La Pâtisserie, Le Shopping et Le Bébé

Cherbourg has some lovely green bits!

Today (Saturday), I didn't officially have anything to do so got up, and cleaned the bathroom while I was in there. I don't actually have to do any cleaning/tidying - a little after the children, and obviously my own stuff - but sometimes I feel like I should help as Fran's really busy and struggles to keep on top of it all, particularly as Aurianne isn't settling at garderie (she's in her clingy phase at the moment so doesn't really want to leave her mum) and Marc is being difficult lately. Also, cleaning is a good way to move about and I need to do a bit more of that.

This afternoon I thought I'd go for a wander into town. Fran and Charly were going to a wine and cheese party at Charly's bosses house this evening and Fran wanted to make chocolate and vanilla éclairs to take with them and Charly needed a haircut. They were having a bit of a dilemma about how they were going to get Aurianne down for her nap so I just said I'd take her with me instead as she'd sleep in the pram.

The Theatre and Fountain in Cherbourg Town Square.

They have two prams - one is a little city three wheel pushchair and the other is a really pretty old fashioned pram. I'll take a picture of it at some point... The little one is great to get out quickly - you literally just pull a handle at the bottom of a seat and the whole thing folds up. The big pram is really great for getting Aurianne to sleep as she can lie down properly but is a little less maneuverable. I took the small one into town which I'm glad about as I wouldn't have been able to get the big one into all the shops.

I want to buy a new purse so I can have a french one and then I won't have to carry around all my English bank and loyalty cards when I'm out shopping in France. I saw lots but couldn't decide what kind to get. I really only need one that can fit money in it, plus a card or two and ideally capable of fitting my railcard in too, however in the shops I went in I could only find either coin purses or large purses. I'll just have to keep looking!

Detour on the way home - discovered a big graveyard.
Not sure how to get to it though
as this road was a dead-end.

I also wanted to buy a pot plant for my room, a few toiletries, a USB disc drive for my laptop (my disc drive isn't working properly and too much hassle to get the part replaced) and an SD Card for my digital photo frame. I managed to get toiletries in Carrefour Cite (a smaller, city version of Carrefour - think Tesco v. Tesco express) but as it's only small they didn't have pot plants, USB disc drives or SD cards. I did wander around for almost an hour but couldn't work out where else I could get those things. I saw one upmarket florist which probably had pot plants, but I expect they were €25 minimum and I didn't really want to spent quite that much...

View along the railway (right)

Aurianne was asleep by the time I got into town. I was ready to go home after about 45 mins but as this wasn't quite long enough for her to sleep I took a long detour, while trying to negotiate my way around Cherbourg's streets. We got to the house after about an hour and half of sleep but as she was still asleep I carried on walking past it. I'd not been that way before as it's leading out of the city and I don't think there's much in that direction (school and town etc. are all the other way) so wandered up to have a look. I had to cross a deserted (I think) railway line and then found a path leading up a hill towards the main road and a grassy area. I got to the top and took some pictures and then Aurianne woke up so I walked her back home.

View along the railway (left)

When we got back I found out that Charly still wasn't back from his haircut (he'd left at the same time as me) and that Fran was really annoyed. One of the reasons I'd taken Aurianne out was so that she could make the patisserie desserts for the party however the first batch of Choux buns had been knocked on the floor by Marc. Her second attempt also didn't go so well as Marc had been naughty and distracted her from the oven so they burnt. She was completely fed up as a one hour baking exercise had now taken nearly two and she still wasn't finished. I took the children into my room to let her get some peace and quiet to finish. About half an hour later Charly turned up so I passed them over to him.

I found a little corner shop/off-license style shop
which sold international newspapers and magazines.

They had these books (part of a series) called
'La Patrouille des Castors' (or 'The Beaver Patrol' in English)
which looked like it was about Beaver scouts!

Fran came in a few times to get me to taste her Vanilla Creme Patisserie, Chocolate filling and then a complete éclair once she'd put it together. The semi-burnt ones were fine, and you could hardly taste the burnt bits with all the tasty chocolate filling. She was rather pleased with that and so she filled up the burnt ones with chocolate/vanilla goodness so that we can eat those!

The children were fed and washed, and then Charly and Fran got ready to go out to the party. Aurianne was refusing to settle in her cot so they just passed her over to me for cuddles until she got sleepy. Aurianne isn't used to her parents leaving her so I spent over 2 hours trying to get her to sleep. She wouldn't let me put her down so I tried the baby carrier thing to relieve my arms, which didn't work the first time, but thankfully did the second. I think she finally fell asleep at about 10:15pm. I managed to get her out of the carrier and into bed without waking up, but 10 minutes later she woke up again. After nearly half an hour of cuddles back to sleep, I managed to get her back into her cot where she stayed asleep until they got back at about 1am. A pretty exhausting day!

Hopefully Aurianne will get better at sleeping/I'll get better at putting her to sleep, else it's going to be really difficult whenever they go out!

View from the top of the hill not far from the house.