Saturday, 8 August 2009
A Load Of Crepes
We found it and asked for a table. We sat for 20 minutes before we were given a menu and a further 10 before a carafe of water was slammed onto the table. At 40 minutes, still no closer to being served we upped and left.
Frustratingly, the best we could do to guarantee quick service for hungry children was MacDonalds. They seemed to enjoy it anyway.
Today we're beginning to pack a few things away ready for leaving in the morning.
We've decided to revisit the Huttopia campsite at Rambouillet that we used last year, so we're quite looking forward to that.
Friday, 7 August 2009
Camping & Cryptography
I remembered that we had all we needed for some secret messages so I cracked open the Jif and got Arthur do do sone writing which we set to dry in the sun. I then lit one of the citronella candles and we set about warming the paper to reveal the hidden words.
This covert activity went unnoticed by children of all ages from across the campsite who didn't rush across desperate to have a go, which was good because that meant no second degree burns when their secret messages set alight.

Last night we prayed to St Nav again and headed out for dinner aiming for the Cheval Blanc about 10 miles away. When we arrived it looked... ok. The bar was open but there was no food being served. However, the genial barman said we could leave our car in his car park and visit another restaurant down the street - Le Goût des Choses. We're glad we did because that's where we discovered the meal of our hols. A fantastic Menu Enfant saw Merri eating a beautiful piece of fish with potatoes, whilst Arthur tucked into steak and veg.
Lisa and I had a menu constructed entirely from local produce including foie gras with pigeon, some amazing cheeses, an exquisite lamb dish which look like deep fried mars bar, in a good way, and a delicious mille feuille to close.
Thursday, 6 August 2009
Majorca sur Loire

We strapped the brolly to my bike and the picnic to Arthur's and set off for the banks of the Loire.
Lisa and Merri followed on foot to join us for some brilliant paddling and swimming. It's a hot day and we've just returned to camp. Arthur has immediately disappeared on his bike and Merri is playing with her toys along with a little Dutch friend in the shade.
We're debating whether to go out for dinner or whether to brave margarita'n'diesel pizzas again.
[little know fact: all Dutch children are called Mattias, Simon or Sara.]
Wednesday, 5 August 2009
Mittwoch
Today we drove to Decize to take in the sights - est 20 mins. Arthur and Merri spent some of their holiday money on some vastly overpriced tat before we set off looking for lunch.
The area is so spartan that you could drive for days without passing a living soul never mind a restaurant, so we prayed to St Nav who suggested that there was an Auberge in Dornes about 10k west.
When we got there it was all hustle and bustle. Well there was an old lady crossing the road. The bar/restaurant looked basic from the outside, but at least it was open. We chanced it.
We were glad we did. Inside, was an extremely well appointed and contemporary dining room and what looked to be an interesting menu.
We lunched on salmon and sole and chicken supreme for the children. Chocolate ice cream or tiramisu rounded off the meal - which was reasonably priced too.
We headed back to base and to the pool for the rest of the day.
Tuesday, 4 August 2009
Le Pals
The car park looked busy when we arrived (where everyone came from in what must be one of the most sparsely populated regions of France I don't know).
Good value, we stayed there for around eight hours mixing up all sorts of rides with the animal enclosures. We haven't a word of complaint. It was friendly, clean and tidy throughout. Queueing times were reasonable, as was the food. There was plenty of shade and a great balance of things to do.
They more or less had to kick us out of the park at closing time. By this time, however, we were starving.
We'd spotted a restaurant on the journey to Le Pals that we thought we might try on the way home. It's a small family concern called La Grenouille only about 10 minutes from the site.
The food was magnificent, the service typically French, i.e. Exhausted children gnawing their own arms off still won't convince them to let you look at a menu.
[brief pause in composition here whilst French fighter pilots strafe the campsite - had to zip up the bomb shelter]
Anyway, when the food came it was a feast. The children shared a lovely pizza with the first home made chips we've ever experienced in France. Lisa and I enjoyed mussels, prawns and local fromage. Desserts included a lovely pear tart, isle flotante and chocolate ice cream.
Arthur and I finished with espressos, much to the bemusement of the staff.
Tired, we left and returned to the site, the children falling straight into bed.
I opted for a new duty of sleeping on the hard floor whilst lisa roiled and sprawled around the bedroom filling bowl after bowl with our magnificent dinner for me to dispose of.
The attraction of carrying someone else's sick two hundred yards begins to pale around 2:30am when you've done it four times wearing only your grundies and a head-torch.
Still, Lisa seems a bit better this morning and I'll get another vertebrate at the marché.
Sunday, 2 August 2009
Bread
We had a swim in the rain, which is an old family favourite, followed by some team colouring-in, posh cakes and a watch of Harry Potter.
It's drying out and warming up now. Merri is riding her bike whilst Arthur watches the end of the film.
I'm going to place tomorrow's bread order soon as the boulangerie is shut on Monday's so we get orders delivered to the site.
Saturday, 1 August 2009
The Bells
In other news, we are in the midst of a massive thunderstorm which has rumbled, flashed and crashed all evening. Very exciting. No major leaks. Yet.
Anyway, gotta go. The wind's getting up and the clock's just struck twenty two.
Thursday, 30 July 2009
Your life in their hands
Lisa and Arthur put themselves in danger for an hour or so, whilst Merri and I enjoyed the composting toilet and a warm can of Orangina.
I explained to the proprietor (by writing 'THIS IS A DEATHTRAP!' on a piece of paper for the express delight of her newly arrived customers) that if we were in England I could probably make a phone call and have her shut down within the hour. She shrugged a nonchalent 'bien sur' at me as the hob-nailed boots of a zip-wiring 18-stone father of four skimmed past my ears. Then we left, all aggrieved like.
We returned to Gannay sur Loir to discover a palpable frisson of excitement. Yes, Thursday is the day that the Pizza Wagon rolls into town. The campsite emptied in a frenzied rush to join the queue to place orders. We joined in to be allocated a timeslot for collection some two hours hence.
We returned, two hours later to stand around in a muddled queue comparing pickup times with other campers whilst the chilled-out pizza lady casually dropped the occasional pizza onto the floor whilst speeding other out to locals 'fast-track'-style from the back door of the van.
Still, those 40 minutes stood in diesel fumes won't harm us and the pizzas tasted quite good in the end.
Wednesday, 29 July 2009
Hot
Tuesday, 28 July 2009
Poolside
Anyway, whilst in Moulins we had a thorough look around and exhausted the fleshpots in less than twenty minutes.
We took in a few villages on the way back looking out for potential restaurants. Nowt. France is even more shut than Spain. It's like that mock town they built to test nuclear explosions in the Nevada desert, except at least they had Indiana Jones in a fridge.
We spent the afternoon by the pool enjoying the local church bells striking a selection of random hours every so often in the distance and guessed how long until tea.
Monday, 27 July 2009
By the pool
We drove to Decize today to pick up my prescription and visit the intermarche. That's the end of our exploring.
We are now sitting by the pool eating our favourite French sweets and reading books. Merri's doing her sticker book.
We have provisions. It may be garbanzos for tea.
Yesterday we walked only 20 minutes from the site to the banks of the Loire. Lovely wide banks... Almost beaches. Had it to ourselves. The kids skinny-dipped and we saw lots of wildlife there and back. We plan to return with a pic-nic.
Sunday, 26 July 2009
1,2,3, testing.
No wifi
We had a reasonable first night on site despite the local polka band cranking it up loud at 10pm. Honestly, it is culturally still 1954 in France. Although, to be fair, by 1am they'd come right up to date and were butchering Nights In White Satin.
I nodded off eventually only to be woken by the local church bells striking four. Five minutes later, they struck four all over again.
This morning Arthur is playing 'whiff whaff' (table tennis) with the omnipresent Dutch. Meredith is listening to Abba and I'm sitting in the sunshine. Lisa's gone off to suss out local services in case I have another do.

Saturday, 25 July 2009
Nous arrivons
Friday, 24 July 2009
I am in House, or La Maison as it's called here

I appear to have fallen over. No clues yet as to why but I'm busy clocking up diagnostics. So far, blood, ECG, ultrasound, X-Ray, Laser tunnel thingy (so House), all inconclusive. Plus Lisa, Arthur & Merri in hotel close-by.
I consider this getting good value out of my travel insurance.
Actually, it's 23.25 French time and I've snoozed all evening - feeling the best I've felt all day. Hope I wake up the same way.
I have not got enough signal for phone calls but just a squeak of data for blogging and Twitter - so it's a useful way of updating people.
However, battery nearly gone and no means if charging now. More tests in the morning and no visitors until 1pm :(
Anyway,tomake everyone jealous, here's a picture of hospital food before Tim Difford (& you know I'm not fussy):

And after my intervention (I should point out that that is my feet under the sheets. I wasn't that excited about creme caramel).

Anyway, they've given me a drop of the hard stuff now, so about to fall asleep. More tomorrow.

Down in one, down in one, down in one.

We're Up... Just
The tent's very wet so we'll need to dry it when we reach our destination after we've put the mothership up. Don't think we'll hang around this morning.
Sar Nav says it's 3 hours to destination.

Thursday, 23 July 2009
We're in France
All Aboard
Wednesday, 22 July 2009
Packed
There's more room in the car without Grace, but we'd rather have less room!
So, today is the first day if the holiday and the main challenge will be where to find cake.
Sunday, 19 July 2009
Tuesday, 5 August 2008
Don't Say It's Over
Well, we're back after our adventure. We eventually arrived about 10.30 pm last night after a quick Costa Coffee break at Watford Gap. It's now pouring down of course and we have a wet tent still in the back of the car which will need drying at some point.
Reading through this lot, we obviously packed a lot in. Here's to our next adventure.
This holiday has been brought to you by:
Acer, Apple, Microsoft, Guess what... I don't guess, Lutti Surfizz, Heroes, La Romaine Patissier - Airvault, Estelle, The Hold Steady, Top Gear, Scouting for Girls - She's So Lovely, Fuji Finepix, Huttopia Rambouillet, Camping de Courte Vallee, Fleet Foxes, Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, Room on a Broom, Dan Brown, the Dutchies, Kronenbourg Pur Malt, Torsade au Chocolat, Au Bon Accueil - St Generoux, Georges Herrison, backward serves, Armor-lux, il est froid! (Little France), Orangina, goats cheese and figs, Pizza ATM, Twister, Isles Flotantes.
Monday, 4 August 2008
Le Retour
(sideways, no porch, no guys, few pegs) fairly quickly. We even got a
quick swim in their unusual freshwater pool before pizza and salad. A
little ping pong and then it was on to feeding the ducks on the lake
and a bike ride for Arthur and Merri.
Later on, with A&M watching Mr Bean again, Grace went on two bat-
hunting forays. We saw lots of different types, plus another one of
those luminous bugs.
Once tucked up in bed, the rains started and didn't stop all night
making putting the tent down a pretty miserable affair this morning.
The tent will need a thorough airing at some point.
Of course it brightened up as soon as we hit the road. We got to
Calais in good time and headed for our favourite restaurant where we
tucked into moules frites, salade nicoise and a steak for Grace.
Arriving at the port we found it queueing round les maisons to get
through immigration which they were taking very seriously today. In
the end we were too late for the 15:15 and got bumped to the 16:45 :-(
Anyway, we're on the boat now waiting for O2 to kick in so I can
upload this (the wifi at Huttopia was down) and so Grace can contact
Agent Gash who is back from his missionary work.
It'll be a long drive from Dover.
Sunday, 3 August 2008
Saturday, 2 August 2008
Little France
Consequently, the atmosphere poolside has dipped (ahem) as an ejaculate of multilingual teens try to out-bully each other in several languages whilst their parents get smashed on antifreeze-a-la-source in their Eldiss Odyssey Supervans. One particularly challenged group swerve effortlessly between Estuary English and perfect French as they hurl jibe after jibe at each other and anyone else in earshot. This group of Frockneys have had something to do the the fact that Joan has now added a roll of razor-wire to the layer of smashed-glass-en-concrete topping the swimming-pool wall and bolted a sign to the gate banning admission after 9pm.
Away from the pool, a junior gang of Frockney wannabes in their early teens have spent their time trying to catch rabies from the feral cats which roam the site. Ingeniously though, one of them came up with the wizard wheeze of calling at every tent and caravan asking for 50c to put a suggestion into a hat to name one of the mangy kitties.

Allegedly, the donations were to establish a fund to cover vets bills, etc. However, in the light of last night's scandalous apres-BBQ draw, when D'oyle Carte Godfrey was asked to select the winning entry and which resulted in the cat being named 'Miaowiecat', the suggestion of the Emma, the ringleader of the marauding band of sponsor-hungry tweenies, the money could have gone anywhere. Perhaps unsurprisingly, my suggestion of Fuck Buttons stayed resolutely en chapeau.
Anyway, we missed all the fun of course by bodyswerving the BBQ and heading off to Airvault's Salle des Fetes for a civilised game of cricket. As you can see, we were lucky to get a parking spot:
... before heading to our favourite restaurant the Au Bon Accueil in St Generoux for the last time. Sadly without Grace, who had a mal-de-tete and remained at base guarding our stash of fizzy sweets and gateaux, we settled down for a long, luxurious lunch of seafood platter, fish a la creme, cote de porc from the woodfire grill, tarte aux prunes, chocolat mousse and ram pie.
Seafood platter before:
and after:
Friday, 1 August 2008
More Songs about Buildings and Food
Thursday, 31 July 2008
Disturbance at the Oiron House



