We're back, we're back

Date: 09 August 2007 22:01:00

Did we have a wonderful time or did we have a wonderful time? Did you miss me?

The holiday was precisely everything we had dreamed. Utterly perfect.
The gite was beautiful and a real home-from-home only tidier.
The area was amazing - stunning countryside and the most incredible beaches as well as loads of places to visit.
The driving and navigating was incredibly straightforward... only once did I find myself swerving gently across to put myself back on the correct side of the road....
The company (Smudgelet and Tiddles alike) was delightful, and really keen to practise their French on anyone who would listen, even down to spending the evenings watching the French videos of Asterix (much to my delight).
My own French was embarrassingly embarrassing... how could I once have been fluent and now incapable of stringing a sentence together? The worst moment was going to retrieve our bucket which we'd accidentally left in the shop at the beach. We had one already. I went to buy a second, while carrying the first. Then found myself with two buckets, knowing that I'd only paid for one red one, so left the blue one in the shop!!! It was only when we came to build the mega-castle that I realised what I'd done, so I returned to the shop only to find that the English speaking shop assistant had gone for his break. I stood doing rather impressive goldfish impressions, struggling valiently to think how on earth to explain the problem.. made even more difficult by my total inability to remember the word for "bucket" .. and ended up pathetically pointing to the bucket and mumbling something like "c'est a nous!". It worked - the shop assistant explained that she knew it was ours and was waiting for us to fetch it. Phew. But it was rather a blow to my professional pride as a qualified translator (albeit not in French - I only did the French lectures as an optional extra).

Notable moments are too numerous to mention. I've reduced our photos to about 74 - miracle of miracles (a huge number to choose from, and a miracle that I have any as my camera has decided to start playing silly games). Playing on the beach had to be a highlight, especially as the sand was perfect for building with. Playing badminton in the garden with the Smudgelets was great fun too - even when I went flying on an uneven bit of rather soggy grass and ended up falling in slow motion and ending up in a muddy crumpled heap. Sitting in the car eating chips and sausages and rather disgustingly gorgeous cakes, even when my new t-shirt changed from blue to red courtesy of some rather copious tomato ketchup. nausicaa, the French national centre of the sea, was enchanting... Agincourt was fascinating... Eurolac was great fun.... and just wait until I get the photos from Aqualud developed (taken with an underwater camera).

Meanwhile, clicking on the penguin (they get everywhere) should take you to my photos.... presuming you're interested, that is. More possibly to come.