Ecole Vieux Pin hits the Road

This was a big day for Ecole Vieux Pin. We went on an all day field trip to sites in the Jura. First stop was the Grottes de Reclere, where stalagmites and stalagtites abound in beautiful formations along a 1.5 kilometer path underground.

This formation is called "the portrait" because it resembles a woman's face in profile.

After the caves, we visited the "Prehisto-Park" where scale models of various dinosaurs are planted throughout a nice patch of deciduous forest. But our favorite critter was this kitty tour guide who walked the entire path with us and would hop up on the dinos to pose for the camera.

After the dinos we drove towards St. Ursanne, passing through a peninsula of France to get there. That's where we saw this Lavoire, an old public washing place. It's on the town square where the women of yesteryear would bring their laundry to wash all together. This illustrates the need for monograms -- so you would go home with your own skivvies and not someone elses.

Next we visited St. Ursanne, an elegant cloister built in the 1100s.

We're reading The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli and Robin is currently staying in a monastery, so it's lovely to have this example for the kids to put in their minds.

Then on the way back to Boncourt we stopped in Porrentruy long enough to put Manu and the kids on the train. Zarli was so happy that he couldn't even smile -- just took it all in.