For a while now we wanted to visit a farm with Pixie but unfortunately, the weather was terrible every weekend. There are quite a few farms around us within an hour drive but most of them are only open on Saturdays given the nice weather, and if you wake up and see that's it's already raining you don't want to risk driving an hour with a toddler and find a closed farm.
So we always did something indoor with Pixie and tried to entertain her but it’s definitely easier just to go out with her.
A recently a goat farm opened in Valbonne, only a few minutes from us by car, and they are open on Saturday afternoon as well. There is no guided visit, you can go and visit the farm on your own and buy some goat cheese at the end. It was perfect for us, we could wait until Pixie was done with her nap, we didn’t need to change anything in her daily routine and just leave for the farm when she was up and ready. When she woke up we told her we are going on a small trip to see some animals. She was so excited.
When we arrived we had a small walk to explore the farm. The bigger goats were outside, you can go near them they are behind a fence but they are curious or they hope that you will give them some food so they will approach you. Pixie liked the sound they made and tried to imitate it. She was happy to see some animals she has never seen before.
We saw that there was another big shed so went to check it out. We were lucky there were lots of baby goats inside. You could feed them some dry grass and pet them as well, they were lovely. Pixie gathered her courage and after a while, she petted a baby goat as well. But for a long time, she was telling us that we should pet them and she doesn’t want to do it. She is very curious but for some reason still very shy and prefers to see how mummy or daddy are doing the new stuff and see what happens after. If the outcome is something she likes she might copy us. She loved the baby goats, we told them they are the babies and they are still very small and she understood this and preferred them to the big ones, and since they very small and cute they might have been less intimidating for her.
We decided to buy some cheese, after all, they live from their shop and they are very nice to offer a free visit to their farm. And we like goat cheese anyhow!
There were so many people we went for another stroll and saw how the big goats were lead back to the shed and feed afterwards. Pixie liked the big crowd of goats running towards their dinner.
When we finished there was still a huge line to the shop but we waited patiently, Pixie not so much 🙂 I went back with her to see the goats again and we went to see the dog who is adorable! He was very calm and patient with all the kids and since Pixie knows dogs already she wanted to play whit him. She petted him and she was so curious to see how the dog behaves. She is more used to smaller dogs so he was a new experience for her. She asked me to point to the dog’s nose and ears and she examined all of it very attentively.
When we got to the shop she was very eager to get some cheese, we thought that that’s a good sign, she might try everything we bought. She wanted to eat some already on the way back to the car and we understood her excitement. When she tried it she didn’t like it and was very disappointed. She thought that the nice round colourful cheese is a cake and expected to get something sweet. I felt bad for her, she really wanted to eat something she tough would be a dessert and she just got some cheese. Although it wasn’t what Pixie wanted the cheese was delicious! We tried some fresh ones with different spices, some small aperitif cheese -dried small ones- and some more mature ones. I prefer the fresh ones but all of them are very tasty!
I think Pixie’s age, 2 years, is perfect to visit some farms with her. She got a chance to see some animals she only saw in some books so far. She was able to spend some time in nature and run around as much as she wanted. And my husband and I got to eat some delicious cheese!
Here is some more info about the farm.