The first thing to say is that bravely Stew and I changed our bed arrangement before we came away and bought a new self inflating mattress…. and with all the kerfuffle, it was untested until last night. The flipping thing has got a slow puncture. I read the reviews online, and one of them said that they considered sleeping on it at home… well I can’t share the sentiment!! I woke up through the night a couple of time with more of my bottom in contact with the bed than I was happy with.

When we did wake up properly, the heaven’s had opened. It was ok though as we knew it was coming and had put in place all the precautions. I woke up to stew clambering on top of me… to look out the side of the tent to check his shelter arrangements!

The slow start to the day was welcome, as the children slept in well, and I got to test my new waterproof coat when I went to get the bread and croissants. We’ve got a new kitchen arrangement and its brilliant but it does take up a-lot more space… but in-spite of heavy rain and thunder this morning, everything was dry. A couple of coffees and pastries later (and a lot of jam!) we it was starting to dry up.

By late morning the sun had his hat back on and so we got dressed and ready for a ride into the town. We headed straight out the campsite onto the causeway, past the salt flats and into Noirmoutier town.

In the town the first stop was the camping shop, where the kids bought a volley ball and then we headed on to the jewellery shop… the kind of shop where you pick the beads and make your own. Penny and I passed a happy hour getting bits to make our own earrings. We decided that it was probably time to feed Fraser again, and bought a couple of baguettes before heading to buy some oyster. As i cycled behind Fraser who roughly needs to eat every 15 mins due to excessive growing, I realised that the drink bottle holder might double as a snack store and fit a baguette in as between he and Penny, they ate a whole baguette before we got to the next stop.

We weren’t in luck at the first place but headed around the corner and scooped up a dozen oysters… at about 30p each over here they are too good to leave!

We headed back to camp and were battered by the wind (although still sunny) as the tide came in. Back at the camp an hour with books before heading to the beach with the paddle boards. Again the wind was against us but the sea was fun.

An early evening glass of wine any oysters followed by a bbq was all that rounded off our first full day of holiday…. with one torch lit game of petanque before a moonlit swim.

It looks like the weather may be against us again tomorrow morning but some chilled time is very much required!