After possibly the longest lie in of Fraser ever (10am) we finally woke up…. and Stew and I went for a run… again!  There must have been something funny in the air!

The children went to the shop and came back with 3 pain au chocolate that we hadn’t ordered (they need to be pre ordered the day before!!) now I think that Fraser probably just tried his luck and asked for some!  (you have to pay on collection Sarah B in case you think that have fallen to your levels of theft!!) but after a run, however long, the addition to breakfast was most welcome.

We packed up our camp, and I made eggy bread for breakfast.  This is one of my France tips: I learnt from Gemma H!  I keep the little bits of bread that get left over at then end of the day for a day or two and then make eggy bread with them… they were totally yummy!  I even managed to put on a load of washing before we moved off the pitch and went for a swim.

We left the camp and filled up with fuel… not because we needed to, but because the fuel gauge on freckle is broken and we know we are good for 200 miles from full!   I hopped into the supermarket to grab some supplies, and we were ready for the off!

We decided that due to road speeds we were no better off going the motor way.  Apart from being a more expensive and less scenic option, freckle simply can’t go fast enough to make the extra distance we need to travel in the time that is advised!  She is 60 MPH max! 

We headed along the road and about an hour into our journey we seemed to pick up a roll as the tail rider in a cycling road race!  The pack passed us and we had to follow them around the route!  Everyone was please to see freckle as usual and we waved to our fans!!  We even got stopped going out of the campsite by a man who has a T1 in Germany and wanted to show us his business card with a photo on.  Parked in a car park today a man bought his SLR camera and sat in a camping chair for about half an hour telling his little boy about the vans and taking photos.

Eventually we arrived in Archachon after travelling for 9 miles along the bumpiest road in france!  Seriously…. expectant mothers should know about this road.  The pitch is quirky and the sun is shining.  We are set up, the kids have made themselves a space camp (who knows?!) and Colin the BBQ is cooking us all up a fest!  A chilled evening in the Archachon sunshine ahead.  I keep having flash backs to the last time we were here every time the golf buggy man drives past Hargraves!!!  It makes me shudder each time!

Bon Soir mes Amis!

The day started slowly with breakfast and and making plans for the day.  The scamps chose that we went to the beach in the morning and the lake in the afternoon… who were we to argue?

We cycled along a sandy track to Messange beach.  The track goes past a large fishing lake and eventually meets a main road, but there is a cycle path behind bollards so it was a really safe route.  We headed over the sand dune and got our first glimspe of the sea.  It was fairly changeable weather wise and the sea was looking quite stormy.  The children took the opportunity to play on the edge of the waves but my surf report reports the waves were very powerful but messy! Stew had visited the shop in the morning and came back with a second sent of bat and ball so that we could play doubles, so we filled an hour with a game.

We left the beach as the clouds were getting a bit dark… and then it brightened up so we headed on to the lake.  When we arrived we had our picnic, and sat in the sun for a bit, whilst the children played in the water.  We had to go to the lake because the big child was desperate to spend his holiday money on a pedalo with a slide.  I tried to convince him that 30 minutes would be adequate but Stew was adamant that we needed an hour!  Reluctantly I did the deal, and we headed off into the middle of the lake.  Remember those clouds?  Suddenly they reappeared! We sat in the middle of the lake and the heavens opened, a torrential, thundery shower followed, and there was literally nothing we could do to shelter from it.  Oh how I laughed!  Penny just kept on going up and down the slide whilst Stew giggled and Fraser and I shivered!  It soon brightened up and we went over to the island – I resisted the urge to take the boat back and leave Stew on the island.  The children loved swimming along side the boat, like a couple of seals.

We left the beach and took a different cycle path back to the campsite.  Luckily we ended up coming out on the wrong road and ending up beside the local winery.  It would have been rude not to have had just a little taste!  After buying a bottle of white wine to go with the seafood we are planning on our next stop, we headed back.  We hit the swimming pool and cooled off before getting ready to head back into the town.  We had noticed that the local course Landais (see info here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Course_landaise) was on.  Basically a local tradition of “bull fighting” except, they are cows not bulls, they don’t kill them, they show them off and look after them and there is a band and much enthusiasm.  We had spoken about it after the Torro piscine and the children were really keen to watch.  I can remember going as a child and Stew was curious.  We had dinner in our favourite restaurant again, and then got to the ring in the town centre, we arrived just as it was starting and ended up sitting beside the bass drum of the band, it became clear why those seats in the front row were available once the band struck up…  we were quite happy though as it made the atmosphere fab and we didn’t have a clue what the enthusiastic commentator was talking about.  Penny loved the acrobatics, Fraser loved it all and Stew and I were most amused that when every trick up their sleeve to get the bull to go away failed they got it away by bringing out a lady cow and parading her around the ring so immediately the bull followed in!  The whole evening was bizarre especially the bit where they bought a metal bull into the ring on someones head and used it as a base for a fireworks display whist still attached to the man underneath.

A very late night for all of us, but in Frasers words it was “extremely good”