A Week Relaxing In Belgium & Luxembourg!

After our time in the Baltic and Scandinavia, we had to catch our flight leaving Europe to Kigali, Rwanda.

We knew Africa would be go-go-go for awhile, so we planned to give ourselves some downtime at an old Belgian farmhouse, with day trips into Luxembourg and France as optional fun activities if we were feeling up for it.

The above was our home for the week. There were three generations of the Belgian family living here. They were super sweet and even gave our daughter a bike to ride (it had flat tires but they soon fixed that). Over to the far right, you can see the pathway out to the chickens–to the left was a little room with a washer where I did our laundry, then would walk through that door to hang it out on the line under the trees.

*The view down to this spot with a little sitting area and where I’d hang our laundry.* Also had a nice long chat with a friend from Canada from here one day over the phone. We’ve been keeping in great touch with everyone we know who are now spread out all over the hemispheres–so thankful we live in this time when international phone calls, texts and video calls are so easy!

The woman and her daughter kept a number of horses for riding…

Our family knows so many people/have visited so many friends with chickens that our girls feel so comfortable around them…they played a LOT with all these chickens, from the courtyard to the outer yards, and helped feed them…

I mentioned in my Finland post that do I love me some good woods ;)…

…and this area of Belgium had some truly beautiful ones we got to drive through every time we needed to go to “town.”

Yes yes, I take pictures of trees on all continents. It could be worse. 🙂

Staying in an old Belgian farmhouse in the middle of “nowhere” was a pretty amazing experience. We took it easy and enjoyed the luxury of time to just hang out and soak it in…that’s one of the things I’m most thankful for during this experience:

time.

And yes, apparently I take pictures of chickens in the courtyard in Belgium now. It’s just so…historic-feeling. Felt like I could be here any number of years ago and you can’t quite tell…

*I mean, you can’t get that patina on your home or cobblestones like* *that easily. It takes so much time…I love that.*

Oh ya know, just pedaling her bike out for a ride down some old roads in Belgium while mama walks. This is usual life for my kids now…and they roll with it like pros.

LUXENBOURG & FRANCE

We did go to Luxembourg one day for an extravagant meal and exploring. 🙂

I told Matt I wanted one really good French meal, and so we looked up one of the highest-rated restaurants there was…

…and YES, we took our young children to the fanciest restaurant ever. They behaved well…

…and tried a bit of everything. (Slaps hands together) My job here is done!😜

*Not that they minded tasting all the desserts at the end. 😉*

I cannot tell you how many courses we had because there were too many to count…

…and even after we had paid, left the restaurant interior and out to their deck to relax, they insisted upon us staying longer as they brought us out tea and a “tree” of more desserts.

If we were forced upon pain of death to pick the best “Playground of the World” in all our playgrounds visited over 39 countries during these past couple years, the Parc Edith Klein in Luxembourg would probably eek itself into the #1 spot.

Which it should. All that money in Luxembourg means mamas better get nice parks for their kids! (Or the nannies…? 🙂 )

Then it was back to our farmhouse…very non-Luxembourgesque…and we like it.

Above is one of our misty morning views out the second-floor window…

…versus a clear day.

We got pretty used to living here and could have stayed months.

We did pop into France one day as well because I thought the girls should—while we were SO close to that country—have at least ONE morning where they had a “real” French croissant (one of my girls is a croissant connoisseur…and I feel like that phrase should be a tongue twister).