Autumn break in Belgium and France

For the autumn break we planned to go to our house in France again, to get everything ready for winter and to take a break after the hectic weeks with the funeral and the seemingly never ending renovation upstairs. A few months earlier Piet proposed a change to the regular schedule: a long weekend stopover in the Ardennes on the way down. He found a very nice 4-person room in a renovated 17th century farmhouse, in the beautiful village of Furfooz, a few minutes’ drive east of Dinant. The weather was great, and we did some of the classics…

The first day we went to Dinant and climbed the citadel, located some 100 m above the town, and with a great view over the Meuse river. We enjoyed the guided tour by an old, tri-lingual Belgian man, especially his English translations. In the afternoon we did a walk from Furfooz, past Chateau de Vêves, another Ardennes classic, and ending up at the Lesse river. The next day we drove to Han, to visit the caves, which is one of the oldest tourist destinations in Europe. Despite going in with a lot of people the 2 km underground walk was very impressive and enjoyable. In the afternoon we did a hike around Han. The 3rd day we walked to Parc de Furfooz, a small archeological area next to the village, with some Roman remain and pre-historic caves. After lunch we did a trip along Mary’s memory lane: the climbing rocks of Freyr, at the Meuse river, just south of Dinant. During her university days she used to come here a few times a month to go rock climbing with fellow daredevils, and it was impressive for us to see these near-vertical, 100 m high walls she used to tackle. We descended to the river and walked along it to the Lesse, and back up again. Unfortunately their old hangout “Chamonix”, where they used to eat chips after a hard day of climbing, was closed for the day.

The next morning we drove to Bassey (Paula turned 16 this day!), and we arrived late in the afternoon. We had a few presents and dinner in the local pizzeria to celebrate. The next day it rained, so we did some shopping, and pottered around the house. This was followed by 3 glorious days of sunshine, and work in the garden. Mary finally managed to convince the rest to dig up the drainpipe, which has been blocked for some time, and was overflowing during rain showers. It looked like a daunting task, but with the 4 of us we managed fine. We replaced the pipe along the house and in the garden, dug a drain hole at the end, and filled it with gravel from our local river Sarenne, and then buried the whole thing again. Now we have to wait for a heavy rain storm to see if it all works.

We also had some time for our favorite pastimes: Piet did two bike rides, freezing his body parts on the descends, Paula and Dorien went twice to Cecile to do some horse riding, and Mary used the chainsaw to prune the old apple trees in the garden. The girls also picked a lot of apples to make apple crumble and compote, and there were plenty left to take home for some more batches. It was all finished off with a record drive back to The Hague, ready for the winter.

The next morning we found out that the contractor doing the renovation had gone belly up...

Dinant and the river Meuse

Walking near Furfooz

In the caves of Han sur Lesse

The climbing walls at Freyr are rising straight up from the river Meuse

Digging up the drainpipe in our garden

Family matters

We have had an emotional week, as Piet's mother has suddenly, but not unexpectedly, passed away peacefully in her own house. Her health had been deteriorating the past few years, and her body had just given up. Piet, Mary, his two sisters, his brother and their partners have spent the whole week at the parental house planning the funeral, starting organising some of the household and paperwork, and mainly being together to support each other and share memories. Piet's mother was a very warm and caring person, who has supported us through our years abroad, and she also had a very close bond with Paula and Dorien. Her passing is a great loss for us.

The week ended with a funeral service in the church nearby, and afterwards she was placed in the graveyard, next to Piet's father. This was followed by a reception in a nearby restaurant, where we met a lot of family and friends that we hadn't seen in a long time. Everyone had the same positive stories and memories, and it was a very satisfying ending of a hectic week.

Piet's mother with Paula and Dorien in the desert near Cairo, December 2007

Paula's Personal Project

As part of her IB MYP (middle years program) Paula has to do a personal project. This is something completely undefined, with a subject you can determine yourself; the only requirement is that a product is delivered and a final report is written. Choosing the subject was not difficult, it had to be something with horses. But what..?

Before the summer Paula and Mary stumbled across someone on Internet with a veterinary background who was painting on horses to indicate organs and bones. Thus the idea was born to give a lesson at the local stable on the internal organs of a horse, using a painted, real horse for demonstration. Then the search for the right paint started, and, after a few trials, Paula got in contact with a horse chiropractor (yes, they exist), who pointed her to the best paint to use. After a few trial sessions and practicing her lesson with us, Paula was ready. She delivered her lesson with confidence, using horse Vera as prop, in front of some 20 people at the stable. And everybody learned something!

Paula has kept her own blog as a journal of the project, so if you want to know more: http://horseanatomypp.blogspot.com/