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.