Natural History Museum

On Friday I felt like an adventure so instead of going to playgroup, I took Eliot to the natural history museum in Brussels. We took the train and hiked about a kilometer (me carrying the nearly 30 pound Eliot since there was too much traffic for my taste to have him walk on the narrow sidewalks). I did not take the stroller because you never know when a metro station will not have an escalator and you will be stuck somehow trying to get Eliot and a large stroller up a tall flight of stairs. I think I am going to have to invest in an umbrella stroller although I was trying to avoid it. We have such a nice little red one back in Chicago but not enough space to bring it with us.... Here is Eliot pointing to the T-Rex that he really liked.
A kind woman noticed me trying to capture Eliot's interactions with the dinosaurs and offered to take this photo of us. She was with her husband and their grandson who was just about 3 and was having a great time just like Eliot.
Eliot thinks about those big bones.
These bones were laying as they had discovered them (in Belgium, apparently quite the hotspot for dinosaur activity) and a man was working on them, painting them with something and brushing them off with a cloth.

Aalst Carnivale

Last weekend, towns all over Belgium had carnivales to celebrate a bunch before the somber weeks of Lent. (Well, they probably used to be somber a while back.) We went to the Carnivale parade in Aalst, one of the most famous in Belgium, despite warnings from my co-worker Pascale of the rather drunken and crazy revelers. We got there before dark and people were a bit inebriated, but nothing too bad. I did want to leave at dusk though. All the shops were boarded up in anticipation of the "festivities." It looked like the town was expecting a Florida hurricane. But, while we were there, the whole town was out to see the parade, with kids dressed in costume and shooting silly string at the floats. People watched from the upper floors of buildings and had commandeered first floor businesses as party centers. It is clear the development of this parade is very involved as there are the complicated floats, music, costumes, and dancing. This is just a sampling. I will post a web album and some videos (really, I will). It was definetely a Belgian experience not to be missed.










Eliot watched intently the whole time from the backpack, which he was glad to see again after months of disuse.
There were still a few floats expressing displeasure at the former US President.... There were some about Obama, too.

Ixelles Market

Ixelles had a great market. We bought some different quiches and of course had to sample the waffles. The vendors at this fruit market were dressed up for carnivale, although it's kind of hard to see the person in the green hat bending over and the person in the yellow-flowered robe in the middle of the photo towards the back.

A poster to promote energy conservation with door insulators in the shape of daschunds stacked up in front of the door.

Ixelles

On the 21st, we went to a neighborhood of Brussels called Ixelles. There is a lot of shopping, nice parks, and nice homes. I can't believe I hadn't been here yet - really liked it. There were also these bunnies that were public art. Eliot liked them!

Here are some art deco homes in Ixelles.
A park, a pond, and nice homes.

Yoda no longer lives next door

Yoda is the Great Pyrenees who lived next door to us since we moved here. He was about 10 years old. Eliot loved seeing him and asks about him sometimes, "Yoda sleeping?" Tuesday we saw Yoda's owner, who Eliot calls Yoda's Mommy, talking to some other neighbors. Then yesterday we saw her again and she told us Yoda had died. She was very sad and she said one thing that bothered her was what Eliot would say when he wanted to see Yoda but he was not there. I feel sad for our neighbor because she and her husband really liked Yoda and he was a sight to see about town out on his walks. He was always very friendly to Eliot. A gentle giant. It was a reminder that there are some tough lessons to learn in life and that it's a big responsibility to help Eliot learn them. It was also sweet that our neighbor was concerned about Eliot's happiness during a time of loss for her.

Metz, France

We had to choose between stopping in Nancy or stopping in Metz during our drive home. We chose Metz because our guidebook said it had a branch of the modern art museum in Paris, the Centre Pompidou. The guidebook said it would be finished and opened in 2008. We figured, well, it's 2009 so it should be open. When we saw it, we opined that it could possibly open its doors in 2011. So, back to the city center we headed. The other attraction that drew me to Metz was its cathedral with, the guidebook proclaimed, its curtains of stained glass windows. The cathedral was definetly worth the stop. Bathed in the glow of the setting sun, the cathedral's front was glowing and the stained glass inside was beautiful. There were some other kids inside that Eliot got a kick out of, so it was worth it for him, too. See what you think of the stained glass below.


As we strolled through town after visiting the cathedral, we liked what we saw. Cute shops, carousels (none of which did we stop for despite Eliot's protests - how do you teach that you can not ride on every carousel you see?), restaurants, other churches. Very nice. Our goal, unbeknownst to the rather upset Eliot, was this giant city park that we knew must have a playground to reward Eliot for his patience with the car trip. Once we got to the park, moans of dissapointment over the lost carousels turned to happy sounds and he hung out with the kids on the playground until it started to get dark (and cold). Then it was back on the road to Brussels. A great trip to France in our memories.

Since we got back, Eliot has been playing a game with his stuffed animals and toy train. He puts the animals on the train, says they are going to France, and then demands jackets for them because it is cold in France. Poor kid. When we go back to France this summer he will probably want to bring his winter jacket. He can now pick out France and Italy on the map of Europe on our wall.

Cote d'Or

Just south of Dijon is the Cote d'Or, which produces some of France's most famous wines. We took a short driving tour on Sunday morning of the area, stopping in this small town to walk a bit among the sleeping grapes. No wine tasting for us since it was Sunday and most things are closed, but Eliot probably would not have enjoyed wine tasting anyway. I was kind of surprised how close to a major road these vineyards are. I wonder if the volatile organics emissions from the cars flavor the grapes? I will never look at things like this the same way again after working in the air quality field.


This is the town square of the largest Cote d'Or town we stopped in, Nuit St Georges. Eliot liked circling the statue and pushing on the bushes. Apparently, a bottle of wine went from a vineyard near this town to the moon on an Apollo mission. It was Sunday, so everything was closed but one bakery. We needed food for lunch and it dawned on me that the one open bakery would probably close at noon. I hurried back to it and only to find that they were out of bread. They had plenty of chocolate tarts, but that was not what I wanted for lunch.... We ended up getting food at a well-stocked gas station. Good croissants, cheese, and some raisin bread for Eliot. Things I would not find at an American gas station. We continued on through much more interesting countryside than we passed in our journey to Dijon. Our next and last stop was Metz, subject of next post.

Dijon, IV - The rest of Valentine's Day

Dijon was a great place to spend Valentine's Day (we were there Feb 13 and 14) but the people to the left did not seem to feel that way - from what we could figure out. We saw them a couple of times during our walk through the city. They were in high spirits and occasionally would stop and sing, "This is not a love song!" over and over. We were puzzled but amused.
Eliot was definetely amused by this carousel ride in an airplane that seemed to be made just for him. It was a joy to watch him "steer" and smile his way through the ride. He seemed to accept when it was time to get off, although he made it clear he would have liked to have another go riding on a trolley on the carousel.
The antiques quarter of Dijon was especially quaint and medieval.
We managed to find a restaurant that was not completely full. Eliot and Chris enjoyed special Valentine's Day sundaes. Happy boys.

Dijon photo album is working. In case you've not seen enough photos from this trip, check it out.

Dijon III, Touring the City

After the gardens, we headed back into town and got a guide for a walking tour that follows little owls set into the ground all around town. We started out here at Place D'Arcy, Dijon's first public park.
On the left is the post office, the right an art deco building with "pagoda roofs." In all, Dijon had great architecture - many old (like 1700s) mansions because it was the seat of the Burgundian Dukes for centuries. It felt very old-world France. This walking tour made me so glad we came to see this part of France.
We gathered goodies for lunch at this covered market, which was still cold since it was not heated. But - there was great cheese, fruit, and bread. Eliot gobbled up honey bread, a croissant, and some clementines. He did not like the cheese I selected. He has cooled his love affair with cheese although he still relishes mozzarella.
A half-timbered building in Dijon on a main shopping street.

I did put up a photo album for this trip but the slideshow is not working quite right (time sink). In the meantime, click on the picassa albums link and choose the Dijon Trip album.

Dijon, II - Botanical gardens

Our first stop on Sunday was the Botanical Gardens in Dijon. Our aim was to give Eliot some romping time since most of the previous day was spent in the car. It was small but nice.
Eliot's favorite thing about the whole place was this tree.
He sat at its base, inspected twigs, dug his feet into the soil, and, at times, even rolled around a bit.
Then he became interested in sticking small twigs in this banister. Just goes to show that you can be in France, you can be in your backyard, toddlers like twigs and will likely be unimpressed with the cultural heritage surrounding them. So, we try to balance our desire to see and do with his desire to be without agenda. Works most of the time.

Dijon, I

I'll do several posts about Dijon since I am limited to four photos per post... Here is the courtyard of our hotel, which dated to the fifteenth century but, since it was a two star hotel, was extremely reasonable. Here Eliot and Chris inspect the vines.
So quaint.
Here are Eliot and I on a street in Dijon.
Here is the inside of one of the Dijon cathedrals. Eliot likes to light candles in cathedrals so we usually get one for him and say we are leaving it as a prayer to God for our family. The first couple of times he wanted to take the candles with him, but now he gets it that we leave the candles there.

Rheims

Last weekend we took a trip to France. It's been a busy week and the posts about this trip will trickle in over the next couple of days. We set off through a snowy Belgium on Saturday, stopped at a French town for lunch that was nice but not in our guidebook so I have thus forgotten its name. But - our first destination was Rheims (pronounced rahns with a nasal accent) for its famous cathedral. All French students, including me, learn about the cathedral at Rheims. It was huge, as you might expect, and French kings were coronated here for centuries. One of them was coronated sometime in the 1400s and had Jean d'Arc at his side. There was a statue of her in the cathedral. It was awe-inspiring on the inside. We especially liked the rose windows (third photo).


Eliot was OK with the cathedral and all, but after our visit to the cathedral we wanted to check out the cool library that was just across the square from the cathedral. The cathedral was reflected in the floor-to-ceiling windows at the library. Eliot ran right in the library, zipped past circulation, and careened straight to the childrens' section. Not sure if he has a homing device for childrens' libraries....? He started investigating all the books. Here he is flipping through one. We found the french version of Goodnight Moon (Bon Soir Lune), too. After the cathedral it was back in the car for Eliot's nap and the rest of our trip to Dijon. For the most part, the scenery in France between the Belgian border and Dijon was like Kansas, but just a smidgen quainter. I will eventually post a photo album from this trip.