It was a wonderful experience having never personally been to France before ( ever) hubby had but i hadn't and the children certainly hadn't! It was so strange being on long open roads with nothing around literally put farm land! farm land and ,,,, more farm land with the odd little town/ village dusted in between! it was surreal. It was only near the major towns that it was more built up and traffic slightly heavier haha when i say that it wasn't any more busy then a back street here, the motorways were about as busy as our main roads... even then i don't think they were that busy! I would say however.... plan your journey! on the A roads there are different types of services, not all with the things you expect at a services like here. some are literally picnic areas but all seem to have toilets even if they don't seem to sign for them. Take your own toilet roll... and soap as these are not provided esp in the quieter areas! I did learn however what to look out for on the maps which denoted what the services were, bolder the better!
We had 10 days in France, crossing over via Dover to Dunkirk! ... early on Sunday morning, wasn't a great idea! we got into the centre of Dunkirk and of course everything was shut... whoops. However when walking about, we noted buses full of people! .. ok.. so back in the car we followed and found the beach and all the people lol it seemed we landed on a sort of busy weekend were everywhere seemed to be doing a special with mussles .... which made it interesting to find somewhere to eat as we don't do mussles. We did eventually find somewhere and our first experience of eating out begun. Dunkirk was nice enough but sure we could appreciate it more when things were open! It made it more difficult when we realised all the supermarkets shut at midday.. which we missed. another whoops!
We found our first place and it was only 10 minutes away from the ferry terminal ( roughly) in a very quiet little place next to a canal which had huge ( and i mean huge) boats crossing along it. but that was all that was making any noise! .. the odd car, farm equipment etc. The children loved it and we did too! only two days there however until we moved to our main part of the holiday. in the Loire Valley! Vendome. It took 6 hours to get there ( including stops) which wasn't terrible but it is where we had most of our road experience. (good and bad) We managed to find a little quaint town when picking where to stay and I am not sure we could have been luckier! it was beautiful!
This was a picture of the abbey which was in town. .. i could post pictures all day! But don't worry I won't. This holiday was truely one of the first holiday's where we just chilled, we had planned to maybe go to Paris, and Angers however when we tried to book tickets it was ridiculously expensive for train tickets for places not far away :( oh well it just means we have to plan more trips and plan better in the future!
One of the big things for the children was my mum and step dad coming to visit whilst we were away! I will never forget how my daughter reacted. We were playing eye spy, as we knew hubby and i, that the grandparents were close, and suddenly hubby says i spy with the letter G... my parents car pulled up and madam shouted "Grandma, Grandad! " and was off like a shot! never seen her move so fast and I am still not sure if the realisation hit how far they had come to join us on holiday. ( after all we don't see them often any more)
It was lovely having my mum and step dad away, it meant the children and us had quality time with them and were able to explore together. We kept it simple, walks to down, buying fresh bread ( and cakes.. and cakes.. oh and more cakes lol) I got to have a real French coffee outside a pretty little cafe. one of the must do things I HAD to do. We survived ordering food in French and really tried our best to order and ask for all we could in French, only problem was when they spoke really fast or their own English was non existent.. oh eck!
How did we do health wise? well madams joints were alright. ( unless you count when she fell off a wall on the last night.. yes she is ok but gave us a scare!!) we did take it easy though for both their sakes so gentle walks, we didn't go up to the castle.. due to the million of steps. i wish however her eczema could have given us a break. they say hot weather is good.. hahah. her eyes swelled up and i am not sure if it was due to her weed allergy, or another allergy ( mold spore... or something i am sure she reacts too) or sun cream etc. She had horrible heat rash and we just struggled esp towards the end of our stay as it got into the 30's and us blue skinned Brits were not coping! Esp as the floor was burning hot.
However we coped and i felt we coped better then we had done for the last few holidays but perhaps it was because we did so little. We normally like exploring so much but.. we were just totally different this time!
It is a shame something we planned for so long is over and now.. we have two weeks left before school. (school..!! ) my sister is coming for the air show today.. though.. it is currently tipping down outside.. it will be nice to see them though! and as for the rest of the holidays, well.. just slowly preparing for school and meeting with friends.
September is going to be busy, school wise and we also have an allergy appointment booked for madam and also need to get her back in for a blood test for coeliac disease again due to her issues with her tummy. ( immediate bloating when eating wheat 9/10) its never simple but we manage.
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