A few days ago we visited one of the other castles right by our house.  This area (The Dordogne Valley, Perigord Noir to be exact) is an amazing place.  There are at least 5 castles/chateaus, the river, multiple ancient villages and hamlets and the best patisserie in the area all within 15 minutes or so of the house.  This is a great place for exploration.

This trip we took in Castelnaud.  Castelnaud was a British stronghold during the 100 years war.  That is just hard to imagine- a hundred years of war?  Anyway, it is across the valley from Marqueyssac and Castle Beynac and you can look across valley from one to the other.  It is very cool to say the least.  There is also another one called Fayrac that is privately owned by a Texas couple (kind of weird right?).

Here is the castle as you walk up the medieval village roads to the main entrance.

Right by where you walk in they have this, the kids thought it was hilarious.

Look at Finn, he looks so perfect in there!

Pops and Granny got in on the fun too.

The views from the castle windows were breathtaking.  You can see why someone picked this as the spot for the castle.

You can walk around the ramparts and see the entire valley.  Here's Steven, Sayer and Susan (Memah) stopping for a quick pic.

Marqueyssac is behind them on the hill and castle Beynac is in the left corner.  At the base of the castle, they had a trebuchet demonstration, which the kids loved too.  One of the other highlights for the kids was the toilet in one of the castle rooms.  It was just a stone ledge with a hole in it.  When you looked down the hole you saw a sheer drop straight down a cliff towards the river.  Sayer, completely excited, said "Can I use the potty?!".

While driving through St. Cyprien (just a few km away), Sayer saw a sign with some marionettes on it.  One was a pirate marionette.  Turns out there was going to be a traveling marionette show in town!  We made sure to get there early and be in the front row.  The kids were really excited.

Oh and yes, Finn is wearing my OPI almost black nail polish.  The day before, I sat on the front step and started to paint my nails and Finnian come trotting up all excited and begged me to do his too, "all BLACK Mommy!".  At the puppet show, When the lady gave him the ticket she smiled and said "et Pour Elle" (and for her).  I just smiled back and said Merci.

It was amazing to watch how quickly they got in to the action despite the language barrier.  Guignol (pronounced Gee-nyole) was the main guy and he would ask the kids questions like "I'll be right back, will you wait?" and they would all shout, "Oui!" and Sayer and Finn would join in, shouting "Oui!!".  It was really cute.  This is Guignol:

During intermission, they got a yummy snack!

The best part was watching Sayer crack up when Guignol was beating the daylights out of Le Pirate.  He was laughing so hard that he almost fell out of his chair.

Sayer loves silly physical humor.  My Dad is here too this week and they have been watching Monty Python and the 3 Stooges movies.  There are a few parts in The Holy Grail that we have to fast forward through and if you have seen the movie then you probably guess which parts (the castle full of, um, eager women, scary bridge guy, and the savage rabbit to name a few).  His little mind is being warped!  He came up to me the other day and demanded "a shrubbery!".  If you are a Monty Python fan like I am then that should make you smile.  What are grandparents for right?

Thank you Guignol for the laughs! 

Some days we just play in the yard...

grocery bags + rocks + paint brushes + good weather + little kids = lots of creative fun with minimal fighting

OK, now where is my lounge chair and that cold diet coke? 

A week or so ago we visited a wonderful chateau and garden called Les Jardin Suspensdus de Marqueyssac.  It is a magical place.  We had a perfect day for it too- a bit overcast and slightly cool.  The French for it is "Frais" or fresh, which is the perfect way to describe it.  There is a chateau of course and the gardens closest to the chateau have box hedges that are cut into balls and swirls and all kinds of cool shapes.  I tried to get a good picture of it but never really captured it (think Edward Scissorhands).  The link above has a great picture of the swirly hedges.  The entire place is perched atop a mountain or plateau type area with amazing views all around.  It also had scary drops and cliffs and all sorts of areas that make parents of 3 and 5 year olds cringe with fear.  We spent half the day telling them to "watch out!", "no running!" or "hold hands!".  Despite that, it was one of our best days here.  The kids had a blast and we were wide-eyed and in awe the while time.  For a taste of some of those sheer drops, have a look at this...

On the sides of this balcony is a drop off, really, really steep and high.  It was an awesome view though!  Wandering throughout the property were peacocks.  The kids thought that was one of the coolest things they had seen in a while.  We watched him for a long time.  He was enjoying the view too.  Sayer was worried about him falling off.  He kept asking me "what would happen if he slipped?" and "Can he fly?".  They both jumped about 2 feet high when he perked up his feathers and started to screech.  He opened his beak way up and let out a really loud call.

Two of my favorite plants are rosemary and lavender.  Here they are perfectly paired and coifed.  The fragrance was beautiful. 

This place was perfectly paced for a family outing.  Every so often (right around the time when the kids would start complaining about the hike) there would be some cool little discovery or activity.  At one point there was a table out on the lawn where they got to do an art project (they painted rocks).  A while after the rocks we found this cool tree house, a playground and a cold drink machine stocked with their favorite, Orangina (think of them saying it like Orange-Gina).

On top of one of the trails, we found this monument.  Looking out at this view on top of this bluff, you could see why they built this.  Whatever your God may be, this is one of those places in the world where you feel just a little closer to it. 

True to the form of this place, after the cool trimmed hedges, the peacocks, the curvy rosemary, the rock painting, the religious experience and the tree house, you stumble upon this...

Atop one cliff we found this cloche style structure.  It was a defensive building where a guard would stand watch.  Many of these buildings withstood the Hundred Years War and The French Revolution so guards were definitely in order.  From this stone perch, you could see the Dordogne River and a huge section of the river valley.  The other really cool feature of this house was that the roof was entirely dry stacked- no mortar at all.  Amazing!

They definitely know how to whip the plants into shape around here.  We found this cool tunnel on the way back to the chateau. 

One other cool thing that we found on our way back was a children's forest.  Pictures couldn't capture it.  Take my word for it.  You might not even see it if you weren't paying attention.  I was walking with Finn (Sayer was ahead of us) and we see a little wooden gate and it said something like "Labyrinthe pour les Enfants".  When you stooped down to enter it, you see that they have planted these small hedges that form tunnels and trails through the brush (not dense like a maze though).  There were trails all throughout a small section of forest made just for children.  In the center there was a small wooden house.  It was AMAZING!  The kids loved it.  I had to stoop down to make it through most of the trails.  I also had to wipe spider webs off my face numerous times but we had a great time chasing each other through the children's forest to, what they called, "their house".  It really was magical.  I would have loved it as a child.  I mean I loved it as an adult!  As a small child, you would have had to drag me kicking and screaming out of that place.  After lots of magical forest play, it was time to eat.  Can you imagine a prettier table?  We had a great lunch with lots of ice cream afterwards.  The ice cream even came with pretty little feather butterfly decorations on them.

That's all for Marqueyssac.  Mark it on your travel to-do list.  It's worth the stop for sure.

Sir Lancelot and Sir Gawain have completely settled into the comfort of rural France and life on vacation.  The boys have been living in their jammies nearly full time.  The only time they change into what they call their "Knight clothes" from what they call their "play clothes" is when they battle as knights, when we actually go somewhere or the PJ's get really dirty or wet.  Even when we go out to dinner, they try and negotiate keeping the PJ shirt on and just changing into shorts.  When we return home, they may need to go move in with "Hef" at the Playboy Mansion.

Don't you just love the placement of Finn's sword?  You know what they say about guys being obsessed with their, uh, "swords" early in life?