Yes, the sun still high in the blue sky September sky, but the new school year has begun with the Autumn term! It’s time to put away the bathing suits and the sun cream and prepare for a new season. Here’s some tricks to stay happy in September and keep those Back to School Blues at bay!

A brand-new school bag:

It’s always fun to have new articles to start the new school year with, especially a new bag. In a lot of French supermarkets (Carrefour for example) you can return your old bag (cleaned and in good shape) and the supermarket will give you a coupon to buy a new one in their stores. The old one will be given to children in need. This is a great solution: you can buy a new bag for your child with a good reduction AND you are help people in need.

Cooking bramble jam for winter:

The bramble season starts at the end of August or the beginning of September. These little fruits can be found everywhere in the countryside, and also in towns, along paths in the woods, in parks, or even on wasteland. Picking brambles is a great family activity, but watch out for these thorns! Give them a good wash with water and white vinegar and then squeeze them to keep only the juice and pulp or alternatively, cook the entire fruits (with the latter option, you will of course have the seeds in your jam) with jam sugar. You’ll find loads of recipes on the internet but here is my own tried and tested way to prepare bramble jam:

• 1 portion of fresh cleaned and mashed brambles
• The same amount of jam sugar
• Lemon juice (will help the jam to set)

Before starting the cooking, place a saucer in the freezer – this will help to check if the jam is ready.

Mix the sugar with the fruits and the lemon juice in a pan and cook everything at a low to medium heat for 10 to 15minutes. Then put a spoonful of jam on the frozen saucer and push the jam with your finger. Setting point has been reached when the jam wrinkles and sets.

Remove any scum from the top of the cooking jam, and then pour the jam into warm, clean and sterilized jars while it still hot. Put the lids on the jars and put them upside down for a couple of minutes to help seal the lids.

While you are cooking, why not get the kids to design and draw beautiful labels that you can put on the jars to personalise your jam! During winter you’ll love to open your own jam for delicious breakfasts!

Start to collect natural objects for Christmas decorations:

While the weather still nice and warm, why not go to the woods or the countryside and start to collect pinecones, leaves, pieces of wood, stones…? Before Christmas you can take them out and paint them to make wonderful homemade decorations: tree ornaments with the pinecones painted with gold or made into owls, place cards decorated with nice leaves and a painting pen….let your child’s imagination work…..the result may surprise you!

Try a new sport:

Here in France, the sport clubs start their new season in September. You can check them out at the “forum des associations” which held in September in almost all the towns, which is a great way to find out what’s on and available for your kids to do in the Autumn. The local libraries are also a good source of inspiration.

Once you choose the sport or activity you would like to do, you generally have 1 or 2 free classes so that you can ‘try before you buy’. It’s a great way to discover new sports and it’s of course a great way to meet new friends!

Remember, September is only 4 months away from Christmas and in the meantime Halloween will be here! Cheer up – school is fun – most of the time 😉

We recently went away for a bit of early summer sunshine and relaxation. At least, as much relaxation is available with two young boys around. We don’t call them “The Chaos Twins” for nothing… We’ve been away as a family of 4 a few times and it’s generally been pretty hectic, but this time was definitely our most successful trip to date. I’ve learnt a few things along the way so here are my top tips for making a family holiday with toddlers as easy as possible – wherever you may be travelling, from Normandy to Norway.

1) Pack with military preparedness

This might tell you a lot about what sort of a person I am but I’m not ashamed to say I have created a spreadsheet with a list of what I need to pack for myself and the children (husband is entirely responsible for himself!), along with a separate section for hand luggage. It has tick boxes and everything. I can print it off and start packing a few days before we go, with no need to worry about remembering whether I packed pants 3 days ago – tick it off as it goes in and you know what’s what. It made things so much easier this time around and I will never look back!

2) Snacks, snacks and more snacks for the journey

My hand luggage contained a big carrier back full of snacks. Oat bars, rice cakes, those organic kids crisps that somehow seem more socially acceptable than other crisps for three times the price… you get the gist. So. Many. Snacks. We ended up having no time at all in the airport where we had planned to buy lunch so I was especially glad to have these to tide us through until we could buy stuff on the plane. Travel days almost invariably involve disrupted routines and a LOT of waiting around, and snacks can really help in those moments where the mood starts dropping.

3) More than one child? Twinning is winning

I must confess to loving a bit of twinning with my boys – though on a day-to-day basis we don’t do it that much, they do have a few matching clothes. But this holiday I bought quite a few matching outfits for them, because I realised how easy it is to spot them when they look alike. When you’re in unfamiliar territory (eg an airport) and the kids are haring around, it is so much easier to keep an eye on where they are if you’re looking for two versions of the same outfit. Though do watch out for Daddy dressing the 4-year-old in the 2-year-old’s shorts. Or is that just our family?

4) Take mealtime activities

Do you remember those lovely holiday meals where you sat at a restaurant by the beach gazing peacefully at the blue sea and sky, leisurely nibbling at plate after plate of lovely local food, savouring a nice cold beer? They were great, weren’t they? If your life with smalls is anything like mine it’s now more about damage limitation: getting as much food in, as quickly as you can,

and leaving before there’s a spill / breakage / meltdown. But you can buy yourself some time if you prepare. Seek out small, portable activities that can be easily deployed at mealtimes – we love the Galt Water Magic books which are like reusable colouring books used with a water pen. You’re still unlikely to be able to luxuriate over an hour and a half long boozy lunch, but you might be able to ease the panic just a little.

5) Plan around the children

It sounds really obvious but we’ve only really fully “got” this this time. Pre-children we liked to explore a lot, and with fairly easy-going and flexible kids we’ve tried to be pretty adventurous with them, too – hired a car and done big trips, and not worried too much about the routine. But we’ve realised something. They don’t care about that beautiful secluded beach that’s 90 mins drive away and involves clambering down a steep embankment. They just want to dip their toes in the sea, throw stones and build a sandcastle. So this holiday, we planned around the 2-year-old’s naps. We did short trips of no more than a couple of hours all in. We took it in turns to play in the pool and do colouring with the 4-year-old while his brother slept. We all went to bed around 8:30pm – it was a quieter, smaller kind of holiday, but everyone had a better time as a result. We got more rest. We had special quality time with the 4-year-old. And – because of this – we had (mostly!) good behaviour. There’ll be a time when they’re older and we can do more – explore more places, try new things, eat out more. But just now, while they’re so little, we are embracing a different, and altogether more relaxing, kind of holiday.

If you’re anything like me, the idea of dealing with an impending heatwave fills you with the “what on earth will I do with the kids” heebie-jeebies. Even short trips out are fraught with peril – suncreaming a two-year old is trickier than grabbing a bar of soap from the bottom of the bath, and even with a good coating of factor 50 you spend most of your time crossing roads to keep them as shaded as possible on the way to wherever you need to go. The playground is out of bounds between 11-3 due to the absolute lack of any cover anywhere, and staying home just makes everyone irritable and bored. 

So here are some ideas to change things up and entertain your smalls on those “too darn hot” days, whether you’re at home or away. 

1) Water fun 

You don’t need a paddling pool to enjoy some water fun on a sunny day. For a toddler, there’s almost nothing better than a grown up acting like a child – so surprise them with a squirt from a water pistol. Put ice cubes down each others’ backs. Fill a bucket and grab a sponge to soak and toss by their toes, splashing their legs. Tie water balloons to a washing line and hit them till they burst, like piñatas. Dance under the sprinkler for 5 minutes (though please run the hose first – water sitting in the hose can get dangerously hot in the sun). Be silly and cool down at the same time. 

2) Make ice lollies 

Sunny weather and ice lollies go together like, well, strawberries and cream – another summer staple! And kids love the opportunity to make things in the kitchen – even if they’re not usually all that helpful. You can pick up lolly moulds cheaply in most supermarkets and experiment all summer long with different flavours. As a huge bonus, they’ll almost certainly have less refined sugar and additives than the shop-bought alternatives! BBC Good Food has a great selection to get you started – including some more, ahem, grown up flavours – gin and tonic lolly, anyone? 

3) Arts and crafts 

We have a big box full of offcuts of wrapping paper, old bottles and boxes, ribbons and goodness knows what else. Older kids love being creative and seeing what they can make from junk. Get the paints out – bonus marks if you can find a shady spot in the garden so you’re not worried every minute about the cleanup operation. On our last holiday I had a couple of lovely sessions with my 4yo sitting in a shady area outside a cafe while we drew and coloured pictures in together. Or keep a small stash of fun kits to make things (I buy a lot from Baker Ross) – an ideal portable option for popping in your suitcase for trips away. 

4) Have a picnic 

Pack your blanket and some lunch (or hang out for a bit in that lovely chilled deli aisle as you gather your nibbles!), find a shady spot in a park, and enjoy the great outdoors. I was amazed at how long my 15 month old sat still for a picnic last summer – but the novelty was definitely a big selling point! 

5) Visit a museum / art gallery 

This one will depend very much on your child – but these sorts of places tend to be lovely and cool to keep everything in good condition, so can be a great place to spend a few hours staying safe from the sun. Many will either have specific activity sheets for children, or at least signpost the best child-friendly areas online so if you do your research you can make it fun for them. Even if there aren’t specific activities you can make your own – playing “I spy”, having a competition to see who can spot the next dog / something blue / something for cooking with etc. 

6) Teddy spa 

This one isn’t so much a fun thing to do as a necessary intervention… A hot, sunny day is a fantastic opportunity to pop any beloved but, let’s say “less than spotless”, teddies in the washing machine for a quick spa treatment. I put ours into a pillowcase, fastened with a bobble, and do a 20 min 30 degree cycle. Peg them on the line to dry and with a bit of luck you can be done and dusted during naptime with little one none the wiser!

Known and celebrated in more than 100 countries all around the world on 21th of June, do you know that the “Fête de la Musique” was a French idea?

Back in the 80’s our Culture Minister named Jack Lang discovered that Joël Cohen, an American musician living in France and working for the radio channel France Musique” organized musical shows during the summer and winter solstices every year in his auditorium, to celebrate music.

Jack Lang the minister and Maurice Fleuret who was in charge of the dance section at the minister office worked together to propose an event which give total freedom to every musician in France to play in front of an audience, without having to rent a place, and to allow every people to listen to a concert without having to pay a ticket!

The date was chosen as a remembering of the old pagan celebrations which was done on the longest day of the year, symbol of the end of the winter season.

The first Fête de la Musique happened on 21th June 1982: every amateur musician was allowed to go out and play music in the streets, on places, in the wood, wherever you wanted to!

And of course, you could play the kind of music you liked, which was incredible because in Paris’s streets for example, you could, while you were walking around the city, stop by an opera singer and then 100m later you could listen to a Heavy Metal band, then a gospel choir etc…

This was very nice to see and to listen to and at these times it was a really “no filter” music party all over France, from the biggest cities to the smallest villages.

Unfortunately, after few years of total freedom and total mess sometimes too, the cities and villages had to take decisions to keep the Fête de la Musique alive without having bad situations.

A law was voted to give more space to the mayors: they could decide the way the Fête de la Musique will happen in their city. Some of them open the parks and gardens to let orchestras and bands play but only in a specific area, some others close streets to cars to let people walk in the city in total safety, in fact everything is done to keep a good feeling on this special day.

After the success of this French Fête de la Musique a lot of countries around the world decided to have their own Fête de la Musique: Canada, USA, Japan, Sweden… The French Fête de la Musique is known everywhere, sometimes called “World music day” but most of the time the French name is kept.

Currently, in some towns, if the 21th of June is on a week day, the festivities are moved to the week end to let people partying longer. While driving or walking on the streets you could see the posters with the programs or you can find everything on the cities internet websites.

So, if you are in France in June, don’t forget the “Fête de la Musique”and you can say to your friends later: “Did you know that Fête de la Musique was French?”