Girl Scout Camp Out

This is one happy camper.  I had had a hard week and was quite sure that I could not do camp out.  After sobbing and e-mailing my friend all of the reasons I couldn't possibly go, I received a reply.  The reply was not the one I wanted.  Coleen basically told me that I needed to suck it up for my daughter.  She was right.  In the end, I actually had a good time, too.

 We began our day early in the morning.  We caught a taxi to the commuter rail station.  The taxi we had called, pulled away right as we reached the sidewalk with all of our gear.  I was able to flag down another (a notoriously impossible thing to do in Paris) and we barely made it on the train in time.  We went to Versailles, where a nice Brownie mom picked up up and drove us a bit more than an hour to Jambville.  This chateau and grounds belongs to the Scout de France.

These ladies do not travel light.  See the cupcake holder?

 As we began loading up the cart, the sky darkened and it began to rain.  Happily, the clouds soon disappeared and we set up camp.

 Here we are with all of the troops.  The girls who are moving up a level go through the bridge.

 Lillian is moving from being a Brownie this year to being a Junior next year.

 See the chateau in the distance?  Lillian's troop plans to do a camp in there next winter.

The girls all make "swaps," which are little pins that go on their hats.  They trade swaps and decorate their hats.  Some of the older girls have hats filled with hundreds of swaps.

 This is Lillian's Brownie troop showing the younger Daisy troop how it is done.  Some of these Daisies are in Sylvia's troop.  Sylvia and Pierre stayed home this year because the logistics were beyond me.  Most Daisies do not spend the night, and without a car it was going to be way too much travel time.  Pierre and Sylvia had a grand time doing an incredible treasure hunt.  Next year, Sylvia will be a Brownie.

 These are Lillian's leaders Kim and Bly and they are marvelous.  Kim is a wedding planner and just wrote a coffee table book about getting married in Paris.  Brownies has made a huge difference in Lillian's happiness here and I am so grateful to these women.

 

 We stayed one night.  There was plenty of food for a week or two.

 The girls practiced their song, Bazooka, Zooka Bubblegum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PZapDitmdA

 S'Mores!

 The leaders' daughters have earned a lot of patches in their two years of Brownies. 

 Songs and skits

It stays light until about 10:30 at night.

Lillian was in the quiet tent and got more sleep than most the girls.  She fell asleep on the commuter train home.  I was happy that we had packed relatively light because carrying our backpacks onto the metro and home was no easy task.

So glad I went camping with this Junior Scout.