After a brief hiatus, I'm back! I had written a nice post about Lyon last week, but it mysteriously disappeared and I got annoyed and procrastinated on rewriting it all. Writing the actual post doesn't take time, but inserting pictures via my iPhone is a pain.
At this point in our journey, we've explored four countries in four weeks (France, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg). Lately, Boo and I have been taking advantage of the nice weather when it occurs and heading to parks or taking long walks, and on rainy days we are exploring indoor playgrounds or working on phonics and other learning. In addition to ZigZag Indoor Playground, which I've posted about previously, we went to explore YoYo, which is an even bigger and more elaborate playground. Check this out:
The cold, rainy morning that we went to YoYo, not a single child was there (they were probably all in school), which meant I got to huff and puff and climb around with Boo for two hours. There is a structure shaped like a tree that has elastic-y seatbelt material in about 8-10 layers to climb through to reach the top. I'm an observant genius and hadn't noticed the staircase around the corner that allowed people to reach the top to go into some areas that couldn't be reached from the ground.
The material I climbed through
Ugh. Good workout blah blah blah.
I thought that climbing this tree was the only way to get Boo up there (Why did I think this?!? Why would a place ever do that??), so climb we did. She was too short to pull herself up through each layer, meaning I had to help her out. Enter 20-25 minutes of hauling myself up, reaching down to pull up Boo, repeat. It was a good workout, but I was pretty beat at the end of the day.
YoYo also had this really cool slide that was pretty much a straight drop down. Boo didn't realize this the first time she went down, and all of a sudden I hear a petrified squeal and she shoots down the ramp. She swore she wasn't going to slide again, but I went down with her the second time (yikes, it was scary even for me!), and she decided to go down one more time purely due to peer pressure when a little boy arrived and went down first. She was smiling that time.
Bottom view Top view
Aside from indoor playgrounds, it's time to expand Boo's mind a bit and get a nice learning routine down for the next two months. To that end, I've ordered a few LeapFrog interactive books on the solar system, human body, and writing practice. It appears that a creche (daycare/preschool) is going to be prohibitively expensive, so she will stay with me. I feel bad, but we've managed to find a few consistent friends that we can meet with here and there for socialization each week. Here is Boo and her adorable friend Hazel, who will be four in November (her mother is German and her father is from Milwaukee):
We've taken another weekend day trip to Trier, Germany, and saw some ancient Roman ruins called Porta Nigra (Black Gate), which is the largest Roman city gate north of the Alps. It was constructed around A.D. 180:
Other than the ruins, we strolled around the Hauptmarkt Square, and saw the inside of the pretty Trier Cathedral. I made the mistake of cracking a joke that a vent in one of the crypts was so the person inside could breathe (I know, sorry), and zombie-obsessed Boo wouldn't stop asking about this at way too loud of a volume the rest of our tour...which ended quickly thereafter to avoid bursting into flame.
We then enjoyed a delicious German meal of sauerkraut and bratwurst for me, jagerschnitzel for John, and chicken nuggets for Boo.
But back to Lyon, France. Approximately two hours before John was leaving to go, Boo and I decided to tag along. The weather in Luxembourg was going to be miserable the rest of the week, and Lyon's was much better.
Lyon is about a five-hour drive from our apartment. When we arrived at the hotel, we were invited to dinner along with John and his (French) coworker and (Irish) wife, who live in Lyon. Before dinner, they gave us a short driving tour, pointing out the beautiful old buildings, city square, and a large park called Parc de la Tête d'Or, (literally, Golden Head Park), which is the largest urban park in France at 289 ares. Boo and I made lots of plans for what we were going to see, then headed to dinner. Dinner took place on the Presqu'île, or peninsula, which is between the Rhône and Saône rivers, and is considered a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Lyon is the third-largest city in France, the second-largest metropolitan area after Paris, and is widely considered the gastronomic capitol of the world. Amen to that. I had a DELICIOUS dinner. Everywhere we go has three courses: Beginning, main, and dessert, and lasts a bare minimum of 90 minutes, but only if you're rushing. It's great.
I started out with escargot, and John had beef carpaccio, both delicious. John's coworker ordered a bottle of Beaujolais red wine, which comes exclusively from one of France's best-known wine regions (like how champagne can only be from Champagne). Wow, it was good. We plan to bring a few bottles back to the States.
For my main course, I ordered canard (duck). It was a small (maybe two fingers wide) piece of breast that was cooked perfectly. The layer of fat on top was browned and crispy, while the inside was a perfect pink. I died a little inside. On the side were fried artichoke leaves prepared almost like mashed potatoes. I wish I could recreate that side, yum. John had a zucchini stuffed with a mixture of veal and lamb, which was also quite good, but my dish won.
And then there was Boo's dinner. Poor Boo. She was really tired after our long drive, and kept saying so. And if Boo admits that she's tired, she's super tired. Thus, she was already a little emotional to start the night, but we figured some food would make her feel better. Unfortunately, something got lost in translation. What was described to us as "beef stew," which would be something Boo would happily dip bread in and chow down on turned out to be a hunk of stewed beef with a side of rather burnt potatoes (surprising, since our food was so perfect). It didn't exactly look very appetizing. She collapsed into tears and refused to eat. I took a bite, and it wasn't very good; it was seasoned with lemon or something. So, we won Parents of the Year yet again and pretty much let her eat bread and ice cream for dinner to avoid a much louder meltdown that would have ensued if I had made her eat it all (I did make her try a bite just in case she liked it, but that was a pretty long fight and she was not happy).
We finished dinner with a small molten chocolate cake thingy that was warm, gooey, and delicious. The dinner lasted around three hours and it was bordering on 11:30pm at this point. Boo had had enough, and it was time to go. She fell asleep before we were even out of the parking garage, and stayed passed out until the next morning when it was time to explore.
I had planned to visit the park, then take a tram into the center of Lyon and see the ancient silk routes through the buildings and city square. Unfortunately, a lack of convenient parking meant I had to change our plans, and we were only able to spend time at the park. I'm still a little disappointed in what I missed, but Boo told me how much fun she had, so that made it a little better. Plus, John has to go back for a longer stint later on, so we will probably go again and park in the center next time.
Golden Head Park houses a huge rose garden, botanical garden, small playground, carousels, and zoo. It typically has lots of cafes as well, but for some reason absolutely NOTHING was open. I am so glad that I happened to pack a yogurt, orange, grapes, and gumdrops for our journey, because that was all we were able to eat until we met with John in the late afternoon (and remember, she hadn't eaten much dinner). I felt terrible. I don't know what was going on, and we had reached over 17,000 steps with Bottomless Pit Boo only being able to have a dinky yogurt and half an orange. I found a vending machine and bought a Coke (there was no water), just to get some calories in her.
After I accepted my second Parent of the Year award (two days running!) for giving my child a soda for energy, we continued to enjoy the beautiful park. The roses smelled so good, the lake was pretty, the zoo was nicely designed, and Boo was in a wonderful mood. The botanical gardens had a carnivorous plant exhibit. Plants that eat bugs? Right up Boo's alley. I let her take a few pictures, which mostly consisted of the window frame because she's a shorty (see below). We had a great time.
After we picked up John, who was about 45 minutes away, I informed him that I was incredibly hangry (grouchy due to hunger), and we needed to get Boo food NOW. Of course she fell asleep before this happened. After walking pretty much the entire 289-acre park over the course of four hours, I wasn't exactly surprised. We stopped at a sandwicherie and John grabbed a ham and cheese baguette for when Boo awoke, some kind of pulled pork and coleslaw sandwich for me (called a Texan bagel, HA), and all was right with the world again.
We decided that for our second night, we were going to stay somewhere a little closer to home to make the morning drive shorter. I had really wanted to explore Lyon again with John the next morning (there is SO much history), but he had afternoon meetings to get back to Luxembourg for and it couldn't happen. We ended up reserving a room at a ski lodge-looking place in Dole, France. We strolled around the grounds before dinner, and saw an old church, some sheep pastures, and pretty meadows.
Testing out her Euro rain boots
Navigator Boo
Dinner here was the least impressive one that we've had yet. It wasn't that it wasn't good, it's that we have gotten spoiled with fantastic cuisine. John and I both ordered duck and veggie skewers as our main course, which were fine, just a little too done. I had escargot again as a starter, which was prepared much differently than in Lyon. The night before, the snails were already out of their shells and baked, with a vinegary salad on the side. The Dole snails were the typical oil/butter/garlic-soaked ones that one pulls out of the shells with a little fork. Both types were really good. Apparently I'm a pretty big fan of escargot.
John had a flaky mushroom pastry, which was also very good. I can't remember if we had dessert, but we promptly went back to our room and passed out cold. I had walked over 22,000 steps that day, and Boo had kept up (each of my steps is about two of hers), not complaining a single time. I was so proud of her, and quite impressed at how much stamina she has built up in just a few weeks' time.
Next post: Assesse, Belgium! Another wonderful chateau, good dinner, and five-mile nature walk with Boo.
