Pancake Tuesday

Fiacra has been eagerly anticipating Pancake Tuesday and has asked many times over the past week, "is it Pancake Tuesday yet?". I always had crepe-style pancakes growing up on Pancake Tuesday, and that's what we had after dinner today.

We tried three versions of the crepes, Irish, French, and Canadian. The Irish crepes were served with lemon juice and sugar, the French crepes were spread with nutella, and the Canadian crepes were smothered with maple syrup. Actually, Connell was the only one who tried all three, I had only the Irish crepes (the far superior variety), Ailbhe had only the French, and Fiacra declared "I don't like these craps at all".

We now have half a jar of nutella in our fridge, a previously unencountered substance. I'll bet that Ailbhe asks for it for breakfast tomorrow.



Connell does the flip



Fiacra trying the "crap"

Ailbhe on her second crepe

Crepe

Finian with his sunhat on today. It was 17 degrees

Carnaval des Deux Rives

Ash Wednesday is in a few days, preceded by Pancake Tuesday - also called Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras. In Bordeaux, to celebrate the occasion, there was a big parade this afternoon - Carnaval des Deux Rives (Carnival of the Two Banks). It starts on one side of the river and finishes on the other.

I've never been to a parade like it before. At home, the people at the parade can be split into two groups - the ones in the parade and the spectators. If you're a spectator, then you watch the parade and occasionally clap. Today, I didn't clap at all - but it was a hoot!

Waiting for the parade to start

Lots of people attending the parade, including most of the kids, wore costumes. We brought our Viking and Helmet Head. We bought some balloons, bags of confetti and, eventually, a couple of those spray bottles that shoot out strings of foam. The spectators throw confetti and shoot foam at the people in the parade - and each other.

Viking defending himself from neighbouring confetti thrower

Giant marionettes

Free refills

A short battle ensued

This was a huge float

Fiacra and Ailbhe spent most of their time throwing confetti (and scooping it up again). Finian found it loud and frightening. After a while, Fiona took him off to a cafe for a bit of peace. Then the parade ended and we couldn't find each other. I didn't have my phone - since I wasn't expecting any calls - so we couldn't meet up until we got home. That was quite a while later since we hunted for each other and then had to walk three stops back along the tram to get to where it was running, get on, get off and walk home.

Bought - Drying Rack

We bought a 2-in-1 washer-dryer a few weeks ago. The washer works well but the dryer takes a long time to dry a load. So we bought this drying rack. It's great, we put on the washer at night during the low rate hours, then hang the clothes on the rack in the morning, and roll it outside into "the courtyard" when it warms up a bit. If it rains, or the clothes aren't quite dry in the evening, we just roll it back inside and they are dry by morning.

We are still working on resisting the temptation to make slingshots from the clothes, to tie them to the rack using complicated knots, and to whip them off the rack with sticks, but we'll get there.

On The Menu

It was Ailbhe's turn to stay at school for lunch yesterday. When she came home, she said she liked everything and ate everything and wanted to stay again today. Friday is Fiacra's school lunch day but if they both have lunch at school then Connell and I can go out for lunch, so sure, she can stay.

Fiacra and Ailbhe's lunch menu:
Endives aux pommes (endive and apples, cooked I think)
Boeuf Bourguignon (beef stew)
Jeunes carottes persillees (baby carrots cooked in some way)
Yaourt Bio au citron (lemon yougort)
Gaufre liegeoise (a waffle-like dessert)
St Paulin + pain (cheese and bread)

Connell and Fiona's lunch menu:

Connell and I went to a restaurant in the square in front of the university. We both had the menu du jour above, which includes an appetizer, a choice of two main courses, dessert and coffee.

Appetizer - Belle assiette de crudite

My main course - Dorade 

The fish was served with this unidentified vegetable. It might be celeriac

 Connell's main course

Dessert - creme brulee, plum in chocolate sauce, and some unidentified yumminess

Finian slept in the stroller until just before dessert. He stirred when the waiter dropped beer mats on him and woke up when he apologized loudly.

This was the most delicious lunch. Can you believe it was 13 Euro? If Ailbhe wants to stay at school every Friday for lunch, Connell and I will manage somehow.

Spring

The cherry blossom bloomed while we were away. We saw this tree when we got back. Not that it was ever really winter, but I think spring is almost here.

New spring coat, same old Viking

I feel a little less glaringly non-French in my new (Irish) spring coat.

Ailbhe's 5th Birthday

Ailbhe celebrated her 5th birthday while we were in Ireland. She has been saying for quite a while that for her birthday she wanted to go to Busy Bees, an indoor play area in Oranmore, with all her cousins. So that's what we did. Our kids always seem to have multiple birthday celebrations and this was no different.

Her actual birthday was on Thursday so we had presents and cake then. Her Busy Bees party was on Saturday morning. We had lunch afterwards at my parents' house and then a birthday cake made by auntie Sinead. It was a lovely sunny day for once, so we went to Renville Park for the afternoon.

Ailbhe can be quite shy and doesn't like a lot of attention. She crawled under the table while we sang Happy Birthday on her birthday. She also doesn't like photos being taken of her. I managed to get one of her opening presents by telling her I would put the camera immediately away afterwards.

Ailbhe opening presents from Canada

Finian's Check-up

Finian had an appointment with a pediatric surgeon today to have his feet checked. It went fairly well. The doctor thinks his feet are too flexible so there is a risk of over-correction with the current brace. He doesn't use this kind of brace, he prefers to splint the feet separately. We will see him again in a month. Finian will continue to wear his brace at night for the next month but we may switch to splints then as his boots will be getting a bit small.

He was surprised that the tenotomy, where Finian's Achilles tendon was cut, was done under local anesthetic. In France, it's done under a general anesthetic. He was also surprised that his hips hadn't been x-rayed, x-rays of his hips and feet will be taken at the next appointment. I sure hope he doesn't have any hip displacia.

The doctor was really nice and said as we were leaving, "by the next rendez-vous, your French will be better than my English". I doubt it.