Trainspotting

The country's least needed station map?

The local paper here printed special vouchers for a £10 ticket for the day to go anywhere on the Northern Rail network.  The boys didn't have to be asked twice, so they went off for the day.  I tried to do some shopping in Lancaster, but quickly gave up (I really do hate it) and returned home in time to go to the Scouts jumble sale - I got Tom some shorts and another Encyclopedia and headed home.  Alice (Charlie's mum) has just gone back to school (she's an English teacher) and phoned up asking if I wanted to pop round for a catch up.  Fantastic, so I popped round and ended up there for about 3 hours finding out all her gossip - by all accounts she's loving it despite all the barriers the government put up - did you know English GCSE isn't graded as A,B,C etc as of this year, but 1, 2, 3 etc, but the government haven't released what the numbered grades will mean, which puts teachers in the difficult position of having to grade work without knowing what the grades are?  How ridiculous?!  I could never work in the public sector, it would drive me mad!

I got home, made tea, ate tea and then went to collect the boys who had had sushi on the way home (lucky things).  They had had a good time.

HST at Doncaster

Yes, Tom and I decided to do a grand tour of Yorkshire on Northern Rail trains. Nik dropped us off at Ribblehead and we got the usual train down to Leeds, pausing only to wave at the Highland cattle at Hellifield. We had about 45 minutes to wait for our next train, so we disappeared into Marks & Spencer to get our lunch. Prawn sandwiches for him (surprise surprise), some healthy sandwiches for me, and we also shared a part of fruit and a packet of beetroot and sweet potato crisps. He wanted to down them straightaway (before 11 o'clock), but I insisted we waited until we got to Doncaster, our next stop. We arrived there around noon, his prawn sandwiches were gone by about five past, and we then spent an hour watching a variety of passenger and freight trains passing through the station. It is a busy line there.

Sushi demolition

Our next voyage was a fast train to Hull, which stopped only at Goole on the way. Tom thought the station was called Google. This was my first visit to Hull, which is another of those northern cities with a very fine Victorian railway station. Not on the same scale as, say, York or Newcastle, but very attractive nonetheless. I noticed that there was a shopping centre next door to the station, so we toddled in, fortified ourselves with doughnuts, and had a look round the shops, where Tom was delighted to find a toy shop full of Top Trumps packs. Two sets were duly purchased (creatures of the deep and Deadly 60), which provided him with ample entertainment on our next to legs, Hull to York and York to Leeds.

Mummy going down

Leeds turned out to be just another food-purchasing interlude, as we headed straight to Wasabi to pick up some sushi for the train back to Ribblehead. Again, someone wanted to get stuck into his on the platform. I again insisted he waited until the train actually left the platform, and I think half his bento had been consumed before we were clear of the station points. The whole lot had gone before Shipley, our first stop. His capacity for sushi is truly extraordinary. Still, I think it's great. Not many British kids his age would even consider trying it.
We arrived back in the Dales bang on time, to find Mummy waiting, and we all headed home to tell her about our little adventure.

Swinging

Tom was really excellent company today. I don't recall saying a single cross word to him (other than "no you can't eat it yet"). Anyway, these cheap days out happen two or three times a year, so will have to think about where to explore next time.

Sunday
In the morning Matt and Tom went across to the Community Field to help put the cricket pitch to bed (i.e. shovel a tonne and a half of loam, sand etc on it).  Tom came back fine, Matt came back shattered.  We went to Inglesport for lunch and then drove over to Sizergh Castle for the afternoon.  We walked around the grounds, did a quick 'spot the object' quiz in the house, had tea and a bun and then walked their wild trail which was really rather good.  Lots of obstacles made from trees etc to tackle, rhymes to read and solve and a trail to follow.  We all had fun.  Then back home for tea.  School tomorrow and at last some cakes for me to make, back to the old routine.

Weekend

Grim day in Skipton

So now Tom is in Year 2, we have decided to give him some pocket money.  We have introduced him to the world of football stickers - buying him what we thought was the 2015/16 album and some stickers to start him off in Devon (only to find that it was the 2014/15 season - poo!)  We have decided to give him £2 a week - which gives him a chance to buy 4 sets of stickers, or 2 sets of stickers and some sweets or whatever he wants.   He doesn't get the money for free - he has agreed some rules - so he has a couple of jobs to do (empty cutlery in dishwasher / do recycling etc) and some behavioural points to think about (go to bed nicely, brush teeth nicely, hang wet towels over the banisters etc).  It seems to be working so far.  We gave him his first £2 on Saturday and he immediately said he wanted to put it in the bank.  I was impressed, but thought I should explain fully the concept of pocket money, once I did he didn't want to put it in the bank but save it up for a new Bruder toy.  We will see what happens...

Nervous newsreader

Saturday morning was horrible - rainy and windy.  It was the first session of the Craven Wanderers football season.  At one point I thought it would be cancelled, but as 9.30 neared, the rain and wind eased.  Tom wanted to go, but when he got there, he went all quiet and said he didn't like the wind and didn't want to play.  As I was trying to reason with him, something caught his eye and suddenly he was off????!!!!   Phew!!!!!  It was a bit of a shame that only one other child in his age group turned up (Lexi from his class), none of the boys turned up.  This means that the under 7s team (they have proper matches against local villages and towns) is going to be made up of Tom, Lexi and a whole lot of 5 year olds.  I have been trying to convince other boys to come along, but of the 7 boys in Tom's class, 3 hate sport, 1 is so good he plays in the under 8s team and the others don't really care.  I will try to encourage them, but it is like beating a head against a brick wall!

Reading the news

Anyhow, as I said the rain stopped as soon as we got there and it stayed away for the whole training session.  It started again just as we walked home.  Tom had had a good session, he loves the coaches and the atmosphere is very warm - focusing on having fun, there is no pressure.  Perfect for him to find his feet and grow.

Climbing Pendle Hill

Matt didn't go to the football, feeling rubbish with cold.  When we got back home he suggested a train ride to Bradford and a curry.  We didn't argue.  We drove to Skipton and had tea and a bun at the new farm shop.  We then headed to the train station and got the direct train to Bradford.  First stop was the media museum to look around.  Tom had a go being a newsreader on the BBC News, and did a pretty good job considering the autocue was very fast.  Before too long our tummies were rumbling, so we headed over to the Kashmir for another fantastically cheap quality curry.  We had a freshly cooked plate of onion bhaji, 2 curries, rice, naan, 2 chapatis, poppadums, chutney etc and soft drinks for £14.  How do they make any money?  It all went and it was all delicious.

We headed back home with happy bellies.

Ingleborough in the distance

Sunday was a  lovely sunny day.  We decided to go for a walk and settled on Pendle Hill near Blacko (on the way to Colne / Nelson etc).  We were expecting the hill to be in the middle of no-where but found some very lovely villages on the way, including Barley where there was a car park for the Pendle Hill walkers (full of TV crews and catering vans so they are filming something here - we didn't see anything though), a cafe in the car park which was full.  We had a picnic with us though so we walked past that and 2 very lovely looking pubs to the hill.  The hill was a good climb especially if you are full of cold (all 3 of us) so we huffed and puffed our way up to the top.  We were rewarded with a fantastic view of the area and enjoyed it as we ate our picnic, with about 100 other walkers - it was a busy day - but it was clear and warm, and local to a large population so can't really complain.

Flying Tom

We decided to do a full circle of the hill so left the throngs and finished off the walk by ourselves.  We then had to try out one of the pubs for a drink before heading home (it was a lovely pub too - must go back for food one Friday evening).

Altogether a lovely day.  Tom's walking was ace.

Into Year 2

So, it happened, the school holidays are now offically over!  It did zoom past - which is suprising considering he had 7.5 weeks off!  He happily wore his new uniform this morning and scooted to school.  Everyone was very happy and excited to be back.

Growing up

Tom came home saying he had a good time.  He thinks Ms Middleton is a great teacher - but can't tell me why?!  He drew a selfie and learnt about his new classroom.  After school he had his first swimming lesson of the new year.  We were quite worried about it as he refused to do any 'proper' swimming during the holidays, however, he went in with gusto and did really well.  Last term he was very bottom of his class, today he was middle of the class - and the fastest on his back which is strange as he absoultely refused to do any swimming on his back during the holidays saying he couldn't do it!  I tell you I'm going to get a curly wig next time we go swimming and pretend to be Jill!

Time with Granma and Pop Pop

Saturday

Today we offered Tom to Mum and Dad for the day.  Tom is brilliant now when he is on his own with either me or Matt, we call this 'Golden Time', it is time to treasure having Tom to yourself and we figured this would probably apply to Grandparents as well - so we asked if they wanted him to theirselves.  Mum is pretty beaten up at the moment - sporting a broken arm and a massive limp from a fall about a month ago.  However, they jumped at the chance to have Tom to themselves and took him off to a big park in Plymouth for a play and lunch.  

Matt and I took the chance to go for a walk across the moor to Yelverton and lunch in a pub.  Chilli for me (can't taste anything with this cold - but it gave me goosebumps, so I figure it was quite spicy!)  We then walked back.  Matt did some work and I enjoyed the silence for an hour or so and then got bored, missing my little man.  Mum and Dad finally got home around 4pm - smiles all round, although it was obvious to see that Mum had overdone it!

We had a quiet afternoon / evening, finished off with a salmon dinner - someone was very happy!

Sunday

Working hard together

A close inspection of the engine

Playing boules

Nice pic

We thought we should give Mum and Dad a break and took Tom off for the day.  We decided to explore the Launceston Heritage Railway.  This is a small railway with small engines but very pleasant.  We got there by the skin of our teeth, ran aboard the train (Lilian) and headed to the end of the line and back again (it was only 15 mins from one end to the other).  We then looked around the museum and shop and got the next train out.  Where the line ended there was a farm park - perfect for a 6 year old: lots of outdoor games, go-karts, trampolines, a river and beach, table tennis, olde worlde games, ball pall, swingball etc etc and some animals to stroke.  Also there was a cafe which did very good food at very reasonable prices (just as well as we didn't have much money on us!)   We spent a very pleasant two hours there in the sun before heading home on the next train.

Then a drive through sunny Cornwall and Devon back to Crapstone and an afternoon enjoying the sun in the garden, playing Boules and working Pop Pop's trains on the outside railway.  Tom then had dinner with Granma and Pop Pop, whilst Matt and I went to Peter Tavy for a very lovely 2 course dinner and then a clamber on Dartmoor to a tor before returning back to Crapstone.

Monday

Hanging around

HMS Ocean

Matt was back to work today, so Mum, Dad and I went for a day out.  Mum and Dad suggested Edgcumbe which involves a boat ride.  We headed down to Plymouth to the walk on ferry car park, but it was full so we headed around the bay to the car ferry - not a patch on the Brittany Ferries car ferry, but still exciting.  We drove round to Edgcumbe, Tom had a little play and then we had lunch sat outside in the sun.  Tom, Dad and I then walked down to the beach to watch boats and throw stones in the sea, whilst Mum got the mobility car down.  We saw HMS Ocean go out and a camouflaged 'army boat' as well as lots of tugs, yachts etc etc.  Tom and I skimmed stones.  We continued down through the gardens together, found ourselves another cafe for ice cream and a table tennis table for more practise.

It was a lovely day, lots of sunshine and smiles.  We returned home for more boules, and more playing with Pop Pop's garden railway and then we all headed to The Jack Rabbit for dinner.  Somehow Tom ended up with two courses which he ate up, whilst the rest of us had one - always the smallest person who gets the biggest meals!!!!!!


Tuesday

A boring day - we got up, packed and headed home.  We did well, Matt drove to Gloucester where the Tebay people have set up another services, so we enjoyed hot food and then I drove from Gloucester back home.  I didn't come out of 6th gear for the whole motorway journey - that includes the M5/M6 junction, so it was a very good run home.   We unpacked, had tea and went to bed.

Back to Blighty

The Armorique

So on Friday morning we got up early (boo hoo!), Matt did the breakfast run in hope of finding pain raisin but was dissapointed and then we packed up.  We were out of the campsite before 10am and on our way north to Morlaix to do our final supermarket shop.  It was a nice ride through the countryside - we were stunned by how similar to Dartmoor a lot of it was - we found ourselves in heather moorland complete with tors etc.  At one point we were wondering if we had somehow flown over the channel!

We arrived in Morlaix and found the Géant easily.  It looked a little run down from outside and we were the only GB car in the car park, but we went in and found a decent sized shop, which was empty, meaning we could have a pleasant experience shopping.  We did very very well with alchol, Matt finding some great bargains with whisky etc and also plenty of cidre and wine.  I didn't do so well with cheese with very little to choose from, but on the whole we were pleased with our shop, it was a good trolley full and on getting back to the car and putting it in the boot, we realised we could have bought 4x the amount without running out of space.

Chopper Tom

We had lunch in the shopping mall at a very busy local cafe / bar - our last frites of the holiday.  We then pushed on to Roscoff (or Rosko as it is known in Breton).  We filled the car up with Diesel (much much cheaper in France) and drove through the town - it was a lovely looking town - worth an explore, if you didn't have a car full of valuables to worry about!  Certainly worth an overnight stop if getting a late ferry over.

We then went to the ferry port and lined up for the boat - being placed right next door to our cabin neighbours from the campsite!  We got on board early and found ourselves some seats.  Once again the sea was very calm so the crossing was very pleasant.  Unfortunately I was coming down with a cold and wasn't feeling very well, just as well the crossing was calm.  Tom enjoyed himself, exploring the boat, running around outside.  There was a magic show, a family quiz (which Matt and Tom won) balloon making etc - this made the time go quickly and before we knew it we could see the lights of Devon.  We docked half an hour early, but then immigration took ages meaning it was over an hour from getting in our cars to getting onto the road (it took 10 mins in Caen!).  We were tired, so were feeling pretty lucky that we had a short drive to Crapstone.  (Our cabin neighbours were driving straight to Manchester!).

Car deck with a view

We were welcomed by Mum and Dad.  We unpacked minimal luggage and went inside.  Tom had a hyper 30 mins and then went to bed, we weren't far behind - it had been a long day.

Notes to ourselves for next time:
+ Don't need to take any food - we took some beans and Ribena with us and brought them home!
+ Tom didn't like French sausages?!
+ Take a bath mat if staying in a cabin
+ Normandy is now 'done', plenty more to see in Brittany
+ Take duvets - we were supplied with blankets - but they wouldn't have been enough on their own, we used them with duvets as it got pretty cold at night
+ Don't forget 'skinny' trunks
+ Take scooter for Tom in the campsite
+ Be very careful when selecting campsites (how far to the beach, what sort of pool complex etc)
+ Take go pro and waterproof case

Holidays...part 13

Friday

Paddling

Today we are 11 years married – wow!  Where has the time gone?

Today we had another quiet day around the campsite.  In the morning we went up to the pool which we had more or less to ourselves.  Of course it was all water slides.  Until Tom told me he wanted me to throw him in the pool as if he had been really naughty – I did this twice.  The second time he came up spluttering and splattering and said he didn’t want to do it again.  So back to the slides until he was shivering so much he had to call it a day.  It was blue skies but large clouds and when the clouds were in front of the sun it got noticeably cooler.

We went back to the cabin, did some preliminary packing (as usual we have to be out of here by 10am which is hard work when you are getting used to 9am starts). 

Us on the other side

We then had lunch which was everything left in the fridge with a baguette (we did a good job and managed to finish up pretty much everything we had).  We then went down to the beach for the afternoon.  We were pretty lucky in that the sky cleared for the time we were down there so we got some sun.  The tide was on its way out, meaning the spit of land we saw yesterday was almost accessible. 

Down the slide

After a couple of games of velcro tennis we had another look at the channel and found we could traverse.  Tom and I went first, the current was strong, but it was shallow enough (under my knees) so we got across no problems.  Matt seeing we had done it then had a go once Tom and I were back.

A couple more games of velcro tennis and we came back to the cabin, had showers, and got ready to go out to Concarneau.  We had decided to go back there for dinner today – to celebrate the end of the holiday and our anniversary.  Mainly though, we chose to return here as we had found a number of restaurants that do moules frites for children and Tom was desperate to have his own.

Splash!

We got there early, thinking we would have an early dinner and then go for a walk around the ramparts – hoping they would be lit up by then.  We went to one restaurant to be told they didn’t serve until 7pm (it was 5.30)  Poo!  When we looked at the other restaurants, they all looked empty!  So, we thought we would walk round the ramparts first.  It wasn’t to be – the ramparts were closed off for the evening.  It wasn’t going well!  We then decided to go somewhere for a drink to while away the waiting time.  We ended up at a restaurant, when we got served, we asked if they would do food – they said yes – yahoooooo!  And they did the children’s moules. 

So dinner was fantastic:

New favourite food

Tom was mega, mega excited to get his own bowl of moules and frites and did a really good job of eating it all up – it was a decent portion too.  His dessert was apple compote which came in a tube bag which tend to hold baby food – every strange, and although he complained to start with – he tried it and liked it.

I had scallops to start, a wonderful pork and cidre casserole with chips and some salad for my mains and a Breton galette / cakey thing for dessert.  I was in heaven.

Anniversary Cidre

Matt had soupe de poisson for starters, a pork bbq for mains with a baked potato (pomme de terre au fours – for future reference) consisting of sausage, belly pork / rib thing, and a smoked intestine thingy (not sure what it was neither of us had seen anything like it before).  He finished off with a citron cake / biscuit thingy.  He was pleased too.

All of this of course was polished off with a bottle of cidre and plenty of rustic bread.  My stomach is now moaning (stretched) with it all, but it was definitely worth it. 

We wondered back through the Ville Close, Matt took some photos of the ramparts in the evening sun and then we headed home.  Tom went to bed, we did more packing and are shortly off to bed ourselves, a great day to round off the French bit of our holidays.

Holidays...part 12

Gloomy fish

Wednesday

Tom finally got to sleep and the coughing stopped – phew!  We woke up to another blue sky – yahooooo!  Today we decided to head to Brest to go to Oceanopolis which markets itself as something unique in Europe – the most amazing aquarium you will visit.  After our Cerza visit, we were keen to do another animal based activity.  We got up a little earlier than usual (we have been having long lazy holiday mornings which are ace), had a quick breakfast and were on our way.  The hour long journey didn’t take too long at all and luckily the aquarium was on the edge of the city, nearest us.

Polar Bear 

We paid the €50 to get in and went straight to the polar exhibit where we saw a fantastic panoramic film full of penguins and seals and then had a look around the exhibits.  There was a penguin colony of Macaroni and Emperor penguins.  You could watch them darting around underwater which is always a favourite.

The next exhibit was the seals, including the bearded seal, which was my favourite – a big fat seal with a face full of whiskers.  We watched them for a while before moving on.  The rest of the polar exhibit concentrated on expeditions to polar regions and consisted of videos of scientists doing their thing.  There was a real stuffed polar bear and plenty of footage of polar bears trampling along watching the scientists from afar.

Urchins

Next stop was the Tropical exhibit, all the usual brightly coloured fish and some – including a Napolean which are always fun (big, grumpy and blue).  I can remember coming across lots of these when diving in Egypt.  There were some sharks in this exhibit too: some with nasty looking teeth, a long toothed sawfish (which has what looks like a chain saw sticking out of its nose) and some small classic looking sharks.  Tom liked this tank, although he did cling to me each time he saw a shark – pretending to be scared.

Bright fish

By now we were all starving (the early start making our tummies rumble early).  We headed to the cafeteria where Tom had chicken nuggets and frites, I had roast chicken and frites and Matt had calamari and frites.  All at very reasonable prices.  We have really struggled to get vegetables here – they don’t seem to feature on any menu.  I can understand moules frites having no veggies - where would you put them, but nothing seems to come with veggies in a restaurant.  I have therefore majored on them when cooking in the campsites, in an attempt to have some healthy food.

Once refortified, we headed to the temperate aquarium, ie to see fish from around here.  All very well, but temperate fish are boring – just grey, silver things.  Not much to look at, not playful.  From there we had a look around the very large shop and came out with a birthday present for a friend back home.  We then went to see the otters (we couldn’t find them) and walked around an exhibit for 6-10 year olds, which was ok, but not amazing.  Tom then asked to go back to the polar exhibit to see the seals again.  They were my favourite animal of the day so was quite happy to do so.  After that we called it a day.  It was a nice day out, but not worth €50, there was a definite tired feel to the place, you got the feeling that once it was amazing and the must go to attraction, but now it was down on its luck.  I hope it manages to get itself back on its feet again.

The BBQ King

We got home in good time, played some games of boules (Tom lost and cried – I mean really?!  We told him not to be such a bad sport!)  Then the last bbq of the holiday: sausages, steak hache and ebi brochettes, with taboleh and a big bowl of salad with home made garlic mayonnaise, served with cidre of course.  It was a fabulous meal.  Up until now the day had been quite cold (we wore jumpers all day) because the clouds were hiding the sun.  Now, however, all the clouds disappeared, it got hot.

Playing velcro tennis

We decided to head to the beach for an after dinner stroll.  When we got there, it was high tide, so we decided to walk around the headland away from Benodet, and found a very long spit of sandy beach from the other side of the bay heading across to the beach we were on.  All very lovely – especially when shining in the sunshine.  We stopped to watch some people fishing and to play velcro tennis and then headed back. 

Golden sunlight

We got back to the cabin, washed Tom’s sandy feet in the kitchen sink, he then went to bed.  It was still 9pm before he got to bed – it is going to be a shock to his system when we get home, going back to 7pm bed times (although when you think about it, he hasn’t really adjusted to the hour’s time difference – waking up a good hour later than usual and going to bed an hour / two hours later than usual which is the normal time in the UK.  It is  us who will need to be more organised about it all to get him in bed at the right time when we get home).  I must say, I have really enjoyed our evening strolls this week - will miss the close access to the beach when we get home and lack of urgency to get Tom to bed ready for school in the morning.

Holidays...part 11

Tuesday

Locronan

Hurray we woke up to blue skies.  Fantastic, but first things first, we needed to do some laundry – so I went to fathom out the French washing machines whilst Tom and Matt went for a play in the pool.  I strolled over to watch them once I got the machines working.  Being just 10am, the pool was quite empty so they had the run of it and were up and down the waterslides like yo-yos. 

I thought I would try out my speed function on my camera and took some pics of them coming down the slide.  Unfortunately they made a huge splash and covered me and the camera in water.  It took the rest of the day in the hot car to dry the camera out!  Oops.  Hopefully, I have some good shots as a result.

Galette time

It was noon by the time the washing was hung out to dry, so we packed up quickly and headed West.  Today’s plan to visit Locronan, a unspoilt and therefore quite touristy village and then head to ‘The End of the World’ – well the end of Western France anyway: Point du Raz.  As you can see from the place names here, there is very little French influence.  It is just like being in Wales – all the place names and road signs are in French and Breton.  There are lots of places starting with PL (our favourite being Plogoff) and Ty, nothing sounds French.  In fact there is one area called Cornouaille – humm, I wonder where that comes from.  They are fiercely proud of their Celtic heritage, the Breton flag is everywhere.

We found Locronan – a small hill top village.  It really was unspoilt, a very lovely place to wander around.  First stop though was somewhere to eat.  We thought we would get ripped off here as every establishment was very obviously set up for the day tripper tourist.  We were therefore very pleasantly surprised to find that a crepe or galette  was pretty much the same price here as anywhere else we have been.  We found ourselves a table in a garden: I had one with everything (ham, cheese, egg, mushrooms and tomatoes) whilst Matt had one with a huge Toulouse sausage on it and Tom had a crepe with apple compote which he was very pleased with. 

At the end of the world

We then explored the village, finding some very interesting shops – one with some amazing handmade coats in it, which started at €400 – we looked and didn’t touch!  We found another shop which looked quite small to start with, but then opened out to a huge food and drink emporium.  There were 128 Breton beers to start with as well as huge amounts of biscuits, meat, tinned fish etc etc.  We couldn’t quite believe our eyes: made notes and then went to explore the rest of the village.  It was very quaint, cobbled streets, narrow allies, big church, all very French.

Looking for Canada

Guess what we did next – yep, we went back to that shop and bought beer, cider and biscuits.  We returned to the car around 2.45 – a little later than we expected as we liked Locronan more than we were expecting.  We then headed west, west, west as far as the road went to Pointe du Raz.  This is the ‘Land’s End’ of France, much nicer than the one in the UK (I haven’t been but have only heard bad reports from it).  We were given a map of the area on arrival and planned a walk around the headland to take in the jagged coast and lighthouses.  It was a very pleasant walk, under deep blue skies with very little wind.  We were greeted by an outcrop of granite and a square lighthouse at end, all looking very picturesque in the very calm Atlantic.  We continued on with our loop, walking through heather moorland back to the visitor’s centre.  It really was a very pleasant way to spend the afternoon.

We got back around 5.30 and decided that as the restaurants looked decent enough we would stop and have tea there.  We found a restaurant that did a 12€50 menu: prawns for starter, moules or fish for mains and crepe for dessert.  Perfect. We had two of those and an extra plate.  AND for the first time this holiday, we had to do it all in French, as the waitress didn’t / refused to speak English.  Fantastic.  She was lovely too – she liked Tom (he was the only child around) and we even managed to chat about his crocodile hat – she asked about it, I managed to say it came from Australia (all basic stuff, but when you were a dunce at French, it is very lovely to see that someone can understand you!).  Both Matt and I lost a couple of prawns, I then lost a lot of my moules but Tom was very very happy. 

Eating prawns

We then headed home through lots of little villages on the peninsula.  Tom was sleepy but we manage to keep him awake playing animal fact cards.   We got home, had showers, a quick game of Top Trumps (I lost again!) before Tom went to bed.  He was very sleepy but is having trouble getting to sleep – he’s just developed a horrible dry cough (not good, that’s what he had in Shropshire) so we are keeping an eye on him and have the inhaler ready if needed.