It was at some point on Wednesday at work when I was moaning about how much I still had to do to get ready for holiday and my poor work colleagues listened to me juggling work priorities and printing ferry tickets, that Jo suggested that we went a day early… initially i dismissed it and secretly whilst pouring over a stupid contract looked up the options for a change… nothing.
By the time i got home I had come up with the ideal that I should call the ferry company and see what our options were! by 5pm we had convinced ourselves that we could do everything we were planning to do the following day before midnight and be in a position to leave home just before 6am this morning and head to poole to catch the ferry.
All round it has been the perfect solution…. whilst i missed my night before holiday flap, customary of these times, I channeled my energy into cleaning out the fridge and packing what was left.  
We had also bought a new tent…. this trip for us is only around 11 days (was supposed to be 10) and we have certain things that as adamson holidaying in France we must achieve! this meant that our usual 3 day stop minimum has been reduced to 1 night in places. We have also got a slightly impaired stew, whilst he has recovered from surgery with amazing gusto, there are still a few limitations with his shoulders (lifting above his head) and general strength (probably due to his having every rib broken 6 weeks ago!). This has lead to us wanting to ditch our large (and trusty) awning in favour of something smaller and lighter. HOWEVER last year when camping in the UK a torrential downpour which left every item of my clothing drenched in a small pop up tent… and obvs this was another essential avoid! a few weeks ago we ordered a pop up awning…. the advert spoke of instant errection and completion in 3 minutes…. whilst this was arguably the case, a curry trump could have blown it down and the clear up operation that followed would have resulted in a certain divorce! If i could have chopped it into tiny pieces and sent it back to the manufactureer I would have!

We found another tent called the instant tourer… it claimed to have a 1 minute errection and be super waterproof…. blow me if we didn’t have it up in the time…and then down again! so it all just seemed a bit easy!
The ferry was fairly uneventful… apart from Penelope trying to shop lift a cooked breakfast… she thought it was school dinners! I obviously got travel sick (always!) and had a little sleep, and the speaker in our room wasn’t working so we nearly ended up coming back to England! We got of to a slightly gloomy Cherbourg, but totally grateful we’d not been on the Vomit Comet!
This part of France always reminds me a little bit of cornwall… pretty gardens, windy roads and old buildings…. there were a few villages that couldn’t have been more french had they tried!
We arrived and set up the van in super quick time… the rapid errection of the new “instant tourer” left stew devastated that he didn’t get a beer!

Once set up we put that right and had a few minutes of a gymnastics display and football whilst we had a cheeky beer. We decided that as time was marching on we would pop to the beach for a look at the sea…. what started with a paddle ended up with eh children swimming in their clothes! stew wondered back to get his fitbit steps up for the day and got a change of clothes and the children had a ball in the sea… so lovely and warm too!
Following the beach we headed to the little restaurant on the campsite right by the beach (we are at camping l’ermitage in grandville) where Stew fraser and I had huge portions of muscles, super cold white wine (not fraser) and fresh (still warm) bread, whilst penny opted for a grilled ham and chips option. Coffee and deserts followed and we walked away wondering how so many restaurants in england get it so wrong!
The sun has shone for us this afternoon but as it get towards 9:30 here the wind is picking up and we are wondering when the rain will arrive. This campsite is literally 20 meters from the beach so the breeze is strong, but we are having a perfectly relaxing evening enjoying France, life and Freckle…. vive la france!
Bon nuit! 

So the journey for stew an I ends here…. But for the lucky scamps they have another week!

Amazing holiday, not so much of an adventure this year, but more relaxing. We have started planning the 2015 adventure and filled the van with beer and wine to get us through till next year!

Au revoir!

A day of travelling and not getting food shopping!

<

We woke up on day 18 with one set of plans, and went to bed with another! Always the best way!

The day started for team adamson with a run. I’m sure if I lived in st Gilles I’d be so skinny from all the beautiful beach running. An easy 3.5 miles along the sand of an almost deserted sunny beach was a great start to a great day!!

We got back, showered and breakfasted (the worlds biggest jam is still going!) and hopped on out bikes. Our plan was to head to the market to buy dinner for the evening. Between stew and I we managed some amazing French to buy squid, bullots, prawns, oysters, moules, salmon, crab and of course oysters. We bought the biggest lettuce and some nice salad bits along with some bread. We also visited the bakers to get the children some lunch, and a small but delicious looking cake each for them!

We met up with the Hargreaves at the towns kind of fete/festival thing…. There they showed the local traditional trades, and producers bought their wares. They also had food stalls selling regional dishes…. We met the gang outside the oyster tent, and the conditions were perfect for some of the usual mayhem! We all shared oysters, grilled sardines, and moules, a bottle of wine and chatted about the plan for the next hour…. At this point Steffan thought we should ensure we had fully tasted the wines of the region! With his fluent French and ability to charm his way around a French person, we set about the tasting. Each stall was happy to chat about the teroir, and give us 3 or 4 glasses of wine…. I even noticed that some of the stalls had spit buckets…. But we didn’t bother with any of that nonsense. I couldn’t tell you how many we tasted, but we had red white rose cognac armenac sweet wines and dry wines!!! The children even got involved involved in the action with grape juice. I think it was around this point that Gemma got interviewed by the mayor on the loudspeaker! We made a few purchases, and got back on our bikes and clunked back along the cycle path back to camp.

The plan had initially been that the Hargreaves were going to sleep in our awning as they were maximising their holiday and leaving before 6 to head for the ferry. We decided that given the wine that we’d bought specifically to accompany the fish, it would be prudent to “get Lynn on it” and use my mums encyclopaedic knowledge of ferry crossings to get a better time sailing….. And she didn’t disappoint! Thanks mum!! We also did our usual trick of grabbing as many extra hours in France as possible… We are due in work on Wednesday morning and were trying to get booked on an overnight so we went straight to work…. But there were no cabins so we have pushed back to an evening ferry.

We sat down and enjoyed the seafood and the perfectly paired wine and spent our last night with the Hargraves slightly sloshed, Eating great food With great friends! Fabulous!

Penny slept in the awning too for the first time on her own…. And loved it! She’s getting so grown up!

I really am so not ready to come home….. And I am going to consider becoming a gypsy!!!

do

</

Day 16 was fun filled and action packed with penny learning to bodyboard and the boys “taking the rubbish to the bin” and disappearing to the bar for some time. Oh how I laughed when they returned after the takeaway on site had closed somewhat limiting our dinner options due to lack of supplies.

So yesterday we had a very low key day. We needed to move pitch first thing as we decided to stay in st Gilles for another couple of days. It was defo a 3 coffee day!

The children seemed very content just playing so stew and I popped to a new bargain shop we’ve found whilst Gemma and Steffan went for pizza.

We got back and stew and I set up the net for some beach ball. And before we knew everyone was joining in. The challenge moved on to all kinds of activities before I got fed up with loosing and moved on to a quiz!

We got ready and headed into town for some dinner. Mmmmmmmm mussels for stew Fraser and I…. Beautiful!

A go on the merry go round whilst all lit up and a cycle back in the dark ended a lovely evening!

After the big cheese event we woke up surprisingly full of beans!!

Gemma and Stewart went for runs first, quickly (ish) followed by steffan and I followed soon after. It’s so beautiful around here… The flat cycle paths and wide beaches are great running teratory… We even ran back a little way along the beach.

When we got back we only had time for one coffee, before all getting on our bikes for the short cycle to the canoe hire place. We had booked a couple of Canadian canoes for 2 hours…. 2 hours of canoeing in a very long time, and on reflection an hour would have been enough but slowly paddling along the picturesque river, with meadow, bridges and sand dunes to look at was a lovely way to further tire ourselves out.

Home for lunch, and then a swim, before a cycle back into the town, for some ice creams and a go on the merry go round, before an earlier than usual bed after another chapter of the story.

I’m now sitting outside the van with the gorgeous stew cheffing up a sausage or two, with a completely exhausted body, and slightly sunburnt face…. Feeling slightly broken but very chilled and content with life…. The candlabre is ready to light as the stars pop out, if I can stay awake that long!

Yesterday was a fab day…

First thing we managed 3 coffees whilst the kids all played happily together. I did the camp chores whilst all the girls went swimming and the boys went to the supermarket unsupervised! They were so proud of themselves that no naughty purchases were made! We did send them with a fairly prescriptive list and they did get everything out on the table proudly upon their return.

We had lunch and headed to the beach…. It was awesome. We all had a go on the surf board and the kids dug a daddy trap!

We headed back with a view to going to the night market, but all the kids went to sleep, we opened the wine and started our seafood feast!

An ice cream And a competitive ping pong saw the night rounded off… Until stew decided he would hit the cheese! Stew had 3 bites of cheese drowned with lots of port, and has vowed never again!!!