We slept well in the layby on the side of the motorway! I heard some people come I the middle of the night and all I know is they were talking about fishing in a really loud voice for about 30 mins then they left!

I hosed the children down in the sink much to frasers delight! He wanted to go in the sink as a bath! He was so dirty from rolling around on the floor of the garage yesterday that urgent action was required. I can’t say it was t strange stripping naked and washing myself in the camper in a carpark but it did the job and Eventually we were all clean, followed by cereal for breakfast (there was no on-site patisserie!!). I enjoyed my stove top coffee and we even did all the washing up and cleaned the floors before we left. All in all, it did the trick! We were slept, clean and tidy and all for free!

We headed down the road to Nantes , passing the municipal campsite we thought we might have used the day before. It looked lovely, but pricey.

We managed to get the sat nav working on my phone to get us into the Center of Nantes where the ile de machine is. We snaked our way through Nantes city Center which is full of really old buildings and narrow streets, but looking a bit rundown in parts. We were worried about getting parked with the trailer but managed to find he perfect spot on a side street less than half a mile from the exhibition. We wondered over the bridge and could see he queue for the elephant rides, but no elephant. It wasn’t long before we realised that we weren’t going to get a ride this morning and the next ride was late afternoon. Just at that point the elephant turned the corner and we realised that actually it didn’t matter that much as seeing the elephant walking along the road, spraying passers by with water and blinking its eyes. Penny decided she must be a girl as she is so beautiful, meanwhile Fraser was properly terrified and wouldn’t have his photo taken with his back to the elephant for fear of what might happen behind his back.

We followed the elephant for a bit, it really was amazing, then we headed over to the merry go round. It was impressive and when we reached he ticket booth we paid our €28 euro for a ticket. What we didn’t quite understand was the carousel was on 3 levels and you only got to ride on one level. The things you road on we’re each a machine, and I can’t think how to describe it without pictures. I’ll add the pics tomorrow properly once I’ve got them off my proper camera!

We finished and had 2 really tired children who urgently needed food! Back at the van we palmed them off with some crisps and headed to the super market to stick up before our next stop. We had lunch at the flunch in the supermarket, where they take a simple concept of a cafe and make it really complicated! Penny was ravenous and go bled up all her dinner and the. Proudly went to the ice cream counter and ordered in French. Clever girl! Them we stocked up on cheese ham and pâté, obviously with a drop of wine! Penny thought she’s rather like a pogo stick, as it would be really useful to get bread on!

The mood of the children significantly degraded after the supermarket, tired and couped up I think they’d had enough…. After the journey to noirmoutier en ile, I couldn’t even cheer Fraser up by showing him a helicopter!

As we approached the island I was struck by how flat everywhere was, freckle was thrilled. All the little stalls along the road were selling the sea salt, oysters and moules…. Sounds dreadful eh!

We are at a site that has surely maximised its space to pitch! We are crammed in but actually it’s not too bad. The people behind us have a mutual friend in England! It always happens to us!