A lovely relaxing day, hanging about, playing and chilling out!

This morning we decided we would have a long cycle…. In order to do that we hired penny a tag along… We set out to find the lighthouse.

It was a 16km cycle to the lighthouse…. Through beautiful salt flats, oyster beds, vine yards and nature reserve. Andy thought he’s noticed on a map some specialist nudist beaches, he was disappointed to find out it was a nature area for egrets.

We climbed to the top of the light house… 257 steps to the top. The view was beautiful.

We then went for a fab lunch, and I discovered the best thing ever…. Coffee gourmande! Awesome.

A long drive cycle lead us past a French wedding, and back to the camp for a silent disco and oysters.

The first thing to say is there are 2 flower campsites on ile de re…… You can guess the second!
I’m stood in reception, on the phone to Steffan who is also in reception, on the busiest weekend of the year in France, when there are no spaces anywhere!! Epic fail.

We had a 30 minute drive across the island to the campsite where the others were, but where there was no space for us. If you recall last year we were in a similar position, nightmareul!! I took to Gemma’s strategy and had a tequila.

We eventually managed to blag (well Steffan did!) a pitch for us for 1 night, with not much hope for the following night. The clouds were marching in and so we put our awning on the Hargreaves pitch, fed the children, and Gemma put on her wedding dress as you do on a campsite. It was the hargaves 10th wedding anniversary. After the kids had tea we hit the bar! The we had a delicious meal of chips and beer and got the kids I to bed. We weren’t long after as an uncertain future on ile de re….
This morning we got up, after some significant stress managed to secure a pitch for the rest of our stay… Phew!

We headed out for a bike ride and saw lots of ile de re…. We visited an oyster farm and learnt how they farm them, we went to a village art day, for a fast food lunch, a play on the beach and a cycle through the beautiful village of la corade.

The camp moule frites night is tonight so we will be heading there shortly…. But for now I am sitting in the sun and relaxing!

We arrived on ile de re, and with the Hargraves and Heissigs.

There are tales to be told, but I’ve had too much beer so I’m going to pass the phone around for a line from each participant today:

Today is my 10th wedding anniversary and I am sat in a campsite bar in my wedding dress!!! Amazing 🙂 – Gemma x

Sarah and Rudolph the reindeer share a similar colour! Great night and as sarah would say….amazeballs!

Apparently Sarah only stays drunk for
15mins…. that’s the longest 15mins I’ve ever known!!

Ces Anglais sont fous! Get me out of here, I’m French!!

Ille de re……the worlds largest island, it just goes on and on! It would seem the cosmic twins do not have the mental link that makes them think alike, as they booked different camp sites!!!!

Yesterday ended up wetter than a wet thing. So wet our suncanopy collapsed and tore a hole in it. Apart from that our spirits were high, the candleabra pumped out light and we had a fan heater going to keep us warm.

This morning the sunshine was back! Phew! After a few coffees we headed towards the beach for a forage. We found a few clams and the. Helen and I decided to go out to look at the mussel beds. We encountered a huge angry crab and I got stuck in the mud and had to rake for my shoes. Fraser seemed unfamiliar with the concept of clam hunting and contributed stones to the bucket!

We returned for lunch and had left over crab claws from last nights seafood feast. We introduced Helen to a vast seafood selection last night, oysters, crab, grilled prawns, moules a la plancha, bullots and some little black things that we didn’t know what to call them!

We hired bikes and cycled to the next village around, it was a good cycle round, with the children doing a fab job.

We stopped for a drink, and refuelled the cycled back against the flow of traffic! Hairy! Penny cycled straight at a French man on the wrong side of the road!!!

Once back a swim at the beach was in order….

Tomorrow we are headed for ile de re… For now, night all!!

Just some pics tonight as low battery, heavy rain and guests!!

In the middle of the night I woke up really hot…. I open end the side of the top where we sleep. All I could see was the super moon, and I could hear the sea, calmly washing the shore… I nodded back off feeling really content and calm… And woke up few mins later with rain splashing in my face!!!

The weather is changable to say the least, but the whole today has been kind! I went out for a run first thing…. Past the salt flats through a nature reserve. The wind was fierce. But it was done and I felt good after. Stew meanwhile was the coffee king, we had 4 cups this morning in the sunshine whilst the kids made a secret den, and ate nearly 600g of peanuts between them secretly!!!!

We finally got the kids dressed and they went to the park and we went to the cafe…. More coffee and some wifi required, whilst the children had an icecream. So so chilled out.

We are expecting visitors shortly and so needed to get food, so after a spot of lunch we headed to the town. Fraser was onceagain a stark. His bike. We had a shop around, found someof those bits with net things which I’m sure are for shrimps (photo attached!!) and bought some ingredients for dinner. This was a fine art for a number of reasons. We didn’t bring a back pack of panniers (ooops, we forgot) so we has to carry about our person all we needed, and secondly the fridge in a camper is teeny! Careful choices were made and then we headed back for the beach!

With their wet suits on and buckets in hand we headed to the beach. They giggled and splashed!
A beer in the bar whilst we waited….. And waited for the Basfords to arrive. They are here, there is a huge story, but you’ll have to wait till tomorrow for that!!!

This morning started in a very Rainey way…. In fact from 2am it threw it down…. We got up I the night to peg down the van and it felt damp. The canvas was drenched but we were relaxed and ready to roll with it. I always agree with the phrase “there’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes”…..

Last nights tea for stew and I was a plate of oysters and a baguette, and we used all the butter…. So I took Fraser in his jammies to get the goodies for breakfast….. And we didn’t disappoint. Noirmoutier butter with salt crystals and baguettes from the bakery…. Went with a great handpresso coffee , oj and chocolate twists left over from yesterday. I’m sure I’ve not mentioned the jam we have bought yet ( perhaps that’s for tomorrow!) but needless to say its plentiful. We sat with the scamps wrapped in sleeping bags whilst the wind howled around us! After breakfast we took shelter in the van for 20 mins for a downpour. We knew we needed to move pitches early, but had to wait for it gone empty. So we donned our waterproofs, got out cockle rakes and headed for the black sands. I was wearing fetching pair of jelly shoes…. It’s ok sarah b, no one knows me here! It was like Fraser had never seen the beach before, he was loving it! We caught crabs, oysters, clams, moules and sea snails. Penny meanwhile was having a brief spell as a purple minion!!

When we got back from the beach the scamps went to the park and we commenced operation move pitch…. We threw most stuff in the van. Stew drove with nearly all the black out blinds on, we got onto our lovely new pitch in record time.its a fab spot too.

I fixed the awning (yes mum and mil…. It involved sewing!!!! SArAh the sewing goddess!!!! Kaboom!) and we had a sort out whilst the children were at the park. We swapped new engine stories with another mad Vw owner and got ready for a bike ride.

Fraser was desperate to go on his bike on his own today rather than the tag along, so we let him. We ended up on a 5 mile mile round trip along main roads. He confidently informed stew it was his first Time doing a round about on his own…. And by the end of the ride he’d done 4! Our aim was to get to a windmill! We never did get there! We went through some of the most beautiful old French houses and gites, a Forrest and couple of towns… If Id been a windmill it would have lived there!! It was really blowy. I’m clearly not the only one who thought this as hundreds of windsurfers had the same idea!!

We got back with a thirst… The scamps had orangina with the worlds longest straw, whilst stew opened the beer keg he’d invested in…. For a lovely glass of froth!!!

At this point, stew and the scamps went to the beach and I had a shower!!! They really enjoyed playing In the sea, as it’s so salty and buoyant.

Dinner time…….we went to the local resturant.. I use the term loosely, as it was a falling down house, whitewashed with a few plastic tables outside with a grumpy teenager serving….. For us it was moules all round, well 3 out of 4! Penny had a pizza whilst the rest of us had mussels, Fraser had an adult portion…. And polished off nearly the lot! The perfect dinner… The sound of the sea, the taste of the sea with a view to match!
A short cycle home and the scamps were ready for bed, a quick chapter of the book and the a cut throat game of pétanque for the grown ups…. Just a bit of training!!!! 11:7 I’ll let you decide who won!!!

Now we are chilling with an enormous view of the moon for the first time, the telescope is out and we have some star gazing to do…. First on the list is to find the Helen Knight star shining brightly!

Laters peeps!!

We got up leisurely this morning.

Stew had a brainwave about fixing the trailer lighting ( he has been tinkering with it since we left home) and realised that for the past 3 yeas our brake lights have never worked on the trailer…. Oops! All fixed now!

I went out for a run, and stew started packing freckle up… A proper role reversal for us!

Bread, coffee, the usual thing…. The kids got stew out on a pedalos… And I ambushed them!

We left and headed down the road, going over the most amazing bridge. So so high, freckle chugged over with ease! It really is incredible how high the bridges go up so quickly…. It was a good bridge and I LOVE a good bridge!

As we approached the island we saw the familiar sheds with nets over the river. I’m now sure these are for shrimps but not sure enough! I don’t even know what to google, sheds with nets or something!
The salt beds were piled up but the weather didn’t seem quite so good. I guess that must effect the amount of salt produced.
We stopped for bread and pastries, before heading over the bridge on to the island….. Just in time for the sun to come out.
MWe parked up… I reckon we are 25 meters from the beach. Fraser immediately befriended a fellow Vw owners child (they must be ok!) and all disappeared to the park, whilst we set up camp.

We unpacked our bikes and headed along the causeway through a nature reserve and into the town. With tired children, an ice cream, oysters and a promise of a return tomorrow.

The children were in bed asleep before I finished the chapter of the book, think the holiday excitement caught up with them.

This has left stew and I sitting eating oysters, drinking wine and putting the world to rights. Tomorrow morning we are going to the beach to catch crabs… Bring it on!!

The only way I can describe the rain today is biblical! It started in the night and all I felt was snuggly in my bed…. A lovely start to the day.
The scamps didn’t wake up until half 8, and when they did they were happy to chill in their pits till 10…. When we eventually got up! Stew went for a run, and penny went to the shop for the bread! Stew was running past a lovely field, probably owned by the chateau, he got into a head to head with a bee!

3 coffees later (from the new handpresso!!) I timed my trip to the shower to perfection…. The trip back involved a run down a muddy hill wearing nothing but a towel in biblical rain!!! It’s the only way to describe it!

*After applying my intensive hair conditioning mouse* (Tracey this bits for you…. And I really did it!) we got the van ready for a trip to the supermarket.

The supermarket needed some attention, as we have to buy a regional prouduct from everywhere we stay for a dinner next week… So salted caramel sauce it was, squeezed over crepes. We also invested in some of the fruit beer from last night. Yum!

More biblical rain meant our bacon sarnies for lunch were an inside affair, followed by some competitive uno. Whilst it was raining we hatched a plan that no other people would go swimming in the rain… So we went to the pool, penny swam 10 lengths and they played whilst we read.

We stuck the fan heater in the van to dry the washing and the scamps snuggled in and watched a film, I picked some blackberries and stew tinkered with the van…. Lovely relaxing afternoon.

An early evening let up in the rain meant a chess lesson outside the bar was in order. The candleabra (essential camping accessory) is now flickering whilst the children sleep and we finish a bottle of wine. We are watching tens of bats flickering around over head…. Very strange sight….

Tomorrow we head towards noirmoutier, and hope the sun comes back!