Dana biosphere reserve

The Dana biosphere reserve is one of several parks set up in Jordan under the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature. While this sounds all grand and lovely, there is trash strewn everywhere and things have a wide margin of progression.

That said, the views from our comfortable cliff-side lodge were stunning. The staff was helpful and very nice, including with the kids. The availability of high chairs was a nice break from Paris.

We arrived from Al Karak shortly before sunset.

In the morning, we saw the canyon in daylight, and realized that it's at least 600 meters deep, possibly more.

 Lucie and Malo considered making a daring escape down the canyon, but decided against it.

 Instead, we all went for a walk through the mostly-abandoned village of Dana, were ruins of Ottoman era buildings are being renovated as bungalows for an upscale hotel that will provide work to local residents.

We wandered out of town and through the abandoned fields where we found trees laden with over-ripe pomegranates and fig trees. Several channels brought water to different places in the hillside.

Lucie and her friend caught sight of a beetle.

Trauma can be a bonding experience...

We also ran into a baby donkey, only 3 days old we were told, with his ears tied up to encourage them to stick up. 

Note the superiority of the donkey parent over the human parent (and the superiority of the human baby over the baby donkey): the baby donkey walks, while the human baby is a sleeping log.

The Crusader Castle of Karak

We just returned from 12 days in Jordan, visiting our friends Leo and Christina (+baby daughter) and their friends Ben and Jutta (+2 sons). We drove all over the country and had a great time, no small thanks to a little help from our friends. 

We were on the road our first morning in Jordan. Lucie immediately started looking for sand dunes and camels.

It turns out that deserts are not all sand dunes all the time, sadly.

Our first stop was the ancient crusader castle, Karak or Al Karak.

 We toured the castle.

The kitchen of the Crusader part of the castle

A barracks for the rank and file.

When the Turks conquered the castle, they built a mosque in it.

We listened attentively to our guide.

We took funny pictures of the kids.

We stopped for a snack in a bit of shade.

Leo, our friend, host, and guide in Jordan, holding Malo while Greg snapped some photos.

A quick diaper change in the rough. Malo's an all-terrain baby.

Dad doing his best "donkey-man" routine. Notice how green the background is - the Karak valley is rather lush considering how dry things are just a few miles away.

Then it was back on the road as we headed to Dana Nature preserve

As we drove away from Al-Karak, the landscape gor drier and drier.

 Until we were once again in a desert. This transition occurred in only about 20 miles.

First photo from Jordan

We'll be back in Paris soon, but here's a photo of the whole family at Petra. We'll be back soon with a full report.

Hunting for Easter Eggs

Lucie showed Malo how to look for his Easter basket.

 See you follow these chocolate eggs and voila! an Easter basket with even more candy!!

 He's still a little small for candy, but Malo was very happy to find a toy car.

 And to eat hard boiled eggs.

Next it was Lucie's turn to hunt for eggs. The Easter Bunny hid hers much better than he did for her little brother.

 Wow, what's that in Lucie's Easter basket?

A Cinderella costume!

 

Hello? Hello? Can anyone hear me?

I seem to be stuck again in a cage...

Friends

Sunday morning Lucie headed down to the beach. Sweater, check / rubber boots, check / pink skirt that turns, check! She were ready to play. 

 

Lucie found her good friend Charles on the beach with another friend and as usual, they started hunting for crabs.

 

Charles gave Lucie a hand up onto a tall rock.

 

And later Lucie did the same for him.

It was a good day at the beach with friends.

Weekend Away

We were all in Brittany last weekend. They called for rain everyday, but it didn't actually start raining until we were waiting for the train to go home.

Lucie took a walk on the beach with her Great Uncle Olivier

 

Here's Malo doing his thing... Ordering airstrikes on the garden with the tv remote control.

Explaining his mission to his Pakkah.

Getting a hand crossing the seaweed

Lucie was just recovering from chicken pox when we went.

But that didn't really slow her down!

 

As usual, her feet barely touched the ground all weekend.

 

She did pause for a few minutes to swap secrets with her Pakkah.

Maybe they were talking about her crazy grandmother who insisted on going in the COLD COLD water.

Swinging

The apple and the tree

Lucie has chickenpox. After her father unsuccessful tried to convince her that it's a disease that turns kids into chicken, her mother asked her what she'd be hungry for and would like to eat.

pause

hummm.... yes ...

duck.