A Weekend Away

Last weekend was the first weekend that we left baby Sofia to my parents-in-law overnight and spent a night away from her since she was born. Nicolas had his birthday on November 24 and I decided to give him a one-night stay at the eco farm-hotel Baluchon. We could have taken the baby with us but we thought it would be good to take a break from parenting for an evening and decided to leave Sofia with grandmama and grandpapa.

Le Baluchon is an eco-farm where the owners grow their own animals and the hotel itself spans over kilometers of walking and skiing trails. It also has a spa, outdoor and indoor pool. We have been there previously but not overnight – a few times, we have gone there to hike around and a few times to cross-country ski – you can just pay for daily access to the trails and rent equipment there. We have never though stayed overnight and I thought this would be a good opportunity to try. The place is about an hour drive from my parents-in-law which allowed us to drop the baby and the dog on the way before getting to our stay.

There are several packages that you can book and I got the outdoors one – it includes one night stay, access to rent different equipment e.g. skis for cross-country skiing, dinner and breakfast. We also had access to the pool in our residence house. Initially, when I booked the place, the lady on the phone told us we should get there early to enjoy the outside activities so we arrived around lunchtime. Once there though, they mentioned that our room won’t be ready until 4. We were not upset much – there was a cafe with a fireplace so we had our lunch there and chilled down by the fire with drinks until our room keys were available.

In the late afternoon, we also dropped by the pool, played some card games and had our dinner – Nicolas enjoyed his beef (something we don’t eat at home but he decided to make an exception for the occasion) and I had my shrimps with wild rice. Alas, we did not take any pictures!

The next morning we also enjoyed our breakfast, slept in and eventually drove home around lunchtime. We initially planned to walk around and explore the area but the weather was quite windy and Nicolas did not bring his warm clothes so we decided to head back home. And the baby Sofia was just fine – all happy and smiley when we got back.

Our nanny asked me if it was hard to leave the baby for the first time – to be honest, for two weeks before that day, I was having terrible migraines every single day (which really does not work well with taking care of a young child) and was so exhausted by the time we left her, that I did not feel particularly sad. All I wanted to do at the point was to vegetate and do nothing which is exactly what we did. I can only say two things – #parentlife and #iwillsurvive.

Here are some lovely alpacas from the block (or from the farm in this case):