Life in Revel

I’ve known this place since I was a little girl but I never appreciated it until I moved here. Back then it was the place my family was from, and a very boring vacation spot (that part has changed a lot), but now I get a real sense of personal belonging here.

We’ve been living in Revel for a year now. A quarter of William’s life! We’ve seen all the seasons, even though they were kinda weird this year. We’ve discovered new hikes, new play areas, new foods, met new friends. Although we still have tons to discover, I feel like a local now.

June was one of our most agreable months. The weather was gorgeous, summer break was aproaching, flowers everywhere, school parties and visits from friends, we had a great time. I think even the boys realize not everyone is lucky to benefit from all this.

2014 was the year of the cherry. We thought that old cherry tree was dead last year, Grand-Papa build a treehouse on it to give it a second life. Well it wasn’t dead after all! Even after making 2 or 3 huge batches of cherry jam, eating from the tree everyday and taking buckets full to church to share for 2 weeks in a row, we still had not harvested 1/10 of the tree.

William and Josh enjoyed being allowed to snack all day... The weather was so nice they were able to use the pool early in the season (good thing they did because the rest of the summer was a big bummer).

The towel cape was Josh’s favorite fashion accessory.

hands and face smirred in cherry juice

Em came to visit one week-end while Don was playing in an ultimate frisbee turnament. It was so much fun having her and Sam over.

We took them to the park.

and to Freydières.

The boys discovered these baby ducklings. They also found a dead egg.

And we started following the world cup. The boys learned a lot about soccer this year and they loved cheering for their teams (France, the US, and Germany).

Then we had the school end of the year party. For the second time this year I volunteered to do face painting and I think my technique has improved a lot (from watching the professional make-up artist who did it with us and using good products).


Josh was excited to play at all the stations. William only wanted to do one (knock the cans--you guessed it).

The park behind the church and the school.

William invited his friend to play and went to his house a few times.

We got the school pictures

William’s class started a caterpillar project. Each child had to bring home and take care of a caterpillar. William LOVED his. He called it Flappy. He took good care of it and watched it turn into a cocoon and then a weird... caterfly. Oh well...

The world cup frenzie resulted in a new craft mania : flag painting.

 

 

Watching the US play Ghana I think.

A second visit from Em and Sam, this time with Don. How lucky we were to have them a second time!

the ducks had grown a little

Don is a master at rock skipping. Seriously never seen so many skips (maybe 12?)

The hike to the Bastille on a hot hot hot day! About 2km with a 300m elevation climb. The boys were troopers : it was long (1h30 maybe) and hot! and we were not really dressed for it, my bad.

Josh and Coco taking a break on the steps of the giants

View from the top.

Not tired yet?!

After cherry season, started raspberry season. Yum!

We went out to dinner with Grand-Papa and Grand-Maman and the boys got some cotton candy for dessert.

This is to be expected, considering the word for cotton-candy in french is Barbe à Papa (Daddy’s beard)

The last week of class, William asked to take Lili the Giraffe home again.

So Lili played the leapster

Friends at the park

Lili ate dinner

went shopping

picked raspberries

shared them with William

Lili played with Kate, Ada and the boys in the treehouse

and went swimming in the pool...

The last week of class, Josh’s class hiked to the ice cream farm. Josh’s friend Cosme lives there. His Mom takes care of the farm and makes ice cream with the Cows milk and sorbet with all the fruit of the farm. It is delicious.

Anne-Sophie showing the milking equipment

One of the cows had had a veal that week-end. This cute "little" thing was 2 days old.

Enjoying their ice cream

More soccer games

Last day of school with their friends.

Celebrating the 4th of July in France : no fireworks, no parades... and the boys had to go to school. But it was the last day of school so a celebration in itself, and I found some goldfish at the grocery store!! Then we watched the world cup game (France against Germany 0-1) and that’s how we celebrated independence day this year...