Holidays...part 10

Monday

In the dungeon

Another grey morning and unfortunately it didn’t clear all day, however, it didn’t rain so we can’t complain too much, it was a bit on the cold side though.

We decided to head to Concarneau today.  Both of us were really taken by the town.  Matt suffered from déjà vu so thinks he’s been here before.  I think I have been here before, but didn’t get any memory jolts, so figure either I haven’t or it was when I was too small to remember.

First stop was a market which was full of delights : food, clothes, local nik nacks and reinforced umbrellas – the reinforced umbrella stall was doing really well – we were tempted but remembered we already have a big umbrella at home from Japan.

Help!

The main attraction of Concarneau is the Ville Close – a fortified island which is accessible via two bridges.  You can walk around most of it’s walls which are very thick, very old and full of crenellations – only the dungeons were missing and it would make a good castle! 

We walked as far round one side as we could and managed to bump into our tent neighbours from Normandy – the lovely Emma and her family, so we had a little catch up.  We then split up and headed for lunch.  Lo and behold! We both independently chose the same restaurant – at least we didn’t realise until we had both been served!  Lunch was a tartiflette and a dauphinoise gallete for Matt and me which we shared and a crepe with honey for Tom.  We were all very happy.

Time for hospital

We then continued down the main road, looking in shops, Matt finally got himself a second pair of shorts and a new shirt (he almost went for a Breton stripy jumper too) and we browsed the lovely looking biscuiteries and chocolate shops, found a shop dedicated to lovely looking dried fruit (we couldn’t resist) and an amazing sweet shop (once again we couldn’t resist!)

We then walked along the ramparts on the other side of the island and found ourselves at a creperie – so had crepe and a drink for afternoon tea before heading back down the main street back to the car.

Buying the essentials

We then headed back home via Carrefour Market for cidre, beer, bbq meats and cheese.  As we didn’t need much – Tom did the trolley pushing with a Tom sized trolley.  He was delighted to help, maybe a little too delighted – I’ve got bruised heels as a result of him walking too fast behind me!  We then returned to the campsite.  I made chicken curry (I know, I know it’s not at all French – but it is our family’s favourite meal).  Tom went to spend the reminder of his holiday money on a set of boules and played boules with Matt.  He did ask if the 5 year old twins in the cabin opposite wanted to play but they weren’t interested.  However, their 18 year old half sister, Amy was very interested, so she played with him instead.

Frisbeeing

We then had dinner of curry, then a game of Top Trumps – again the person who lost first had to do the washing up, and again it was me who lost – humpfh – I really am not liking this new rule!  We then played Uno – I won 3 games in a row – maybe we should transfer the rule to Uno rather than Top Trumps!!!!!

After that Tom went outside to join in a game of frisbee with Amy and her Dad.  He held his own with them – he really is a natural sportsman (he won all the boules matches too!).  They played for a good hour / hour and a half .  In the end we called it a day – and once again he was in bed late.  Should sleep well tonight!

Holidays...part 9

Saturday

Quimper creperie

TGV to Paris

So we were expecting to wake up to blue sky and sunshine again today – not to be – it was dull and grey, however, it was warm and it wasn’t raining so I guess we can’t complain too much.

As it wasn’t looking like a pool or beach day we decided to head in to Quimper for a look around.  We had a nice stressful time trying to find a car park (found one, but when I pressed the button to be let in nothing happened.  Of course by then other cars were queueing behind so there was a lot of reversing and beeping of horns to be had so we could get out, we then had to go the wrong way down a one way street to get out of it – words were spoken!)  We actually ended up in a better car park nearer the centre, but it wasn’t pleasant.

Not knowing where we were, we decided to head towards some big spires using the logic that normally big churches are in the centre of towns.  It worked and before too long we found ourselves in cobbled pedestrianised streets.  The place had a nice, easy vibe to it so we mooched around, looking in tourist shops,  cook shops (of which there were many) and bought and ate some very yummy looking macaroons from a posh bakery and looked at restaurant menus.  We suddenly realised that it was past 12pm so it was time for lunch.  We settled on a creperie which was doing a menu of galette with ham, cheese and egg and a sugar / chocolate crepe and a drink of apple juice for €7 – was too good to miss out on!  Unfortunately Tom wasn’t in agreement, he chewed and chewed on the galette, and looked completely miserable (maybe because we went past  a restaurant serving moules?

Tom and Nik on the water slides

To cheer him up, Matt had discovered that there was a TGV due in the station at Quimper, so after a slow walk back to the car we then drove to the SNCF Gare and there it was the TGV – fastest train in Europe.  Tom was mega excited, so we ignored all the signs saying you need a ticket to go on the platforms (we are ignorant foreigners after all!) and headed over for a good look.  Tom was as excited as ever, he certainly cheered up.

Once the excitement had died down, we headed back to the campsite via a supermarket.  We passed a Carrefour (the other side of the dual carriageway and therefore impossible to get to) but saw another sign for a Centre Commerical, so followed it.  We ended up in a huge car park for a massive building which said Casino on it.  We naturally thought it was a Casino, and were therefore quite surprised to see so many cars in the car park so early, and a petrol station?  More investigation led to us finding some trolleys in a trolley park and people carrying what looked like provisions and baguettes, hummmmm...  We got ourselves a trolley and headed in to find a huge huge supermarket: Géant, as far as we could tell there was no Casino at all!  We got all the provisions we needed (and more which is traditional) and then headed back to the campsite.

We do feed him. Honest.

The sun had come out now and it was quite hot.  First of all though we all needed a siesta, Tom was obviously tired as were we, so we all bedded down for an hour and then got changed into our swimmers to go to the pool.  Matt brought his camera with him this time so he could get some photos.  Basically, all Tom wanted to do was go down the water slides and jump in the pool, so that is what he did.  We did the water slides with him (“Daddy, you go first, then I will go, then Mummy, you need to count to 10 then you come” etc etc) He was in full bossy mode!

After about an hour in the pool, we headed home, and set up the bbq for some sausages and steak haché – all very nice.  We then spent the evening climbing rocks on the beach near the campsite, and in the play area.

Tom hasn’t managed to make any friends yet here – I think it is more difficult being in a cabin – there are no empty tent pitches in which to play and meet friends.  There are plenty of children in the cabins around where we are, but they all seem to already have friends, and don’t seem interested in gaining another.  We will see what happens, it would be lovely for him to have some company his own age…

Sunday

Tom on the rocks

In the water

Opened the curtains this morning to grey sky.  Here we go again.  I got up relatively early (8.45) to get a baguette from the shop (we discovered yesterday that if you leave it too late – around 10am nothing is left).  I was pleased to see that it wasn’t grey skies, just mist and it was fast being burnt off.  Hurray.

By the time we had had breakfast and got ourselves dressed, the sky was bright blue. We decided to enjoy the nice weather and not stray far from the campsite today, so we packed up our beach gear and walked to the beach at the entrance of the campsite.  The tide was out leaving lots of rock pools and seaweed on the beach.  In fact it was impossible to walk to the water without clambering on rocks or wading through seaweed.  Not to worry, it made the whole beach experience more interesting – Tom was straight on to the rocks clambering around (I was surprised as he’s not naturally adventurous).

Sandcastle Fort

Once all the exploring and wading had been done, we had a long game of velcro tennis and then set to making a huge sandcastle fort.  He was rather disappointed when the water he collected in buckets just disappeared straight through the sand and out of the moat, so we lined the moat with seaweed which meant the water stayed a little longer, but still not long enough.  The tide wasn’t due in until early evening, so we had to leave his sandcastle city behind to be washed away.  By now it was getting on for 1pm and it was getting hot, hot, hot so we decided to head back to the cabin for lunch.  Tom decided to walk bare foot all the way back, it was going well until he stubbed his toe on a drain cover and bawled the place down.  He did actually draw blood this time, so he got some sympathy.  When we got back to the cabin we had another one of those lovely French picnic lunches – I love them!

Zonked!

We then had ‘quiet hour’ – when we all retired to our rooms to be quiet.  I never thought that Tom would fall asleep (although to be honest, I very nearly did!) but when we checked in on him after an hour and a half, we has completely zonked out on his bed.  In fact we had to wake him up and had to try quite hard!  A drink and a macaroon cheered him up along with a promise to visit the pool.

We all got togged up and walked up to the pool complex.  I think we spent just over an hour there – being bossed around as usual by Mr Tom.  All we did was water slides and jumping in.  Trying to get him to swim is so so difficult and fraught with frustration, so we just let him be. 

We came home, had showers, then headed out to the sports ground and played cricket, table tennis, football and basketball (Tom is amazingly good at basketball considering his size – almost equalling his Dad with number of baskets scored!).  It was very muggy, so I sat some of them out.  We then headed back to the campsite – the plan was to eat at the restaurant, we got there 5 minutes after it opened only to be turned away because too many people arrived at the same time – there were tables free, but no-one else was allowed a seat.  We went to the takeaway instead: same problem, huge queue, no one taking orders.  Our last resort was the very poorly stocked shop.  We found a tin of tuna, some beans and tomato sauce, so I made a bean and tuna stew.  Wasn’t  too bad considering it was very last minute.

We had to eat inside as it had started to rain – nothing too bad, but certainly not weather for outdoor eating.  We then played cards (I lost so had to do the washing up – new rule, which so far has worked in Matt’s favour!).  Tom then went to bed.  A lazy day but happy day.

Holidays...part 8

Thursday

Our tent neighbours and the Canvas Holidays couriers promised us sunshine today.  We were sceptical, because the weather forecast Matt uses said rain.  We woke up, no rain.  An hour later – rain!  That was it until 8pm, constant rain.  At least it wasn’t torrential like yesterday – but still it was steady rain and it was cold again – about 15 degrees – so not exactly tropical!

Our tent

Cherbourg Express

Our tent neighbours had had enough – they headed home a day early fed up of the rain – not sure they were going to anything better as they live in Guernsey!  We spent the morning playing table tennis whilst doing laundry (we had hoped to wash and dry at the tent, but it wasn’t to be – nothing is going to dry naturally in this weather).  The whole event took about 2 hours, so Tom got in a lot of table tennis practise.  He isn’t too bad either, just needs to be a bit taller so he can reach more shots and so he has a better view of the ball.  He managed a couple of rallies of 10 shots, which I think for a 6 year old total beginner is pretty good.  The clothes came out of the dryer roasting hot – so so nice to handle – the first non damp clothes in 5 days.  We took them back to the tent and then decided what to do for the day.

Caen tram

We were going to explore Honfleur, but with it being really rainy, would it be worth it?  Instead we decided to go to Caen, to do some trainspotting and also there are trams in Caen which we thought a small boy might want a ride on.

We easily found parking near the SNCF Gare, and headed in.  First stop was the café for lunch (pasta for Tom and half a panini each for me and Matt).  Then we went on the platform to do some train spotting.  Well the boys did anyway, I looked at all the black and white photos of soldiers from the second world war which were dotted about – much more interesting (for me anyway!)

We had discovered that a family travel card on the tram was only €6 for a day so we got ourselves one of those and got on the tram into the city centre.  The city centre really wasn’t up to much – a couple of department stores, lots of shoe stores and not much else.  However, there was a C&A which we went in for old times sake and found some great children’s clothes at great prices.  Tom got 3 new T-shirts out of it lucky boy!  We then walked round looking for somewhere for tea and a bun and had almost given up when Matt stumbled across a boulangiere with some tarts and inside seating.  Yahoo.  We went in and the waitress humoured our dodgy French and helped with pronunciation – nice girl.  I had a tart au citron avec meringué, and Matt and Tom shared a rather enormous chocolate brownie.

Rainy bbq

Fortified, we then got the tram.  We didn’t have anywhere to go to as such, just wanted a ride, so rode to the end of the line (only took 15 minutes), then we got off, crossed the tracks and got back on again to go almost to the other end of the line.  Some people may say that our trip was pointless, but it made a small boy happy.  There really isn’t that much to do in Caen – a result of it being almost completely destroyed in the war.  There are old town walls – but no castle and no way to walk round them.  All the rest of the city is boring post war architecture and a huge, huge university.

We got the tram back to the train station, had a quick look to see if there were any trains in or about to arrive (no) and then headed back to the car.

Being stoically British!

We drove home in the drizzle.  Once back at the campsite we decided to have a bbq in the rain – we had some nice looking brochettes to eat and cooking them in the tent would be a real pain.  We had got hold of some bbq firelighting gel, and had squirted some on yesterday when we thought we would be cooking them yesterday – we set a match to it to see if it would work – it did!  In fact we had people coming up to us all excited that someone had managed to get a bbq to light – the result were some rather excellent kebabs which we had with some rice and veggies I cooked on the camp stove.

The rest of the evening was spent playing cards and doing a preliminary pack up.  We head to Brittany tomorrow.  Apparently it is going to be a nice day tomorrow – typical as we will be in the car all day.  Let’s hope we get some sun, or at least some days without rain next week…

Friday

We woke up this morning, opened the door and saw a blue sky?  Then we saw a big golden thing up in the sky.  We weren’t sure what it was, but Tom was pretty sure it was something called a sun.

Typical – we had a long journey to make today in the car!  We packed up, and headed one last time for Caen and then headed West for Benodet.  We had a fantastic journey, first of all it was sunny (always a bonus, everything always looks better in the sun), secondly there were no cars on the road.  We are heading into low season right now – most people will be heading back to the UK for school starting next week.  Tom has the latest starting date I know of (he broke up at the same time as everyone else, so I don’t really understand why he’s going back so late) so there were very little Brits on the road, and the numbers of Dutch, Belgian and German cars declined as well.  The road was fast and empty with very little really to look at.  No interesting loads, and the only buildings of any note on the road were lots of food processing factories (I guess that’s one of the main industries in Brittany). 

We stopped in one of the many picnic places for lunch:  a typical French picnic of baguette, garlic sausage, cheese, salad, pate etc etc.  I do love a French picnic.

Tom managed to keep himself occupied with playing guess the animal with his animal fact cards and playing vets with me – involving his three soft animal friends with various ailments.  We arrived in Benodet a good hour early and smiled nicely at the courier to be allowed in.  It worked.  We are in a cabin in this campsite (for a third of the price of the tent last week!) it is compact, but has everything we need and mainly isn’t damp.  Tom has a room to himself with an ensuite – lucky boy.  We quickly unpacked and then went for a look around the campsite – it has a fantastic water park – complete with regular slides and curly wurly slides.  Tom got quite excited when he saw it.  We are right next to the beach which is fab, means we will be able to have half days on the beach etc, which makes life easier, especially if the unpredictable weather comes back.

We went back to the cabin and got changed into our swimwear and hit the pool.  It is very different to the one at Houlgate, has current channels, and lots of bits and bobs of pools all linking up.  Tom didn’t like the current channel (strange as  he loved it in Centreparcs?) but he loved, no he LOVED the slides and made us go on them again and again and again.

Bénodet sunset

After an hour or so it was beginning to get cold so we headed back to the cabin, had showers and then decided to stretch our legs and head to Benodet for dinner.  The courier told us it was a 10 minute walk, it was a little more than that, more than double that, but it didn’t matter – it was a lovely still and sunny evening, it was a nice walk and we needed to stretch our legs after being in the car all day.

We settled on a busy restaurant which had a fixed price menu for €15 of either moules marinere or smoked salmon galette.  Both of these are Tom’s favourite so he shared our plates (the children’s menu once again was over priced and very dull – so surprised that a nation of gourmands will feed children rubbish when out).  Both meals came with a caramel pancake for pudding (we both had to part with a large portion for his nibs) and a glass of cider each – perfect and not too pricy either.

We walked back under a sun set to the cabin.  Tom said he was tired, so he went straight to bed whilst we caught up with unpacking etc.