We're back!!

OK - prepare for a lot of photos...
We set off a week last Wednesday to Portsmouth to get the overnight ferry to France. (This was after a last minute trip at lunch time, to Mum and Dad's in Nottingham when we realised we didn't have the right keys for Bel-Air!!!)
We stopped off at The Devil's Punchbowl on the way - gorgeous scenery (and no, we didn't plan for the kids to all be matching in red!)
The kids were so exciting getting on the ferry - we had 2 x 4 berth cabins - the best bits being the bunkbeds and portholes!! We had a lovely evening on the ferry. The kids bought colouring stuff in the ferry shop and we got nice seats and tables in a lounge bit next to the windows, and just enjoyed the view and coloured. Very relaxing and peaceful.

We got up early on the ferry and had a great fried breakfast in the restaurant (free, because of our Home Owners membership thing!) then got into St. Malo, and drove from there to Dinan. It's a gorgeous place, and we went to the park and walked round the ancient city walls. Then we headed to Bel-Air. Scott assembled the new bikes we had bought over in February, and within about 5 minutes, Jack learnt to ride a bike!! The lane is perfect for the kids to ride around and play football in. Virtually nothing comes down it. I took this photo of Bel-Air from across the field one evening. Lucy and I enjoyed going on little cycles round the farm tracks and lanes nearby. (Though I look pretty stupid sitting on a big polka dot cushion - necessary though, because after the first ride I had a bruised backside...)

Our second day in Fance, we went straight to our favourite beach - 'the island beach'. The weather was perfect! Scott, Lucy and Jack went round the island in the kayak. I was totally lazy and read the whole time. Back at Bel-Air we finished sorting out furniture that we had dumped in February, and Scott was reunited with his BMX!

The next day we visited Lorient, which turned out to be nothing great, but we found this good rockpool beach, and the boys spent their time chucking the biggest rocks they could carry, to make the biggest possible splashes...

We got out and walked around some of the megaliths at Carnac on the way home. There are miles of these prehistoric stones up on end, and noone really knows what they are there for. I'm intrigued by them.

One day we went to one of the surfing beaches on the way to Quiberon. There are just miles of flat gorgeous sand. Lovely sunny day again, but at one point a mist came over the beach and it was really weird, but gorgeous! I was in the sea when it came, and I couldn't see a single person - just me and the sea and the mist - it was a wonderful feeling.

We toasted marshmallows on Dad's wood burning stove when we got back.

We spent a day doing a survey of all the beaches to the East of the Bay of Morbihan. We visited about 14 beaches and wrote about each one. Dad and Ken had asked us to see which ones would be good for windsurfing. We were practically the only people at every beach, and they were all brilliant by English standards! The next day we came back to one of the beaches that the kids liked - not too many waves so good for swimming. We all had a go snorkeling etc, and Scott used his new (enormous) flippers. Lucy and Jack spent about 2 hours solid in the water! There also happened to be a nice chateau across the road from the beach...

OH MAN... NOT ANOTHER CROWDED BEACH...

How spoilt are we?! We went to a surfing beach again with Dad on Friday and had fun with Dad's inflatable tyre and boat. I am trying to learn to surf properly now (Scott can already stand up on the board) - I can't wait to try again in the Summer. Lucy and I really like bodyboarding, but I also discovered you can surf in on the wave when you just have flippers on. It's all very exhilarating and exhausting!

One of our favourite places is Ivan's wood. It's just down the lane from Bel-Air. Ivan planted the whole thing himself from scratch years ago and he's said we can use the wood whenever we want. This holiday we finished mapping out the whole thing. (All the paths are correct now, but in the Summer I want to use Scott's GPS thing to get the scale more accurate) Ivan's great for having conversations with because he speaks no English at all, so it's really good practise!

We spent over 12 hours travelling home yesterday. Got the high speed ferry from Caen to Portsmouth. The kids were brilliant and didn't moan at all (though Harry is making up for it today!) I had booked for the kids to have today off school too, though Lucy chose to go in. The first thing I did was check on the garden - I'm so grateful to Shane and Dawn who said they would do some watering. All my baby vegetables have grown!! It's fun going away and it's fun coming back too.