1st Wk of the Hols: Carnival, Picnic & Pancakes

It might still only be February but the weather this first week of the holidays has been so good that we've spent loads of time outdoors. Saturday was the Carnival Biarnés. I don't really know how to describe what the reason for this event is, but its all about celebrating myths and stories of the Bearnaise culture. It lasts for three days and there's all sorts of crazy things happening in the streets of Pau like performance art, processions, singing, dancing and, of course, lots of partying. There was some sort of event on in Hédas on Friday night (it involved cross-dressing, but I'm not sure why?) and they'd put a huge marquee up to stage this party. On Saturday, there was a huge processesion going through the city which we went along to with the Titos and Sophie, and William hated it. He just kept crying and saying he wanted to go home. His favourite part of the day was getting to walk Pumpkin, and eat KFC. 

On Sunday, we enjoyed what is becoming a bit of a habit: a sunday afternoon stroll or bike ride, followed by a pint at Bondi on the way home. We even have our own table these days!

On Monday, I arranged to meet up with Jess, Arts and Frieda at Beaumont for a big play and a bit of a picnic. It was truly glorious and quite remarkable, given that it's just the start of spring. The boys played, we blethered and we even bumped into some different folk we knew who were as surprised as us that it was suddenly picnic weather. (Hayley, Libby and Ollie, and Jean-Nic.)

On Tuesday, we broke out the recently arrived baking items to make the obligatory pancakes. They were brilliant and William was just eating them as quickly as I was making them. ;-)

Finally this week, I managed to get in for a hair cut. Absolutely necessary with the trip back to the Motherland now imminent.