Lucie's trip to the beach, part deux.

On Sunday, we all went to the old fishing town of Saint Jean de Luz, where Louis XIV got married to the daughter of the king of Spain. It's an old whaling and cod-fishing town, with architecture typical of the Basque region.


We then went to Bayonne (the original, not in NJ), which is the capital of the French Basque country, and we toured a bit. Lucie seems to have enjoyed it.
the cloisters of the cathedral - despite the fact that they are pretty, they are rather an unremarkable cloisters, which goes to show you how blase we've become.We hung out with Nicole in the evening. Just like everyone else, Nicole LOVES Lucie.
Then Lucie rested.
On Monday morning, we went for a walk in the forest, and walked to another beach.
Lucie was hungry, and so Michele obliged.
This is a beach, no messing around. It goes on for miles and miles, and there are no car access roads, so it's empty (particularly on a Monday in January).
From the top of the dune, you can see the forest in the background.
no comments.
Everyone was sad when it was finally time to go back to Paris, but that didn't prevent Lucie from being as cute as ever.

Beach movies

No animals were hurt in the making of these pictures.

I think that Lucie really enjoyed looking at the standing waves where the sea meets the river.

Lucie Goes to the Beach

We took Lucie down to the SE of France, where my mother's dear childhood friend, Nicole, welcomed us in her "chambre d'hote", the French version of a B&B. The "Landes", as the region is called, is characterized by a giant pine forest and long, straight beaches. On our first day there, we went to a beach at the mouth of a small river.

The sun was setting and it was truly beautiful
Lucie thought it was a blast.




We've taken to carrying Lucie facing outwards because she complains if she can't see the scenery.

Lucie recites her multiplication tables

...very quietly while eating her Sophie the Giraffe.



We've been hesistaing about puting this up on the blog for fear of putting undue pressure on our friends' babies, and Lucie's various cousins also born recently. We've signed her up for the PSATs for next fall, and we've got good hopes for a National Merit Scholarship (baby category).

More Ball Playing and Bath Time

As much as it pains us to admit it: Lucie has a mullet. That mullet is not only 100% natural, but it would put to shame the entire football Mannshaft (circa 1988) and NHL (circa today). This leads us to an important question: what does that say about Canadians?

True to her football brothers, Lucie loves to play ball (though it's not clear whether she's figured out that it won't fit in her mouth).
Lucie's bathtime is a whole ritual, much like Louis the XIV's, and starts with the official bath-giver holding Lucie aloft for all to see.
Lucie then gets put on the floor of the bathroom, where the official soaper-upper proceeds to lather her up.
She then gets dunked and rinsed, and has songs sung to her (in a forthcoming episode, the take is too dark).
Overall, it's a pretty good experience, but for those who wish to see how much she's grown, go to the October 23 posting by using the sidebar, and you'll see how the tub is getting smaller.

Playing Ball

Lucie's grandparents gave her a nice playmat. She's finally figured out how to play with the clear ball, and she likes the music too!

Finding Nyma

Magali, one of Greg's dearest friends from childhood, and her partner, Jeremy have a little girl named Nyma, who is about 6 weeks younger than Lucie. Nyma's name is Tibetian which is where her parents where when she was made. They were in Paris this past weekend and we all had the pleasure of meeting little Nyma.


Lucie and Nyma actually met before this past weekend, but they weren't actually able to see each other.

Heavy Thoughts

Learning to hold up one's head is really hard work.

Shake it baby!

Lucie with her new rattle from Santa.

Xmas vacation

I know you've all be jonesing for your dose of Lucie fun, and so here it is.

We all went to Quiberon with my family over Christmas. Both my grandmothers made it, which was very special. During her Christmas vacation, Lucie did lots of things.

She fished, landed, and photographed a 2-foot shark:
She perfected the "pick-me-up-you-fool-'cause-you-know-i'm-cute" look:
She started to play with all sorts of toys, with a soft spot for the bee that plays 'twinkle twinkle little star' (or "ah vous dirais-je maman" as the French call it), courtesy of Aunt Morgane - great gift.
She smiled a lot.
She went for a walk to the Cote Sauvage with the whole family.



She 4-wheel drove on the Cote Sauvage in her stroller. (great action shot from Michele)She got made fun of by uncle Bertrand.

She went to see the megaliths around Quiberon. Here are some alignments in Carnac. Those neolithic dudes really had nothing better to do than to line giant stones up (and that's only a small subset).
She visited a 7000 year-old tomb (under the pile of rocks).

And another one (OK, this one is only roughly 6000 years old)

Dad made her crawl inside the tomb.
She saw a beautiful moonrise over the beach.

She started to play with her mouse while lying in Dad's vintage 1970's fold-up bed.
She got to play with Dad's great new cooking toys.

She traveled at 300km/h in a high-speed train on the way back to Paris.