We're back from holiday!

Yesterday we arrived back from our holiday in France, having taken the overnight ferry and arrived in Portsmouth at about 6am, we didn't linger and made it back in plenty of time for the girls (at their request) to go to gymnastics at 12.30pm.  Since I slept most of the way back in the car, as I generally do on long journeys if I'm not needed to navigate, it wasn't too much of a hardship for me!

Our holiday started a week last Monday, with a brief trip to Winchester to see my lovely friend 'Big K' and her baby A, where we had a trip to a park, a walk through a nature reserve and tea en route to the overnight ferry.

Before our week in a gite, we had the first of two 'blasts from the past' for me, with an overnight stay at a hotel very close to Mont St Michel.  When a teenager, I spent a few weeks staying with a family that my dad knew through work, looking after their children, to improve my French during the summer holidays two or three times, and they lived a stone's throw from the mount.  In fact we drove past their house on the way to the gîte afterwards!  There is a lot of work going on currently to clear the very silted bay and to build a bridge rather than the current causeway, in order to return the mount to its original island state.


Le Mont St Michel

We visited the abbey, nearly losing K to a school group who were visiting when one of their teachers tried to round her up with their children!  While there we talked a bit about what a feat it would have been to build, the acoustics and what the different parts of the abbey were for.

Looking up at the abbey

M took photos of the models showing the construction of the abbey and surrounding buildings from the 8th Century to the present day.

Despite not wanting to learn any French before we went, K & M managed pretty well when it came to ordering food (particularly ice-creams and desserts), and with a bit of help and encouragement ordered their own food and drink most of the time, as well as spending some of their money in shops (although Bonjour! and Merci sufficed on these occasions).  After going back for a bit of a rest at the hotel, we returned for an explore and discovered some possible French (hence the different spelling) muggle relatives of Lord Voldemort!

On the Wednesday we headed down to the gîte on the border of the Vendée and Deux Sèvres where we were staying for a week. 

We'd arranged to meet my parents, as they were on holiday staying with friends not all that far away, so they stayed in a hotel for a couple of nights in the nearest town about 10 minutes drive away and they came to find us about 20 minutes after we'd arrived!  We all ate together at their hotel that evening before they went off again the following morning.

We had a day of mostly reasonable weather that we spent around the gîte and exploring the surrounding area, M even went for a brief dip in the pool.  We had fun spotting wildlife on the walk.  The girls were particularly keen on the slugs for some reason, particularly since they don't like them in Daddy's garden!

 

It wasn't just outside that we spotted wildlife, while M was in the pool, K & I spotted a visitor who'd ventured inside!

 



After we'd got back from the walk, just in time to avoid the very heavy rain and accompanying thunder and lightening, K asked what makes the thunder and lightening happen, so we had a bit of impromptu science learning.

The Friday was my second 'blast from the past' in the form of a day trip to La Rochelle, where I'd lived for about 9 months, working as an 'assistante anglaise' at a school there as part of my degree.  It was the one really good day as far as the weather was concerned, which since part of the attraction for the girls was that there was a beach there was a very good thing!  After a wander through the town from the park & ride bus stop, I showed the girls the school where I'd lived and worked and we went to the Natural History Museum (always popular with K & M).

In the Natural History Museum

One big change since we were last abroad, which is only just over a year ago, is that both girls are somewhat more willing to try new foods and when A had squid as a starter for lunch, not only did both girls try a bit, M came back for more!  We decided we'd go for an ice-cream as pudding and when I saw that the double scoops were only 80 cents more than the single, I suggested we treat ourselves.  One would have been more than enough.....!

The enormous ice-creams!

Then we headed for the beach, which is only a short walk from the old harbour which is the tourist centre of the town.  It wasn't quite swimming weather (plus the tide was out), but the girls and I all had a paddle at least.

On the beach!

Most days we had very leisurely starts to the day and Saturday was similar in some respects but with one big difference.  Having heard owls and the dawn chorus on the Friday when he got up for the loo at about 5am, A suggested that we could try all getting up at that time to listen.  So that's what we did.  I was very surprised at how easy it was to rouse the girls, we all headed upstairs (it was an upside down house with bedroom below) and snuggled on the sofa with coats/jumpers on over our pyjamas, opened the windows and listened.  Mostly we just heard the wind in the trees and the river below, but then when I tried doing an owl call (blowing into my cupped hands), we heard a response and after this heard several different owls judging from where the call came from and how loud it was.  A while later we heard other birds start with lots of different of calls and listened for a while before going back to bed and having an even lazier morning than usual!

Unfortunately rain set in from the Saturday onwards.  We continued with a lazy day, playing the Harry Potter board game we'd taken with us and watching the Harry Potter dvd that was among those at the gîte.  We even watched a bit of it in French, before switching back to English.

The rain continued on Sunday, but we ventured out anyway and ended up going to a local zoo.  It was very quiet, I think we only saw two other people there apart from us!  The big cats that they had seem to have sparked something for the girls, about which, more later.

You could also walk through the section with various types of lemur running around freely.

And as always it was noted that some of the babies were 'having booboo'.

Monday brought more rain and plenty of it, but despite this we ventured out to somewhere that the girls had found a leaflet about and we keen to go to, even though they weren't entirely sure what it was!  A and I weren't clear either, but although we did all get wet enough to need the change of clothes we took before we got back into the car for the drive back to the gîte, it was turned out to be a very good idea.  It was called 'Indian Forest' and before we went, even though we weren't sure what it entailed, A & I had decided that we would all do the Parcours Aventures - Dans les Arbres, based pretty much on being sure that we could all do it together!  It was great.  We could only do the two easier levels, purple and green, because of the girls' age and M's height, but that was fine for beginners like us. 

K & M on the cargo net

A whizzing down a zip wire

K on the tight-rope - she slipped off and had to be pulled back to the start but gamely got back on and made it

On the Tuesday there was yet more rain in the morning, so we headed into Niort, the nearest big town, and eventually (the claim that it would be well signed by the ladies in the tourist office proved not to be the case!) found a really nice swimming pool.  After a late lunch back at the gîte the rain had finally stopped and we went back to a spot on the walk around the gîte that had been designated a 'nature's playground' by the girls.  A nature's playground being anywhere that they can get wet, preferably, but not necessarily, with trees to climb too.  Then it was time to pack.

Observing a pond skater

On Wednesday morning, we got up early (8 o'clock! - very early by our holiday standards), finished packing, said goodbye to our lovely hosts and headed off for our final trip.  Before the holiday we had said that the two things we definitely wanted to do were visit La Rochelle and the Marais-Poitevin.  Unfortunately, while we'd managed the former before the rain set in, we hadn't done the latter, which is really something to do when it's fine.  I had suggested, given the forecast that we leave it until the very last morning, which is what we did, and I proved to be most wise (on this occasion anyway).

We hired a 'barque sans guide', we given a map with a route for the hour and a half that we'd paid for marked on it and set off.  It is a beautifully peaceful place and during the off season, you can go for much of time without seeing anyone else.  Apart from the argument about who was sitting where from the girls, it was amazing and we added to our wildlife tally for the holiday, hearing a cuckoo and seeing a heron fly past, a deer on one of the fields in the middle of the many waterways and, most excitingly, a glimpse of what we're pretty sure was an otter.

The view for the paddlers

This is what we could also see!

K & M consenting to be in a photo!

The deer

And a photo to prove that I really was on the holiday too!

Finally, after that mammoth post, I cannot finish without mentioning that although we spent an awfully long time in the car over the course of the holiday, both getting there and back and on the day trips while we were there, the car journeys were made, not merely tolerable, but indeed enjoyable by the simple fact that we had taken Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on cd, read by the marvellous Stephen Fry, out of the library before we went.  A must for any future long car trips.