After a super long sleep we woke up and enjoyed the delicious pastries the site had on offer. The Scamps went over to the bar to get the bread and asked using only their french which has improved hugely over the last year.

We had plans for an outing but by the time we were up and dressed the temperature had risen and the children favoured heading to the pool. Its been a good day for my target of reading 4 books this holiday! We headed to the pool and the kids had it almost to themselves for about 2 hours. Numerous goes up and down the slide left me with ample time for the book reading…. though i was sat in the shade! I must confess that i joined the party slightly later than the rest of team adamson due to an appointment with a double expresso first!

After the pool we had a spot of lunch and really did need to head into the local town to buy some more defences against the Mosquito! Last night was an all time high for getting bitten! The children weren’t drinking enough so stew devised a fireman game to encourage them! He filled all our glasses to the brim… and if you spilt a drop you had to get the rest tipped over your head! it resulted in much amusement and cooled us all down a bit.

We headed out the back of the campsite down a “short cut” which clearly it wasn’t but did steer us through some truly beautiful vine yards. I read on a website that they pull back all the leaves that over the grapes at this time of year to get most sun so that the grapes ripen in time for the harvest and this was clear to see. I’ve emailed a couple of vine yeards to see if we can visit tomorrow for tasting and tour… as id love to see this famous regions wine first hand (and maybe have a little taste!) Eventually we found the supermarket and bought some emergancy candles, bug spray, ice cream and pastries! along with a fan for the van! A brief look at the weather shows it will be over 30 for the next week or so with a 0% chance of rain, and the van is just a heat trap with it not being possible to leave the door or windows oped due to mosquitos, so we thought it best to prepare! The gingers are faring well with no sunburn to report to date.

Back from the shop we had to cycle down the main road… picture the A3!!! and the children did a super job, even though fraser took cycling along the white line to the letter slightly more than i was comfortable with.. Back at camp we hit the pool again, giving me chance to finish my second book. Penny made friends with a group of french girls who clearly had limited english. It was so great to watch her confidence grow as she tried to speak their language and they tried hers. I was thrilled they arranged to meet in the disco this evening…. no really!! we returned from the pool around 7 to have our dinner (steak and pork chops) before heading to the bar for possibly the worst duo playing country music in broken english! the kids enjoyed playing and we sat and watched!

A cold shower and they are deposited into their beds now, counting their bug bites and trying to recall all the french words they have learnt today.

After the heat of the day yesterday we were braced for another hot one today. The site we travelled to today we knew was much quieter and was well timed. Only 90 mins up the road we headed via decathlon for another football for Fraser, and some more towels.

As a side note I’m going to say that towels are always the thing that drives me mad camping, they take up so much space. I always think you need one each for showers and one each for pool and beach. So this holiday we invested in 4 Decathlons towels which don’t make your hands feel horrible like most light weight towels do for the pool earlier in the holiday. They are so compact and dry super quick. We have been so impressed we went and got an additional 4 for the shower today as they were on offer.

We did a supermarket sweep of the shops as they were shutting soon and got essentials in a haphazard way before pushing on up the road. We drove through the beautifully manicured vineyards of the Medoc region and we knew we were arriving in our destination. Less than 30 mins from arrival to complete set up we hit the pool. We visited this site a few years ago and the children loved the pool they spent 3 hours this afternoon up and down the sldes and generally playing and having a great time. The heat finally finished them off tonight and thankfully they headed to bed early to catch up on some of the sleep they were missing, not before eating huge ice creams!

We have somehow lost the bug candles, so are being eaten alive outside whilst P and F have a fab sleep and are recharged for another top day tomorrow.

So day 9 started hot and got hotter.  This is the one big downside to living in a tin box, particularly with a number of ginger housemates.  We had started the day late enough that the shop had run out of bread  so a quick bowl of cereal started us off.  We hit the pool early and the kids had a fab time.  Around lunch we headed back to the van and headed for shade.  Luckily we have a bag of entertainment for such events and a bit of lego and a pack of domino’s fitted the bill… especially as trying to set up a domino rally on a wonkey table will never be a quick job!

Truthfully the children were very tired and for the first time in a week a bit too hot and bothered.  We packed the bikes and headed out for a cycle to a different beach towards the plage de plya (name to be confirmed!) and this was a much nicer beach than we had previously been to.  We played in the water for hours, watched a windsurfer get rescued from a very angry tide, some naughty boys that were tomb stoning get told off by the water police and had a team challenge of 10 consecutive hits around our group with the bat and ball to win an ice-cream!! with 2 tired children, a steep back and a coordinationally challenged mummy this prove more challenging that you might think!

We dried off and headed for our ice-cream,  There is nothing cheap about Archachon, including the icecream but boy did it taste good!! (15 quid for 4 ice creams!!!!!! ) needless to say the glass of wine I thought that I might fancy with my ice-cream rapidly became some warm wine back at camp!! We had a little walk around the town which had a beautiful church and then headed back.  A quick dunk in the pool was well timed after our ride back up a huge hill and we cooled off.  We had some pasta as the children were getting restless and then started to settle them for bed.  They were total monkeys but we all went to sleep eventually!  It was so so hot in our van that even our fan did little to move the air around.  Stew and I sleep in the top and slept all night with the sides open for air.

The site at Archachon was a hive of activity…. not the nicest site we have stayed at but its certainly a must see place in this area of France.

Tonight is a short blog, we have been busy having fun!

Last night we sat with sleeping tired children feeling a little sad that we hadn’t made it down to the town to watch the bastille celebrations….. we knew the fireworks would be awesome.  with 2 late nights in a row it was too much!  We listened to them and they sounded great, and then we read the news this morning and it was all a little close to home.  How so many families who were having fun yesterday and enjoying their time together, could have their lives changed forever is quite incredible to contemplate.  Though Nice is across the other side of the country, it was still a sunny day, in France with families spending time together. It could have been any city in France, on a special day for the country.

So today we had a nice time…. we went swimming, read books, chilled out, cycled miles, swam some more, and had a fab dinner with all of our favourite things….. oysters, anchovies, crab and steak because life is too short.

Je suis Nice

After possibly the longest lie in of Fraser ever (10am) we finally woke up…. and Stew and I went for a run… again!  There must have been something funny in the air!

The children went to the shop and came back with 3 pain au chocolate that we hadn’t ordered (they need to be pre ordered the day before!!) now I think that Fraser probably just tried his luck and asked for some!  (you have to pay on collection Sarah B in case you think that have fallen to your levels of theft!!) but after a run, however long, the addition to breakfast was most welcome.

We packed up our camp, and I made eggy bread for breakfast.  This is one of my France tips: I learnt from Gemma H!  I keep the little bits of bread that get left over at then end of the day for a day or two and then make eggy bread with them… they were totally yummy!  I even managed to put on a load of washing before we moved off the pitch and went for a swim.

We left the camp and filled up with fuel… not because we needed to, but because the fuel gauge on freckle is broken and we know we are good for 200 miles from full!   I hopped into the supermarket to grab some supplies, and we were ready for the off!

We decided that due to road speeds we were no better off going the motor way.  Apart from being a more expensive and less scenic option, freckle simply can’t go fast enough to make the extra distance we need to travel in the time that is advised!  She is 60 MPH max! 

We headed along the road and about an hour into our journey we seemed to pick up a roll as the tail rider in a cycling road race!  The pack passed us and we had to follow them around the route!  Everyone was please to see freckle as usual and we waved to our fans!!  We even got stopped going out of the campsite by a man who has a T1 in Germany and wanted to show us his business card with a photo on.  Parked in a car park today a man bought his SLR camera and sat in a camping chair for about half an hour telling his little boy about the vans and taking photos.

Eventually we arrived in Archachon after travelling for 9 miles along the bumpiest road in france!  Seriously…. expectant mothers should know about this road.  The pitch is quirky and the sun is shining.  We are set up, the kids have made themselves a space camp (who knows?!) and Colin the BBQ is cooking us all up a fest!  A chilled evening in the Archachon sunshine ahead.  I keep having flash backs to the last time we were here every time the golf buggy man drives past Hargraves!!!  It makes me shudder each time!

Bon Soir mes Amis!

The day started slowly with breakfast and and making plans for the day.  The scamps chose that we went to the beach in the morning and the lake in the afternoon… who were we to argue?

We cycled along a sandy track to Messange beach.  The track goes past a large fishing lake and eventually meets a main road, but there is a cycle path behind bollards so it was a really safe route.  We headed over the sand dune and got our first glimspe of the sea.  It was fairly changeable weather wise and the sea was looking quite stormy.  The children took the opportunity to play on the edge of the waves but my surf report reports the waves were very powerful but messy! Stew had visited the shop in the morning and came back with a second sent of bat and ball so that we could play doubles, so we filled an hour with a game.

We left the beach as the clouds were getting a bit dark… and then it brightened up so we headed on to the lake.  When we arrived we had our picnic, and sat in the sun for a bit, whilst the children played in the water.  We had to go to the lake because the big child was desperate to spend his holiday money on a pedalo with a slide.  I tried to convince him that 30 minutes would be adequate but Stew was adamant that we needed an hour!  Reluctantly I did the deal, and we headed off into the middle of the lake.  Remember those clouds?  Suddenly they reappeared! We sat in the middle of the lake and the heavens opened, a torrential, thundery shower followed, and there was literally nothing we could do to shelter from it.  Oh how I laughed!  Penny just kept on going up and down the slide whilst Stew giggled and Fraser and I shivered!  It soon brightened up and we went over to the island – I resisted the urge to take the boat back and leave Stew on the island.  The children loved swimming along side the boat, like a couple of seals.

We left the beach and took a different cycle path back to the campsite.  Luckily we ended up coming out on the wrong road and ending up beside the local winery.  It would have been rude not to have had just a little taste!  After buying a bottle of white wine to go with the seafood we are planning on our next stop, we headed back.  We hit the swimming pool and cooled off before getting ready to head back into the town.  We had noticed that the local course Landais (see info here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Course_landaise) was on.  Basically a local tradition of “bull fighting” except, they are cows not bulls, they don’t kill them, they show them off and look after them and there is a band and much enthusiasm.  We had spoken about it after the Torro piscine and the children were really keen to watch.  I can remember going as a child and Stew was curious.  We had dinner in our favourite restaurant again, and then got to the ring in the town centre, we arrived just as it was starting and ended up sitting beside the bass drum of the band, it became clear why those seats in the front row were available once the band struck up…  we were quite happy though as it made the atmosphere fab and we didn’t have a clue what the enthusiastic commentator was talking about.  Penny loved the acrobatics, Fraser loved it all and Stew and I were most amused that when every trick up their sleeve to get the bull to go away failed they got it away by bringing out a lady cow and parading her around the ring so immediately the bull followed in!  The whole evening was bizarre especially the bit where they bought a metal bull into the ring on someones head and used it as a base for a fireworks display whist still attached to the man underneath.

A very late night for all of us, but in Frasers words it was “extremely good”

Well… today started with a run for stew and I! I know!  Im sure it won’t last but its flat, beautiful and not too hot!  The children went and bought the bread and we had the usual breakfast.  I washed up whilst Stew took the children to the pool and then I joined them for the last few mins.

We headed back and packed for heading to the lake.  Amusingly Stew had to put the new inflatable dinghy into the body board back pack… which try as he might to get on to his bike seat was just too low!  We rode to the lake eventually and set up the boat, after a close call with a missing pump tube.  It was the most eagerly anticipated part of the holiday for the scamps…. we decided that we would row over to an island in the middle of the lake… luckily I had made a picnic, and taken the precaution of adding a couple of cold beers into the cool bag.  We took them over with us and for ages were the only people on the island.  We had our picnic and the children played in and out of the water.  We thought it would be good to have a walk around the island, and around half way we saw some teenagers being dumped on the island with a pizza by their parents… inspired!!  We also found a star fish.

We rowed back, more easily than we had rowed out there…. however at a slight handicap.  We only had one and a half oars…. I could see it coming.  I knew that stew would get in the inflatable Discovery 400 and think that he was in the Oxford and Cambridge rowing race… he rowed with all his mite and snapped one of the oars!  Luckily we managed to grab it before it drifted off.

Once back on the mainland we watched the children play in the boat for ages… there was some kind of race, involving Mo Farrah and them and it involved a sprint on the beach and some splashing!

We dried off and packed away and headed to the beach bar for some refreshment…  The children chose to go on this bouncy castle thing instead of an ice-cream and we had a quick drink whilst they did so.  A short cycle back to camp and the kids chilled out for half an hour whilst we did the same.  I had a quick shower… in the mens showers by mistake (i was in there thinking how cheeky all the men were being in the ladies!) before heading to the best restaurant in the world!  Its perfect… plastic tables and chairs and moules out of casserole dishes.  Totally delicious.  Penny had a pizza in the shape of mickey mouse.  There was a stage set up close by so whilst I enjoyed a cafe Gourmand, i had my own display of acrobatics from penny with some cool moves from fraser.

We headed back and were lucky enough to bump into the local group of people dressed in sheepskin on stilts… Dad if you are reading this, be prepared for request’s to make the scamps stilts!! Its called something landaise… i cant find the info online… but it was cool and had we not been at the bull fight last night we would have gone and had a look!

So we headed back to get the smalls in bed and sit outside in the darkest dark, had a glass of wine and chat about what a fab time we are having, and how our slightly surnburnt bodies are a little pink!

The say started with some fabulous efficiency…. it rained heavily overnight, and whilst still damp and heavy drops blowing off the trees, but wasn’t actually raining.  Over time we have got quite good at knowing what we can all do to pack up and also have accumulated a good selection of equipment that packs down very well.  A man came up to us in the last site and asked us if we call the van the Tardis as they were amazed with how much we could fit in!  Once packed we showered and changed for the journey over the mountains to France.

We estimated that the journey would be around 4 hours however, there were some big jams which meant we were much slower.  Even a traffic in freckle is entertaining with all the other people enthusiastically waving, racing us or getting cross about our ability to pull away fast up a hill!  I was really struck by the size of the infrastructure in places in Spain… road over road over road all filled with cars… all snaking their way through the kills through tunnels!

We had a pit stop into a decathlon to buy some new camper van towels and the scamps bought some new goggles to add to their collection! We had a mcdonalds lunch and then did a ram raid on the spirits department in the supermarket to bring home!  The Gin and such like were so cheap!

We finally arrived at the campsite around 7pm after being slightly delayed by the border crossing.  We were on a tight timescale as the scamps desperately wanted to go to “torro piscine”, so we hastily set up and had a quick bbq before heading out…. rain coats packed!  Torre piscine is hard to describe…. basically there is a swimming pool, there are bulls and the rest is euro pop meets testosterone fuelled mayhem! basically the audience nominate themselves to do games, with a bull in the ring.  It is brutal! No animals are hurt but lots of people… including a child in the “Childrens race”  The scamps love it as does stew… i watch with one eye shut but it is none the less entertaining!

A late night for all of us, but happy faces! When fraser is old enough he is going be a bull fighter!! Great!

After a lovely evening sitting outside last night, I enjoyed the sounds of screaming babies, barking dogs and snoring men!  it wasn’t the most peaceful of nights, but the children and ginger slept well!

We woke up around 9 and I had a fab shower…. the showers here are great… no button pressing, just on and off like normal!  We broke in to the 2kg jar of jam I made to bring with some bread and had managed to locate the last jar of popping candy chocolate spread from last years trip in the back of the van with some fresh bread.

Over breakfast we hatched a plan…. got ready and headed off to the beach on our bikes.  It wasn’t a long ride.  The beach was long and sandy… it kind of wraps around into a bay with mountains behind.  Unfortunately the architecture of concrete blocks of apartments does little to compliment the view, but a wide path between them and the beach were a great route for a cycle along and it was super clean.

The sea was lovely… for the benefit of my super cool surfer friend Mr Langdown, the waves were clean! I’m not sure how to say they were big but calm in a cool way but thats what I would say they were!  The kids went splashing in the waves straight away… meanwhile stew and I thought we would teach Andy Murray a thing or two and have a brutal game of bat and ball!

We all needed a wee so had to go back in the sea for a play, before getting told off by the life guard for being too far out!

We had forgotten to take one of the 5 bottles of suncream (remember, I’m dealing with gingers here!) to the beach so thought it would be wise to head for shade…. we cycled along to see the other side of the bay first but were disappointed with the lack of ice cream stalls and then headed back to the campsite.

After a bite to eat the children wanted to go in the pool.   Accustomed as we are to continental swimming pool rules, Fraser donned his budgie smugglers, and went on in….. promptly to be told that in Spain we can wear shorts but have to wear a swimming hat!

iI wasn’t until the children had their swimming hats on that I realised why people ask me if they are twins.

The pool closed shortly after so we headed to the bar, where we had a beer and played Yhatzee… the rematch! Fraser was the champion!

We popped in and stocked up for the evening with an even more expensive wine… stew bought it and he splashed out €2.80, but its not nicer than the €2.10 one! once we had supplies of bread and wine we went into the town.  Again, it was surrounded by picturesque backdrop but concrete ugly buildings…. we thought we would head to the harbour for an ice cream, but the Spanish seem to take that quite literally… there were just boats and that was it! 

As we came back from the harbour passed the beach Stew found the reason that we should have watched the beach volleyball at the olympics!  

Once I tore him away from the beach I remembered I had spotted a bar beside an ice-cream parlour and decided we should head back into the town for the perfect combination.   The ice creams were huge and id seen someone drinking a gin and tonic…. and they were huge too! we had a the perfect afternoon sitting in the sun chatting. 

Once I got back on my bike to cycle home I had the feeling that the gin was much stronger than in the UK and after a wobbly ride home and a few thoughts of what a lovely time I was having, we arrived home safe for our last night in  Spain.  We had a fab bbq and are now sitting watching the bats with tired children asleep and our wine nearly gone!

This morning got off to a very slow start… the scamps didn’t wake up until 9:15, and I was sent off to the spa for a very theatrical massage!  I’m not sure it was supposed to be as theatrical as it was but the chap doing it seemed to enjoy the dramatic moves!!

After the massage I disobeyed the strong order not to drink coffee (come on!!), we headed to the restaurant for breakfast… where I had 3 cups… Stew and I had some pastries and a full english whilst the children had cereal and more croissants.

After breakfast we headed to the back of the bar to hear a talk on dolphins and whales.  We saw some dolphins off the back of the boat, and apparently the group that were out at 6am saw some orca whales up close.

Youre going to just have to believe me that there are striped dolphins in this photo!

A competitive game of yhatzee followed and before we knew it, it was time to get off the ferry.  I am convinced we were the last vehicle off the boat, and Im more convinced they take a look at the van and tuck us somewhere out of the way so that if Freckle doesn’t start we don’t hold everyone up!  Of course Freckle started faultlessly and we soon had our turn to get off!

I was really blown away by how beautiful this part of the world is…. the blue sea and rocky green mountains were beautiful. 

We headed for the campsite, and eventually got found our home for the night. http://campinglaredo.com/en/

After checking in, I took the precaution of popping into the shop for a bottle of wine.  Now usually in a campsite shop I would go for the absolute cheapest bottle, this time, I splashed out and went for the 3rd cheapest…. it blew the budget at €2.10.  So after a great BBQ, and the speediest camp set up ever we are enjoying a few moments peace before heading to bed for the night.