France

I've only ever been to Paris, so I was looking forward to spending some time in rural France.  I'd heard the beaches were gorgeous.  We took the Eurotunnel - from Ashford (about an hour's drive from where we live in London) to Calais.  Waited our turn, drove the car up onto the train, parking brake on, waited 35odd minutes, drove out onto French soil.  Color me impressed.

Then it was about three and a half hours to Caen.  I would have liked to look around some of the D-Day points of interest but with two small children this was impossible.  So after spending the night at a motel we headed on deeper into Brittany.  Got to the little town of Trelevern in the afternoon, after some getting-lostness.  Walked into the 5 bedroom villa we were renting with inlaws... and E promptly fell into the pool at the deep end.  B fished him out, and we greeted folks with him in sopping wet socks and clothes.  On the bright side, hopefully E will never think of flotation devices that sit atop water as "solid" ever again.  And we'll be getting him swimming lessons this summer.

Our beach was a 8-10 minute walk away (with children, faster if alone) and was absolutely gorgeous.  Unfortunately, I dropped my camera as the tide was rising, and it... well, basically died a glorious, salty death.  Was bailed out by a mother-in-law with an extra camera (she who gave me the old one in the first place, an excellent camera that travelled to Greece by train, California, and many other places, and lasted for 5.5 years... I do regret my clumsiness in dropping it) and so I do have a few photos.

But it's late at night and C has decided she enjoys waking at 5am and then needs resettling every 10-20 minutes until 6am, which is tiring.   So... one photo, of the girl herself, just above the beach of a small town about a half an hour's drive from Trelevern called Locquirec.  We had crepes there...

To be continued later!