This weekend was pretty spectacular. I didn't know until the middle of the week that it was going to be a 3-day weekend for Colby, and while he had the alert phone for work, we weren't able to stray too far, but we did sneak off for a quick little adventure across the French border!
It just so happened, that last week I had lunch with a good friend who had mentioned visiting a very cool citadel in the curiously named, Bitche, France. I was running low on ideas for good day trips, so it was perfect timing for her to mention it. Friday, we packed up the girls and made the hour-long drive to Bitche.
The citadel was considered to be inpregnable, and its most important moment of history was during the Franco-Prussian war, when France lost a great deal of territory near their shared border to the Germans. The presentation of this time during the citadel's exitence was extremely well done. When we bought our tickets, we were each given a set of headphones and directed to the first stop of the tour in a small theater, housed in what used to house the guards.
At each stop along the tour, a 3-7 minute piece of a movie is shown, which tells the story of how the citadel stood against the invading Prussian forces. It was an incredibly well-done film, and really engaged me in the story in a way that doesn't often happen for me at battle sites.
When we finished our tour, we stopped in the cafe to feed ourselves and the babies, then continued on to our next exciting stop--the Cora supermarket in Forbach, France. We'd been hearing about the Cora since we moved here--how they had a great fish selection, good cheap wines, and more, but we hadn't been yet mainly because I found it hard to get overly excited about a supermarket. OH HOW WRONG WAS I!!! Suffice it to say, I got really, really excited about this supermarket.
We spent about an hour wandering the aisles, and came home with a trunk full of goodies from fish to cheese to macaroons to macarons and more. That night we came home and enjoyed a delicious salmon dinner, and last night we enjoyed lamb filet mignon with herbed butter and white asparagus--all paired with authentic French bread, bien sûr. It's about a 40-minute drive from our house to Cora, but I think we'll try to make time for the journey on a semi-regular basis!
The rest of the weekend was spent lazing about the house catching up on a couple seasons worth of Doctor Who, Skyping with some friends and family, and doing some long-put-off decorating in the nursery. We also made the executive decision that every weekend should be a three-day-weekend. Who's with us?
Oh wow, that is my kind of market!
Posted by: Natalia | April 22, 2013 at 05:31 PM
Awesome! Love your adventures. Cora was mentioned in one of my business classes, I always wondered how it was.
Pics of nursery? :)
Posted by: Katie | April 23, 2013 at 02:09 AM
I've long been a proponent of the three day weekend and four day work week. I wholeheartedly agree!! Looks like yours was fun! So lucky to be experiencing Europe.
Posted by: Rachel@MyWholesomeHome | April 23, 2013 at 02:20 AM
Very cool adventure! And the literal French translation for "Laughing Cow" cheese is really cute.
Posted by: Kate P | April 23, 2013 at 04:25 AM
We have yet to go there, and now I really want to go! :)
Posted by: Jen | April 23, 2013 at 12:09 PM
Just got caught up reading about your girls and adventures. They're gorgeous!!
Posted by: Elle sees | April 23, 2013 at 07:54 PM
Sounds like a great weekend! I love the photos from the Citadel!
Posted by: Jessica | April 29, 2013 at 02:30 AM