Springtime in Paris

Springtime in Paris is just lovely! It seems like every week we see a new type of flower.

A month ago we visited Parc de Sceaux in Paris and saw the cherry blossoms. It was gorgeous! We found a nice spot to sit and hang out and our girls loved running around. Our toddler would pick up flowers off the ground and hand them out to people around us. So cute.

These two are just too cute

Looking up at the blossoms

All around where we live there are a ton of rapeseed fields. We went for a walk back in May when the flowers were blooming and enjoyed all the pretty yellow flowers.

Back when we had blue skies and sunshine

Even though we've had non-stop rain lately, Spring has definitely been my favorite time here so far!

An Afternoon in Ghent

On our way home from the Netherlands, we stopped in Ghent for a quick visit. Ghent is a beautiful city in Belgium and we were excited to add it to the list of places we've visited in the country.

I love the buildings!

 We started off by visiting the office of tourism where they gave us a map that showed us the major sights and a walk that would take us by each one.

Such a pretty view

We enjoyed walking through the city and admiring the beautiful architecture. The river running through the city is very scenic and was very pleasant to walk along.

We stopped for lunch at Quick, Belgium's version of McDonald's... Unfortunately, it also tasted about the same as McDonald's. But, it was a quick meal and allowed us time to continue our afternoon in Ghent.

 We were excited to visit the Gravensteen castle that we had seen on our drive in, but first we wanted to grab a waffle. As we were buying our treat, we could hear a man selling triangular candy called "Noses of Ghent". He handed us a sample and we decided to buy a few to bring home with us.

 Our last stop was the castle. Originally built in 918 for the Count of Flanders. It was a pretty neat castle on the outside with lots of space to run around for the kids.

The inside had a collection of knights and swords, but also had a room full of torture chamber items that the girls and I did not enter. 

We were able to climb to the top of the castle and get a wonderful view of the city! 

 Overall, it was a nice break in our drive from the Netherlands back to our home in France.

We enjoyed the prettiest sunset driving from Ghent back to Paris!

The Netherlands with Kids: Zaanse Schans

Our previous day in the Netherlands with our kids had been a success! Both our girls had slept pretty well and we were ready for our next adventure.

Zaanse Schans is a living history open air museum located just 30 minutes outside of Amsterdam. In 1961, historic windmills and houses were moved to this area and today Zaanse Schans is a popular tourist destination in the Netherlands.

The different machines at the chocolate museum

Along with windmills, there is also a chocolate factory that one can tour, a museum that showcases the history of the area, and several small buildings where one can learn about cheese, clogs, and more.

We went through the museum first which then led right into the chocolate factory. The factory had all the different old-fashioned machines and we got to watch as chocolate and little biscuits were made. At the end, an employee gave each of us a biscuit that had been made there. 

We had lunch at the pancake restaurant and then went to check out one of the windmills that grinds spices. It was pretty neat seeing how the windmill worked and being able to smell the spices.

Then we checked out the cheese farm where we got to sample somewhere around 15 different cheeses. My favorite was a young goat cheese and we ended buying some to bring back home with us.

We bought a Zaanse Schans card which covered many of our activities. It was nice to have and we definitely got good use out of it.

One of our favorite things that we did was visit one of the oil windmills, De Bonte Hen. It was built in 1693 and has been the victim of fire and lightning strikes on several occasions. With each fire, it was put out in time and any damage was repaired. 

This mill continues to produce oil on a regular basis today.

Inside and at the top of a windmill

The volunteer went through and showed us the process to make the oil. It was definitely not kid-proof at all (I kept our baby in the stroller the whole time while Aaron held our toddler), but it was a really neat experience. There was also a ladder that we were able to climb to the top of the windmill!

The view from the top of the oil windmill

We also visited the weaving workshop where we learned about sail making and how people lived back then. The ladies there were so nice! They were able to get our toddler to smile (she was a little sad at the moment) and helped us get our double stroller inside.

The weaving workshop - learning how sails were made.

London sitting on a tiny Dutch bed

The clog workshop was fun to visit as well. There was a little museum with clogs of all occasions when we first walked in. Apparently, before a man proposed, he carved some very intricate designs onto some clogs and then gave them to the woman when he asked to marry her. There were also painted clogs, ice clogs, and even a pair of bejeweled clogs. We also got to watch a guy make a pair of clogs. He had a little machine that carved out the shoe and then he has to let the clogs dry for some time before they can be painted.

Clogs! The top right are engagement clogs, in the middle below is a machine making clogs, and the bottom right is a pair of sparkly clogs.

Once we finished up at Zaanse Schans, we drove to Volendam to get dinner at the port. We meant to go to the historic port, but ended up at the more modern day port. This ended up being a great thing though, because we had one of the best dinners ever at Smitbokkum. 

It was a beautiful restaurant with a beautiful view of the port. The food was amazing and everyone there was so nice to our girls. They even gave London a little chocolate and a magnet at the end of our visit!

We all got to try salted herring for the first time and we all really liked it. We also tried smoked salmon mousse (so, so good), Dutch shrimp, smoked sea bass, and regular smoked salmon. It was all fantastic. Our toddler ate a little of everything and liked it, our baby ate mostly bread and beets. :)

It was an outstanding end to our day and to our trip in general. We had a great time in the Netherlands with our kids!

Our view while we ate.