France 2016

We had fun in France again this time. Our way there was uneventful and I thought maybe from now on traveling would be ok. After flying back, I'm not so sure.

Because it was cheaper this time to fly to Paris rather than Frankfort and then Basel, we had to take two flights and two trains to get to our final destination.

We were very tired but the kids were excited to see Grand-Père, Grand-Mère and their presents :)

The next day we were already following Grand-Mère's routine. On Mondays, she goes walking with her friends and one of her sisters. They all met at the orphanage when they were teenagers. My aunt is the lady with the hat.

For our first walk we just went to the store to buy some pains au chocolat but it is a nice walk, as you can see in the above pictures. For our second Monday, we went a bit further. We crossed some fields, where Keld spotted a fox, and we arrived at a lake.   

A little path behind the lake takes you to a memorial. France is, of course, full of war souvenirs. The region my mom is from, Alsace, has a particular story as it changed country many times in a few years (it was French but when France lost the war in 1870 it became German, then when Germany lost in 1918 it went back to the French but it was annexed to Germany as soon as the second world war broke out in 1939 and it stayed German until the end of the war in 1945. It's been French since). So some of my ancestors changed nationality a few times in their lifetimes and there are many stories about soldiers fighting their own family. Alsatians have always been known to prefer being French, although liking, and keeping, a lot of the German pragmatic ways, and that's why when the first world war broke out, they saw their chance of changing hands. This memorial marks the place where 8 Alsatians were killed in 1915 and 1916 because, the plaques says, they served France. The mortar shell shows what was coming to Alsatians from the adjoining town Belfort.

Because of all these wars, France is also full of bunkers and we saw some on our way back through the forest. The kids also found their new house. 

We enjoyed walking in the forest, next time we'll be ready for the mountains!