Day two : Accrobranche in the forest of Marsanne, Drôme

Yes, the last three posts concerned only the first day of our two day vacation in the Drôme... So here's day two.
After a few more hours of sheer bliss on the couch...


...we went to "mountain" climb in the trees!
(After tapenade, here's another of our pleasures that's not for Monique!)
First of all, you need all sorts of complicated gear...


As you might notice, Malcolm and I - Henry that is - were very careful that our helmets were put on right.



Stella didn't think she looked very cool in the gear so this is about the last you'll see of her.




While Stella and I went directly to the Red courses (= hard), Mom and Malcolm started with a Blue course (= medium difficulty which Mom found plenty hard enough).





Mom resting after the first Blue course!


Malcolm then did a Red course on his own 'cause Mom couldn't even get up onto the first platform - not for lack of trying, though! That way she got some good shots of Malcolm from below.



He was WAY, WAY up there!


Thank you little Leica with the eagle eye!



After that, Stella and Malcolm did another Red course together, while I headed off to the...


...you got it: Black is black! And black means extêmement difficile so it has to be in French!


This ain't so HARD!


Well... Ummm....







Ouf, I made it!



ZOOM!


The end is near!



Was I happy to have done it? More like tired and thirsty, man!


Enough trees! We raced to the pool to get an hour's swimming in before the closing but Mom forgot the swim suits... We were NOT happy! But by the time we got home we felt better and when we were greeted by this fellow we couldn't resist snapping his portrait!


In the end, Mom and I went out to get a few last photos of the Kill Bill chapel at the entrance of the village...



...then it was one last dinner on the terrace...


...bye-bye Manas...


And back to Paris by car the next day!



We've had a great vacation! But summer is coming to an end. Mom's back to work tomorrow and we're back to school on Thursday - On THURSDAY!!! Oh, please, let's don't get Mom going on the crazy French school system! - Dad's starting rehearsals again on September 10th, so with all this business going on there might be a little less blogging! We shall see.

On the cliffs of Eyzahut (part two) : The plains of Poët Mountain

After a short but hot climb up from the Ferret's hole, we reached the plains of Poët Mountain, where earth and sky meet.



We were hungry. We were thirsty. We were hollering for a hearty pirates' picnic, AHHHRRR!


Yes, that's the tip of a real French baguette you see there and - eat your heart out, Monique - the black stuff is known as Tapenade : crushed, black olive dip! Mmmmm, just your typical southern French cliff-pirating fare!


Once we'd eaten our fill, we went exploring...


... and what did we find?...


... No, Monique, not Shadowfax but...


A free horse of Narnia!


He was one of the most beautiful horses we'd ever seen! A proud Pinto with his mane flying in the wind! We were almost afraid.


After the Leica, Henry got the closest.


And the Pinto was not alone! A whole herd of free horses was hidden beyond the horizon. Don't worry, we won't post ALL the photos Stella took of them (nor the video where Mom and the talking horses have a long discussion about public health care for the free animals of Narnia during the Golden Age when the sons of Adam and the daughters of Eve sat on the four thrones of Cair Paravel and ruled Narnia with wisdom beyond their years), we'll spare you...


But not the foal, I mean, we can't spare you the foal, because, I mean! There was even a free FOAL of Narnia! Wow!!!!!


Finally, as the day died, we managed to say good-bye to the horses and we headed down...


...over rocks...



...through woods...



... singing, on the top of our lungs, "Billy Jean is not my lover..." - which is, of course, the only song one would expect this wild type of scenery to inspire, n'est-ce pas? -(luckily we were like ALONE!)...


...and down, down into the glorious....sunset!



Which might seem to be just the right place to end this post but we've decided to grant you a few more shots of the beauty we saw on the way back to Manas.



A forgotten corner of strip mine filled with junk! It all looked so nice and rosy in the sunset! Unfortunately, Mom refused to let us take anything but pictures home...





Good night, moon!