Our rental was magical. It was built in such a way that you wandered in and outside. In fact, most stairways were on the outside of the building. It was originally built in 1811, but they added a tower more recently. We spent most of our time outside.The kids loved it!
The owners of our rental, Alain and Joelle, were very funky. They used to own a restaraunt in Montparnasse named "Le Phineas" named after the character in the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. Their restaurant had a comic book theme and attracted R Crumb-type comic book artists. Joelle's speciality was replicating comic book covers and album covers on cakes. And Alain's specialty? He was know for the lemon tarts that he used to sell at concerts. He sold over a thousand at a Bowie concert once. This is a photo of a cartoon drawing of Alain with his tarts. You can read a little bit about there restaraunt a little ways down this on-line article.
Not only did they have Tintin books, they even had a large print of Captain Haddock up in the living room.
Julien spent as much time as possible during our trip to France pouring over Tintin books. We brought one with us for the trip and, as luck would have it, the people who owned the house we rented were big Tintin fans. They had every book, in French of course, but Julien could still poor over the pictures.
Our trip had a promising beginning; at the airport in Indianapolis there was a couple practicing making balloon animals. They had been at the Christian Fellowship Magician's Conference. Who knew such a thing existed.
We filled up the pool again this weekend and let the kids splash around. It was hot and the cold water felt good.
Sebastian turned two yesterday!
The boys are both completely obsessed with Thomas trains. Julien has been building elaborate tracks, which now lead off the table and around and about the family room. Sebastian now knows most of the trains names. His favorite is Thomas.
After the hike the boys played on the tire swing until Sebastian was collapsing (and crying) with exhaustion.
There was a little brown bat sleeping in between the sign and the pane of glass. We saw him wiggling. The kids were thrilled. He was so tiny and cute.
You may notice that there are not as many photos of Julien. He frequently requests that I not take photos of him.
After a pic-nic we went on a short hike at Mc Cormick's Creek. For some reason Sebastian kissed a few trees along the hike. It was very cute.
Sebastian and Julien had lots of fun playing with the doctor's set Sebastian got from Grandmum and Grandad. Sebastian loves to show off the pretend band-aids.
After the party we hung out with Maia and Tara for a while. It was nice and mellow. Sebastian and Maia were interested in watching each other nurse.
As soon as the food came out we put Emmett in the basement. He was not happy about it.
We made "robot" cupcakes for Sebastian's birthday. They were fun to make, but most kids preferred the strawberry ice cream cones. Sebastian ate neither. 
Sebastian didn't want a towel, he wanted to go straight into my arms. Luckily it was hot out, so the water felt good.
Joelle and Julien had a blast together in the pool. Cedric and Josh, the french boys, were only in the pool for a couple minutes, but Joelle enjoyed the water as much as Julien and with equalling energy. Seeing them play together made me understand why Julien talked about Joelle so much. My understanding is that at the end of the year Joelle sat next to Julien everyday at lunch.
Eli and Sebastian were in the pool the longest. It was Eli's first time swimming. Sebastian enjoyed belly flopping. Eli didn't mind.
