Loire Valley - The Siblings

Travelling with two young children on one of my typical holiday schedules is turning into quite a tiring challenge.  When we did it with Soph a few years ago, it was easier (although if you told me it was easy back then, I would have punched you in your face).  She was younger and lighter and less demanding.  We stuffed her into our trusty Ergo carrier, and stuck a bottle of milk in her when she got hungry, and she slept while we traversed Europe.  When she got bored or protested with her whines, we threw a set of keys or a useless brochure at her, and voila, she was entertained.


Now, here's what we have to resort to, to buy a few minutes of peace while we attempted to enjoy our castles and its histories:

Racing cars on the iPhone while Baba absorbs the meaning of the monograms on the fireplace in Chateau de Chenonceau.  It stands for the king's initials (H), the queen's initials (C), AND together, they form his mistress' initials (D).

The iPhone saves the day again while we waited for our lunch.  

Occasionally, we said "No!" to more iPhone, and here's what we got.  

And of course, don't ask me about the history of the Chateau de Chenonceau, ask THEM.  They hogged our audio guides, while we just wandered around aimlessly amongst a collection of decrepit furniture and dark, musty rooms that some king or queen must have lived in.  Aaargh!!    

Similarly for the Chateau de Chambord. 

And this is the bag lady of the Chateau de Chenonceau who wanders around with rubbish dangled around her - a 15kg #$%@ SLR camera, another digital camera, an audio guide, a backpack with 5 jackets stuffed into it, several toys and brochures grasped in her hands.  


We hear that she is sometimes heard to mumble to herself,..."...kids! $%^ ...no audio guide... which King??... stupid heavy SLR...$%^@"

Complaints aside, there were nice, happy moments, of course, especially when one is beginning to really exhibit his cheeky side and his learning abilities, and the other continues to amaze us with her observation and is beginning to assume her big sister role seriously.

Let's taunt the girls!

And Baba, here's how the car goes: Vvrooom!

Soph takes a break from touring  the Chateau de Chambord to pose with her best friend

Soph holding onto Ju at Blois, while we watched the horse & buggy ride go past

We made a special trip to Saumur, a place known for its cultivation of mushrooms, because Soph's fave food of the moment is the mushroom (yeah, she is strange...and she didn't get it from my side of the family, OK?).  We visited the caves which remain at a constant cool temperature of 16 C year round, and are hence the best places to cultivate and grow mushrooms.  

 Ju has no idea what was happening, but he was happy to imitate whatever his Che Che did

 Mushrooms galore!

 Blue mushrooms are supposedly a specialty in the region

Snails galore! (Yes, they also raise snails for consumption)

Yes, I forgot to mention that we also had to resort to buying a new toy for Ju when he was really upset at his Baba (long story).  

Do you think they will leave us here?  Maybe we should be nice to them for a change?