Fools in France

Luckily (for little boys with a wicked streak) the French observe April Fool's Day. We set the alarm clock for an early start and played our first trick on our neighbours - Mal and Paul.  We attached lots of tin cans on string to the back bumper of their car. The death rate for cars on the track to the Old Lock is fairly high and the hideous rattle they heard as they pulled out of their parking space dutifully worried them!

Meanwhile, all the local French schoolchildren were creating hundreds of paper fish.
And why?
Apparently in 1564 King Charles of France decreed that the new Gregorian calendar would replace the old Julian calendar. This meant a change to the order of the months and moved New Year's Day to the now familiar date of January 1st. In the Julian calendar the New Year had been celebrated at the end of March/beginning of April.
France is an enormous country and in 1564 it lacked cohesion and certainly did not have a reliable method of communicating to the masses. So the message about the new calendar did not get through to everybody and for quite some time there were people who still celebrated the New Year on the 1st of April. Those people who had made the change to the new official calendar made fun of those who had not changed and called them "fools". This eventually evolved into "Poisson d'avril" (meaning April fish) because this false New Year celebration coincided with the sun leaving the zodiacal sign of Pisces (which has a fish as its symbol).
Back to downtown St Jean de Losne and two Bailey boys running riot in the school playground along with all their classmates, sticking cartoon fish to teachers' and schoolfriends' backs and yelling "Poisson d'avril" at them.

007

Our spy gadget mad boy has reached the magical age of 007 and we had great fun marking the occasion.

Our neighbours, Paul and Mal, had organised a treasure hunt for the boating community that day and had gone out of their way to make it birthday-boy friendly.

That will teach him to use his knife properly!

We added to it by insisting that all competitors wear a pirate hat. Those that did not wear one would risk a penalty. And so sleepy Burgundy witnessed a procession of UK number-plated cars driven by pirates searching for clues in the oddest of places.

What happened in here?

It was great fun and we ended up in a cafe for birthday cake and song at the end of the hunt. Somehow, even though we did not win, the boys came away with plenty of prizes.

Auxonne Carnival

Our second visit to the walled town of Auxonne was as noisy as our first (back in September). But this time we were prepared for it. Every year in March the town goes mad for a whole weekend. It is carnival time and local people spend months preparing their floats which are decorated with paper flowers - on average 10,000 per float. The displays are imaginative and very colourful. We also reckoned that they were highly flammable, though this did not seem to worry the countless merry masqueraders who smoked as they danced onboard and alongside their floats. 

The crowds join in the fun by dressing up and bombarding anything that moves with copious amounts of confetti. Paradise for kids. We were all wearing viking helmets and the boys delighted in filling the helmets with confetti before placing them on our heads. 

Half-term happenings

The boys have taken a liking to the French school system - probably because they realised that they get two weeks holiday at half-term rather than just one! The flipside is that parents have to find double the fun to fill the time...

Notched up a bit more skiing.

Took a trip to Beaune on market day; stocked up on necessary liquid refreshment nearby...

Visited Besancon and the Citadelle perched high above the city. Somehow or other we managed to get into the Citadelle for free and were amazed to find a zoo nestled within the fortifications, an aquarium in the armoury, gibbons gurning in the gatehouse, kangaroos kipping in the keep, tigers tango dancing in the tower and made sure we took a photo of the Baileys buffooning in the bailey.

STOP PRESS! Callum leaves trampoline!

Hot news here in downtown St Jean de Losne. Callum "bouncy boy" Bailey actually left the trampoline today and transformed back into Callum "bilge rat" Bailey. Shouts of "eureka" were heard from the engine room as a use has finally been found for Callum's infamous happy hands... valve grinding.

Winter chores in the engine room

Andy is now living in Lobelia's engine room and is attracting as much oil and grease as possible. He calls it engine maintenance and tells me that he is refurbishing the cylinder heads - all ten of them.
Lobelia was in serious need of a de-coke and a valve regrind (aren't we all?) and we hope that this will improve her breathing, help her to give up smoking and stop her from gassing onlookers at locks.
Andy thanks his dad for teaching him the ancient art of valve lapping at an early age and is hoping to pass this knowledge on to his own sons if he can get them off the trampoline.
Shiv has visited the engine room with cups of coffee and did clear some 25 year old slimy black yuck from the nearly-inaccessible bilge under the engine. Nice!

This engine runs on tomato soup!

The Pudding Club Premiere

Dan, Cal and Shiv had all decided to enter the Pudding Club competition, so Lobelia's kitchen was a veritable cloud (some might say fog) of flour and icing sugar as the big day approached. Dan's three tier cake was beautifully made and we enjoyed watching him decorate it.
Callum chose to make Queen of Hearts jam tarts and Shiv opted for rosebud shaped red velvet cupcakes.
Andy decided to be an official taster!

Nine contestants and nine very different plates of goodies awaited the judges. Dan organised the event beautifully and greeted each contestant with compliments whilst relieving them of an entry fee. Onlookers received the same treatment and forked out euros in exchange for a tasting.
Unfortunately none of us was a winner this time... but the event was popular so it looks as though we will be back to try again sometime soon.