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.

I survived my epic journey from home to Bristol and back (I hope all you English-speakers out there got the gist of my last post). The journey itself wasn’t too bad, with no delays or cancellations for a change. It was nice to fly Air France and British Airways for a change – beats RyanAir for comfort and facilities any day, though sadly not for price…

On Saturday Molly had another handball tournament, this time on grass at Chavagnes-en-Paillers, on the way to Nantes. It was a fair old trek to get there, but it was a beautiful day, so it was quite an enjoyable drive. This time there were 5 teams in the same group as Foussais – all boys teams. I think they took one look at our team full of girls and imagined themselves wiping the floor (well, grass) with us. Luckily our girls put paid to that idea by thrashing each team by an average of about 6-1! Of course it did help that most of our players were about 3 feet taller than the others. They seemed to be up against under-8s, rather than under-12s, but hey, we weren’t complaining!

Some fine goal-keeping by Molly again and some good attacking by the rest of the team gave us well-deserved victories in all the matches. So clearly we won the tournament – Allez Les Bleues!! We picked up a trophy and all the girls got medals and bags. Molly even won a handball board-game in the raffle, so it was a very productive afternoon. We, the Foussais supporters club (that’s Me, Lisa, Rosie, Joe and one other parent – no-one else made the journey) enjoyed our afternoon baking in the sun. The tournament was on grass this time, so we had the picnic rug out and it was all very civilised – a bit nicer than the freezing cold days standing at football matches back in England…

While we’re on the subject of handball, it appears that I have let myself in for some ritual humiliation on Saturday 14th June. When i took Molly to her practise last week I was collared by one of the dads there and asked if I wanted to be part of a handball team. “Moi?” I ask, racking my brains for all the words to describe how old, slow and unfit I am… “Mais, je suis…erm…lent…et….um…”. “Ah oui,” he insisted, “ça c’est pas grave…c’est pour l’amusent!”. It turns out that it’s a “Sans-License” tournament, which basically means that anyone can turn up and play, which generally seems to mean that its all for a bit of a laugh (or so I’m hoping). François-Marie, the head of Molly & Joe’s school is taking part too, and we spoke to him about it last night. After he gave us the good news that he thinks Molly will be fine going up to college, (hurrah!), we filled him on on the story of the last time I engaged in any competitive sport – namely the school sports day Dad’s race (I won’t embarrass myself bore you with the details, but I fell and broke my collar bone in 2 places ) He was highly amused – I’m hoping that’s not a sign that he feels I may be in similar danger again! People are asking if I have started training for the event…well I think my only preparation will be a handful of painkillers and perhaps a tot of pineau before we start, just to dull the pain on any injury’s that are bound to follow…the injury to my pride when I let in every goal will just have to heal with time…

As it has been so sunny over the last few days, and spurred on by some lovely days round the pool at our friend’s house, we decided we should get out our own pool, one of the 12-foot above-ground ones, that has been stuck in a box for the last 2 years. We bought a ground-sheet especially for the occasion, layed it out, stretched the hose and the power all the way to the bottom of the garden and started filling. It was about 3 hours later that we realised that it wasn’t really going to work. The house is built on a hill, gradually sloping off down to the lake. And hence, that’s where all the water in the pool was heading. We had a very deep end, and a very shallow end, and, unfortunately, the pool doesn’t quite work like that. Of course, having partly filled it up, it then was impossible to move it. So we had to let most of the water out (we’re on a water meter here folks…) so we could try to relocate it to a seemingly more level piece of ground. But sadly, there was no such place. The only place with anything like a level area is the field. Now, this is fine, we had plenty of space on the field, but it is a bit out of the way, down at the bottom of the lane. We had borrowed another hose-pipe in order to reach the pool where we had it previously. In order for it to reach the field I think we will need yet another! And then there is the electricity for the pump. I estimate a 60m extension lead will be required – if such a thing even exists…I really don’t know.

Added to all these difficulties is the tiny, but not insignificant, hole that appeared in the pool, along the line on where it had been folded up. I tried patching it with duck tape, but to no avail. We need a patch to stop our precious water leaking away into the lake. Oh the things you do! Still, we’ll get it sorted in the end and hopefully the kids will be able to enjoy the pool throughout the summer, as, if it’s this hot in June, I look forward to seeing what it is like in July & August.