I woke up early… I think I was excited!  I went to the loo and then walked along the beach to make sure that the sea was still there.  The girls went and brought the bread and we all sat down for a proper french breakfast, and lots of coffee.

We got ready and cycled into town.  We had a good look around the beautiful shops and bought some stuff to braid the girls hair. some ice cream.  There was a tragic accident, where we thought Euan might need hospitalisation, but then we realised it was just a graze!

We headed along the cycle path to the salt flats and had a look at how they make salt, and then cycled on to the next town l’epine for a picnic lunch.

Back to camp and the inflation of the flotilla was started…. we headed to the beach with 2 dinghys, a body board, 3 lay bags and a load of oars and loads of life jackets.  There was one slight drama with fraser floating away and stew having to swim out to rescue him.

We got back and showered, read some books and chilled whist the children played in the park then we went out for dinner.

Moules all round for the adults and pizza for the children, whilst they played table football and pinball. 

With full tummies, we headed back, put the children to bed and then lasted about 10 minutes before we hit the sack too!

We got up and packed away first thing.  The pack up seemed to take longer, though, but for once Stew and I left our shower stuff out and actually remembered to have one before we left!  We left on our journey north and said goodbye to the Hargraves who were headed further south.

It wasn’t a long journey up to noirmoutier so we went for a look in some shops on the way!  I had the highlight of my holiday, and found a wicker basket for the front of my bike!  We also got 4 lilows for all the children!

We stopped and bought some good seafood for an afternoon treat and then headed on to the campsite.  We started setting up on the most complicated tiny pitch, and waited for the arrival of the Lealans.  I received a text to say they were 10 minutes away…. so we waited and waited, and then the phone rang.  They were lost…. so i set off on my bike… and 6 miles later I found them looking sorrowful on the side of the road.

Once we found our way through, whealan was up in super quick time, and the Champaign and Oysters were open, the lilows inflated, and then we headed to the beach.

The children had a super time, and we headed back for a quick bbq , and put the tired children into bed.  The adults had a bbq in the dark, drank some wine and put the world to rights.

I’m a few days behind on the blog… my sincerest apologies for the interruption in service.  I shall try and remember what happened!

We got up and had breakfast, made a picnic and then loaded up the bikes with just about everything from the camper van and headed for the beach.  We got there and all took it in turns to blow up the boat.  Gemma and I decided that we had the ingredients for the next fitness craze… camp fit! We had watched some people playing in the waves the previous day with inflatable boats… and they looked great!.  We loaded the kids in and they all hung on for dear life!  Rapidly Amy decided it wasn’t for her before the boat capsized on a big wave and Sophie and Penny whimped out…leaving Fraser riding the waves.  Both Gemma and I took a turn each too with Stew steering the boat into as many waves as possible!

We had lunch and the children turned the boat into a paddling pool, and once again our camp fit class was effective trying to move a boat full of water up the beach… the tide was whipping in and we were against the clock.

The final challenge was the deflation and packing of the boat.. a real work out!

We headed back to camp and realised that there had been a few suncream malfunctions… In particular with me! 

The children went for a swim, and then we had a bbq for dinner. After a bit of sitting in the sun with  a gin and tonic for the girls!  I had to go to bed without dinner as I had had too much sun!

We woke up early…. somewhere between the excitement of my new coffee maker and the bottom noises from the toilets. I headed over to the on site shop for bread and pastries, and had my coffee…. mmmmm.

After breakfast I put the new bells on the bikes we had bought yesterday, (I “improved” mine with some nail varnish, unfortunately it took the tinkle sound out of it and made it sound like a frog!), and the children went for a swim with Stew.

We headed out on our bikes headed for Bretagnolles sur mare, a small town about 8km away.  It was along a really cool bike track, through woods and along behind beaches.  It was a bit like being on an off road track.  The beach was really different along the coast, more rocket, penny was sure it was where the mermaids would come to sing.

We stopped for an ice cream, and an Orangina, before deciding it wasn’t where we wanted to have our lunch, and we headed back in the direction of the campsite, stopped in for a few bottom issues with the children.

We made it eventually to the town (after penny getting stuck in the “water closet”) and had the most delicious lunch of seafood and deserts.

Back at camp we waited for the arrival of the hargraves…. we put their tent up and had a good chat….. and then security came and told us off at about midnight, and then again about 12:30.