The Giant French Omelette of Easter

A long time ago, before I was born, an Easter Monday tradition began in Bessières, France. They prepare a giant omelette and share it with the town and visitors.

As the children were off school, we made the trek to Bessières to experience this excellent tradition.  (See how I didn't use the obvious egg-pun there... the children have enacted a restriction on egg-puns.)  Like many outings to the surrounding towns and villages of France, our trek involved me driving with the kids and Dan cycling.  

We arrived around 9:30, with omelette starting time at 11:00.  So we found parking near a bakery and consumed some pastries to keep us happy until omelette-time.  We walked toward the center of town, through a market and festival area and found THE GIANT FRYING PAN.

GIANT FRYING PAN and a fire

I know it looks like the pan is actually on the fire, but the fire is behind the pan.  It's a perspective thing.  The frying pan weighed about a ton.  And, no, it's not lifted by using the giant log handle, that's really for appearances.  It is moved with a forklift.  The legs on the frying pan are attached.  So when the forklift moves the pan, it doesn't put it directly on the fire, but the legs cause it to be a non-buring distance above the fire.  This is French Cooking, not me-burning-eggs-in-my-home-kitchen-cooking.  

On one side of the park were the omelette ingredients.  There are 15,000 eggs, a bunch of chives, some chili pepper, and other spices.  The pots on the ground were for holding the eggs after they get cracked.  Then the chefs beat the eggs with a whisk attached to a large drill.  

It's going to be necessary to break a few eggs!

Obviously, if you have a giant omelette, it must be accompanied by giant bread.

Alex near the bread, waiting for the cooking to get started

The fire was already being prepared when we arrived.  The guy on the left was the official fire tender.  I'm not sure what the guy on the right with the hat's title was, but his role was important.  One of his tasks was to drive the fort lift.  

Fire Preparation

After hanging out, just watching the fire for a while, the time finally came for the event to start!  It started with some guys dressed as chickens who handed out chocolate eggs, a parade of officials and, of course, a bunch of drummers.  Because French Chefs need inspirational music.

After a long procession, everyone was assembled.  This included the guys dressed as strawberries in red and green.  They handed out flyers promoting La Tarte Geante aux Fraises coming in June.

Strawberry Guys next to Country Western Guys (Country = USA)

Finally, it was time to cook.  
The official chefs of the day, ordained by the knightly order of the giant omelette, started with 25 liters of duck fat.  Because it's the local, probably artisanal, grease.  And it's delicious.  

Giant Pan of Duck Fat

During this whole time, people had been preparing all of the ingredients.  This includes cracking all of the eggs, slicing the giant bread, and cutting all of the scallions.  It took a long time.  I think from the time we started watching the fire preparation to the time when the eggs actually went into the pan, it was about 2-3 hours.  That's practically longer than a visit to the Louvre.  Or most museums in our travels.  The kids were prepared to wait with books and stuff to do but they were getting kind of antsy.  And hungry.  The eggs went in...

How Many Chefs does it Take?

... we heard the officials announce that cooking would take half an hour.  So, we left our excellent omelette cooking viewing vantage point and let the kids explore the rest of the festival a little.  We found snacks.  Will got fries which he declared, "The best fries ever!"  (They were probably cooked in duck fat.)  Alex had a Nutella crêpe.  After about a half hour, we noticed people walking around with plates of omelette.  

Empty Plates, Waiting to be Filled with Omelette

We sent the kids to get some omelette, but they couldn't find where and how to acquire it.  Plus, they didn't really want any, so they weren't particularly motivated.  I ran into some friends who already had plates of omelette and they told me to hurry and get some of my own.  So, I went to the crowd where the plates were being distributed.  It was kind of a process.  People in the front got omelette, they left the crowd, everyone moved up a bit, until you were in the front and could get your own omelette. I was involved in this process when I saw the kids walking back to where we had been standing (without any plates of omelette).  They are pretty independent, so I let them go.  Besides, I had omelette priorities!  I got my omelette and went back to the general area where I had last been with the kids.  

Successful Omelette Acquisition!

While I was busy taking this selfie of my successful omelette acquisition, the kids found me.  They were mildly annoyed, which is their general state of being when we force-them-to-experience-things.  But, since we were done, we headed back to the car to return home.  As an important last stop, and to bring things full circle, we once again went to the bakery, grabbed some bread and croissants so that the kids could consume non-omelette based sandwiches on the way home, and found a route out of  Bessières that didn't go directly through the festival.  

Will we go to the Giant Strawbery Tarte?  Perhaps.  Wait and see...

The Extraordinary Garden - Weekend Adventure

In our efforts to expose them to new things, we took the boys to a place recommended by Dan's French teacher.  She said that it is only open for 4 days each year and this weekend was during that time.  It is called, Le Jardin Extraordinaire.  

The objectives of the garden are listed on the left side of the sign.  I think they say:
* Make art accessible to all
* Nature Sensitivity
* Bond with others

So it was kind of like a hippy festival of nature art.  There was also music.  And some artisanal crafts including this 450 euro steampunk badger.

My eye is a watch and my intestines are gears!

Rather than branding this adventure as a hike, we told the kids that it was more like a hunt for koroks.  We pulled out an old camera and told them to take pictures every time they find a place that a korok should be hiding.  While they still complained a bit about the hiking part and the uncomfortable weather, we got these excellent pictures...

Hiding under a bridge

In a Circle of Flowers

Enjoying the Tournesol

Inside the Vine House

Playing on the Bug Decorating the Stream

Nom Nom

We were warned not to tickle the koroks.

Sometimes Koroks Like to be Left Alone

Alex even took some time to pose for pictures.

And take a selfie...

Great Pumpkin Selfie!

It was an extraordinary garden.  If you get the chance to visit, it is open in 2018 the weekend that spans August and September.  Maybe you can find some koroks too!

Cheese Tour while Camping

Cheese is Awesome!

As we buy different cheeses at the grocery store, we notice that the labels tell us where the cheese is from.  Much like champagne from any other region than Champagne is only sparkling wine, a camembert not from the Camembert region is something different.  My favorite cheese is a cantal jeune.  So, when we went camping in the middle of France to escape the heat, it was an awesome bonus that it happened to be in the region known for cantal cheese.  

As we know the kids don't like to do anything, or at least they say this when we ask them what they want to do for the weekend adventure, we knew that whatever we picked would be unacceptable.  So, we told them that we were going to do 3 activities during the weekend (other than hang out at the campground).  These activities were cheese tour, explore a volcano, and go to a volcano amusement park.  They were not interested in any of these, as expected.  Finally we asked them to rank the one that they would dislike the least and they seemed to agree that the volcano amusement park would be that one.  More on that later.  

Saturday morning, after Dan finished his bike ride and we ate lots of pain au chocolat from the local campground store, we headed out to the cantal region.  Fortunately the display case at the camping ground check-in had a bunch of activity brochures, including a map of cheeses.  One of the cheese places was open in the morning.  

After an hour drive, we arrived at the cheese place!  It sort of looked like a factory outlet store for cheese with a fairly empty parking lot.  

Exciting Parking Lot Picture

We walked inside to find a small store with a cheese counter.  The children walked in, and immediately walked out, complaining about the smell.  We tried to convince them to come in and participate in the cheese adventure, but they did not think that was a good idea.  So, we explained, in French, to the confused people at the counter that we were American and the children thought the cheese smelled bad.  Then, we further convinced them that we were American by asking to taste a cheese that I had not seen before.  However, it was not a cheese for tasting or eating, although I was welcome to do so if I insisted.  It was a cheese that was used for cooking.  I guess kind of like a cooking wine.  You don't really taste it, you just cook with it.  So, in line with the strange reaction they had to me asking for a taste, I followed their lead and did not taste it.  

We bought three cheeses, a cantal jeune, a cantal entre-deux (aged longer), and another cheese that Dan picked.  We got about 300 grams of each cheese.  Total price, 10 euro, an amazing deal.  I guess it is cheap to buy cheese direct.  

More Cheese

Next, we followed google maps to the next place of fromage.  Unfortunately, it was the actual factory where the cheese was made, not the place they sold it.  So we continued onward and found another cheese store.  This one also had the little cheese counter with a brief assortment of cheese.  We got a cantal jeune, and a tomme gris.  It cost 3 euro.  Dan tried to pay 13 euro (trois and treize sound similar), and we laughed with the lady about how cheap cheese is here compared to the United States.

Fromage!

The children safely avoided the cheese by sitting by the car, across the parking lot.

Smells like Parking Lot

Next, we continued up the road.  We thought it might be time for a restroom break.  We saw on the map that we were almost to Chanterelle.  As Chateau Chanterelle is a video game level in one of the kids' Kirby Nintendo U games, we stopped.  It was a small, quiet town.  Quite unlike the video game version.  

Chanterelle - No Coins Here

Finally we stopped at a small village a bit more up the road.  There was an event where people were getting together with their classic cars to drive them around in the mountains.  We quickly got some bread and left ahead of the crowd.

As we were in a volcanic region, there were a bunch of lakes around.  We stopped at Lake Pavin.  As Alex had somehow forgotten to put shoes on before he got into the car, Dan ended up porting him around.  I don't understand how he isn't too big for this kind of thing.  But then again, I don't understand how he forgets his shoes either.

Take me to the Lake!

Lake Selfie with Will

An amazing day, with amazing cheese.

Cheese, and Bread, and Jam

And cheeseburgers...

Who put that disgusting ketchup on their perfectly good cheeseburger on baguette?

Glamping - Somewhere in Middle France

Glamping

Dan says that "glamping" is a real term.  It means glamour camping.  I'm not sure about this.  In any case, it meant that we didn't have to pack our car to the brim with tents, sleeping bags, kids air mattresses, etc.  We simply brought some linens, clothes, and a little food.  We rented a cottage through the British site, instead of the French site, which meant that even though this was an activity we didn't know a lot about, we could learn about it in English and arrive without too many surprises about what we booked versus what we thought we booked.

Weather
It has been quite warm in Toulouse for the past couple of weeks.  So, for the weekend getaway, we entertained the idea of going to the beach, but ultimately decided that the beach would be hot and crowded.  Instead, we headed to the mountains.

Bridge on the way to the mountains

We told the kids that it might be a bit like camping in a water park.  Given the pictures on the web site, it seemed like there would be many Will/Alex compatible activities.  On arrival, we found some awesomeness.  

Shallow Wading Pool

Deeper Swimming Pool

The pools were great in that they were quite shaded and even had a cool extendable roof that could close them in when it rains.  The different depths of pool made it easy for the smaller kids to have a place to play and the bigger kids too.  Plus, inside, through the windows/glass that you can see, was an adults only pool, spa, and sauna area.  

There were also water slides.

Will in the orange shirt

And, just in case the pool and slides weren't enough, there was another "splash pad" play area.

Waiting for the Giant Bucket Dumping

Once the kids got tired of the artificial water activities, they could head over to the beach and build a sand castle.

Now we Build!

There were also playgrounds, boating, a convenience store, and a restaurant.  Dan took the kids paddle-boating.

Alex is king of the paddle!

Will in a boat

So here in France, the food is great.  The convenience store had a bunch of local products such as cheeses, jams, wine, beer and sausage.  It also had the obligatory bakery section so that we could get a baguette or some croissants or pain au chocolat for the morning breakfast time. 

The restaurant had amazing food.  But not only did they have a wide selection of local tasty French dishes, they also had chicken nuggets and fries to pacify the children.  As we were in one of the regions known for cheese, this is my dinner.  I couldn't finish it, it was huge.  

Cheesy Tortellini and Salad

No, I promise we were camping!  Here is a picture of Alex in front of the cottage.  The cottage had two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a deck.  

Cottage

We even did camping-type activities such as grilling hot dogs and burgers on the bbq and toasting s'mores.  Of course, there are no graham crackers in France, but they do have fancy cookies that already have chocolate attached.  So we went with that.  Will decided that it was necessary to skewer all of the ingredients.  Alex decided that it was important to pretend that he was not enjoying himself.    

Feelings: Wonder and Sadness

Hot Coals Produced!

So when it comes to camping without a lot of planning or packing, this is the way to go.  The kids were completely exhausted at the end of the day.  Also, we successfully escaped the heat of Toulouse for a few days.  Perhaps we shall try it again!

Lyon for a Day - Secret Passages and Grumpy Alex

The holiday weekend arrived!  However, instead of celebrating a long weekend for Memorial Day with Monday off, we get to celebrate Ascension on Thursday with a "Bridge Day" holiday to bridge the gap between Ascension and the weekend.

Kroboth Car Trip!

Rather than fight traffic on Wednesday evening, we opted to leave at 6:30am on Thursday morning.  We were off to Lyon!  Traffic was not a problem and we enjoyed the lovely scenery of the French countryside.


Upon arrival in Lyon, we found a parking place near our Air BnB, then, since we were a bit early for check-in, looked for lunch.  Dan had found a place that we were headed towards, but as we looked across the street, we saw a page from our French Text book from our course that Dan and I took together.

It was a building that had been an old train station and was converted into a place with restaurants.  This is clearly the east side of the building.  For class, we had to talk about the different characteristics of the restaurant and the types of food offered.  We ended up getting delicious chicken, shrimp, pasta.  Inside the restaurant was a small train that traveled around a track above.  Much like the French lesson had described, it was good, but pricey.

Next, we headed toward the Rosa Mir Garden.  We took a bus, the metro, and we walked.  However, we had failed to check the opening hours on the garden.  It's only open one day a week.  And it was not Thursday.  So, we stopped by a tiny park and let the kids play for a short time.

Unfortunately, park playtime combined with the heat of the day did nothing to help their mood.  Alex spent the next few hours being super grumpy.

No Pictures Allowed!

Will was fine, he decided it would be interesting to take some pictures of strange graffiti he found throughout Lyon.  At least, when Alex wasn't actively trying to block him.

Lyon has a fascinating feature.  It seems that during the silk trade, merchants wanted to keep their fragile merchandise safe and developed a series of passages throughout the city.  We explored a couple of them.  One was marked by a blue lion and had some giant stairs built into the wall.  Many of them go through to people's houses, so Alex had to stop complaining for a little bit (yea).  They were really neat and I wish we could have explored more.

Next, we went to the basilica.  To get up the hill to the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, we took the funicular, which was much better than walking up.  

Nearby, not too far from the basilica, were some amazing Roman ruins.  Because Rome was huge and reached into France.

Still used today for concerts and shows

Alex with a slightly improved mood, Will feeling silly

Don't worry, he didn't get hurt while climbing around the ruins

For dinner, we took the kids to Hard Rock Cafe Lyon.  Ever since we introduced them to Hard Rock in Copenhagen, they have been super excited every time we have found one.  They have even asked if Hard Rock Cafes exist in the US and were surprised that we had never taken them to the closest one to our house, Hard Rock Hollywood.  :)

Dan and I had delicious French food at a different restaurant.  Because Lyon is known for its food and we just couldn't eat American food at Hard Rock.

Duck with carrots and potatoes

Dan eating duck with carrots and potatoes

Ice Cream, caramel, apple dessert

Completion to Lyon Visit

We spent the night in Lyon and left the next morning after eating some pain au chocolat pastries in the park.  The park was huge and we didn't get to explore it all, but we found some deer and emus.

Pic with deer 

The emu actually was quite far away, but then he heard Alex whistling and decided that was his cue to fun across the field and check out the child in orange.

Emu and Deer

After a peaceful park visit, we said good bye to Lyon and continued on our holiday weekend adventure.