Medley of top hits, Yolanda Adams

Tiny Desk Concert, Jon Batiste

Ten years in France through supermarket snapshots

As we are approaching the end of another year, we are looking back at major events that marked recent history through the lens of supermarket pictures.

December 2013 The amount of cheese in a regular French supermarket is unbeliveable.

September 2020 This abundance is only matched by the different types of wine during harvest season.

January 2021 Who knew a few shelves of pasta could be so memorable. During the Covid confinements this was one of the most hard to find items along with toilet paper, flour and soap.

May 2022 I never put so much value on a bottle of sunflower oil as during the first weeks of escalation of war in Ukraine.

October 2023 Grapefruits from Israel suddenly became a bit too bitter when faced with images from the other side of the fence of a kibbutz.

December 2023 First you couldn't find things, then you didn't have enough money to buy them. Romanians know this story all too well from the 90s.

Coming Out of the Dark, Monster High The Movie

How much do we love Monster High the Movie? Enough to set up a Monster High Miniature Christmas at our place featuring a hand drawn pack of Tarot cards and a book of spells written in collaboration with ChatGPT. You don't even have to ask who's our favourite character, we are team Gorgon all the way. Now we just have to practice the choreography as a family of four and we have the entertainment set for the big day. We always fully commit to the vision.

La Paponie, Holidays in Dordogne

Every chance we get we try to escape the concrete jungle of Bordeaux at Paponie. Our days remain busy, filled with walks in the forest for foraging mushroom, harvesting fruits and tomatoes to prepare preserves for winter, and enjoying bike trips in the nearby villages.

Let the kids play

Building stories through playscapes is a favourite pastime with my boys and over the years we have amassed quite a collection of wood toys, scarves, felt playmats, crochet grass, sticks, rocks, plastic characters and the occasional rescue from the bin. We are struggling for storage space and at this point I'm not even trying to pretend that the wood toys are for the kids. My eldest is convinced that's all I want for Christmas this year.

Pirate bay with a carton boat from auntie

Lake playscape on a cloudy day

Hedgehog family anxiously waiting for mommy to come back home

Witch castle made with magnetic tiles

Dress and hat in crochet

Mermaids inspired by Greta to discuss solutions for the climate crisis

We are big fans of robins

Too much waste in usual advent calendars

Painting your own wood toys is not so easy after all

This little prince scenery is still waiting for a prince

Piggy back rides for everyone

This little lamb needs a full village to fall asleep

Playmat and magpie from auntie

Jungle playscape with a magnificent flamingo from auntie

This savana scene looks a bit empty

Much better now

Just perfect

Not every wood toy was bought, we even won some

This angler fish from David's Wood Store is just amazing

This witch is worried about the unpredictability of plane travel these days

Especially amazing in the dark

Crowded coral reef

Story telling invitation

Bird watching made easy

Room on the broom

Playscape with a healthy snack

We love dinosaurs but Jurassic trees are even better

Waterfall for dinosaurs

Never enough mushrooms

Small world tidepool

"Kaput les dinosaures" is our sentence of the day for language practice