Woke up this morning with a beautiful view, meadows and clear blue sky on one side……..oh and a motorway service road the other! My faux pas was still fresh in Team Adamson’s memory, but lucky Mr Batard was bought with a crate of Kronnie and Barclays covered the real costs, leaving us to have a nimble down the road towards Nantes, but too late to get into any Aires for the night, hence the services!

Anyway, up with breakfast next to the meadow and a sink wash for the small Adamson’s as they were filthy from rolling on Mr Batard’s workshop floor. We were soon ready to go and Freckle purred ready for the next journey………Nantes.

We popped into the centre of Nantes and wondered where everyone was, hardly any cars on the road and we were able to park in a business looking district, free on the side of the road! A five minute walk across the Loire river and we were faced with La Machine! This is a great feat of engineering, a 20 metre elephant which moves through the park squirting water at everyone! We tried to queue to get tickets to ride it, but we would have been there all day, so settled for following it round and a go on a similarly engineered carousel with lots of strange “projects” like submarines and ugly sea creatures you can bring to life. P and F certainly loved the submarine, where they could speak to each other on an old fashioned telephone, it was like they used loads if junk to create these things.

A quick trip to the supermarket and we were off to Noirmoutier. P and F challenged Daddy with their behaviour which ended up in me chucking P out of the van and driving off…….only 10m up the road………worked through, even though perhaps on the line of too far for a 6 year old?????

Crossed the bridge to Noirmoutier and saw the Island looking at us in the sun. Weird lay by sellers here, they sell salt, not fruit! We got some last year nearby and must remember some for Granny, otherwise she might put a spell on me! Just time for F to watch the same bit of Harry Potter on the iPad for the fiftieth time…….did you know that Harry Potter can speak parcel tongue??!!!!

The weirdest sounding Sat Nav voice (thanks Apple) guided us to the campsite…….Jesus could they get more pitches on this piece of land – no is the answer. All settled in with an adventure on the beach and at the park and back for F to do the worlds biggest poo, which Daddy had to take to the toilet and wrestle out the camping toilet!!!

With a 30 second walk to the beach, just sitting with a glass of rouge whilst Sarah annoys the English neighbours……they are glad they are leaving tomorrow after Sarah has had them pinned in interrogating them for the last half hour, at least my ears are having a welcome break!!!!!

All done for my guest appearance, maybe another might be in order as I still have nearly three weeks away!!!!!

So much to tell you about so will talk fast today!

Cereal for breakkie once we had established that we were ok to stay for 1 more night and it didn’t involve moving pitches, hurrah and double hurrah. Still full from tomorrow so there is at drama to contend with but I will come onto that!

Penny had run out of clean knickers, so it was decided we would do our domestic chores whilst it was a sunny day as the next couple of days were uncertain. A full load and a load of hand washing hanging on the line we were ready to head off to explore. We needed to find the beach and get a fix of sea! Where we are staying is the municipal camp site, basically provided by the council, the municipality… So the place we a staying is a trendy village called st Martin, and it’s basically like Nottingham castle on Robin Hood! You have to enter the city rough the walls which are still largely in tact the moat is now filled with grass but the cycle paths are awesome weaving around the old city. Penny was under her own steam and loving the independence of riding a little on the road. We found the beach and carried on into the town where we found e most beautiful back streets to wonder and a truly amazing market that any foodie would die for. The children were fascinated by the spices, fish and patisserie stalls. We saw an enormous swordfish, and bought some bread.

We returned and Fraser slept for what seemed like ages, whilst penny made friends with some French girls with water pistols and they were sharing their languages. We enjoyed a bottle of wine with our bread and cheeses and hams…. I think we reached 7 cheeses on offer today with 5 different meats and chutneys! Whilst penny was happily playing we begun the search for the next 2 nights camping pitch. A quick call to mum meant that she was also on the case, and eventually we realised that there are in fact no free pitches in the entire of France! We thought we found one and it let us book then so we were relieved but this was short lived when they sent us an email saying they were wrong!

We left the camp and headed to the beach again this time so the children could have a swim. There were a few more waves than they have been used to so far but they remained confident in the sea, with our hawk eyes watching from the beach. Whilst at the beach we continued to search for a campsite and mum came up trumps with one a bit further than we were after but available, with a pool. He only stumbling block was they speak absolutely no English, so my French was tried out and I triumphed with a reservation (I think!)

A quick dinner for the children of tomato soup and bread (the hunger window was open without time to fire up the bbq!) before we headed into town again for a walk and an ice cream. On our way we found a tiny doorway, I don’t know what got our interest but it said you could visit for €1.60 with children free so we went in. Immediately we had to go up a tiny stone spiral staircase, the steps were labelled silence please. We scuttled up them not knowing what we’d find. There was a tiny counter with a man who we paid, and a clock. It was seemingly the bell tower for the church. We continued up the rickety stairs and onto the roof with a breath taking view. We had gone past the working bells. We realised they were due to chime shortly so we hung around as the kids were fascinated by the inner workings of the clock. When it did chime I was busy telling the children to put their fingers in their ears to take a photo…. It friended me half to date and I nearly fell down the rickety stairs! My ear is still buzzing now, but stew says his is only buzzing due to my exclamation!

The evening ended up sitting on the harbour wall eating ice cream people watching. The bbq is now on, the children are in bed, and we are looking forward to a complete adventure tomorrow! Who knows what it will bring.

Cheers everyone!

Today hasn’t gone especially well! And I’m honest it’s made me quite grumpy at this moment! I know tomorrow will be better and it’s mainly my fault!

Last night we on once again spent the evening chatting to our friends and having a cheese midnight feast! It reay would have benefitted from port though! We got relentlessly bitten by Mosquitos and I now a red blotchy mess!

We packed up swiftly as it was raining. Not proper rain but that annoying spray rain. We had porridge for breakfast first then the routine of packing got a little smoother.

As we left our friendship behind in noirmoutier, we also had2 sad little girls sobbing! Bless! When I tried to console penny her answer was “she was my best friend”!

The Center of the town was buzzing As we drove through, with he market in full swing and a queue of tourists waiting for their turn to be part of the fun. I found myself wondering if that campsite was cool camping? We found the campsite out of the cool camping France book. I came to the conclusion that it certainly was. As washed up my breakfast plates next to a chap cleaning his winkles out in the designated seafood cleaning sink I longed for my camera. How many places do you camp on the beach and gather your own dinner? If its glamping you’re after, it’s a million miles away. With mixed loos and showers I’ve heard bottom noises I’d had nightmares about… Ladies there were no strategic flushes in these toilets! But I don’t go in much for glamping… Small pitches meant fun evenings with new friends so yes I think it deserves the title cool!

So we left passing to stop and buy the famous salt…. Pics to follow as the iPad not charged! The water really is salty here. Made our purchases and moved on.

It really rained hard then! But in true freckle form the sun came out for our arrival and crossing the bridge. It was €16 to cross it!!!

This is when the trouble began! We arrived at the campsite with our booking…. To be told that it wasn’t a confirmation and that whilst I’d emailed with my payment details they’d ignored it. We had 4 nights booked and managed to get a night here with the possibility to extend on a different pitch tomorrow. I was gutted! The journey was much longer than planned and the children were restless. We took the 1 night and went for a ride to find somewhere else, but there was no room at the inn, then stews bike got a flat at the furthest point. Great.

So at the moment I don’t know what our adventure will bring tomorrow, where we will be or what we will be doing! Tomorrow is another day, I’m having a gin and chilling now!

So last nights blog was late because I was too busy having a midnight feast if cheese and chutney with our new neighbours, also vw nuts, um, I mean enthusiasts! We got bitten alive, drank cheap red wine out of a wine box and compared holiday notes. They have a daughter who is now penny’s new best friend, who is 1 month older than her. They have been comparing their homes on wheels and had to have their hair plaited in the same way this morning! I can feel tears coming tomorrow morning when it’s time for us to move on.

This mornings pastries were from the campsite pop up bakery…. And if I’m honest a tad disappointing (I’m becoming somewhat of a connoisseur of the croissant!) but they were set off well by some of our strawberry jam…. The 1kg jar we bought with us is gradually getting eaten!

We got showered and dressed and headed down to the beach to collect some more seafood with our proper rakes, it was much easier with the rake and penny caught 19 crabs…. The tide was out firer this time and there was a route over to the mussels. I was also struck by how differently people were foraging…. Some favoured the mussels, whilst others went for razor clams or ordinary clams that we nestled in little clumps under the black sand. Once you found one you could be sure to find 5 or 6 more.

Lunch of cheese and cured meats before a lovely rest for an hour, stew dozed and the stalls watched a film to get out of the hottest of the sun.

We then got on the bikes and cycled past the salt flats into the town, to have an ice cream and to buy some new chairs….. Hurray! I can’t tell you how excited I am, or how challenging it was to get them home, strapped it to the side of the stews bike.

We got ready and headed straight to the beach for high tide, and it was beautiful. The sea was so clear, the sand so soft and the sky so blue. Penny and stew swam out to the boats that we walked past this morning, then we buried the children in the sand. We also buried stew!

Sausages for tea and an evening sitting in the new chairs ahead. It’s getting a bit chillier now and the wind is picking up, apparently there is rain forecast here for tomorrow, but we head south, so fingers crossed the sun continues to shine on freckle! I’m hopping for another cheesey midnight feast tonight, and that the mosquito bite count is a little lower than last night….. Bon nuit x

Pastries to start the day again, sat in the sunshine. We ended up having one or two wines last night with our neighbours, so a strong coffee was needed too. We decided to head to the beach to see what it was all about here. Once again the locals scuttled off to the beach at the same time, so we had learned to follow them and copy what they did! We only had a plastic rake and a sandcastle bucket but we followed their technique, and were soon rewarded with a bucket full of clams and cockles. There were literally hundreds of people raking up the flat black muddy sand the tide left behind. In the distance we could see more of the mussel poles, but I don’t think the tide would go out far enough to walk out. The kids played in the rock pools and were confidently picking up crabs. Fraser caught a shrimp and both were fascinated by the marine life beneath their feet. After a snack we headed into town to buy some rakes for tomorrow and to pick up oysters and bread for the evening, we contemplated the purchase of some chairs and got the smalls an ice cream before heading back. We had a rest and continued reading gangsta granny, the holiday book that keeps both entertained with its talk of cabbage trumps. Fraser soon tired of sitting still, desperate to get to the beach and get his wetsuit on!

The beach is literally 30 seconds away and it’s utterly pointless putting shoes on as it takes longer to do them up than you are walking. The tide was in and it was flat calm. The kids were happy running in and out and then daddy buried the children in the sand. I hadn’t taken a camera but will do it again today!

Moules for tea, after I had to do an Emergancy dash into town as the ones we bought in the supermarket had gone off! So when I got to the fishmongers I also picked up some oysters, prawns and crab claws. By this point we had a task of getting some over tired children settled for sleep!

We have new neighbours, again they are english. yesterdays neighbours knew a friend of ours, these ones parents live in botley and winchester! They also have a T2, and its exactly the same as my brothers van Dave! We ended up staying up late eating cheese and chutney!!

Right wine o clock!

We slept well in the layby on the side of the motorway! I heard some people come I the middle of the night and all I know is they were talking about fishing in a really loud voice for about 30 mins then they left!

I hosed the children down in the sink much to frasers delight! He wanted to go in the sink as a bath! He was so dirty from rolling around on the floor of the garage yesterday that urgent action was required. I can’t say it was t strange stripping naked and washing myself in the camper in a carpark but it did the job and Eventually we were all clean, followed by cereal for breakfast (there was no on-site patisserie!!). I enjoyed my stove top coffee and we even did all the washing up and cleaned the floors before we left. All in all, it did the trick! We were slept, clean and tidy and all for free!

We headed down the road to Nantes , passing the municipal campsite we thought we might have used the day before. It looked lovely, but pricey.

We managed to get the sat nav working on my phone to get us into the Center of Nantes where the ile de machine is. We snaked our way through Nantes city Center which is full of really old buildings and narrow streets, but looking a bit rundown in parts. We were worried about getting parked with the trailer but managed to find he perfect spot on a side street less than half a mile from the exhibition. We wondered over the bridge and could see he queue for the elephant rides, but no elephant. It wasn’t long before we realised that we weren’t going to get a ride this morning and the next ride was late afternoon. Just at that point the elephant turned the corner and we realised that actually it didn’t matter that much as seeing the elephant walking along the road, spraying passers by with water and blinking its eyes. Penny decided she must be a girl as she is so beautiful, meanwhile Fraser was properly terrified and wouldn’t have his photo taken with his back to the elephant for fear of what might happen behind his back.

We followed the elephant for a bit, it really was amazing, then we headed over to the merry go round. It was impressive and when we reached he ticket booth we paid our €28 euro for a ticket. What we didn’t quite understand was the carousel was on 3 levels and you only got to ride on one level. The things you road on we’re each a machine, and I can’t think how to describe it without pictures. I’ll add the pics tomorrow properly once I’ve got them off my proper camera!

We finished and had 2 really tired children who urgently needed food! Back at the van we palmed them off with some crisps and headed to the super market to stick up before our next stop. We had lunch at the flunch in the supermarket, where they take a simple concept of a cafe and make it really complicated! Penny was ravenous and go bled up all her dinner and the. Proudly went to the ice cream counter and ordered in French. Clever girl! Them we stocked up on cheese ham and pâté, obviously with a drop of wine! Penny thought she’s rather like a pogo stick, as it would be really useful to get bread on!

The mood of the children significantly degraded after the supermarket, tired and couped up I think they’d had enough…. After the journey to noirmoutier en ile, I couldn’t even cheer Fraser up by showing him a helicopter!

As we approached the island I was struck by how flat everywhere was, freckle was thrilled. All the little stalls along the road were selling the sea salt, oysters and moules…. Sounds dreadful eh!

We are at a site that has surely maximised its space to pitch! We are crammed in but actually it’s not too bad. The people behind us have a mutual friend in England! It always happens to us!

Today started well, we packed up and were breakfasted and ready for the off by about 11.

When freckle was loaded, stew started her and noticed that very faintly the battery light was on. We could see that the voltage wasn’t quite what we would have liked on our little meter that plugs in to the cigarette lighter…. A great eBay purchase for about £3.

We waved bye to mum and dad and with our lunch packed up we headed off towards Nantes. Passing the beautiful saint Suzanne and loads of farmers out bailing their hay. We were coming through the village of Craon when we started to hear a pop before we realised it was freckle backfiring. In the later part of the journey I was flicking through the Haines manual and the John muir book how to keep your Vw alive, we were desperately trying to work out what was going on. We thought at this point that we had an issue with some leakage and that there must have been a short circuit. After pulling over and using the dreaded warning triangle of doom, we checked the fuses, stew retraced his steps from yesterday ensuring that there were no dodgy connections and it was all ok. We fou d 1 dodgy but not blown fuse, replaced it and the. Tried to go again. This time it was the starter motor solenoid issue, so we bump started in reverse and got going again. The voltage seemed to drop faster than ever this time, as did the patience of the increasingly bored (understandably so!) children. We called Paul at KFK and chatted through with him the problem , and whilst he desperately wanted to provide us with a solution his fear was that the alternator was gone. Balls. So we had another play and decided to head on and try to find a park to tinker and let the kids run off some steam.

We didn’t get quite that far and stopped again. This time the engine just cut out. We decided enough was enough and called the RAC. The RAC cover we have comes free with our bank account so it’s fair to say my expectations were fairly low. They ascertained he length and dimensions of freckle and that we were now towing a jolly big trailer, for which there was a surcharge of £65 if we needed towing. After input out a plea on Facebook I helpfully got sent details of a uk company based in France renting out t2’s for holidays. I’ll put a link on here to the company when I find them as the chap was so amazingly helpful and offered us any help we needed. He told us of the French version of just Kampers is called serial Kombi if we needed the part. Whilst we were still on the phone to the guy mr batard turned up. Our opinion, as was that of all we spoke to, was they would have no idea what to do and so we at least had a name of somewhere hey could tow us thanks to hire man to do a proper fix. How wrong we were! Mr batard was our knight In shining overalls! He got us going with his battery and we followed him back to his garage, thus avoiding the surcharge. Once we were here I was trying to offer him he part number for an alternAter, but he had other ideas. Within 30 mins he had the alternater on the bench, then Whipped it to his fiends house to recondition it. There he decided that a minor fault they found was not responsible for the problem, and soon discovered the real issue…. Stews tinkering yesterday cleaning the contacts had t quite been finished, leaving a connection dangling down. He fixed it, we gave him some beer and the RAC paid! Result! Thank you mr batard, you blinking rock!

We eventually found a motorway services to sleep in (long story but I’m out of time) and we are settled for the night, hopping that day 14 is an improvement of day 13! It was never that stressful but for a moment I feared our adventure had come to an end! Our adventures continue..

Last day at Sille today. This morning was started with a prebreakfast swim for the children… Then stew hopped in as he was getting splashed anyway! Meanwhile I was reminding myself where I had thrown stuff in the van over the last 3 weeks, and then filling a huge bag of stuff I over packed to send back with mum and dad. I resisted temptation to send my running kit home, and resolved that at least once I will go for a run! Stew also had a tinker after breakfast with freckle. The recurrent issue with the starter motor we think is due to a solenoid, and dirty connections, so aided by Fraser he rolled about under the van for a couple of hours and came out very dirty… When I offered coffee I was informed that it was the crucial moment, but it obviously all worked it for the best as freckle purred back into action after her surgery and dirty stew had a wash.

After lunch the adamsons headed to the lake for the beach. It was really busy with French families enjoying a warm Sunday afternoon, with loads of games of boules happening around the lake that we had to dodge. We settled in a lovely spot on the beach and all went swimming in the lake. Penny, once reassured that there weren’t actually any alligators or crocodiles in the lake like grandad had told her, was happy to swim out quite a distance with her dad, practicing a,, her strokes and jumping in off our knees. Frasers swimming lessons seem to have been less successful so far! We dried off and played slice the sandcastle for a while then all decided that a refreshment break was needed…. The children had decided they were in the market for some chichi’s, sticks of doughnuts, but the queue was huge so they settled for a crepe in the beach bar, whilst stew and I had a glass of wine and beer, and we enjoyed a bit of terrible europop, from the same duo that were playing in the beach bar the night before. Penny thought that she was experiencing an intimate gig of some pop stars though, and wanted to know where the dance floor was.

We headed back after Fraser fell off the picnic table and bumped his head, following the train all the way round the lake, proving to be an effective way to deal with the congested woodland paths! The children were shattered and were in their beds early whilst we had a leftovers bbq to use up all our bits before mum and dad head home tomorrow and we go in search of an elephant! The bbq was washed down by a bottle of Noz’s finest valpolicella, at €1.99…. much more sucessful than last nights noz wine with was revolting! The adventure continues…. Whoooooooooooo! We really a so lucky to be enjoying this.

Will update photos next time we have good wifi as having a bit of a palava!

Today started with a long lie in and then the most enormous pain au raisin for penny. We all got ready and headed off on our bikes to show daddy how to get around the lake. I got the old garmin watch out to clock the distance around the lake… It’s a 3km cycle. On the side of the lake is a man made beach, which the kids really enjoyed. Penny was busy making a beautiful sandcastle and Fraser tipped a bucket of water over her head. It was like watching laurel and hardey.

We got back in time for lunch…. We got all the food out and ended up with a really quite impressive spread of cured meats, cheeses and olives. Yum. We’ve decided to try and keep Fraser p all day today and not let him nap as he had been a bit of a toad the last few nights. We headed over to mum and dads friends house in a closely village to do an errand, then went to a totally random shop called Nos…. It’s just a strange shop selling all kind of things really cheap! We managed to find some tat to buy and some more cheap wine, and then we went on to Sainte Suzanne, a medieval castle type fort, where we spent a happy few hours wondering around, the stopping for a coffee and an ice cream.

Saints Suzanne has 2 parts, one built in the 11th centurary and the other in the 17th. The kids loved the medieval loo, and the dungeon where Fraser could pretend to rescue trapped penny in an American accent.

They are over in the pool now, enjoying a bit of evening sunshine, before tea and an early bed. Stew and I are headed on a hot date…. To the creparie by the lake….. It’s been so fab all being back together.

I’ve included some pics of our pitch right beside the lake, it was a really warm night last night and so I woke up this morning with the blinds down, to a view of the sun over the top of the trees… If I could have taken a photo I would have.

Liz…. Note the bunting!
Someone tell Tracey, the flip flops that she hates broke in the sea! She’ll be thrilled!