Holiday highlights – week two
Our second week saw us heading up to Haute-Marne to a little village in the middle of nowhere. A bit too much in the middle of nowhere, in retrospect, but it was cheap and had plenty of space for us all, plus a garden with swings, washing machine and dishwasher too. We all agreed though, the worst thing about the holiday was the flies that lived here! It wasn’t quite as homey as the Baxter’s flat, but we still had a good week.
Josiah really enjoyed ‘The Tiger who Came to Tea’ by Judith Kerr while we were away and would pounce on anyone to ask them to read it! This was Grandpa’s turn.
One evening we headed down to a lake near to Langres – the Lac de Charmes. It was really nice but yet again I forgot my swimming gear – thought I’d put them in Joe’s bag but I hadn’t! Josiah particularly enjoyed swimming here and yet again the children had to be dragged out of the water. It was really nice to see them all enjoying themselves so much.
The main highlight of this week turned out to be Nigloland, despite the high temperatures and blazing sunshine again we had a fantastic day there. I think some of the photos ended up being taken with the normal camera but here are a selection.
this is the closest Steve is probably going to get to driving an F1 car. Abbie and I had the Mercedes one behind Steve & Anna, but photos of my F1 debut are on the other camera!
The girls forced me to go on the pirate ship … two minutes before queuing up we saw a girl being sick having just got off it, which did rather put me off, but there we go! We’d only had a crepe for lunch about an hour ago …
Josiah and Grandpa again – this time having great fun on the cowboy ride! Grandpa is sporting a new hat in this picture, having irretrievably lost his cap on the log flume we went to the shop to buy new hats – the kids all chose bandanas which I think are really trendy … don’t think Anna’s taken hers off since!
And a little family picture (sorry I’m looking the wrong way!) of us on a very pleasant little ride – aaah!!
This is Abbie at the gite, playing in the garden … about the only photo I have of her looking vaguely nice, she’s suffering from ‘I’m growing my hair out’ syndrome, it’s at a very awkward stage and probably will be for a while longer, gggrrr!
One night Steve and I cooked a meal for the children and made the kitchen into a restaurant – Steve wrote out a menu and the children ordered what they wanted – in French, too. It was really fun, Joe especially enjoyed being allowed a real wine glass!
Another day we went to a garden park (which was rubbish by National Trust standards, I have to say!). Here’s Anna being a statue …
… and the little ones getting wet in the sprinklers. It was still hot this week too, until the last couple of days.
On our last day, after a trip to the supermarket to stock up on wine (!!) we went to Brasserie Le Foy in Chaumont. It was Anna’s idea to find a restaurant for lunch and it was a great idea. It was a fantastic way to round off our holiday, we all enjoyed the food and the ambience …
Once home from Chaumont we slowly packed up the car – this is Joe on our very last morning wishfully thinking that he could drive all the way home! Steve did eventually persuade him to swap seats!
All our travelling was relatively pain free and no major problems. We were so grateful to have air conditioning in the car, it was often the nicest place to be! Eurotunnel was easy … still can’t quite decide if I prefer it to a ferry but Steve does, so I guess it’s Eurotunnel for us from now on.
Other things to remember – Joe developed an interest in clocks and looked out for them all the time, that was fun. Steve spun the children a daft yarn about bears in the woods dressed up as cows (just don’t ask) to keep them amused at the end of a long journey – one of those stories that then lived on every time we saw cows in a field!
All in all a good time was had by everyone, Grandma & Grandpa included, I think! Looking back we all wished we could have stayed two weeks in the first gite but then again that would have cost a lot more – the flies really were unbearable at times. We tried all sorts of ways of getting rid of them from flypapers to citronella candles, Steve got very good at swatting them too, but they were still a formidable presence! Also another time I think I’d cost out flying and hiring a car rather than all the travelling we did – although it was fine, it might have been nicer not to have to do it, if it worked out to be feasible. AND we’ve decided to go out of season from now on – how frustrating it was that so many things were closed in August!
So there we go. I guess I’d better get on with some washing …