Love the month of October... the days are getting cooler but the sun is still shining bright, leaves are changing colors, Lil' C's birthday is around the corner, and of course Halloween. The weather has been incredibly beautiful. We've been trying to take advantage of the weather and going out as much as possible. And this past weekend was a perfect weekend to be out & about.
Last Saturday Greek Grrrl and I took our kids to the Labyrinthe near Durbuy. It was a gorgeous day! The kids had a blast. The Labyrinthe is essentially a gigantic corn field they turn into a maze. Every year they cut the fields differently to change the design of the maze. There are 6 characters hidden throughout the maze and the goal is to find them. Once you find the characters they perform little skits.
The skits seem interesting but it would have been nice to understand what they were talking about. Especially the character who was running around laughing and throwing the map booklets in the air. I'm not sure what that was about! lol!
At the beginning, Greek Grrrl & I let the boys navigate us around the maze.I enjoyed watching them while they looked at the map in detail trying to figure out the best possible route.
It was really cute to watch Lil' C & Lil' X work together to figure out which path was the correct one. They were a great little team! Both boys were so excited to lead us to the characters and eager to go ahead of us and check whether a particular path was a dead end or not.
After about an hour or two Greek Grrrl and I started to look at the map. We didn't necessarily want to stay in the maze the entire day. lol! I'm sure the kids could have wondered around for a while longer. We managed to find 4 characters which was pretty good.
When we found the last one, the witch, we were the only people there so she started to do her skit in English. She was talking about a magic potion to clean her castle and I also think she started to talk about fairies. I'm not sure though since a few minutes after she began her performance a big group of people came into the circle and she began speaking in French again.
Once we found our way out of the maze, we went to a smaller maze which was really fun. The kids had a great time. Lil'C & Lil' X were having so much fun hiding from Greek Grrrl and I. It was fun at first but I started to freak out a bit when I couldn't find Lil' C. At one point we couldn't get ourselves out of the maze. The doors to get in or out of the maze were locked and we didn't know the code. Thank goodness, someone eventually came to the door and unlocked it for us.
Here is Lil' Greek Grrrl, Lil' X's sister. She is so adorable and will completely melt your heart with her cuteness. Any time Lil' Greek Grrrl would run off Lil' C would try to stop her. He was being super protective of her. It was cute to watch. He'd be such a great big brother.
The following day I woke up super early and went to a flea market outside of Brussels. It wasn't your normal type of Brocante... it was more like a garage sale you'd see back home. Lots of neighbors outside selling things they no longer wanted. It was a perfect event for people looking for french books, toys and clothing for children. I didn't see very many things I liked but I did walk away with a pair of little girl wooden dutch shoes... in red! I already have a pair in black so these red ones will be a nice addition. I also found a Turkish little plate for .50 Euro cents that matches a tiny bowl I bought at the Turkish International luncheon a while back. I was thrilled to find this little treasure.
After I came home S went grocery shopping and C & I worked on some math homework. Once we were done we drove to centre of Tournai. The town was hosting a Medieval festival that sounded fun. Since we went in the later part of the day I wasn't sure if the festival would be dying down but it was quite the opposite.
There were lots of dance & theatrical performances, live music, and concession stands with medieval products like bows & arrows, knives, jewelry, leather products and small fairy statues. Lil' C wanted a wooden bow & arrow which we thought would be really fun for him. The other day he designed his own bull's eye to practice.
These knights were fighting in a very small square and they came dangerously close to us. We had to continue to tell Lil' C to move back. There were swords and spiked, metal balls flying all over the place.
At the back of the church there were several food vendors selling products like apples, honey, candy, churros, and Falafels... my favorite. My friend, Marathon Grrrl & her husband UPS man introduced me to Falafels a few years ago when I met them in Paris. And I love them! So when I saw these falafels I couldn't resist. S has never tried them so I definitely had to buy him some as well. Now ordering falafels took forever and when I say forever I mean FOOOORREVER!! This guy knew how to work the crowd. He'd make just a few falafels at a time which made everyone want them even more. And when people see a crowd they natuarally go to the area to see what all the fuss is about. Once people stopped by the stand I'm sure they were wondering what was going on since the man wasn't doing much. Eventually he started to cook but he was taking his sweet time to make each falafel. The man was in no rush. I must have waited for about 10 mins and during those 10 mins no one was helped nor was he cooking anything! It was crazy! Maybe he really was crazy because he just kept talking and talking. He wasn't talking to anyone in particular either. So I got frustrated and walked away only to come back 5 mins later. Yes... I really, really wanted those falafels!
When I returned Mr. Falafel was at least started to roll the ingredients into medium sized balls. He must have rolled enough dough for about 4 orders even though there were about 12 people waiting to order. Mr. Falafel also had another hot skillet ready to go but why use it when you could have this large crowd waiting patiently?! Since everyone was ahead of me I knew this was going to take a while so I started snapping some photos.
This must have caught his attention because when the first batch of falafels were done he gave me an order and he said with a big smile, "Pour le photographer". Merci!
The falafels & hummus were delicious. And S loved them too!
Those falafels look really good. TE and I are enjoying your blog. The festival looked like a lot of fun and that maze looked interesting. It reminds me of the scary movie, The Shining.
Posted by: GR | 10 November 2009 at 06:42