The day started with the blissful music in the bowels of the boat! Penny slept through the music and couldn’t understand why we were all awake and was disappointed she had missed it!

We had our instructions from the Spencer’s to meet in the posh restaurant as soon as we were ready and Henry assured me they had lots of pain au chocolate! I was in!

We settled down for a buffet breakfast, just a teeny bit bleary eyes from the late night before, and it was a yummy selection!

In a bid to hold up the whole boat, the Spencer’s left us, and returned to their cabin…. you know that one caravan you all have to drive around?! They promised to avoid us for the rest of the time they were away, but we know where they are staying and will just turn up!

We headed back to the van, slightly nervous due to the proximity to a Ferrari, which we all thought stew had hit the night before…. the deck just clonked at the wrong moment! Stews got a sore knee so Freckle was under Sarah power! What could possibly go wrong? Well… I didn’t hit either of the Ferrari’s

Off the ferry and on the road, the weather was looking ropey! Then we ended up in a storm!! The Nantes bridge was brilliant as always, but my co pilot isn’t as much of a bridge fan so no pictures! I was too busy trying not to crash!

Even the petrol station was hit by the storm so we had to spend the grandparents ice cream money for fuel as the card system went down and we had no cash!

We knew the vendee wouldn’t disappoint and it brightened up as we arrived. We went past as Fraser reminded us “where Joel nearly died…. of hunger!” And stopped to buy some oysters! I was lost for words when I saw there was an oyster vending machine!!!! So accessible!

After a quick run into grab essential (wine and cheese!) we headed to the campsite. Whilst windy, we got set up super quick, had a bite of lunch and then headed to the beach for a swim.

Back from the beach we chatted to some other van owners and then spotted Stew and Gordon’s mate from last year!! The paddle boarding expert… and what great news, he’s on the pitch opposite! 😂😂

Stew has been trying to perfect the Wolverson bottle opening trick of opening one bottle with another, but failing miserably! Mark needs to make a you tube video!

Oysters, sausages and wine made for a perfect Adamson in France evening and the kids have gone off to bed ready to see their mates tomorrow and have some more fun!

This place is brilliant! Night all!

It all started when we were out for a bike ride…. and the Spencer’s were telling us about their holiday plans…. then we realised we were booked on the same ferry and we hatched some plans!!

We got to the ferry port about the same time as domino’s pizza delivered our dinner… and we had a pizza buffet, beer and wine, it’s fair to say it wasn’t a leisurely meal as 2 slices in, we had to hop back into our respective vehicles to get through to the loading area…. freckle sailed through but our caravan friends got pulled into customs where Spenny stripped down to his pants for a through search!!

They were on the other side of the main route off the ferry for all the vehicles that had just arrived, but keen to get them their remaining pizza slices I selfless ran accross the road, hurdling the road blocks to make my delivery. I collected a beer for Stew, the second part of my mission and set off back! This prompted several safety announcements in the port, more hurdling and all the traffic being stopped to get back to freckle. I made it though!

The Adamson’s were smug in the cabin position for a few moments until we realised we were somewhere beneath sea level next to the anchor, possibly as a result of my tweet to them pointing out what I thought of their decision to cancel our return sailing into Portsmouth and send us to plymouth? It was very quiet at least and possibly we were the only naughty people sent down that far!

When we made it up all the stairs and recovered we headed to the bar and bagseyed a corner pitch to down the evening with the Spencer’s!

The deserts were polished off before we headed out on deck in the rain to see the grandparents waving from the tower!!

We came back in to drink our own drinks in the bar…. but they didn’t seem to mind!

Then came the cheese board and port… we had an bottle of cough medicine filled with port and cheese miniatures with grapes and chutney and biscuits! I’m waiting to see how Katie reuses the napkin wisely!!

We all had fun, chatting and laughing about how the people of Sholing thought they were getting the veracity ground back as the Spencer’s drove off… with one man waving them goodbye!! I hope you enjoy your sausages! The children had such a nice time together and the girls particularly loved when Katie and I recreated some roverang circa 1997.

Bed time and a short sleep before we dock in Saint Malo….