After hitting our pits last night at 10ish with the intention to read, and stew promptly falling asleep within 3 seconds…. I got to experience what sounded like a fairly empty karaoke bar until 1am. What I loved the most was as we are on the pitch next to the loos, was how the sound was stopped by said wall and filled the campervan with passionate renditions of French Karaoke classics… with long pauses of the waiting for one of the 3 people to pick another song music in between! I’ve been in quieter night clubs! At least it stopped at 1am!

Penny on the other hand didn’t wake up until 11am!! I almost had to tie frasers hands to his side whilst he waited for his first taste of pastries!

Whilst it was quiet we headed to the pool and had it to ourselves.

After a quick bite of lunch we headed into La Rochelle on the bikes. We found an alternative route avoiding the high density housing we usually pass through. We found the path and had a enjoyed the shade of the tree lined canal into the city.

As we reached the outskirts we all did a covid wee in the bushes to make sure we didn’t need to touch anything like loo’s in the city!!!

Heading on into the city lots of people were wearing masks, we found somewhere to park our bikes and put on our masks. In the heat of the day it wasn’t comfortable but it was necessary… still surprising how many people weren’t wearing masks, and also how many people thought their own mask was a cloak of invincibility!

I took this shot of crowds watching street artists.

There were probably 100 people all stood together. Bizarre!

Avoiding the crowds we headed to the most important shop in La Rochelle! The ice cream shop! They had put in measures to manage the usual queues of people… but I was shocked that people were frustrated with me for standing on the spot designated until the person in front had moved forward. With the children’s orders in hand we ordered and enjoyed delicious, and massive ice creams!!

In the heat, we decided that heading back to camp and another swim would be better than stopping for much longer in the city.

Back at camp we put the ice cube into action, mans I made my best ever camping gin and tonic! Ice cubes!!! Our new ice machine was busy whirring away whilst we were out!! I love it!

A quick swim to cool off and bbq rounded off a great chilled day! The children even washed up, and the electric bbq was exactly what we needed! (We have cheated on Colin the cadac and brought Eric, the electric bbq, so we didn’t use so much gas and got the most from the electricity on site!).

Much cooler this evening… which should mean another great night in our freckle beds, and we will see what tomorrow has to offer!

Night!

With the bigger cabin cake breakfast in the room! So we woke up to the smell of coffee and pasties! Not a bad start to the day.

Getting off the boat was very smooth. I think probably from a covid perspective it was the bit I was least sure about. They loaded the cars back in colour codes. We did spend a little longer in the car deck, but there was no queueing at the top of the stairs and actually we managed to put everything away on the van rather than colliding with other passengers. There were no extra checks at border control and we were on our way.

It was already hot at 8:15am and set to get hotter.

The drive to La Rochelle took us about 5 hours… we stopped in a more remote area to buy some supplies to avoid needing to go into shops in La Rochelle where we know Covid cases are high. Penny gave us a commentary with the megaphone! So please we brought that!!!!

We got in the camp site and set up. All of us tired and hot!

The children had a water fight and once set up we hit the pool. Within a few mins it was clear that the Social distancing wasn’t in any way being enforced, so we decided that we would come back later to the pool when quieter.

We went for an ice cream and a oringina whilst stew headed in search of oysters!

The temperature was high!! With little shade and breeze we tried the pool again and it was much calmer with space to swim!

Back at the campsite freckles new additions of an ice cube maker and electric bbq were put to good use! A tea time gin and some sausages and oysters made us feel really on holiday!

An early beed was very much the order of the day, and so we all read our books and chilled out!

More exciting days ahead… but we are here and safe!