Holiday 2019 D14

Nice long lies again this morning. Sent large boy off to get breakfast on his own, only for him to return empty handed because himself got our number wrong so I had to go figure out things with the bar. Then the coffee machine flicked on and off and we had no electricity at all – a trip down to reception informed us that a transformer had gone and an engineer’s on his way.

So everyone else had breakfast while I boiled water in a saucepan to make coffee. Can’t cope without morning coffee.

After breakfast the great pack for return home began. Boring but necessary.

Meanwhile the boys rode their bikes and searched for the preying mantis they saw yesterday (just realised I forgot to mention that). Then they recorded a quick happy birthday video for my mum (grandma) for today.

I’ve talked large boy into formally signing a contract promising to always hold my hand. Aged 7 he says he’ll hold it forever. I’m sure that’ll change in a few years but for now I’ll enjoy his enthusiasm for closeness.

Small boy got a big splinter in his foot and the drama of pulling it out was so disproportionate. Eventually had to give him ice cubes in a bag to put on it to calm him down.

After lunch we sorted the bag out (again) to go to watch the cycle race that we mis-timed yesterday. It’s a few French regional teams and then lots of national teams of under 23 riders.

Well we found it and managed to park about 50 yards from the corner we wanted to watch from. At the top of a hill with a sharp left hander, we thought they should be going slow enough that’s we’d get a good view. We waited 40 mins for the “caravan” to come through and got thrown a hat for our trouble. Then another 15 mins later the teams started coming through. I rigged a picnic blanket hanging from a road sign to get some shade and the boys sat and made up stories between riders coming though. We saw all 26 teams over an hour and a half or so. This is the USA.

It was really quite warm, probably over 30°C in the sun, so when we got back it was ice creams all round. Himself got bitten or stung by a bug but doesn’t seem to have had a reaction.

Then a bit of screen time followed by a walk round the lake for two purposes: gathering new rocks to take home and paint, and to leapfrog my mum on fitbit. On the subject of which, a tweet, DM and email exchange has yielded a replacement tracker which should arrive next week. I now have a collection of three broken ones. Hey ho, at least they’ve sorted it quickly and without any fuss.

Large boy found some great rocks, including a bit of limestone (I think) with a quartz inclusion and some other bits of smooth quartz.

We’re off to the local marché gourmande for tea tonight to avoid washing up before leaving tomorrow. The dishwasher (what decadence on holiday!) is clean and I’ll wash up bowls and cups after breakfast before heading off. Himself has packed up the goal and badminton net and other outside toys while the boys and I had our walk. I had a galette with goats cheese, walnuts and honey, the boys had hot dogs and himself duck (what else).

When we got back large boy wanted to go back and find some bits of quartz to take home to his friends at school. He got 4 pieces and one extra for the boy in the next door caravan.

We’d pretty much packed ready for tomorrow and small boy decided to sweep out the caravan: “I just learned that from the teachers at nursery.” He said.

Pyjamas are on, clothes for tomorrow are out and the alarm is set. So night night, it’ll be an early start.

To see what else we got up to on our 2019 summer holiday, see Holiday 2019 Round Up.