Saturday 26 February 2011

Statue of Liberty and other sights.

Ha! Tricked you, am not in New York.

One sunny day in a row! Well partly sunny. Our first stop was Soulac sur Mer which also has a statue of liberty. While most of the Medoc region used to be swamp until the 1600's Soulac has some Roman ruins. The Church has an interesting past as well.
The original town was covered by sand-dunes, then dug up and rebuilt. How easy it would be for me to google, copy and paste some info about it but the German Defense Minister did this recently with his Doctorate so I'll let you do it yourself. Don't wanna be caught plagiarizing.  
There is also apparently a great Archeological Museum in Soulac but I wonder how long a 4 year old would remain entertained there. Instead we went to the Municipal Markets. Most of the towns in the Medoc are quite sleepy or completely dead this time of year but Soulac is an exception. And Nina is a French girl and loves her food.
Beaches are always popular with her and my challenge was keeping her out of the water. She made friends with a dog and that helped.

After a very long time (for me) on the beach I managed to lure her back to the Car with the promise of Pizza.
When I first came to Naujac there was a lady making Pizza's from the back of a Van. The Pizza's still exist but are now being made by her daughter. Ellianne now has a Pizzaria in Le Verdon. It is called "le magician d'oc" address: 22 Rue Francois Le Breton. It has our seal of approval. 
After lunch we of course had to go to another beach. On the way we saw a house transformed for a WW2 bunker. There are many that dot the coastline here. 
After spending several days mainly indoors Nina couldn't get enough of sand.
So after a whole afternoon running around you may imagine Nina was quite tired. Not so.
Anyway, I get up before 8am every morning now because this little alarm clock has no batteries and is too big to throw out of the window :)  I am learning more tricks, how to get her to go to bed voluntarily(checking her room for monsters), how to get her to eat her greens (her mum didn't eat her greens and is therefore short while I did) but if any parents out there can tell me any other ways of tricking a smart 4 year old I am all ears. I'm serious. Please. Pretty please? 









6 comments:

  1. It looks like you and Nina had a wonderful day. Makes me want to go to a beach! Saw your other post about her being a future UT Dallas student. Have you taught her chess yet? I have some tips on the pre-K child and chess at http://main.uschess.org/content/view/6994/132/ (requires USCF membership to access this Chess Life article)

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  2. Excellent merci Alex...cu both soon

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  3. Very sweet, wonderfull article Alex :-)
    Enjoy Naujac, greetings to everybody!!
    Evi

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  4. Alex,
    Love those photos ! Who Doesnt'love the beach? And I know that the future power symbols are the keys to the bathroom and the closest parking space,so you just experienced Western culture at it worst.........Many people pee and poop outside all over the world as do the animals, a truly natural organic experience !! I've enjoyed it myself in Mexico and Cuba as well as in my own backyard occasionally.....Just good early experience for her !!
    Meanwhile,I was thinking why don't you make her shakes in the morning with good green stuff in them . A product here is called Green Magma which comes in liquid or powder,Add honey and banannas and other yummy sweet stuff life yogurt etc and she'll get the good stuff she needs without have to eat those yucky greens she doesn't like !! Maybe you can find some cheese she might like with spinach or at least chives mixed in for some added good things. Otherwise I know a man in Germany that sells some wonderful shakes and vitamins that could be sneaked into her morning oj or a shake !! I"ll turn you on to him if you want......all the best dear and so glad you got to be with her.....

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  5. hi alex,

    we cannot believe that Nina is meanwhile such a lovely girl, having met her last time when she was 1 year. It's just wonderful seeing father and daughter together.
    we are still here in Burleigh and we tell you we have a very nice beach too, although our baby is already 38 years old. you know whom we mean.
    have a nice time in France.
    Margit and Jeff

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  6. Isn't greek salad the key to everything in life? If she is OK with tomatoes and olive, you can start embelishing it with more greens than meet the eye

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