11.10.12

"Hiking the Mountain" with the Kids

On Wednesdays, there is no school in France.  I guess this is nationwide.  Maggie doesn't go to school, and as our Centre follows the public system (so as to allow us to take care of our kids), we don't have class.  So we generally split the day, with one of us taking the kids in the morning while the other studies, and vice versa in the afternoon.

This past Wednesday, the first activity of the morning was taking a "hike up the mountain".  About 5-10 minutes behind our house, there is a hill with a shrine of Mary and Jesus at the top.  It's called "Chapelle Notre Dame de Vignes," which I love.  Our Lady of the Vines.  How appropriate.  You have to walk through the adjacent nursing home parking lot to get to the top, but it is just high enough to have a great view of the city.  You can see the statue from our house, and so Maggie was excited to get up to it.  She did great and walked the whole way.  Ben walked until the steepest part at the end.  Here are some picture from the top.
This is a view looking over our house toward the opposite valley we see out our window.  In the bottom left, a little up the hill is the old medieval town of Conflans, and you can see it's chateau just below it (maybe, if you click on it to enlarge it).
I texted Rachel from the top, and she leaned out the window and waved, and Maggie could see her, which was fun.

 Coming back down, Ben graciously allowed a moment sans pacifier for a photo.

2 comments:

Timothy said...

Maggie, you look so pretty in your favorite color pink. Love, Mimi

Anonymous said...

Is that code for Ben graciously let you set him down and rest for a moment under the guise of taking a picture? It looks like a beautiful view, seeing Rachel from the window gives Maggie a nice reference point. Nana