So day 8 sees our last day in Rennes. The children woke up early this morning, there seemed to be a lot of movement on the site today and perhaps the noise had disturbed them.

I’ve found a coule of UCB’s (unidentified camper an bruises) as I always get… I just don’t know where they come from!

We had breakfast and got all the bedding washed ready for the arrival of daddy in 2 sleeps. I realised I’d not had a shower in a couple of days, and hadn’t looked in a mirror for a bit longer, so took the appropriate action and we packed up a picnic and headed of to a place called Roche-aux-feux, the fairy rock. These rocks are so called as it was believed that the varied out the. There to prove fairies existed.

As penny is a fairy, we thought it only right that we pay the place a visit. It’s kind of like stonehenge without the hype. It’s a megalith (which means big stone, literally) that they have dated back to Neolithic times, and it’s around 5000 years ago. As man started to evolve they started keeping animals and getting crops off the land, the thought are that they put some people inside the rocks as a kind of tomb, not buried or anything but laid in there. I the same way as stonehenge, well similar, the winter solstice sun rise rises exactly between the opening of the monument. The headiest of the stones is calculated to be 45 metric tonnes and they reckon they had to move the stones 3 miles on logs of wood…. And it may have taken about 400 people to pull! (Me and penny think that the fairies putting it there is a much more interesting story anyway!

After we had a great look around and climb about, we tried a picnic (although Fraser had the tantrum of the decade which somewhat spoilt lunch!) then headed home just in time for the sun to come out. After Fraser had a sleep, and penny and grandad headed out to buy bread, we explored the par we are staying on and found a great park, a bar/brasserie on a lake with pedelo’s…. So we let grandad take the scamps out for a pedal and mum and I sampled a wine!

A sunny evening is ahead of me, with a bbq, and clean sheets in the bed!

Hurry up stew, we are waiting for you! 2 more sleeps!

This morning started slowly after one or two glasses wine followed by the arrival of the gin! Our usual breakfast of pastries and the precaution of an additional coffee this morning and we were cooking on gas.

Caroline left us today….. It’s certainly going to be quiet without my co-adventurer! We have kidnapped Kylie and Charlene to remind us of our first guest on the great tour…. Although I will be sleeping like a star fish tonight and not sharing the covers! We miss you Caroline, I hope the next leg of your European vacation is filled with as many laughs and trumps!

We ventured into Rennes to take Caroline to the station. The outskirts of the city seemed a bit grotty, but as we got closer to the center it seemed to sort itself out, clean up and be the grand city I was expecting.

Another trip to the supermarket, and a little snooze for us all prepared ourselves for the next adventure. The children and I went on a forrest adrenaline adventure! The route we took aimed at age 5-7 but i found it really tough, not quite as tough as the grown ups go ape but certainly tougher than i thought it would be! I fell off and needed to be rescued a member of staff. Luckily it was on one of the lowest parts of the course but my feet just didn’t quite touch the floor. The kids were amazing at it. I fully expected to see frasers sad lip or penny to get cross and not do it, but they loved every minute of it. We went around twice! When Fraser went across a particularly challenging part he just kept saying “steady boys” in an American accent! No tears, no fear!

We went for an explore around the woods after and found some trees loaded with cherries…. The children were getting hungry so we headed back to the camper. On our way back through the park we went into the reception, and penny ordered the breakfast in French…. It was amazing how confident she was.

The kids are eating a pizza for tea as our planned bbq has been thwarted by strong wind and the threat of rain has prompted a change in plan. I think the forecast is looking up for tomorrow and then Thursday looks lovely…. I think there is so much more to explore here that tomorrow morning seems to be taken care of.

Well today has a been a very low key day… The arrival of the rentals, mum and dad Townend meant we had a chilled out day in the camp, did some washing, the kids played in the park and a trip to the supermarket for supplies was required.

We started the day with our delivery of fresh pastries from the local patisserie that we ordered yesterday, which were delivered to the site. They were delicious and the sun was out, the children were happy and contented.

If I could describe the site to you I’d say its a pimped up sports centre mixed with moors valley. On the site we have an ice rink, a swimming pool, a go ape style tree adventure and a farm. We wondered down and looked at the goats, pigs and sheeps, chickens, turkeys….. And deer! Caroline would love to know what noise a deer makes…. It was an amusing moment when the man cleaning the windows of the swimming pool saw Caroline trying to communicate with the deer…. Hmmmmm!

Mum and dad arrived once we had explored a little, and then we set about setting up the camp. We then had a trip to the supermarket for supplies…. Wine and seafood! Penny got a a4 ringbinder with a picture of freckle on the front, and Fraser got a pair of flip flips! It’s the little things… We might as well have bought them the crown jelwels! We also got more cheese, wine and seafood for this evening.

When we got back we let the children play and they got the giggles big time. I thought they were going to be a nightmare to settle but once they had showered they went out like a dream…. Fraser keeps telling me how much he loves me and penny keeps kissing me…. I think they are having fun!

Right now I’m settled with a full tummy, after eating our cooked prawns, moules, oysters,bulots, and yes a glass or two of wine, listening to the sound of the forrest and feeling quite content!

Hello everyone,

Tonight is my turn to make a guest appearance before I say au vior to my time with three of the adamsons.
………….well I never would have thought this time last year that the crazy lady who was to be my boss in September 2012 would change my outlook on life and be sitting where i’am today!

These last six days have been wonderful and not anything like the contiki tour of Europe in 21 days I did way back when. Although some wine has been consumed ( not a lot really 🙂 ) The sights have been amazing, the laughter has been uncontrollable at times, the food delicious and the memories timestamped in my mind for a lifetime.

In January this year I was ready to pack my bags and go home just because I was homesick however the “queen of Woolston ” as she is referred to in the uk decided she would adopt this crazy Aussie and show her the good life to uk and Europe, and boy what a ride.

Nick ( hubbie) and I now have some lovely friends who make us laugh until we need to wear tena ladies! We also have experiences that we can remember forever. Something we will be very grateful for always.

So back to me and this trip – today my English family was almost complete with mum t and dad t joining us in their amazing caravan ( luxurious and big) the only people missing are of course my love of my life – husband and my brother from another mother 😉 + all our English friends xxx

My favourite parts of this trip have been –
* me packing one bag to take ( yes eliza and mum believe it! )
*pushing freckle to start onto the ferry
*laughing and trumping in the van at the man with the cat in the lead.
*kisses goodnight and good morning from the happy scamps and cuddles in between
*my fluent French making Sarah jealous 🙂
*catching crabs, prawns and mussels with sar, penny and Fraser
*all the amazing sites to see
*camping
*having the best seat in the house to view the French world go by and not know where we are going
*basically EVERYTHING 🙂

So now I have seen the beach, the sea and am set in amongst the nature reserve of Rennes ( very relaxing and peaceful) another seafood degustation awaits with perhaps a glass of wine then a shower, facial and manicure to end the night and off to Paris in the morning.

One final word because I don’t really like to talk – yeah no
I want to say thank you to Sarah for opening my minds to limitless ideas and many opportunities I know I would never have dared ventured before. When moving over I decided that I would say yes to many if not most things and sars has gone above and beyond to ensure that my English bucket list is achieved. I adore being part of the Adamson family as does nick and we are so lucky to have them all in our lives ( no I’m not getting soppy) – they are true blue , the real deal. Anyone that knows them will understand.

Love, smooches and cuddles

Caroline

The weathers not been especially kind to us today but we have timed it well…..

We woke up beside the beach to beautiful blue sky’s…. It was our first 1 night stop and it worked well. The campsite was basic but with clean toilets and showers and free wifi the location right beside the sea and easy access to amazing sea food more than made up for it. We had planned to head off from our last site to stay in an aire du camping car, which is basically a car park for campervan s ( well motor homes but freckle qualifies!) but you are not allowed to it anything up and there are no toilet facilities. We saw an aire as we passed mont st Michelle and thought that it would be a good way to offset some cost as its only €9.50 per night ( a cheap site in high season it’s around €25 as a guide) and we thought that it would be a good test. Although once we arrived at mont st Michel it appeared we were dragging the could with us. We were the envy of all he people in the car park when we pulled up, had a tasty picnic (prepared by Caroline earlier) and then had a fresh coffee whilst we waited for the storm to blow over. After we showed our bottoms to the car park (we needed a wee on the portaloo!) we headed off to catch the free shuttle (free with the €12 parking) to the base of the mount. We got out of the bus as the sun came out… It was breath takingly beautiful. You could totally see why it was built as the view went on for miles. We could see our private beach where we had our picnic the day before, and the flats that approach it. Inside the drawbridge were windy streets of tourist shops and restaurants, dotted in between museums and churches. We all thought it looked like diagon alley as penny and Fraser were convinced that Harry potter lived at the top. After wondering around the sights and seeing the fortifications, Caroline lit a candle for her Nonnie in the church and we decided that the children would prefer an ice cream to a visit around the Chappell.
As we made our way back down the hill the clouds appeared again, rolling across the landscape and seeming extremely full of rain we decided it was time to head back to freckle. Luckily we had taken waterproofs as the heavens opened. We decided that it may be better to save our first night in an aire until the weather was more dependable as sitting outside in that weather would have been no fun. We decided to head to our next destination a day early and see if they could fit us in. We arrived in Rennes just after a tremendous storm. The campsite itself is amazing, it’s in a forrest and had a farm for the children, an ice rink and a swimming pool along with something that looks distinctively like go ape! Our pitch is lovely and we are proud to report that for the first time this holiday our head will be at the same level tonight. Go us!

For our tea we had moules we bought from a shack is morning by the sea and some delicious bread we got from a patisserie this morning. the moules were freshly harvested, and we also got oysters for tomorrow night for when mum and dad arrive….. Yummy!

Tomorrow we are planning a quiet day and a local explore of the site. As I’m sitting here we are sitting at the end of a rainbow! The only sounds I can hear are the birds chirping Caroline’s bottom talking! Bliss!

We don’t know where we are going…..

After I posted last night, we had an unfortunate sickness that hit Penelope…. Not sure why! Sick and campervans dont mix so we changed our plans, gave the kids some pasta and then cooked our moules and the headed for our beds. A few more throw ups and this morning I had a happier girl.
We packed up and headed in the direction of mont st Michele.. We took the coast road as it was promised to be picturesque and it didn’t disappoint….. We soon could see the mount in the distance and before long Caroline and I thought we were in a documentary! It was so beautiful and stereotypical French it deserved to be!

We passed where the Tour de France came last week and found the car park for the mount where we will head tomorrow!

We drive on looking for a campsite to spend the night and it took quite some driving to find a site as close to the sea as we’d become accustomed….. We found it but unfortunately as a storm hit and we ended up convinced we were going to be penned in so Planned for dinner out. It rained hard for a out an hour, I splashed out deciding that a pitch with electric was appropriate (we’ve been using solar so far) in case we felt damp and needed a heater. The kids played upstairs and then watched a film then we opened the door and it has stopped raining…. The sky was clear and we could explore. There is a disused water tower in the village that has been turned into a look out and so we went to spy freckle…. Then headed to dinner. We splashed out with a fruits de mare with crab for Caroline and I to share and prawns for Fraser with penny playing it safe with a burger. It was delicious…. Wonderful and tasted of the sea. The place we are staying is a huge mussel producer and we drove along the rd watching the boats with wheels. Tomorrow we are going to buy oysters before we leave! It’s really amazing!

We are now sitting with a “goon bag” of wine! It’s nice tho as there is a man with a guitar across the road from the campsite singing songs with a bad English accent.

So we decided we would stay he another day as there were so many things we hadn’t done yet. We started the day with croissants and pain au chocolate outside in the sunshine, a yummy coffee and planning session straight after. We needed to pack up the van enou to drive away, as we had promised Fraser that he could get some water shoes and we all wanted to have a try at catching some prawns after we watched everyone doing it the day before. We cleared it with the owner that we were allowed to extend up stay and headed off in search of supplies.

It would seem that vital supplies are cheese, pâté, baguette, olives and fruit, with the addition of some local seafood and the gear to go rock pooling ( jelly shoes and nets, along with a bucket and spade….. Although as soon as I got outside the super market I found that I had already packed it them!

Caroline’s French is improving, well her English in a French accent! It’s hilarious that she does it without even knowing it now! I understand she is fluent in many langages!

We left the supermarket and headed towards Granville center, where we found a beautiful old city with a fishing port, medieval castle or fort and a light house…. Truly beautiful, and a great place to stop for a picnic lunch.

With Fraser begging for a nap we headed back to the campsite, where disappointingly the sun didn’t have his hat on. I hit a problem with our solar panel…. I accidentally left the fridge on the leisure battery when I went into the super market, flattening the battery, leaving it too low to be charged by the solar panel. I realised at the fuse had blown which charged it from the main battery…. Expertly changed the fuse, topped up the battery with a smaller solar panel and then ran the engine long enough to give us the 6v we needed to get back onto the sunshine. It took me 2 hours to resolve it but I was so chuffed when I’d had to get the tool kit out for the first time myself! Girl power!

When Fraser woke up we put on our new beach shoes and headed off following on the tails of the seasoned foragers! The bad weather had obviously put a lot of people off but we were not deterred! We headed into the sea, chatted up a local fisherman so we could understand the technique, and then caught 5 prawns, a crab and learn loads about the sea…. The children absolutely loved it…. They were slashing about, digging up hermet crabs, penny made friends with a crab called “shelly” then cried proper tears when we had to set her free…. We were out for hours… Too many hours as we got back when the children were so tired they turned into monkeys! A wonderful day has given 2 scamps some great memories and 2 pooped grown ups!

Tomorrow we need to head off and find a new home…. I’m sure it will be great but grandville, I will be back to see you again, it’s been wonderful!

The day didn’t get under way until 9am when the children woke up…. We ended up in bed before the children who were too hot, too excited and too restless to sleep! Pastries for breakfast followed by showering everyone lead into a nice coffee and chat with some passing admirers of freckle!

I think Caroline has just about mastered the art of getting up to her bed, but hasn’t realised, much to the surprise of the French man walking his cat ( yes, a cat on a lead!) that any talking your bottom does can be easily heard outside the van! The poor fella thought he was staying opposite a couple of hot girls and got his thoughts rudely interrupted by a trump which shattered the illusion!

We headed to the beach to have a paddle, Fraser was completely obsessed about going in the sea in his wet suit. We had a wonderful time in and out of the sea, and playing on the beach before we headed back to a little cafe and had a bite to eat whilst we watched all the cockle pickers taking their boats into the sea with tractors. The beach is a bay and we understand that they go out in boats to collect the cockles but we aren’t too sure what they are catching.

This morning whilst at the beach, the tide started to go out,revealing a wonderful tidal swimming pool…. I’d never seen anything like it but it just emerged and all of a sudden was hitting us in the face! Caroline educated the kids by saying that we needed to check it for sharks first.(which reminded me of her interview when she we asked her what risks she would asses before the children first arrived, thinking along the lines of checking for broken toys, when the answer we got was to check for spiders! Woolston spiders are known for being hairy at worst!)

After the children slept and we chilled for a couple of hours, we packed our bag and headed to the beach in search of the pool…. Whilst we were waiting we watched all the locals ritually loading up with nets and belts with baskets on. We had no idea what they were up to but it was fascinating to watch.

As we got closer we saw them all at the mouth of the bay, the tide was totally out and they were doing something with tennis rackets attached to fishing nets. We went to Investigate and found they were catching prawns! And we could see them swimming by our feet! A huge regret is not having the camera as we moved on. There was a mussle farm answer watched them harvest the moules and we chatted about what we could pick and they told us where we could get moules. We also saw the ropes of baby mussels and the ones that had rotted through.
Really really amazing afternoon, we also found hermit crabs, the prettiest shells you’ll ever sea and much to the children’s delight….. The swimming pool!

A BBQ for tea with local bread and ribs rounded off by a local band in the cafe with an ice cream for the scamps!! A late bed but wonderful day! If this is the holidays I blinking love it!

I’m now sitting nursing a glass of wine (Roche mazet -dad and stew!) enjoying the sound of the sea and the gentile sea breeze….. Bon nuiit
Xxx

It couldn’t have gone more smoothly!

We did really well until we got to tesco at burseldon! As we went around the roundabout the oil light flashed on! Then there was a moment of realisation that I was going on holiday without the person who thinks about checking things like the oil before we leave! Oops…. It quickly went off again but I checked the levels when we arrived and there wasn’t very much in there. Our first stop had to be for oil once we get to France! So I have learned that we need to use 20w-50 oil as its hot or 15w-40 if not! What the heck does that mean?!!

The next slight drama was getting on the ferry! After getting stopped and searched by customs ( I think they just wanted to have a good nose at freckles insides!) we moved around to the holding area in a line of lovely campers…. After making up coffee and enjoying the views we went to start freckle to go on, I turn the key…… Nothing. I thought, be calm, check everything’s off and try again….Nothing. I wait a minute, being calm and try again,nothing. Then the man in the orange coat starts really waving at me! I can hear stews voice in my head saying just move kit on one click on the starter motor and it’ll be fine. If I’m honest at this point I did start to panic just a teeny bit…. Caroline hops out, the other sympathisers (also campervanners) offer to help. We start moving along and I try the ignition and voila of freckle goes! Proving that I should never doubt my husband!

We made it off the ferry fine and the Aussie got a stamp in her passport…. Then we needed to go to a supermarket. The planed stop was aborted due to a low height barrier at the entrance to the car park, quickly we regrouped and headed for an alternative. We made essential purchases of cheese, wine, bread and orangina then the pressing purchase of oil. Stew told me to buy good oil, I have no idea what constitutes that so I just bought the most expensive! I managed to fill p the oil, check the level then get a face full as I set the bottle down. Stinking of motor oil I pressed on, negotiated my first solo French filling station visit and then relied heavily on Alexander the sat nav to get us to Granville. I’ve got to be honest…. I forgot the map showing the whole of France (stew if you are reading this could you add that to your list of things to bring, I think it’s in the playroom!) so I knew the rough direction but had absolutely no idea of how to get here. Te sat nav took us a very beautiful and scenic route, but I’m less an convinced it was the quickest. There was one particular moment when the cry of I’m going to be sick mummy emanated from the rear and an urgent pull over was required. On narrow country road my only option was to block a farmers driveway, and stalled the van, resolving the vomit situation, another moment of van not starting was expertly negotiated by rolling the van back a few inches and trying again. The rest of the journey passed without any excitement until we saw the sea.

I was apprehensive staying somewhere new on the first night, but the location suited us and when we got here it was a real wow. About a 5 minute walk to e beach, once we had set up our base camp we decided to go for a quick paddle. The quick paddle rapidly turned into a full on swim, with Fraser ending up fully clothed in the warm sea before stripping naked to chase his sister around the bay. The day trippers and fishermen were all returning with their catches of shell fish and fish and landing their boats on the beach. We resolved to find some fresh seafood for a bbq tomorrow night and an after dinner beach trip and ice cream is on the cards if the over tired and excited children have a good sleep.

I’m absolutely exhausted, and ready for a good sleep tonight once the children finally settle, but I just have a feeling that this is the start of a really great summer….

So Freckle is packed to the rafters, we are all clean, having worn our most horrible clothes for the last few days to ensure maximum flexibility of wardrobe decisions, and the arrival of the crazy Aussie is imminent…. she’ll be like all good Aussies- OUT….. the house and Woolston bound. When I say wardrobe decisions, it’s not much of a choice as I decided that our baggage limit is a sainsburys bag for life each!

I found an interesting article on twitter that says your genetics can be impacted by your upbringing, a kind of nature and nurture argument…. it’s here if you like reading things like this…. http://bit.ly/17AD2lw – and it made me think if i could be a grandmother to some kind of intrepid explorer, as the children are certainly embracing the adventure we are about to go on, as long as I remember to pack Penny’s barbies!

I need at this point to thank my wonderful friend Emily, who when I appeared looking slightly frazzled this morning, took Fraser off my hands to let me finalise the packing…. I really could have kissed her! Emily if you are reading this…. you are AMAZE-BALLS.  I’m also excited as another friend swung past…. our old camper Archie’s Mum, Gemma and we arranged to share a dubonnet in Arcachon in a few weeks time!

Our first stop is scheduled for Grandville.  Granville is situated on the Cotentin Peninsula at the mouth of Bosq and Pointe du Roc (Cap Lihou) which in part closes in the north of the bay of Mont-Saint-Michel.  I plan that we will visit the mont! I’m not sure what we do there but i’ll let you know!

The town itself is really old, and was founded even before Grandad was born in the 12th century.  The English have taken it before but i’m not sure it’s been stormed by the likes of my antipodean co pilot? It looks like there are some pretty things to look and a beautiful beach really close to the campsite we are staying in.  Google says that it will take just over an hour and a half, but i’m almost certain that 2 hours freckle time should see us stop a few times for a wee and give Fraser the chance for a snooze.

Our ferry leaves at 8am so we’ll be out of our beds at the crack of dawn headed for the first part – the Vomit Comet! I’m not a good traveller, thats why I have a camper van and not a boat, and usually this particular mode of transport leaves me laying prostrate on a bench seat and leaving the good parenting to Stew.  With no Stew tomorrow I hope that Caroline’s famous reverse seasickness kicks in and we can double team the over excited scamps!

I hope I can find my way to the lovely park once we get to Cherbourg so we can have a picnic and a play before the drive down the coast.  We are headed for camping l’ermitage…. http://www.camping-ermitage.com and my reason for picking this campsite was it has a webcam of the beach.  I’m going to get it sussed and see if you can see me!! Watch this space!

I’ll try and update you tomorrow!