Sophie wanted to go and visit one of her friends who lives in Gravelines, a 40 minute bus ride away. We decided it was a bit too far for her to go by herself so I told Juliette and Pierre that we'd go on an adventure and explore the town while she was at her friend's house. We started off by having a good look at the huge statue of a bull on the way into town.
Then we discovered vast colonies of mushrooms pushing their way up through the ground.
Pierre had brought his magnifying glass along to have a close look at anything interesting !
We just HAD to go geocaching ! To be honest, it isn't a great place for caches because most of them have disappeared or, as it's a fortified town with ramparts and moats, you often end up on the wrong side of a wall with no way of getting to the other side, but as always, the geocache coordinates gave us an idea of places to explore (and meant that we could find our way back to the bus stop to meet Sophie !).
The first cache took us to the Jardins de la Poudrière, where they used to store the gunpowder in times gone by. Pierre liked hiding behind the gate saying he was in prison !
We were surprised to see cabbages growing in a flower bed.
Especially as this one appeared to have a face !
From the town walls, we had a good view out to the channel that leads to the sea.
We explored lots of tunnels and spotted lots of statues.
Some were scarier than others !
Pierre liked the topiary because the trees look like the ones he draws !
The gardeners of Gravelines have done themselves proud. We discovered a horse and cart made entirely out of foliage.
There was even a snail made of plants !
The Jardin de la Liberté is a very pretty garden that must demand hours of upkeep.
There's even a pretty little bandstand.
After examining the insects, it was time to move on !
We headed out of the town walls into the surrounding woodland. A big tree stump made a great seat when we needed a rest. (We walked 12km in total so I can't blame them !)
Into the woods, crunching through the leaves ...
Ooh another sports trail - the hurdles got used for doing rolypolies !
And swinging off the bars is much more fun than doing pull-ups.
Skipping off to see what's around the corner ...
Yay, a climbing frame !
And slides ! (Seeing the world through the eyes of a child is great fun !)
Ooh, it's time to go and get the bus home already. Where did the afternoon go ?!
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great photos, geocaching is fab fun! x
ReplyDeleteOh what fun out of an afternoon of just seeing your daughter was safe! I do love the way the French pay so much attention to their towns, there is always something interesting to see in the centre of a town. Thank you for sharing with me on Country Kids.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you had a great adventure, while waiting for Sophie.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a lot of fun! We saw a lot of wild mushrooms growing too :)
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