Mum in charge

Scott was back in England from the 13th-24th August, and so after the Garricks had gone home, the kids and I pottered around, going to some of our favourite places, and carrying on with the Tasks on Dan's treasure hunt. Mum and Dad were still at Bel-Air, and it was nice to hang around with them too. We had gorgeous weather pretty much the whole time.

On 18th August, the kids and I went to Josselin, to try and complete some of the questions based on the town. One of them involved finding a particular shop which sold sculptures, and getting some information from the owner. He spoke little English, and must have thought I was a right nutcase - asking him what his job was before he became a sculpter, etc! He was very nice though, and even said my French was very good! The kids all bought mini figurines, including Jack's one of a meditating pig (featuring later...)

After that, we had to answer a question about one of the locks, so headed up river... quite a long way as it turned out!! It was gorgeous weather though, and a very pretty walk. We also saw an otter.

The kids being 'meditating pigs' (heat clearly got to them by this point..)

There's a really gorgeous lock, with a swinging bridge over it - I love the old buildings nestling behind. The kids were watching for dragon flies.

The next day, Dad completed laying a path down the side of the kitchen - superb!!

Harry and Tom made a den in the garden,

and later on dad came with us to do another of Dan's tasks. We had been given a shape on a piece of paper, then had to find the shape on the area's Ordinance Survey (equivalent) map. It was really hard to find!! I eventually did though, then we set out to cycle it, answering questions along the way.

First stop was at the nearby village of Cruguel, where we played around at the old washing place.

Just nearby in the centre of the village, is pretty much my ideal French house. I love it!! There would be tonnes of blue hydrangeas and bright geraniums everywhere, of course. I'm trying to persuade Scott that we need to buy it.

Further along our bike ride, we had to answer some questions about windmills. Spot the guys cycling up the hill in the picture below...

The modern windmills are seriously massive.

Dad took this good picture of old and new.

Lucy and I cycling along the road at the top of our lane, after our long but satisfying ride.

On 20th August, I took the kids to one of our favourite beaches - 'The Island Beach'. We made straight for the island, and though the mainland beach was fairly busy, we had the little beach at the back of the island pretty much to ourselves. The water was so warm, that Lucy, Tom and I had a lovely time swimming in it.

Our little camp for the day.

Harry and Jack found some charcoal left from a fire, and had fun grinding it up on a couple of big rocks - here's Harry looking a bit charcoal-y!

The skies above us!

On 23rd August, the kids and I were highly naughty, and bought a sticker from our favourite postcard shop in Josselin - a sticker of what the kids call the mad hatter. It's a local sticker saying L'aise Breizh - roughly translated - The ease of Brittany! We have always threatened Scott we'd get one for the car, so while he was away we did, much to the glee of the kids!

In the afternoon, we went and did another task - answering questions about a little place called Le Mont, a short drive away.

Inside the old church. I asked the kids what they thought the confession box was for. Tom said for the vicar to get changed in, and Harry said a toilet!

On 24th August, we headed to another favourite place, Auray.

It was so nice to pick a favourite bench, a favourite view and get out our picnic! (I started making up the sandwiches at home, wrapping them in foil and writing the names on, rather than lugging out all the lunch making stuff each time - much better!) I wondered if we would be bored of the same places by now, but no - we love them!

(Click on this picture below to see it larger - I like it!)

This time we wondered over to the small football stadium, and had fun posing for photos.

When we got back, Dad noticed something up with our car, and the next thing I knew, he was holding half the exhaust pipe system! I was a bit sad - not necessarily about the car, but because it meant I couldn't drive out and pick up Scott from the airport that night. I really look forwards to doing the beautiful hour and half evening drive through the countryside all alone, and then reuniting with Scott! It was fine though, and good old Dad drove us to the airport and back, and we had a good chat. I started reading 'Temple and Cosmos' by Hugh Nibley, while the Garricks were staying, and it is mind boggling. We had lots to talk about. It was great too to see Scott again, and have a big kiss in the arrivals lounge!

The Garricks come to stay!

On Saturday 13th August, Scott had to head back to England (can you believe his work actually expect him to do some?!), and in the evening our friends from church, the Garrick family, came to stay with us for a few days. They had spent the first part of their holiday a few hours away in Bayeux. 

We had tea, then got everyone's beds sorted out (their eldest, Ryan, on the living room floor, their next 2 sons, and Jack and Tom in a tent in the back garden, and Lucy, Harry, and Cara their youngest, in the bunk room!)

The next day, we headed to Josselin, and had a good wander round, made even more interesting by doing another task set by Dan, which was made up of lots of questions on the town.

The kids (Harry in particular) were fascinated by the man who was doing tree trunk carving.

Some of the kids, and the gorgeous flowers on the bridge.

Clare and Paul

I love this picture of the boys in the little back streets of Josselin.

We then met up with Mum and Dad, and headed down river on the boat. What a motley crew.

On the way back, Clare and I decided it was our turn on the front of the boat (the kids were also getting a bit rowdy, shouting 'Bonjour Madame' and waving like loonies at everyone on the banks...)
I don't think Clare had imagined that she would turn into part of a tourist attraction herself, but going through the last lock (l'ecluse) near Josselin, we drew quite a crowd!

In the evening, we went for a walk in Yvon's wood.

On Monday 15th August, we had a bit of a sceptic tank disaster - it seemed to be backing up into Mum and Dad's wet room! Dad, Paul and Ryan started digging in the back garden down to the tank bit to see what was going on. After a while though we headed to Sarzeau, so Dad could concentrate on the problem.

We took the inflatable dingy out on the sea, and messed around burying people. Clare nearly died laughing at one point, while 'dressing up' her buried Scott!

We also practised being French (ie. trying to keep our voices down at the beach). Beautiful weather.

After the beach, we went for a quick wander round the outside of Suscinio Chateau.

When we got back, we found that Dad had managed to sort out the sceptic tank problem (no pleasant job!!!) He had to unblock one part of it, but was glad in some ways, because we can avoid that in future, and actually the rest of the system proved to be working brilliantly.

Clare and Paul were also, of course, introduced to Dad's toy arsenal....

On Tuesday 16th August, we went to 'the bouncy castle place' (still am not entirely sure what it's called in real life.) We had a good time on the wonky bikes, in the woodland adventure bits (were I nearly got jiggled to death by Ryan, while I was stuck in a black tube...)

 and of course we had a grand time on the inflatables!

Back at Bel-Air, we toasted marshmallows and made smores.

Paul and Clare treated us all to a super BBQ, followed by a beautiful French apple tart.

We had a wonderful time together, and stayed up late talking every night. Mum and Dad got on really well with Paul and Clare too, and Clare in particular was really upset to be ending their holiday, when we saw them off on Wednesday morning. (She said she cried all the way to Le Havre!)