I've been taking the kids out on loads of adventures over the school holidays - we'll all be sad to go back to school and work on Monday ! - but today, I can take no credit. Everything was organised for the 10th Fortified Towns Weekend in a little town called called Gravelines about 20 minutes from Dunkirk. All we had to do was turn up, and it wasn't even my idea, I'd forgotten all about it until Madhouse Daddy asked if we wanted to go !
They'd organised a fun treasure hunt with a question sheet that had us going on a tour of the town, looking out for little details like dates on houses and the names of streets - all things that we'd never noticed before ! Here's the entrance to the fortifications.
Pierre's still looking for the date on the cannon that everyone else has already found ages ago !
In amongst the topiary !
No, we didn't put Madhouse Daddy in prison - he's peering through the bars at the old gunpowder store !
A tiny little park tucked away in the middle of the town that we've never noticed before - le Jardin de la Liberté, Freedom Gardens.
Pierre was very excited to find a tiny bird's egg that had hatched.
We took a moment to enjoy the tranquility.
While Pierre explored the gazebo !
Then it was back to the treasure hunt, looking for a particular tree.
Look closely - it's a trompe-l'oeil mural !
What's through the arched window today?! (Anyone else remember Playschool with Humpty and Hamble?!)
A pair of rather impressive horse-drawn carriages that made me feel like I'd gone to Austenland !
I loved this water fountain, although I can't work out what the designer was thinking - a fish coming out of a lion's mouth?!
Once we'd found all the answers and worked out the secret message, it was back to the tourist office to claim our treasure - they had a whole chest full of chocolate coins which the kids were most impressed with !
It was a great way to finish off the holidays (although we may have time to fit in one more adventure tomorrow - who knows ?!)
I'm linking up with Country Kids from Coombe Mill linky - head over to see what other outdoor fun everyone's got up to this week !
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love doing a treasure hunt and your photos look like everyone had some fun taking part x
ReplyDeleteI've never been to Gravelines, Next time we go to Northern France we will go! Thanks for the post!
ReplyDeleteYou'll have to call in and see us, we're just down the road ! :)
DeleteA treasure hunt was a really good idea. Oh how lovely finding the shell from the hatched bird - did he keep it?
ReplyDeleteHe wanted to but it got broken to bits before the end of the day unfortunately !
DeleteFunny that we should both be doing treasure hunts this week! Yours looks slightly more organised and less chaotic than mine though and some lovely hidden treasures to see along the way. Play school, now that does take me back, I always wanted it to be the round window, no idea why! Thank you for sharing a great day out on Country Kids.
ReplyDeleteI always love organised chaos personally ! :)
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