Due to a technical glitch...

...we haven't watched Lost yet, so don't you DARE speak about it in our presence before 'Second Chance' Sunday!

Summer Holidays pt.II: France

Saturday

So, we set off, very excited and feeling great relief at our decision to drive - since it was just at the time of all that plane trouble - with no 'accidents' on Caleb's part, and made excellent time to Dover. Used the in-car DVD players for the first-time as we waited for boarding- and were pleased to have them as boarding was delayed and we were all hungry. The crossing was fairly pleasant and they were screening Monsters Inc. in the kiddie play area, so Caleb was happy! Because we were among the first on, our car was one of the ones on the upper floor that they have to lower down to the ramp, which was exciting to watch once we'd figured out what was going on(!) Then off we went for a longer-than-anticipated drive to Reims, we had to spend a fair bit of the drive trying to convince Caleb that we really were in France, of course.
We arrived at the hotel ravenous, so after a quick check-in we braved the rain to find a kid-friendly restaurant - not as easy as we had anticipated, since none of us were really in the mood for a leisurely wander to find the ideal place. We settled on the first one with a child set-meal on the board outside, then passed an uncomfortable meal-time with no booster-seats, or even a bib or toys (shudder) since I'd been too hungry to think ahead. Elodie spent much of the summer letting out blood-curdling screams whenever her will was crossed, so a meal like that was like hell on Earth! Back at the (recently-refurbished) hotel, though, bed-time was really fun, and we all settled to sleep in the same room without a hitch- miraculously, everybody slept through!

Sunday

Though we got there a bit late to get any of the best bits it was exciting to eat breakfast in a hotel - we even remembered to use our fold-up booster to make it a smoother experience - and Caleb was amazed to be allowed CocoPops, Nutella and a pain au chocolat.
Elodie was unamused by having to get back in the car and had several (hour-long) screaming fits, I reacted badly to my travel-sickness tablets and felt awful -and sleepy- all day, Caleb wet himself repeatedly, we queued for ages for average-tasting and over-priced service-station food, and it rained constantly- poor, poor Mark! I was completely useless for all of it. Bizarrely, we still made it to the hotel earlier than anticipated, and the rain subsided, so once they'd brought us a travel-cot for Elodie (grrrr, booking online!) we spent a lovely evening wandering round the centre of Lyon, and ate outside a dinky pizzeria. It was lovely to people-watch, practice a bit of French, and spend some relaxed time together (with Elodie strapped in!) Our mood was so improved that Mark even bought Elodie and I each a rose from one of those rip-off merchants who pester you while you eat. Aaaah, over-priced flowers smell so sweet.
Bedtime went really well again, and we went to sleep with smiles on our faces, and we all slept well (even though Mark and I were both distinctly apprehensive about a third day of travelling!)

Monday

An early start meant an excellent breakfast, and the attention of a really sweet waiter. The driving was better that day- a nappy for Caleb made things less stressful, and I passed on the travel tablets. Mark and I amused ourselves playing Spot the Intro when the kids slept, and the DVD players came in handy. The weather also improved, and we got to drive through some stunning scenery on our way down. We took a bit of a break for a late lunch and a jaunt around an Hypermarche, which broke things up a bit, and got us stocked up for a couple of days without driving. The descent towards Nice got my heart pumping, and I turned into a big kid 'Oooh, Palm trees! Look at the sea, look at the sea! Look at the mountains!' The magic wore off a bit when we spent a whole hour driving around Nice and the surrounding mountains trying to get on the right road to the villa, but it was well worth the wait! The place was everything we'd hoped for: Personal jacuzzi, pool in the complex, separate bedrooms for the kids, a huge shower. It was really well-kitted out, lovely and clean, and the view of Nice and the sea was breathtaking- even that first evening, with smoke wafting across from a near-by forest fire(!)
Once again we were amazed at how easily the kids went to sleep, and we got to spend the evening on our bedroom balcony, playing Scrabble and drinking wine- how civilised is that?!

Tuesday

We resolved not to drive anywhere for a day, so instead of rushing off to sight-see we relaxed at the villa. Mark and the kids went to check out the local boulangerie while I had a lie-in, then we generally pottered for the day. While I did a mound of washing after all those 'accidents' on the drive down, Elodie napped, the boys did a bit of reading (Mark had bought a french newspaper, but I think it mostly ended up being Fox in Socks!) I spied a gecko and we also spotted a number of unusual bugs, and a very distinctive butterfly. In our impatience we tried out the Jacuzzi before it was really warm enough, which didn't impress me- but Caleb thought it was the most exciting thing in the world! After that, the pool was even COLDER, and despite grinning and bearing it ourselves, Elodie pretty much refused to go in. So back to the Villa, which was feeling less than relaxing by this point: with its lethal wooden stairs, stone floors, garden on a dangerous precipice and no idea of how to get the DVD player to work, it was proving to be pretty toddler-prohibitive. So we piled into the car for a jaunt down to Nice, to join in with the celebrations for La Fete de l'Assomption, which apparently included a procession through the Old Town, among other things. Of course, what we actually did was get stuck in traffic- by the sea at least- and as we watched the skies cloud over, and the minutes pass, it became apparant that we were better off turning round and going back for some dinner. Which we did! Our abortive trip provided Caleb with an opportunity to nap, so when he couldn't sleep we gave in, got him up, and messed around together in the jacuzzi. There followed a very unexpected bout of homesickness on Caleb's part - mainly surrounding the fact that he couldn't have all his teddies in bed with him. Poor little guy! Once he'd gone to sleep, we had a lovely time reading through guide books and making a plan for the week, and we had a brilliant view from our balcony of the spectacular fireworks down at the harbour- magical!

Wednesday

The clouds had parted, and the time had come to get out of the car and see Nice itself, so we drove down - past the bizarrely-named Speed Rabbit Pizza - and parked in the shopping centre, then walked down to Vieux Nice- the 'Old Town' part of the city. It's almost completely pedestrianised (although, this is France, so you have to take that term loosely) and despite being a real buzzing tourist area the place is surprisingly full of actual residents too. It's a truly mind-boggling configuration of unusually-shaped, vividly-coloured buildings crammed around several markets, numerous restaurants, a surprising number of art galleries, indie boutiques, churches, and the traditional olive oil/ lavender/ soap shops. Time just disappears there because it's so absorbing- there's something to see wherever you look; I was surprised to learn from a number of commemorative plaques about how active the Resistance were in Nice, something I had never appreciated before; and once we turned a corner and stumbled upon an open exhibit of Ancient Egyptian, Christian, and Roman artefacts that had been found along the nearby coast. On the Promenade itself we came to the conclusion that being in the mountains was preferable to being on the sea front, we were certain that our view- of Nice itself, surrounded by mountains, and opening into the bay- was more spectacular than an eight-lane road, even if it was lined with palm trees. Also, places like the famous Negresco, with it's horribly rascist - some would say 'stylised'- statue of Miles Davis out of the front, unquestionably lacked the grandeur it must have had in it's heyday. Most of the hotels and restaurants looked faded, and tatty, like visual memories of faded glory.
Highlights of the day included; the most unbelievable confectioner/ biscuit shop that were very generous with the free samples; stumbling on a wonderful view of the sea, framed by a beautiful stone archway; Caleb's genuine interest and simply reverential behaviour when we looked around the Cathedrale Ste- Réparate; trying the local speciality, Socca (basically a spiced, chickpea pancake), and unanimously deciding it probably tasted no better then the paper plate it came on; Caleb choosing a postcard for Joe first thing, then insisting on holding it for the whole day; Elodie's determination to walk in the opposite direction to us 100% of the day, and finding it hilarious every time...
We rounded off our day of culture with a brief jaunt around the outstandingly tacky Nice Etoile, followed by a trip to the even less civilised McDonalds, then took the now-familiar drive out of the town and into the mountains back home to the villa. Once the kids were in bed, we soaked our weary bodies in the jacuzzi, and our weary brains in a bottle of wine.

Thursday

We took a spectacular drive through mountains and gorges to get to Entrevaux . This place is like something from a story book; you park at the train station, which is home to a family of very elegant-looking and friendly stray cats, then you walk up the road and through an arch onto the drawbridge that takes you into the teeny village itself. We had a picnic lunch to galvanise us, then zig-zagged up the mountain to the citadel above the town. Just take a look here, and see how far we made Caleb walk! We made the climb as fun as possible by pretending that we were defending soldiers that had to get to the top before the Italians did (I don't know why the enemy soldiers were Italian, exactly, that was Caleb's choice.) Once at the top there was plenty to warrant the climb. Tunnels, drawbridges, a chapel, and dungeons. A sobering stand-out for me was to see the medieval cells that were used to house German POWs in the last century. Oddly, there was nothing to stop you from plunging to your death at any time, there wasn't much in the way of information about anything beyond its designated room title, and there were no loos or anything. Still, we found the sole picnic table for a sit down, and rewarded Caleb for his athletic acheivement with a Cars Pez dispenser. Caleb 'rewarded' us by pooing in his pants and on his shoes, right there in the Medieval dining hall! Thankfully, the low-tec feel to place made me less paranoid about it, and once it was cleaned up, we hastily made our way back down the mountain. We had a wander round the village and idly considered buying one of the rundown houses, looked at the church with the English flag flying(!) then had a well-earned ice-cream and set off home.
The drive home was no less impacting, despite returning the same way we had come. We literally drove through the mountains in places, in tunnels gouged through the rock. Seeing the evidence of glaciers from millions of years ago was pretty awe-inspiring. Often there were huge gashes along the mountains, as if a giant had gouged out pieces with his fingernails at he lumbered through. We found ourselves thinking about how people even survived millions, or even thousands, or hundreds of years ago. And how you could never imagine such a thing as a palm-tree lined bay and azure sea, if you had fought for life in craggy, vertiginous mountains. But that soon got a bit heavy, so we turned up the music and motored on home. En route, we stopped at an Hypermarche for some French books for the kids' Christmas stockings, a guidebook for Italy, and some of those French treats that you just have to take home with you!
After a late dinner (that oven was dodgy, despite being top of the range. Grrr.) we cleaned out the car, tidied the villa, and got everything sorted for the following day. Wasting time waiting for dinners that took twice as long as they should have done to cook, and faffing around with washing up, because the dishwasher was broken, was not how we'd planned to spend our holiday, but hey ho.

Friday

After a few days of varying weather it finally got properly hot and sunny, so after a bit of a lie-in (for me) we set off to Italy in search of a sandy beach. Driving a different route out of Nice was refreshing, the view over the harbour was very different from the rest of what we'd seen of the city, and I remember being amused as we passed the appropriately named HOTEL LA FIANCÉE DU PIRATE. The cliff-top drive was a whole other kind of spectacle to what we had witnessed the previous day. One of the things that was impressed upon both of us during our holiday was that glorious combination of the perfectness of God's nascent creation, and the unexpected daubs of human artistry that are littered across it's landscape. One example of this observation was Nice itself, which Mark described as a 'splodge' of human development and creativity nestled between the mountains and the sea. Another, of course, is the infamous Monaco, home to my idol, Shirley Bassey, among many other stupidly rich people. Conveniently, our scenic mountain road had a couple of great places designed for tourists to get out and take in the view. On we went to the unmanned border with Italy, where we ate our picnic lunch in a traffic jam, and reminded ourselves why nobody in their right mind, or, indeed, the right profession would go on holiday in August. Eventually we got to San Remo, where the seaside parking was free, but you had to walk forever to find the tiny bit of public beach. Both kids had a lot of fun, despite Elodie's protestations when it came to the cold Italian sea! The boys took a little walk along the rocks and watched the waves crash, while Elodie and I played with the sand and ran away from the splashes at the sea-edge. I also found myself constructing a whole back-story surrounding the guy who was on a sun-lounger next to us. Having time turns you into a real people-watcher, and on the continent you can even get away with staring, coz they all do it! Interestingly - for the Alias fans out there - we were astounded to see a banner advertising an exhibit at the Rambaldi Museum & Library, sadly it wasn't that Rambaldi....
After a lovely long play, we hopped back along the coast to Ventimiglia and ate the most delectible ice-cream on the planet! After an abortive attempt to find the Roman ramparts, we decided to wander around the town a bit. We were initially disappointed by how generally scummy it was (not helped by greying skies), but we soon realised that most of the litter was in fact evidence of some big event judging by the police prescence, and general ambience (I have since discovered that this was Seborga: '...on 20th August, small handmade ravioli and rabbit are prepared, and there is a re-enactment of the investiture of the new ruling Prince with his court.' so there you go!) Lucky for us, this meant that a number of shops/markets were open, so there was plenty to look at - and we even got to buy some real Italian Pesto and giant pasta for Caleb. Unfortunately there followed the most excruciating dinner experience, due to Elodie's migraine-inducing screams again. My Pannacotta was heavenly though. After a characteristically complicated exit from Ventimiglia (which included an inexplicably extortionate toll for a drive of mere metres) we high-tailed it out of Italy, relieved to get 'home' to France. We took a slight detour through Nice, taking the opportunity to see it at night, which was well worth it - despite someone attempting to force entry into the car as we stopped at some traffic lights (I truly thanked God for the Laguna's internal locking system at that moment!)
Sleepy kids were put to bed, and more wine was consumed, before bed.

Saturday

We were treated to glorious sunshine, so wrangled with the pool's safety alarm and went for a swim. Elodie was finally coaxed in, but kept dozing off in her little swim-seat! Back to the villa for lunch in the garden, then Elodie had a nap, I read a decidedly average book in the garden, and the boys went back to the pool, where Caleb taught himself to doggy paddle.
Dinner was a late one again, and as I pottered in the kitchen waiting for it to cook, I spotted a mouse attempting to gain entry to the house - eek! Not as cute or exciting as the geckos. That evening I made a start on the packing, Mark attempted some logic problems in French, and of course, we drank wine.

Sunday

Caleb was a bit non-plussed when we explained we weren't doing church of any description, but a walk to the Boulangerie, a couple of trips to the pool, and a nice roast dinner seemed to balance things out for him. I spent much of the day preparing to leave, and that evening while I packed, Mark helped out with lots of the cleaning, then packed up the car, all made a more pleasant job by yet more wine!

Monday

Started early with breakfast on the balcony, to avoid dirtying the villa. After handing over the keys, and taking one last look at the view, it was time to leave. We drove down into Nice for one last drive along the Promenade des Anglais, then off we went. With sunnier weather than the drive down, we got to enjoy the mountains and 'the sights' all over again on the way back up. More Spot the intro and the Charlie and Lola DVD kept us sane and, anyway, the kids had somehow come to accept being in the car for hours on end as normal! I also amused myself by attempting to take photos through the windscreen- the car was so filthy by this time that they mostly turned out to be awful, of course. A picnic lunch in the sunshine was perfectly pleasant- most of the rest stops have heavy planting around them, so you don't have to watch cars go by as you eat.
We arrived in Dijon bang on time and, after checking in at the tres modern hotel, we treated the kids to a trip to McDonalds. After dinner we found a Toys 'R' Us and had a wander, we were talked into buying Monstres et Cie. (Monsters Inc.) for the journey home, and I couldn't resist buying Elodie a little pushchair while we had the opportunity, which she's played with every day since. After the toyshop, we had a little play in the park next to our hotel, then it was bath-time, and we all had an early bedtime. Mark and I got the giggles - which we did our best to stifle - as Elodie kept very excitedly springing up in her cot and going 'heyo!' They were both so excited to be back in a room all together, and they chatted and giggled so sweetly together. It was a really precious thing to have the opportunity to listen in on it. Surprisingly, though, sleep soon came to all of us.

Tuesday

Another early morning, and despite a posh restaurant and pleasant staff, the place was so busy that breakfast was a bit of a disappointment. There was a coach party in there a little before us, and they just ran out of everything, they couldn't even re-set the tables fast enough. One poor English family couldn't find half the stuff they needed, but were too terrified to ask for anything - when I chipped in with where to find some cutlery, I thought the woman was going to hug me! 'Thank God, someone English!' she went, and I have to confess, though her relief was very touching, I did wonder how they were going to survive a holiday in France if they couldn't negotiate a buffet breakfast!
After taking the, ahem, 'scenic' route out of Dijon we hit the road again, and motored on up towards Calais, the skies greying ahead of us. We arrived nice and early, so took one last trip to an Hypermarche (for a huge multipack of those all-important Mikados, and one last ice-cream each.) The crossing was okay, we braved it on to the deck for a bit, and Mark very thoughtfully bought me some Dairy Milk (Yay, proper Cadburys chocolate!) in the boutique, because they didn't have any of 'my' perfume.
After a pitstop at the McDonalds - our 3rd if you're counting! - in Dingey Dover, we were finally on our way home. Caleb kept his eyes open until the closing credits of Monstre et Cie., then instantly fell into a deep sleep, so we had a peaceful last leg of the journey. We were home in time to do the bulk of the unpacking, watch Lost, and then roll into bed.


Despite plenty of niggles, it truly turned out to be the sort of once-in-a-lifetime holiday that we had hoped for. The villa was a real extravagance and, despite a host of faulty appliances, was everything we had wanted. It was a blissful place to spend evenings together, and the view cannot adequately be described in words, it really was the ideal that we had sought. In spite of numerous screaming fits, and a host of pant-filling incidents, we felt mostly relaxed for the first time in a very long time. It really was fun to share time together, learn about each other as much as France, and be excited by so many of the same things- I will never forget Caleb spontaneously, and slightly breathlessly, exclaiming 'What a beautiful view!' in the back of the car. Both Mark and I were reminded of how much we love France, and Caleb's fascination with languages was definitely deepened (we still get a lot of 'what's .... in French?') Often when you have a holiday like that you start to imagine that the path to happiness is to uproot yourselves and move there permanantly, oddly, I really didn't. Though the idea of returning home was pretty unappealing, I felt the faded glamour of Nice was the sort of place that was lovely to visit, but, ultimately, it felt vacuous, there was really not enough 'soul' about the place to draw me, not like being among the mountains! It was a slightly surprising revelation to me, who's a bit of a city girl. Got us thinking about the possibility of moving over somewhere, though....

Summer Holidays pt. I

Got off to a shakey start with a day trip to scummy Newport to renew my passport- a day that involved traffic, roadworks, misleading directions from the Passport Office, a car key that refused to lock the car, mythical car-electrics workshops, a diversion to Ikea Bristol, and projectile travel sickness to round things off! (Thank the Lord for the couple of hours of fun in EzeeePlay!) The same week, my Granny died. Thankfully, we had my lovely friend Claire staying with us that week, who had a calming influence on us all, and kept things chirpy. Things perked up with a lovely Saturday afternoon spent with The Mayfields, eating the contents of their belated freezer and playing Trivial Pursuit. Then a great family church service on the Rec. in the centre of Carterton.

The following week we spent a completely wonderful few days in Aberystwyth with our special friends, Dave, Rhiannon, Sam & Oscar. We went to the beach, met kittens and an exuberant puppy on the farm, went for lovely walks with Smokey the dog, played with water balloons, bounced on the trampoline for hours on end, and generally enjoyed all being together. I can't remember the last time I laughed so much, it was just what we all needed. Oddly, my Granny's funeral was only a few miles away, so they even amused the kids for us while we went to the service! I was grateful, because I found it much more emotional than I had expected. Overall it was a very positive service, where even her family learnt new things about her personality and her life, beautifully concluded by her choice of 'What a Wonderful World' to close. And thanks to Phenergen, we even had a fairly pleasant journey home at the end of an emotional day.

A few days of mooching, an MOT, fun trips to Cotswold Wildlife Park and Bounce with Joe and Emma, birthday tea with The Mayfields, and a fair amount of packing, planning, and panicking on my part made up the following week, then it was off to France for our first-ever family holiday...


>Photos when Blogger stops messing me around!<