It was a day of three halves, so to speak

The Storm and the Slow Start

It was another hot and humid start which could only mean one thing – thunderstorm!

No “raindrops on roses” moment here though, as Lisa and I both slept through it

So it was a slow beginning to the day. The weather forecast showed storms all down the west coast for most of the day, and our excitement about a day at Les Sables d’Olonne was starting to fade. We had visions of trailing round trying to find shelter from the rain, not something that we relished.

We had our elevenses of coffee and croissant and assessed the situation. The sky in Foussais was clearing and with the blue sky our hopes for a decent day returned, so we bit the bullet, packed up our picnic, gathered the beach gear and set out for Les Sables.

Baking on the Beach

After a leisurely lunch in a local restaurant (mmm…I love anchovies on my pizzas ) we trekked back to the car and gathered our bags for a lengthy stay on the beach. It was certainly very busy – the busiest French beach we have seen for a long time. We are used to being only one of a handful of families on the sand and the bank-holiday crowds were quite a surprise.

But still we were able to find a spot to set out our pitch. The sun by this time was blisteringly hot, so Molly and Joe took to the sea on their body-boards, while Lisa, Rosie and I soaked up the rays.

And there we stayed for a good few hours. The sea was warm, as I can confirm having ventured out into it to play with the kids! We watched the tide come in to within a few feet of our toes, but luckily we had Joe on hand to dig us a trench which he assured us wold stop the advance of the Atlantic, should it dare to come any closer!

And as the tide went out, so the sun began to dip in the sky. As we were all starting to feel a bit fried, we decided to pack up and head back to the car for something to eat.

Tea was a picnic eaten in the car park, for our day wasn’t finished yet. We were fuelling ourselves for a long night ahead at the main attraction of the day – the Vendee Globe celebrations.

A Fabulous Feu d’Artifice

From the car we trekked the full length of the beach to get to the stage area that had been set up at the far end. Here was where the presentations would take place of the prizes for the skippers in theis year’s Vendee Globe.  Huge inflatable screens had been erected to show the proceedings to the massed crowds. all surrounding the spectacular stage.

As night eventually fell, the proceedings started with the dignitaries and celebrities filing past up to the stage. Sadly we didn’t have a clue who most of them were (apart from a couple of the skippers that we recognised) so we could have actually seen someone really famous!

Then the show began with a huge firework display for 5 minutes. This really took us by surprise and was a great start to the occasion. As the sparks faded in the sky the stage lit up with an amazing projected wave effect. Out stepped the presenter for the evening (not sure who he was!) to introduce the night’s programme.

The evening continued with the skippers coming on stage in groups of 4 (for the lower-placed finishers) and then individually, to receive their trophies and be interviewed. Most skippers told of how hard it had been, but what a great experience.

As each skipper came out, the screen behind the stage was filled with their photo, and the screen to the side showed the details of their boat.

In betwen the interviews, short films showing highlights from the race were shown on the big screens. On this scale we really understood the extreme harsh conditions the skippers had to endure as part of the race. The size of some of the waves made it look more like a Hollywood movie – rather scary to think that it was all real.

Of course we saved big cheers for the British skippers Dee Caffari and Sam Davies (who are, incidentally, soon heading off on a record-breaking attempt around Britain). We noted that although they both spoke very good French, their accents were terrible, so there’s hope for us yet!

As we got to the top 6 skippers, the entrance of each one was heralded by a short volley of fireworks, each getting more and more impressive as we approached 1st place.

And so, as the winner, Michel Desjoyeux, stepped out onto the stage, the sky errupted with an enormous explosion of fireworks, accompanied by a stirring soundtrack that thrilled the 120,000-strong crowd gathered on the beach.

It was an incredible experience. Just knowing what these skippers had gone through over the three months that they were sailing round the world made their presence there that night a real privilege. It was very special for us too to see the excitement on Joe’s face as the night wore on. He had studied the race at school and it really captured his imagination. He knew everything there was to know about the race and the skippers. He was so thrilled to see it all culminating in this amazing celebration.

And rounding off the evening was another spectacular firework display, which, combined with the music, lights and huge crowd, made for an astonishing end to an amazing day.
http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=71377

Check out all the photos from the day here

The sun came out and the kids decided to do some body-boarding…

We built sandcastles…

…and knocked them down again

And we ate a picnic with our beach buddies as we watched the sun go down.

What could be better…?

So, never ones to pass up the opportunity for an afternoon on the beach, we threw some things in a bag and scooted off to our favourite island.

The closer we got to La Rochelle, the cloudier it became.

By the time we reached the bridge to the island, it was pouring down. Pedestrians and cyclists alike were taking shelter under trees and cafe parasols.

A call to Kevin established that where they were, in St Martin de Re, was indeed sunny and dry – obviously a small patch of sunshine in the midst of a sky full of  black clouds. So we headed for the town with the beautiful harbour, where we would find the fabled ice cream shop, subject of many a “you have to try this…” conversation with the Dixies.

And for a while, once united with the folks from La Rochelle, we were indeed in a little bubble of sunshine. We ordered huge ice creams from the famous shop, which were delicious as promised. Some said I obviously have a big mouth, as mine was the only ice cream to not melt and run all down my hand. I prefer to think that it was my superior ice-cream-licking skills that prevented me from losing any of my white chocolate and “crumble” flavoured heaven from my italian-style cornet.

I allowed myself a little smugness

Sadly, our ice-cream-fuelled frivolity was not to last much longer as the wind whipped up and the clouds surrounded us. So, we jumped in the cars and headed off in the direction of the last remaining patch of blue sky towards Les Portes en Re.

Once there we took a stroll along the beach, a stone/shingle combination with lots of seaweed, that Sylvie had great fun popping underfoot. Kevin, ever the hunter-gatherer, decided he was going to attempt to catch some fish, so we split up with Molly and I laughing at accompanying Kevin, and the others exploring the beach-side forest.

Unsurprisingly the fish were outwitting Kevin once again, though it wasn’t his fault, or course   But it was a very pleasant day, with the small patch of blue sky having expanded into a vast cloudless swathe of blue as far as the eye could see.

As the sun started to dip we headed back to the cars, not taking with us anything vaguely resembling a fish (unless you count the rubber “bait” in Kevin’s fishing box-of-tricks….), but certainly taking some happy memories of another great day out.

With the summer setting in, we look forward to many more such days. This is why we love it here and why we will always will.

Great weather, beautiful places, special friends and happy times.

Who could want anything more?

Fouras

March saw the start of the summer, as we shared a beautifully hot day with the Dixies on the beach at Fouras, just south of La Rochelle. We had hoped to cross on the boat to Ille d’Aix, but, in our usual fashion, arrived too late to catch the morning boat. Given the usual two-and-a-half hours for lunch, the next boat was going to be too late to give us any time on the island.

So, we stayed on the beach and enjoyed the hottest day of the year.

A healthy school breakfast

We had a special breakfast at Joe’s school one Saturday morning (yeah, I know, school on a Saturday…Yuk!). It was all part of a “healthy-eating” project. The children all went to school for a “healthy” breakfast, and then they prepared plates for the parents.

All good fun! Not quite so fun was the next hour, where I had to sit on a low wooden bench with the other parents taking part in a healthy-eating discussion with two nutritionalists. Confusing french for an hour and a very numb bum made for a very uncomfortable hour!

Carnaval time

Easter time meant Carnaval time.

St. Antoine had their usual fancy-dress parade round the village. This year Joe went as a magician, thanks to some talented paper-craft by Lisa and a very old cloak that my mum made for me about 15 years ago!

Good fun was had by all again.

Another April Carnaval took place in La Rochelle while we were there for the weekend with the Dixies. It was a big parade through the streets, culminating in a performance by the dancers, drummers and bands that had entertained us on the parade.

It was a great day with some impressive inflatable creatures and some really good bands. The local drummers were particularly good.

Fun and games with with the Baudouins

We spent a day with Nathalie, Thierry and the boys. Another beautiful day, we went for a long walk from their house and qround the countryside near their farm. It really is a lovely area and, although I resisted at first, I ended up taking lots of photos.

We finished the day with games in the garden and a wonderful meal. A very special day with very good friends.

Royan and La Palmyre

When my parents came to visit, we spent a day at Royan and La Palmyre, where we have shared many great holidays together.

When we arrived, the weather was a little grim…

…but it soon turned around and we ended up having another fabulous time on the beach.

La Terriere

And on Rosie’s 14th birthday we made the most of the great weather and went to one of our favouite “local” beaches at La Terriere. Another lovely relaxing day on the beach, and Molly & Joe even sampled the sea for the first time this year.

All in all it had been a lovely easter break, rounded off in the best way possible, sharing the Vendee sunshine together.

Well done Sam!

Sam Davies, the first British competitor had arrived back earlier in the morning, after more than 95 days at sea – an amazing achievement for the 34-year old from Portsmouth. So obviously we wanted to go along to celebrate the return of her and boat “Roxy”.

Lisa and Joe had visited the village with Joe’s school before the start of the race and had thoroughly enjoyed it. With all the boats there, it was a great experience. The children at school have been following the round-the-world race ever since and closely monitoring all the progress as the boats navigate their way south, round the south-pole and back up to Les Sables d’Olonne.

We managed to find the village fairly easily, after some initial worries that we may be driving round Les Sables for hours due to the usual lack of any signs. But find it we did, and luckily it wasn’t too busy. While we waited for Nathalie and Thierry and the boys to arrive, we picked up some Vendée Globe goodie bags for Joe and Molly, who were both mightily impressed with the selection of books, magazines, posters, hats etc that were inside. A nice memento for them.

Once our friends had arrived we went down the ramp to the jetty to go and get acquainted with Roxy. She was not a boat you could easily miss, with her bright-pink flag and multi-coloured paint-job. It certainly made a change from the usual dull white affairs.

To be in the presence of a boat that had just sailed around the world was quite humbling. The pretty colours and flowers festooned across the bows disguised the 95 days of hell that the Sam had no doubt been through as she was tossed around in this carbon-fibre shell in some of the worst conditions possible. Although the boats are all decked out with the latest technology, when it comes down to it the challenge is really between one skipper and mother nature and I, for one, am completely in awe of anyone who can win that battle.

The boat of second-placed Armel Le Cléac’h was also still at the port, and, having surveyed both of them we wandered back up to the village to check out the exhibition.

A huge TV screen was at the top of the steps, showing clips from the video diaries of the skippers. It was amazing to see how remarkably high-spirited some of them were, even in the most harrowing of circumstances.

In a huge marquee was the exhibition, that Lisa said was sadly only half the size that it had been when they visited last time. Still, it was an interesting area with lots of details of the skippers and the boats, as well as computer screens showing live progress of the boats and access to the statistics for the race. We could see that Dee Caffari, the next brit to return, was due in within the next 48 hours – a shame that it is just too far for us to pop over and see her return too.

Time to eat…eventually

After exploring the exhibition, everyone was getting hungry, so we decided to drive to the sea-front and find a restaurant. We followed Nathalie and Thierry as they knew (“allegedly”!) of a nice restaurant. However, we hadn’t bargained on the sea-front being blocked off by roadworks. Round and round we drove trying to find a way down to the front, but failing miserably. At one point we found ourselves on a diversion that took us down the narrowest backstreet possible – I was seriously considering folding in the wing-mirrors to make sure we could sneak in between the parked cars and the drain-pipes either side!

Eventually we found our way to an underground car-park and set off to walk the length of the sea-front in search of the mythical “nice restaurant”. When we finally arrived at what Nathalie and Thierry thought was the place, they didn’t seem too sure. But by this time it was 2pm and we were all starving so we stayed and gave it a go.

It was all a little surreal.

We sat. We waited. For 15  minutes. Then a “lady”, looking like some relative of Lily Savage, came to take our order.

“What would you like?” said she, oblivious to the fact that she hadn’t yet given us a menu…

“Have you got a menu?” I asked. “Oh,” said she, “didn’t you look at the menu outside?”

Well no, we didn’t, as in any normal restaurant you get given them at your table. But never mind…”Moules et frites pour les adultes et steak hache pour les enfants s’il vous plait”. And off she went.

Hunger was, by this time, driving the kids to start fighting. Soon this would lead to them gnawing on each others limbs in sheer desperation.

The “lady” came out and we all looked up expectantly…..then sighed as she was just bringing food to another table.

Minutes later she returned again…only to bring the bill to someone else.

The clock ticked on…and she appeared again. This must be us! Well, it was, but just paper table-mats. Bah!

A very tanned chap dashed out and jumped in his car, and still the “lady” came and went

This charade continued for an hour. Yes, ONE HOUR! She would come out, we would get excited, only to find she was bringing the forks or napkins or such like.

Eventually, the kids meals arrived, which kept them happy for a while. But still we waited.

Then the chap came back in his car, carrying 2 big bags of frozen chips. Clearly our wait was due to a lack of chips!

Funnily enough, after another 10 minutes, our meals arrived. Lovely freshly cooked piping hot chips, with several very small and rather cold mussels. But by this time we were past caring and just wolfed down the whole lot.

“Du café?” asked the “lady” at the end of our meal. Not on your nelly, we suggested, and payed the bill (no tip, of course).

That had to go down on out Top 10 Restaurants To Avoid At All Costs. Somewhere near the top.

Cakes and coffee

Anyway, the walk back to the car was very pleasant, eating our dessert (donuts from Roger Sicard – no waiting ) as we strolled along the beach. Nathalie suggested we visit the Museum de Coquillage – a seashell museum. So we drove along the front and found another parking place (easily this time!) but the museum was closed. Just our luck! Never mind that it wasn’t due to close until 6pm when it was only 5pm. This is France and people do whatever they like here!  So to finish off our day we headed back to the Vendée Globe village for a coffee.

Back at the village we finished our rather protracted meal with a coffee in the cafe area, then us boys went back out to have another look at the boats. I could have stayed for hours taking photos as the light was just lovely in the evening, with the sun dipping behind the masts, creating some lovely silhouettes.

It had been another wonderful day out, giving us some great memories. We really do feel lucky to be living here with so many wonderful places around us. We have experienced so much since we arrived, things that we had never seen before. It’s all part of the dream that we are living here, and we love it.

Check out all my photos from our day on Flickr here

Lost languages

Today the BBC are featuring a story [here] which reveals that half of all UK adults have forgotten the languages they learned at school. Luckily for me this wasn’t the case as my schoolboy French had to get me through many tricky situations when we first arrived!

What is hopeful for our kids is the following:

more than two thirds (69%) said they were jealous of people who were able to speak another language fluently.

Of those who can speak another language, 61% said it had been of benefit to their career, with a third (34%) saying their language skills have given them opportunities to travel and work abroad.

This bodes well for the future of our 3, who will leave school being fluent in at least 2 languages, possibly even 3.

Happy Birthday Craig

Craig McGinty runs the superb ThisFrenchLife web site [here], which is on my daily read list. It’s a great read, always full of interesting articles and news about all things French.

Well today is Craig’s birthday (age not revealed!) so what better time to head on over to www.thisfrenchlife.com and wish Craig a joyeaux anniversaire!

Front-page news toady includes Nicolas Sarkozy and his extra leg (!), news about banned Chinese milk products in France and a pointer to some free travel guides.

A busy weekend coming up

I will fill you in on the details next week, but this wil be another busy weekend!

On Saturday we are heading next-door to the apple-pressing barn where we will hopefully see the whole process from picking to pressing to bottling. With a bit of luck we will walk away with a nice collection of freshly-squeezed apple juice, which should keep us going for a while.

Then on Sunday we will be testing our French again as we meet up with some families who have links with Lisa’s nephew through school exchanges. So a trip to Montaigu near Nantes, then over to the beach to La Tranche-sur-Mer.

On the road again

(Photo under CC Attribution 2.0 Generic by krejcirkmira)

Due to some changes at work, I’ll be hitting the road to England quite a bit this month. This is a real pain and not something I really wanted to happen, but the situation is rather unavoidable at the moment.

Hopefully it will only be a very temporary measure and I can return to my rural hideaway very soon

In the meantime, if you’re anywhere near La Rochelle, Stansted or Maidenhead, feel free to get in touch and we can have a coffee.

And finally…

Next Friday I will be the ripe old age of 37. I’m looking forward to a majorly-fun-time-friday, and an especially fun weekend with great friends.

Anyway, that’s what’s going on with us. Keep a look out for updates. Or why not subscribe to my email newsletter [by clicking here]? Every time I add something new to La Vie en Foussais  you will receive it in your inbox -  what could be easier?

The location: Île de Ré. The company: perfect. The weather: beautiful.

The children played all day with buckets, spades, body-boards and lightsabers.

We relaxed, chatted and just soaked up up the sun as it continued to bake the west coast of France.

We introduced the Dixies to the game of Kubb [website].

And,  most excitingly, our resident hunter-gatherer prised us some oysters off the rocks and both Lisa and I ate one for the first time ever!

The verdict? Not actually as bad as we had anticipated. And these were lacking in any lemon juice, or white wine to wash them down. I think we were both rather chuffed that we had managed to crack another culinary fear.

Now, as for snails and frogs legs, that is definitely a different matter…

See the full set of photos from the day [here]

Crocodiles?…in France?

We started the evening with a stroll through the park near their house. La Rochelle is somewhere we have passed around and through in the car, but have never had chance to explore, so it was really good to see some of the parts of the city that attract thousands of people here every week. It was a very picturesque park, with the path leading us through the trees, alongside a river, over bridges, and finally delivering us to the beach. All very nice indeed – we can certainly see the benefits of living here.

On the beach there was an amazing sand-sculpture of a crocodile (dragon?) which even had real fire in his nose! Apparently it was made by a guy who sleeps on the beach in a tent. He is certainly very talented.

Having walked along the walls of the old port, we spotted some empty places on the other side, our intended viewing position for the night’s entertainment. So we hopped on the little boat-bus that whizzed us across the water to the other side, where we found a good place to sit, right on the edge of the wall. No-one was going to come and stand in front of us!

Its Pineau time!

So we were settled in our spot with about 3 hours before the show was due to start, so what were we to do? Eat and drink of course! Out came the Pineau (naturally) and the snacks and we kept ourselves entertained by trying to pour the drink into the tiniest of glasses in a strong wind and watching the boys demonstrating their jedi skills to the passing french…

While we waited, the boats that were going to take part in the show drifted past us into the port, and shortly after we were entertained (slightly) by some waveriders (like water-skiers but on a single ski) going up and down down the odd trick.  Rather strangely there was also a barge going up and down the water containing some Irish dancers, although there didn’t seem to be much dancing going on which was a bit disappointing.

Anyway, as the sun slowly dipped down behind the La Rochelle skyline, the time for the start of the show approached.

Into the west

As darkness finally enveloped the port-side, it began. Firstly, all the boats, lit by simple torches, floated slowly from the port and out to sea accompanied by some beautifully haunting music and some lovely “gentle” fireworks. It was a really moving start and reminded me (geek that I am) of the ending of “The Return of the King” when the elves sail off into the west… anyway, don’t get me started on that!

After the parade of  boats, the fireworks started in earnest, with an incredible display. The walls of the port and the buildings facing us were all lit in a variety of colours to tie in with the fireworks and there was music piped across the port. I know we say it every time we have been to a fireworks display, but we all thought that this one was simply the best one yet. I think the combination of the location, the music, the lights, the fireworks, and sharing it with great friends, made it such a breathtaking end to the day.

We were all very numb after sitting on the port-side for so long, but the wine and the pineau helped out there, and it was all worth it in the end.

After a long leisurely morning, such is life over here, we decided to spend the afternoon at the lake at Chassenon-le-Bourg. The lake is about a 10 minutes drive from the house. There is a man-made beach, a small play area, picnic tables, boule pitches and also pedalos for hire. This, combined with two big water slides and one little one, looked set to provide enough entertainment for nine. After paying three euros for each adult, this included Rosie, sadly, as she is now 13 and classed as an adult, we found our spot. A section of the lake is marked off and watched over by lifegaurds which is very reassuring. After some time, when castles had been built and moats filled in, the slides opened and provided another hours entertainment.

Pedalos were next on the list. I stayed with all the gear while Annie and Drew took the children out on the lake. Rosie asked for two pedalos with four seats each. Unfortunately there was only one available but Rosie asked if there was any chance of having Isabel on her knee. “Of course” replied the lady in charge. Health and safety, ha! Annie later told me that at Centre Parcs they had gone on a pedalo and by the time they were all genned up on the do’s and don’t s and life jacketed up they had quite gone off the idea. No such thing here. They all came back in different pedalo’s having swapped drivers and passengers in the middle of the lake!

Richard joined us after he had finished work for a memorable game of Frisbee (thank you Isabel!) and a drink as the sun started to dip.

The only down-sides to this place are that the bottom of the lake is really quite stony. Our children wore swimming shoes to protect their feet, but most people seemed quite happy to go bare-foot, so maybe we are just a bit soft!  Also the sand could be better for sitting on, but it does make very good sandcastles

A nice relaxing place though, great for picnics and playing beach games and all on our door-step.

Back home and tea was eaten outside. This was sadly only the first time since Annie and Drew had been here that we had had chance to sit outside. Photographs were taken and everyone enjoyed the occasion, although there was an undercurrent of sadness due to the impending departure of our final visitors of the summer.  Luckily we had Annie to make us laugh, by taking photographs from half a mile away, apparently to get the house in shot, although we all looked like ants!

With the children safely tucked up all in one bedroom (a bit of a squash, but they had insisted!) the adults had the traditional viewing of the day’s photographs. Its hilarious to see those where people didn’t realise they were in shot and were pulling strange faces *cough* Drew! *cough

Having regained our composure we went out to look at the stars. It was such a clear night and Annie and Drew couldn’t believe the amount of stars visible from our house. Annie was particularly thrilled to spot the Milky Way and Drew spotted a shooting star. The only thing missing was the moon. We hunted high and low, across every corner of the sky, but it was not there. There were no clouds to hide it either. Most disturbing! We have checked every night since and it is STILL not there. Who has taken it??

The next morning it was time to say our very sad farewells. The day didn’t get off to a very good start after Annie read the “Au Revoir” message I had written on our blackboard. Flood gates were definitely opened there, with tears flowing pretty freely all-round for the next couple of hours!  It is always hard to say goodbye to our visitors. This one was particularly hard as it had been planned for a year. Annie and Drew were virtually the first people to book in, even before the house was ours!

We have realised that, although living in another country means that you are not near your family and friends all the time, when people come to visit, you actually have great quality time with them and get to know people a lot more. Nothing beats spending a long time together to help you cement a relationship and we certainly feel we have done that with Annie and Drew.