This was a journey that I was really looking forward to as I love French food!
Lidl has an amazing selection of French goodies and, as I was avoiding cooking, we stocked up.
I also was keen to take the kids to the Walker Art gallery in Liverpool, as I had heard they had an amazing area for under 8’s which was free. In my head France is absolutely associated with fine art.
We wanted to eat out too but we were worried that French fine dining wouldn’t suit our family or our budget so I googled french bakeries and found an amazing little place on Bold Street in Liverpool where you could eat in.
Breakfast
Pain au chocolat, apple juice and strong coffee. We bought the pastries you cook yourself and the house smelt amazing!
Armed with madeleines and grapes as a snack we headed off into Liverpool for our adventure.
The Adventure
When thinking of France I really do think of Art Galleries and long days in Paris visiting the Louvre and drinking too much red wine.
The Walker Art Gallery in the centre of Liverpool is an excellent place to spend the morning. We drew and stuck, played with puppets and read, we even saw some real art! Penny tried everything in five minutes flat and Freddie spent a happy ten minutes playing with the door. Definitely a brilliant day out (did I mention it was free!).
Lunch
We had initially thought about a chain French restaurant and I had a vague memory of there being a Cafe Rouge in Liverpool but it closed last year and all the other places looked a little fine-dining for small people.
Then I had a revelation to look for bakeries instead and we found this absolute gem on Bold Street called ‘Artisane’. Much quiche was eaten with an eclair for Freddie and a pink macaron on a stick for Penny.
The brilliant thing was that while we were there, Penny remembered a lot about our actual trip to Paris last year and so we talked about it and remembered things. I also got to practise my GCSE French!
We listened to…
Joe le Taxi of course as a flavour of my childhood, mixed with various Eurovision entries. We also listened to this gem by the Flight of the Conchords:
which is basically my GCSE French to music!
We watched
If we had had time we would also have watched The Hunchback of Notre Dame – a firm favourite in our house anyway and a weirdly dark Disney Movie. My sister had an Esmeralda costume I was very jealous of, I’d like to say we were children but she was about 26..
Supper
We ate Croque Monsieur and Profiteroles but I think steak and frites would be a brilliant option on French day and of course you could go for a healthier dessert, but frankly – you are in France so why would you?
Later…
Oh France! As soon as the kids were in bed it was a cheese board, pink Saint Emilion wine and those tiny cheap French beers you can buy. C’est tres bon!
Other Ideas
If you have a friend with a yacht(!) you could go for a south of France style picnic.
Any museum or art gallery is worth a visit and most have a kids section.
Photography would be a cool project for the day which you could print out and turn into a scrapbook.
If my kids were a little older we definitely would have headed to one of the excellent French Bistros you find in most towns.
If you enjoyed this, have a read about our second French themed day
