last one, until 2 weeks from now...) and so here are some older pictures to tide you over until we come back.

Lucie loves to draw. Right now it's hard to tell if she'll get her talent from her mother (good) or from her father (best not to mention it).


She also loves to read, which is to say to point at things in books and say "ça" (this) until you tell her what 'that' is. We have a cute video of it, but unfortunately she's in her birthday suit sitting on the potty, so it's not for public consumption (and it's too big to email, so you'll have to visit us to see it).

Lucie's grandmother is visiting from Florida, where we know her grandfather is frantically checking the blog for updates. So here it goes...

Lucie, Michele, and her grammy went to lunch at a salad place in Montmartre.

Lucie consulted the menu before settling on tripe sausage...

Later on, they went down to the Louvre and Palais Royal.
During the weekend, we all headed to the Gallerie de l'Evolution (note that the French don't care what the pro intelligent design or creationism types think - there was not Scopes trial) at the Jardin des Plantes.
It's not as pretty, lavish, and grand as the NYC Natural History Museum, but it's more didactic and scientific. Lucie didn't care either way, and ran around like crazy.
Enough with these pictures already (aka: what I'm going to look like when I'm 13).
A kiss from maman makes everything better.
As does licking an avocado peel (don't ask).
The three ladies together at lunch after our trip to the Gallerie de L'Evolution.