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”