Bitche, France November 14, 2009

So it's been a while since we have taken any trips anywhere. In the time since our last trip (Belgium August 7-8) Matthew Isaac was born (Sept 21), Thom was in the field for 2 weeks (Oct 9-23) and I had surgery for 2 lacerated tendons in my ring finger(Nov 6). So as you can see, taking trips was not a priority for us. We did attend some fests locally (Medieval fest, potatoe fest and a pumpkin fest). They were a lot of fun, and very yummy to experience the local food.

So today we decided to go to Bitche (pronounced Bee-shay) France. It is only 45 minutes from the house. The day started off with an overcast and held up for a few hours. We went to Citadel de Bitche first. This use to be a huge fortress built in the 17th century that has underground kitchens, dormitories and even a hospital. Unfortunately it was closed (not sure why), so we couldn't tour the inside. We walked the perimeter and got some pretty good pictures. It took us about an hour to walk around it...but take into consideration we have Emilee and Dominick with their small legs.

As you can see, it was very, very windy. This was near the end of our walk, and by this time Dominick was not wanting to walk anymore, so it was a good time to head for the car. Oh, before we were able to get into the car we had to clean off the dog poop from Gabi's shoes. Let me tell you...that is not only gross, but disrespectful. I can't stand it when people leave their dogs excrements "out" for others to find!!! And that is a smell that I do not want "stuck" in my brand new car carpets.

After we left the fortress, it was time to try some of the French cuisine. We drove around "downtown" and found a cute little restaurant on a lake named Auberge du Lac. We, unfortunately, forgot our French phrase book at home, so we had to wing it. We knew we were in trouble when we walked in, and they greeted us in French, and sat us. They told us the specials in French, and the only word we were able to decipher was PIZZA. So we knew that was a safe bet for the kids. Thom and I were going to be brave and explore the menu, and hope for the best. Thom ordered Grillee maitre de hotel, which was a very good and tender steak. He had mixed vegetables sauteed in butter and spices, and french fries. I ordered La Bouchee a la Reine riz-frites. This too was very good. It looked like a Hungry Jack biscuit, filled with mushrooms, chicken and gravy. It reminded me of a pot-pie. I also had french fries. The kids enjoyed there pizzas....but it takes a lot to mess up pizza. They did say that they liked the pizza in Rome better.....how funny...our little food critiques!!! This picture was taken outside the restaurant.

It was cold outside and it started raining. We were told to go visit St Catherines church, because it has a really big organ inside. After finding the church I ran inside to check it out and see if it was worth pulling the kids out of the car in the rain. It was a nice church, and the organ was big (not huge), but it looked like mass was going to start, so we didn't pull everyone out of the car.

We wanted to see if there was anything else we could do since it was early afternoon, and had less than an hour to get home. We did a search on our GPS for attractions, and randomly chose a park and museum. Unfortunately the park was an archaelogical excavation site...hhmm who knew that is what the name of the park was on the GPS. So off to the museum....but that was closed. The weather was getting worse, so we decided to head home. It was an interesting day. Oh I forgot to mention, we brought our passports just in case....well Matthew doesn't have his yet, and they took Thom's and my passports to process Matthew's, so we were technically in France illegally....but no one has to know...and its not like there was a checkpoint!!! So that is the story for our first trip to France. We will be returning, because Thom is running a marathon in Paris in April...so stay tuned.

Our next adventure is over the Thanksgiving break....renting a cabin in the Alps in Garmisch Germany....doing some sledding, and going to visit Neuschwanstein castle (the "princess" castle where Walt Disney got the idea for his castle at Disney World). Should be a good time!!!!