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Camping, cooking and a sand boat courtesy of the Glocks

We didn’t get up until almost lunchtime, none of us, Pete and I were up first at around 11am, children started surfacing from 11.30am, we were up until midnight last night on the dunes trying to see the Perseus meteor shower. As usual Pete saw some, so did small boy, I saw none, typical, however, the moon was full and very bright so it deadened the effect somewhat. The conversation went something like

Pete – oh there’s one

Beverley – where?

Pete – over there

Beverley – where?

Pete – oh you missed it, oh there’s another

Beverley – where?

Pete – oh you missed it

…..it gets boring after the first 20 minutes. Therefore we missed slack tide and no surfing was had.

Small boy and I did a quick reccy to the local Super U, very disappointing, nothing like E.Leclerc. On the way he asked me what the best thing about camping holidays was? So here goes, 9 year old boys top 5 ‘best things about camping in France’:

1. The communal bbq – you get free food (that means, everyone takes nibbles and shares their food, so not quite free but from a 9 year old boy’s perspective it is).

2. The communal bbq – you get to meet new people

3. The communal bbq – you get to make new friends as all the children are fetching and carrying supplies, food to be cooked and replenishing wine and beer for the parent who is cooking – usually the Dad.

4. The communal bbq – you cook yummy stuff and it tastes so much better as you eat it outside. Very true.

5. The communal bbq – you get to burn stuff – charcoal, pine cones, pine needles, wood, anything laying around the campsite.What is this bloke thing about fire?

You’ll notice that there is no mention of great beach, freedom to charge around on your bike, 7 swimming pools to choose from, no, it’s all about the communal bbq. Love it.

Big girl is well trained, it’s 7.50pm and I have just uttered the immortal words ‘I do not have a drink’, immediately she retorts ‘bloody English’ followed by ‘humph beer or wine?’ she’s lovely really.

Small boy’s getting agitated as he wants to head up to the bbq for the evening social…..tonight it’s salmon (no swordfish at the local fishmonger), mackerel and merguez.

When we eventually got moving this afternoon we had a very eventful afternoon on the beach. A large boat was dug out of the sand complete with oars, waves, seats and a labrador sitting in the back looking out. As we left we say a little girl, around 18 months old, walk up to the sand sculpture (wow that sounds posh… it wasn’t) point to ‘le chien’, bend down and very gently stroke it much to her father’s amusement, it was so sweet, obviously a little realistic too, I’ve not lost my artistic touch altogether. I must add that digging gigantic structures of out sand is usually left totally to me, maybe it’s harking back to my childhood and growing up on Redcar beach but I do like to have a good grot about in the sand, big girl likes digging holes so we integrate our skills, this time it was a large boat with a very deep bilge pump.

Last day tomorrow before we head back up to the Loire on Monday, I’m going to miss the sea, it’s beautiful here, miles of sandy beaches, a deep turquoise see with superb breakers and no houses or building to see due to the sand dunes fronting the beach being protected from development, beyond there are pine forests also protected and after that the houses start but from the beach all you can see for miles is beach and dunes, heavenly.