Madhouse diaries : Going bananas !

What with the awful weather, Pierre being sick for a week and having a few crazy busy weeks at work, I feel like we haven't been out and about forever ... at least since Christmas, although we probably have ! Well, to kick off the school holidays in style, especially as it was a lovely sunny day, we headed into town to visit the port museum and their current temporary exhibition about bananas !

The museum is located in an old warehouse which used to be used for, amongst other things, bananas, so the exhibition started off by explaining how the bananas arrived in Dunkirk.

How much fun can one family have with a fake banana on a stick ? Smile !

The first stand explained about the banana in popular culture, including the iconic Velvet Underground record cover and the Minions. All three of the Madhouse kids were in hysterics listening to some strange song about a banana !

I was more intrigued by the banana flower which was much prettier than I expected. I didn't realise how short banana plants are either - I thought they grew on trees (I must have been thinking of coconuts !) but they are actually plants that only grow between 2-5m in height usually, or maximum 7m apparently.  

It was a very hands-on exhibition so the Madhouse kids all worked together to complete this big magnetic wooden puzzle.

Juliette and Pierre were lured back to the headphones with the funny banana song, leaving Sophie to finish it off by herself ! 

We had a good look at the mini banana plantation - look out Sophie, don't let the big machete get you !

 

I can't believe how fast Pierre's reading is coming on - he managed to read some quite complicated descriptions of the banana exportation system and put them in order.

But constructing a container ship was deemed more fun.

 The banana exhibition was drawing to a close but there was one more activity ... 

Eating bananas, while we looked at some banana-themed books in their little reading corner ! They were very tasty so everyone had two each ... I think Juliette might have even had three !

We went to have a look around the rest of the museum but it was mainly model boats which didn't really hold their attention for long.

Pierre was scared of the deep sea diver for some reason - I think he thought he was an alien !

And he also hated the "walk of faith" type glass walkway that  lead round to the exit at first, before he realised it wasn't going to crack and went round three times with Juliette !

Sophie has been away on a school trip for the past couple of day but she gets back tomorrow night so we have lots more adventures planned for the rest of the holidays. My calendar is covered in scribbles of places to go and events that are being organised, weather permitting !