A few weeks after returning from our summer holiday, Mark left the rest of the family behind for another break. The twins visited their Aunt Sabine, while Mark joined his friends Nathaniel, Carol and Danny for five days of the Tour du Mont Blanc. The scenery formed a wondrous backdrop, while the party hiked from Chamonix on the west side of Mont Blanc to Trient in the north and around to Courmayeur on the south-east side. We covered 74km, including around 4,300m of ascending, through France, Switzerland and Italy. The route passed beneath numerous glaciers, and even brought us close to marmottes and mountain deer. Carol has since put up a great selection of the best photos.

Under Swiss rules, Wiki and Loxon are legally obliged to attend formal kindergarten from August in the year they turn five. This isn’t quite as structured as kindergarten in Australia, which they will begin in February next year, but it is still quite a change from the childcare. They’ve been attending two full days and two half days per week for six weeks now, and have settled into their new routine. Wiki is already looking forward to the holidays though — he complained that “everyone spends so much time talking we don’t have enough time to play anymore” and asked “When do I have a day off, Mum?”

On the first weekend after the start of kindergarten, Danny and Camilla came to visit Basel. We showed them around the Roman ruins at Augusta Raurica, 10 minutes up river from Basel. This started as a fortified town in the first century BC, and grew to become a major frontier city in the third century AD with an amphitheatre, council chamber, arena and temple. Wiki and Loxon searched the ruins for any signs of actual Romans, but they all seemed to be on holiday.

We didn’t have to wait long to see them though. Two weeks later, cousin Alexander came to stay for a few days and we attended the Römerfest (Festival of the Romans) held at Augusta Raurica. This annual celebration of all things Roman takes place amid the ruins, and includes participatory demonstrations of weaving, coin stamping, manual wheat milling, quill writing, stoneworking and basketry. There are also cavalry and legion displays, as well as an Italian gladiator troop that puts on fights with authentic weaponry. The athletes who do this are serious men, prepared to be injured regularly in the course of their exhibits, as they struggle to beat each other.

Seeing all this amid the actual Roman ruins brought the history to life vividly. Strangely Wiki and Loxon were more interested in stabbing each other with wooden swords, however. They still have four eyes between them, so we guess we should be grateful.

Meantime, our plans for moving back to Sydney are well under way. Our goods will be collected from our apartment in late October and shipped by container to Sydney. In order to give our furniture a chance to arrive before us, we’ll then spend some time travelling: three weeks in Europe, one in Singapore and probably a couple in Australia. We hope to be settled into our house in Balmain by Christmas. But there’s still time for at least a couple more posts on the Basilisk’s Gaze, so stay tuned.