I got up excited about my cycle to the bakers… i’d been thinking about my pastry since yesterday morning!  I was also excited as we had decided that we wanted to head to Montalivet market today.  Im sure I have bored you all with the story before…. but when I was first pregnant with Penny we came here for a weekend.  I saw a load of old men sitting on milk crates eating oysters off a plastic tray, drinking white wine that was so cold there was condensation on the outside of the glass.  I’ve never wanted to eat anything more.  Several times since then we have tried to get to that market and for one reason or another I’ve ended up oyster-less! I was hopeful as I had done the appropriate research today!

We had a map and decided that we would cycle.  It was showing as cycle paths all the way, and we added them up and it looked like 10km.  We thought the children would be fine with that and set off.  Quite quickly we realised that it wasn’t actually in KM it was miles so a bit of an error, but by that time we were committed!  With only one short spell on whinging and one minor incident where penny left the route we arrived 16.4km later in Montalivet!  We quickly located the specific oyster stall I had my eyes on, bought the children a lolly pop each and wasted no time in buying the oysters and wine.  It was every bit as delicious as I had hoped.  With limited space in our fridge, we can’t actually fit a wine bottle in, so cold wine is quite a challenge.  Given the temperature we have been experiencing too it’s been a little too much for it and so our fridge has struggled to take the heat off the milk!  Cold Cold wine tasted so good!

We had a walk around the market and then headed to get Stew his food heaven.  Its called an Americane and they can only usually be found in the tackiest of seaside resorts in the greasiest looking burger shack.  Basically its a combination of a chip buttee and a beef burger with loads of BBQ sauce on inside a big bit of french stick!  Once found, it was swiftly dealt with, and we moved on to the children’s food heaven in an icecream parlour.  We walked down to the beach to let our lunch go down and decided to head back before hitting the beach as a 16km bike ride, slightly damp and salty didn’t feel like a good idea.

As we got back to the bikes Fraser wanted to know what our time was for getting there, so that we could try and beat it on the way back! Thats our boy!!  1 hour and 4 minutes there…. 57 minutes back! As penny says…. BOOM!

The children are having a well deserved rest whist Stew does the same and I catch up with some work and other bits.  Off to the beach shortly for some more wave action and I think probably another BBQ tonight.

We are going to pack up this evening so we are ready to hit the road early in the morning (when I say early, I mean by 10ish!) as we are moving on.  We have changed our plans slightly as we learnt its the Redbull cliff diving finals in La Rochelle on Saturday evening.  We changed our campsite booking and are going to get on the ferry first thing so we can get there and find a good spot.

Catch up soon.

Firstly I need to remark on my dramatic recovery.  It would seem that I’ve found the antidote to malaria and it is a nightnurse tablet and a good sleep!  On reflection maybe it was just a cold but I did feel really unwell, I even turned down wine!  Im much better today and feeling ready to take on the world again!

The day started with a short cycle to Amalie Plage where there is a small bakers selling THE MOST amazing pastries and bread.  We got a selection…. Stew had “been meaning to try” bordeaux cakes, which are basically little apple cakes covered in a caramel coating.  The phrase when used by Stew usually applies to crisps, and so I thought he deserved a treat!  We had our heathy pastries, bread and chocolate spread (have I mentioned that I have always said I hate chocolate spread… this is in fact a lie and I have deprived myself of it for the last 23 years… its lovely! who knew?!).  I made some rolls for lunch and we set off on our bikes. 

We are staying in the municipal site at Amalie Plage, about 2.5 miles from the centre Soulac, but like everywhere around here the cycle paths are amazing and so it was a nice ride into the town.  We had a look in all the shops, had a look at the church and then stopped for a coffee.  We headed back to the beach and had our picnic whilst Stew fixed a puncture on my bike!

The Children played on the sand but the sea was too rough for swimming and the lifeguards weren’t letting anyone in.  We headed back along the cycle paths to Amalie and headed to the beach.  Swimming was very much the order of the day here and we spent a happy few hours playing in the sea, playing bat and ball and collecting pretty stones and snake tusks (fraser found them… they just looked like sticks to me!)

Back at the campsite we had a bbq, and the children played with some french children, and I had a gin and tonic… in the background we could hear the waves on the beach and the sun was shining…. perfect.

After dinner the children did the washing up! (thats not even made up!) and then Fraser and Stewart headed to the beach with a fishing rod, whilst Penny and I redid our nails and soaked our feet! (and I had another gin!).  The boys returned minus the fish, with Stew having sneaked out a cold beer and fraser stripped off naked for a splash in the sea as the attraction of playing in the waves was too much!  A quick shower and they settled down for bed…. with Penny sleeping in the tent for the first time.