this morning started beautifully… through the night it was really warm, so I had the vents on the pop top open, and could look outside. From where we are camped we are 50m from the sea, with nothing but a hedge and a few tents separating us. I could see out that the sun was shining and the children were chilled out downstairs watching a film. It was gone 9 before we were ready to think about getting out of bed.
Penny had seen lots of people walking back from the patisserie on site with baguettes and she was desperate to go to buy one. Once we had thrown some clothes on, we headed up to see what was on offer, and the selection didn’t disappoint. a wide variety of pastries in all shapes and sizes found their way into a bag, along with a baguette. Stew had laid the table and the kettle was boiled for some coffee and our french breakfast… yummy!
it wasn’t long before the clouds started rolling in, so we quickly grabbed the children swimming stuff (learning from the day before events that even if it was a bit gloomy, a lack of swimming costumes wouldn’t hold penny and fraser back! and we were right… within minutes of getting to the beach, they were both stripped off and in the sea… whilst everyone around them were wearing coats and jumpers! Penny came up with the super idea of catching a wave in a bucket, and selling them… I think she will make a fortune, especially when she decided that once Grandma and Grandad get here next week, they will have a freezer and they will be able to sell frozen waves! the girl is a genius!
we managed to extract the children from the sea, and put them into a warm shower before deciding how to fill the afternoon. we knew that it was possible to walk into the town from the campsite… the man in reception drew the route on the map. That would have been simple to follow, but instead i forgot to pick it up, and we decided to follow our noses. As we left the campsite there was a small fruit market, and so once we had each bought a juicy nectarine, we headed off under the grey skies in the right general direction! all we new was there was something about a cemetery and then some garden or other!
Once we had travelled along the sea front (past the dishy lifeguard with a lovely bottom!) and past the tidal swimming pool (an actual pool with diving blocks etc that you can only access at low tide – cool eh!) we headed up the hill through a real mixture of houses, some super modern with huge panoramic window and others that looked more like small mansions. we soon found the cemetery and followed some people. It looked like we were going into the back of a farm or someones land but we kept going! there were public toilets so what could go wrong! just around the corner the garden opened up to the most beautiful manicured grounds of a beautifully magnificent house. As we were leaving we saw a sign that people were taking pictures of, and realised that the house and grounds had belonged to Christian Dior. He had lived in the house until he was 5 then it was his family holiday home after that. we had a good nosey around the gardens then started to meander down the big hill into the city. The city itself was really grand and old… kind of how i picture paris (i’d be able to tell you confidently that it was Parisian if i’d been there…. hint hint stew!) with interesting little shops. The children holiday money was burning a hole in their pockets… particularly penny who even wanted to buy the bread in the morning with is so that she could spend it! we found a fab little chocolate shop…. all it sold was chocolate spread in different flavours and nougat… with a few of those fancy hotel chocolate slab things dotted about. Really different.
We continued past a little deli with a small cheese counter…. so my holiday spends were burning a hole… a nice slice of stinky cheese found it’s way into my bag (looking forward to that later, to round off a fab day with a small glass of port i think!). once the essential cheese purchase was completed,the heavens opened…. it rained and rained! we popped into a few little boutiques, once where penny fell in love with a little mouse in a match box which she later went back to and finally got to spend some pennies! then it was time to stop for bite of lunch. We found a little (tiny) pizzeria and after attempting an outside table which resulted in soggy backs, we moved inside. The pizzas were cooking in the middle of the restaurant, by a little man effectively in a cubicle… the smell was so strong that it was impossible to consider ordering anything but pizza! we shared a couple between us and had some orangia, listened to the ammerican couple ordering salads with no meat, no egg and no fish (just lettuce then?!) and then put our waterproofs back on for the long walk home. We found a shorter route back, but i was really pleased we still needed to go back through the Christian Dior garden again. We went up the 140 or so steps to the top and headed back along the beach.
By this time the wind was really howling and the tide was right out… we could see the hundreds of mussel beds that were exposed from the sea at low tide with the tractors collecting the ones that were ready to be made into a tasty meal! when we made it back, we decided that a few mins in the van to let the weather pass would be wise. The rain was being driven by huge gusts of wind that made me question stew around whether he thought that the van could blow over! apparently i was wrong… and i was totally glad that we hadn’t been on the ferry today!
We all had a bit of a rest and recovered from the 7 mile walk, stew and I had a bit of a snooze, before a cut throat game of top trumps. We decided that our planned BBQ would have to be postponed with the weather and that we had better pop to the little restaurant again for dinner. We were too early for that and the rain was heavy so we popped in to see how the other half live in the posh hotel beside the sea! it was all very calm and clean in there till the soggy adamson arrived! we had a drink then headed across the road for more mussles! moule au cidre for us tonight… finished off with a cafe gourmand… the best pudding ever!
Whilst the weather has been rubbish today we have still had a super time, and hopeful it will blow over tonight and let the sun put its hat on again for us tomorrow. We are now sat huddled under a tree waiting for the children to be asleep before we go in to bed!
Night peeps!

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