Bake sales and Bikes

This past week has been filled with baking and biking! Last Friday it was the responsibility of H's class to do some baking and drop it off at the salle des professeurs (teachers room) at the start of the day. The baking was to be sold at the end of the day by whichever parents were available, just outside of the school gates. All proceeds went towards the school. Each week there is a different class responsible. Anywho... I ended up making some vanilla cupcakes with brown butter frosting. They were pretty tasty after I fiddled with the replacement ingredients a bit! I have yet to find baking powder or baking soda and instead have replaced it with a rising agent. Things taste a bit different but that's ok :) I ended up making a different recipe for Sunday when I dropped off some cupcakes to sell at the Vide Grenier (attic sale/garage sale) with proceeds going towards the school.

Of course the internet has a zillion options for baking and what to bake when in France but a new friend has also lent me some French baking recipe books that I am enjoying trying out. Some chocolate is sitting on the counter right now firming up for me to make some hopefully delicious truffles. 

In other news.. I have finally got my foot in the door with talking to the French moms! I wasn't in a rush as I wanted to make sure I could actually understand what they were saying to me. I must say.. it feels pretty darn good :) 

Baking...                                                                      Jeff in the streets of one of the beautiful towns
 

This past Monday was Jeff and my debut as actual road bikers in France. Non of this electric assist stuff - sorry Leo & PJ (it was super fun when we did try it though!!). Thanks to our landlord lending me a bike to try we zipped off - hmm.. no we zipped and then got stuck on a dirt road with puddles and maybe some goats - then zipped off across the rolling countryside beside oodles of vineyards in every direction. We ended up heading past Caromb,  and beaultiful Crillon-le-Brave, and stopping again in Bédoin at the same pizza place as last time. It's always nice to see a familiar face and the owner is very sweet and seems to have time to chat. We ended up chatting about another Canadian family he knew/knows that just so happens to be some friends of ours from back home, and a big reason as to why we are living where we are! Small world :) 

For our first vélo en route we kept it pretty simple and headed back home without doing a bigger tour through other towns. As we get to know the roads and our legs get stronger I think we will feel more comfortable taking random roads to explore.
A few fallen trees thanks to the windy days earlier in the week. Below is Jeff zipping down this quiet road back to our France home. 

Wednesday was a day of trying something new for me. In this little town there are two sports you see a lot of.. road biking, and mountain biking. With our landlord having a mountain bike shop in town and these amazing mountains surrounding us, I knew I had to try it out. A new friend took me out for a two hour ride - I had just bought clip in shoes and the cleats were mounted on the shoes just minutes before departure. If you know what I'm talking about you probably think I'm crazy. First time on a mountain bike and first time with clip ins. It started simple-ish... She took me to a spot that children often go to mountain bike (very skilled children). Then, after crossing some vineyards we headed up towards La Roque-Alric. The photos do not do this place justice... it's just breathtaking all the way there and all the way down.  The actual mountain biking was extremely fun and I found myself often thinking about how crazy/rocky/narrow/fast/dangerous it was. I wish I had a video to show you all what it was like and what type of wild terrain we went on. I only had a few falls and a little blood, not too bad for my first time :-p 


These photos don't do this place justice. It was so breathtaking that I had to keep stopping for photos :)




 Moules frites anyone? 


 The beautiful vines on top of the mountain beside our town. I can't wait to see leaves appear!

 A very well known illustrator came to E's school for the day to do some fun workshops. After school all of the art was on display and the artist was selling signed copies :) Her name is Amandine Piu

 Don't forget to look up


 The Dentelles de Montmirail



 Sunday night sunset over Beaumes

It's like you're always being watched by the beautiful Mt.Ventoux. 






Comments

  1. Replies
    1. Wild hey? We can't wait to show you guys around :)

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  2. Sounds amazing Dayna! Glad you guys are enjoying it so much. And you must all be getting so fit with all the biking :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Chrissy! Yes we are really enjoying it. Wishing you could come visit ;)

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  3. Beautiful Sis, love all the photos!

    ReplyDelete

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