We’ve made it home.

My plan is tonight I will be brief, and at some point over the next few days I’ll post our map and the photo highlights… It’s been such a truly amazing journey, and I’m blown away that so many of you have shared it with us.

We woke up really early this morning, packed the van and set off watching the beautiful sunrise over the little French towns we passed.

We made it to Saint Malo by 8:30, in time for a quick supermarket sweep to fill any remaining gaps in the van with wine, beer, coffee or oysters…. We also got some nice bread and pastries to have a final feasts in our cabin. We made it through to the ferry port with plenty of time and sadly waved goodbye to France.

We passed the time on the ferry, and even went to the on board pantomime! (I can’t tell you how dreadful it was, but the kids enjoyed it!).

Off the ferry we gambled with the petrol, making it home on fumes…. The children are in bed and we are sitting in the sofa, waiting for a Chinese to be delivered. Our adventure behind us all feels like a dream…. But the planning for next years trip will start tomorrow. I’m booking the ferry in the morning for freckles adventure 2014 – who wants to come?

Apologies for the lateness of this post! A lack of battery on devices and the solar panels being packed in the trailer are to blame!

After our mammoth 12 hour drive through the traffic jams we were ready for one last relaxing day. The children were completely amazing in the car, and given the constant traffic jams, the holiday mood continued and it didn’t really seem to matter. I got bored about 10 hours in and trawled eBay for a set of boules so we can enter all the competitions that were happening in each campsite through France! I also looked for a candelabra, an airstream caravan and cheese and bread that are calorie free!

We spent the day chilling, the kids played with holly and Ella, and we polished off a bottle of port over lunch. Dinner was lovely, with us being treated to a night of come dine with me as an ongoing competition between the gales family was hotting up.

Early bed to prepare for a very early departure on the last leg of the tour, the adventure continues for just a little longer….

Not sure exactly where we are tonight!

12 hours driving today, so a few wines and bed needed!

More tomorrow!

Sleep well scamps!

Today has been our last proper day of holiday really. We’ve not had our luck with the weather and been through 794 differing plans of how we will get back. Mid morning we were leaving today and heading north to the sunshine. We decided to do the main part of the packing and then take a trip to stock up the wine cellar. A quick trip round lidl gave us a good start on our stock, and it was quickly squirrelled away into holes in the van! We had a quick gsme of table football, which as im sure you can imagine quickly changed from a family game to a cut throat head to head between stew and I! I’m not telling you the score as I didn’t win!!!

This afternoon, Fraser decided it was time to perfect the art of cycling. Stew and I could not be more proud! He can now start, stop, ride in circles and blow raspberries at the onlooking parents! It was like he just decided enough was enough and he would get on with it! Some more cycling followed, with penny’s already competent cycling bring tried out on the cycle Into town and back. She managed to negotiate the twist turns and other cyclists and even riding on the road safely sandwiched between stew and I. We had gone to town to hire a pedalo that was promised by stew! In actual fact whilst stew tried to maintain the children wanted to hire the super deluxe with huge slide version, it very quickly became apparent that it was him! Up and down he went, with the kids occasionally being allowed a turn!! We headed home to shows and change so we could head out for our last moules a la plancha! A great chance to reflect on our wonderful adventure! Fraser notes his favourite part was having his dinner out whilst, then remembered some of the other stuff was pretty cool too!

Home and a late bed whilst stew loaded the bikes on for the start of the journey home. 2 more French sleeps to go, as penny tearfully noted… We are really going to miss France!

Next stop… Emily And Colin and their gang near ploermel…. The adventure continues!

Today has been a really long day. After the excitement of moules a la plancha, I somewhat over indulged in the vino….. And we got invited around to our neighbours, who whilst being lovely also had the ultimate camping accessory…a candlabre! It’s now on my needed for next year list.

So when I woke up this morning I was feeling slightly under the weather… And not entirely up for the planned bike ride.

By half past 11, enough was enough and I needed to go back to my bed…. Luckily I am married to a wonderful man who knew that e best solution all round was to take the kids out for a bike ride! Off they toddled and came back with a really beautiful bracelet for me. How lovely!

The plans for the rest of the day took a similar turn, owing to penny starting to run a temperature… Where Fraser takes himself off to bed, penny likes to make as much noise and spread the misery! Bed time was welcome, after some oysters and mussels from the local chap who comes to the site and makes moules to order.

I’m now sitting nursing an orange squash looking forward to my bed time!

Tomorrow is our last proper day of holiday…. Boooooooooo we start the journey home on Saturday, but we have decided that really we’d rather like another week!

Well day 29 and a monumentous day… Fraser ditched the stabilisers! Go Fraser!

After last nights change of plan and a really early bed for Fraser we expected an early morning…. Which we didn’t get. 10am saw us all still laying in our beds! Oops…. As stew reminded me we were eating breakfast at 11:30, after I cycled to the shops for the pastries ( and what a delicious selection we had too!) it was really obvious that Fraser was really under the weather. He was restless in the night, a snot box and had a raging temperature. We dosed him up and I stayed back whist stew and penny went for a 20km bike ride though the forest cycle paths. I did the washing and read my book! These things need to be done. Throughout the morning ( well afternoon but it felt like morning) Fraser kept trying to stay chipper and go out for a little scoot around the camp site on his bike and en coming back and laying his head down. Poor scamp! When stew and Penny got back he was feeling much better and decided it was time for the stabilisers to go!

2 passes of the field and he was off! Still lacking confidence but certainly having the ability now! So proud of him!

We had a cycle to the lake and a wonderful paddle on the lake, stew and I floated in the water whilst the kids made sandcastles and just had a great time. We really felt like we were on holiday.

Back for a shower and then the main event! Every year we have to make a pilgrimage to our favourite restaurant… In the world. It’s by the lake and you sit on plastic chairs and simply enjoy wonderful food. The children behaved wonderfully, engaged in great conversation and were really entertaining….. I couldn’t be happier right now…. The children are settled and I’m off to have a wine with my lovely husband! Night all!

Well…. Last night we had a really late night, so today we woke up at 10am, and I’m sure that that was only because we were too hot.

We went to the toro piscine…. Which I think means bull in the swimming pool! I’d been to a bull fight years ago down here, but this was nothing like it! Basically there was an arena, bulls, and then a load of 20 something lads who took part in all sorts of silly games whilst trying to avoid getting got by a bull. There was also a donkey derby and a children’s race. It was one of those things that had to be seen to be believed and would never be legal in the uk. I must also add that there was no killing of bulls just playing with them, and they seemed to very well know the score. It ended really late, and the children were a happy mixture between exhausted and excited…. Not a peep was heard from them until the morning!

When we eventually did Get up, we had breakfast, then chilled for a bit whilst the children played at the park with their new friends. Then we readied and headed off on the bikes to the beach. Here there is one huge long sandy beach, with powerful waves and hundreds of extremely talented surfers. We went to one of the beaches and went in the sea for a paddle. We all had great fun paddling in the waves, but as Uncle Stew learnt a few years ago, the power of the waves and the rip is incredible so, and the lifeguards know the water. Once the conditions changed and the blue flag changed to amber we decided the time was rut to head towards the lake. The lake is tidal and just around the corner, and so we could play happily in the sea without the throng current. Penny and Fraser are both now so confident in the sea they didn’t understand quite how dangerous the sea could be.

After an ice cream we headed back to camp, planning on having an hours rest before heading out to dinner. Unfortunately the children were just too tired to go out and we changed plans. Penny made some new friends and Fraser fell asleep really early. We’ve had a really relaxing day, and I’ve got a link nose!

I’m doing the post early today as we are planning on taking the children to the “toro piscine” which is kind of like a bull fight, only they chase the bull in and out of a paddling pool from what I can make out…. No killing involved! It’s really late so I might only have chance to pop a few pics on when I I get home.

This morning it rained…. Only for about 30 mins but it rained really hard… So we all just stayed in bed. I read, stew snoozed and penny and Fraser played some game involving each of the having an American accent. By the time we got up and I collected the pastries and bread, it was getting on and I needed to pop out to the shops.

I headed to the supermarket, and hit a huge queue…. I don’t know why, but it took an hour to do 15 minute trip, so I turned on the radio and waved….. You have to do a lot of waving in freckle! There was also a moment when for a split second I believed I was being smiled at by 2 of the most beautiful young men…. They honestly looked like models, but then I realised that the lady they were eyeing up was freckle! Never mind. Stocked up I returned to camp, where I started the busy job of package removal… As we have the smallest fridge in the world, I have to take literally everything out of the packaging and put it all in plastic bags to get maximum space! It’s quite an art!

A lunch of cheese and bread (what a surprise) and then we had a quick game of pentaque. I picked up a beach set at the supermarket and the kids love it!

As tonight is a late one the kids have been for a sleep this afternoon, and stew and I sat in the sun with our books, and a few tunes playing in the background… With the children now awake, stews just poured me a wine and we are considering lighting the bbq.

More on the bulls later!

Good evening from the sunny and hot south of France!

Another fab day of holiday fun today. After a slow ish start, 3 coffees before some pastry, we eventually got going. Last night was a really wonderful evening with a lot of laughs and fun, little sleep and lost rucksack!

My vivid dream of being woken up in the middle of the night and evicted, turned out to be just a dream and we managed to avoid the. €148 they wanted us to pay for a 2 night stay, in a postage stamp sized pitch. I think the key is to book early for this great view, access to a wonderful beach with spectacular views. But don’t expect a quiet night or nice showers!! The food and company was second to none though.

We headed to he pool and really enjoyed playing I the water with all the children, and Steffan’s underwater camera made an appearance!

Lunch in the bar was delicious, with huge pizzas to share washed down with a beer, too. Regretted shortly after as the time came to once again climb the “snow mountain” sand dune but this time with the children. Once we started climbing it was apparent why people were going up first thing! The sand was burning hot and the children soon began to flag… That was until penny make it high enough to run down and feel how fun it was! Soon there was a family descent, such fun!!

We left and headed to our most southerly destination…. Messanges…. The road was clear, the sun was shining and the tunes were pumping in Freckle! Before long we were setup with the bikes off and ready for a ride into town for an icecream.

Home for bed, 4 tired scamps after a busy day…. Tomorrow we need to buy food and find the beach…. This really is the life! We know we really are lucky to have this wonderful experience! Cheers everyone!

What have you done today to make you feel proud? Well heather… Today I’ve climbed Europe’s highest sand dune! But more on that later….

This morning we woke after having to head to bed early due to 6 drops of rain! We packed hastily, managing even to shower and be off by 10:30. Leaving behind the beautiful fields of vines to see the sea again.

We weren’t entirely sure where we were going to end up sleeping due to over priced campsites and apparently today being black Saturday, with everyone in the whole of France being on holiday. But currently we are squatting on Gemma and Steffans pitch in a very full but fantastically located… Not making eye contact with anyone official looking.

We celebrated our arrival with a beer or two and some lunch (bread and cheese obviously) before Gemma, Andy and I set off for the top of the dune. The campsite is at the base of the dune, with some pitches precariously close to the bottom. The view from the top was was amazing and with the sweat and showing my bottom to all at the bottom…. It was worth it, especially to get to the coming down bit.

We returned from our quest to a happy crew ready for the track to the beach…. And it was completely picturesque…. Photos to follow

An entertaining evening is underway, with hilarious Germans parking vans, bites upon bottoms and lots of giggles, friends and yummy oysters…. Until tomorrow when reception is better…. Bon nuit