Jennifer takes her girls to France

Every year we look for­ward to our trip to visit my Mum in France. Getting there is never won­der­ful and this year was no dif­fer­ent. We landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport and took the TGV from Paris to Dijon. My lit­tle girls are bril­liant trav­el­ers with their own lit­tle cases and back­packs full of books and crayons to keep them amused en route, but its still a big trip for kids. Finally we arrived in Dijon, famous for its mustard, cathedral and intri­cately tiled roofs. The cap­i­tal of Burgundy is full of won­der­ful churches and cob­bled streets, but eager to fin­ish our jour­ney we took a cab to my par­ents boat moored in St Jean de Losne, on the River Soane, where 5 canals join up. Family reunions on the rivers of France have become a way of life since my par­ents took their boat there sev­eral years ago. This year my brother Ali joins us from Australia and the girls can’t wait to get to know their Uncle dur­ing our week with him.

This area is rich with boat­ing his­tory from the days when peniches (work­ing canal boats) were towed by horses and hauled grain and sup­plies through­out France. We saw beau­ti­ful restored peniches, today used as float­ing homes for the grow­ing num­ber of expats who tour the canals and rivers dur­ing the sum­mer. The other boats we admired were Dutch barges also restored as hol­i­day homes.

We made our­selves well known at a rather rumpty lit­tle river­side café where the Austrian chef (once head chef at The Ritz in Austria), cre­ated won­ders in the tiny kitchen bring­ing us fresh pâté and del­i­ca­cies like fra­grant rab­bit stew washed down with local red wine. I man­aged to talk my way into the kitchen and got to see the chef at work first hand. Market fresh is the sta­ple in these lit­tle fench towns and the food is extro­d­i­nar­ily delicious.

We girls took bike rides through fields of sun­flow­ers and along the river path where the river­banks were a riot of incred­i­ble wild flow­ers, mak­ing flower crowns and pick­ing flow­ers for jam jar vases back on the boat.

Every year we look for­ward to the spe­cial fla­vors of France. Mum’s spe­cial is her home­made and most deli­cious Sloe gin, which she steeps for years in a dark place on the boat. When poured it’s incred­i­bly potent and moorish! For those moments when alcholic bev­er­ages are not appro­pri­ate she serves home­made elder­flower juice.We all sam­ple local cham­pagne and wines each day on our for­ays away from the river and just can’t get enough of the local fare. Favorite sweet things are the gelato col­ored mac­a­roons, (pic­tured below) the very french sweet cookie found in every good patis­serie along the way. Our lunch of choice is a baguette, local cheese, fois gras, local sausage with a glass of wine, even my girls devour the stinkyest cheeses with gusto! Each day we had long lazy lunches sprawled on the river bank. Then the girls swam in the river and swung out over the water on a rope tied high up in a tree.

We took a day trip to Louhans via train with its incred­i­ble mar­ket, loud and alive with live­stock. Vendors dis­play over 40 kinds of chick­ens, ducks, rab­bits all sold live for the pot. Great stands of local veg­gies, cheeses and meats line the cob­bled streets. A high­light was the visit to the Hotel Dieu. This grand old Hotel or hos­pi­tal was run by nuns. The nuns were only allowed to bring one piece of fur­ni­ture when they entered the orders, today these intri­cate and beau­ti­ful armours line the halls. I was enchanted by the wood­pan­eled med­i­cine room lined with exquis­ite stone and glass apothe­cary jars. Back home we can only dream about french antiques like these, yet they are every­where in these crum­bling old towns.

Its never easy leav­ing my Mum and this year my brother too, but our two weeks passes far to swiftly. All too soon we are back at home where sum­mer has arrived, if rather damply and we look for­ward to our stint at the Shore while Mac is busy with his Meet Us At The Beach sessions.