11:54 a.m. - 12th August 2006
France
I'm back in dear old Blighty! It's grey and windy here.....urgh.
Well what a trip, it's flown by so quickly. I haven't been to France for so many years it's not true.
We set off all excited all that time ago...well clucky didn't seem too excited she was worried about her beau and text incessantly all the way to the Channel Tunnel. The Channel Tunnel was busy, but to arrive in France 35 mins after you left England was great. I've only gone by Ferry or plane before.
Hotel in Paris was soooooooo goddam hot, we all thought we were going to explode inside, but we were glad to get there and get shower and out to eat. Lovely meal out, early night and then off to meet Mickey Mouse etc at Euro Disney. Glad we got there so early, in fact just as it opened. It was quite exciting in a sad girly sort of way. We managed to do all the rides, the big exciting rides more than once and had a lovley meal at lunch time, the Rain Forest cafe with stomping elephants...well I suppose the food wasn't fantastic, but the atmosphere was fun....The nephew LOVED it. We saw parades, got autographs and then in the evening just as it was getting unbearably hot a massive downpoor of rain to cool everything down. The boy LOVED it.
We were shattered going back and then the next morning up early and off to her new home for just under two weeks.
Lovely home to stay in although sis-in-law was a little negative to start, but she is. What did we do? Beached it, saw salt being produced (which sounds sooooo boring, but wasn't), shopped, visitied towns and castles, went to the zoo, which was so interesting, the way it was done there was much more interactive and obvious that they were trying so hard to assist in keeping endangered species alive. We saw a snake (not in the zoo) and lizards were everywhere. Played sevens and Blokus incessantly in the evening. Drank lots of red wine, ate muscles in curry sauce, white wine sauce and any other sauce you could think of.
Quote of the hols came from the nephew "well somebody in the family has to be funny"!
I loved the low level white buildings and shutters, the teracotta rooves I loved the beautiful tasting fruit and veg and the markets in the morning (although sis-in -law aint for sure a morning person.
I loved all those beautiful sun-flowers, being grown just about everywhere for the seeds to make sunflower oil.
I loved the amount of picnic areas in the woods, at the sides of the roads and the fantastic miles of clean sand and sea, with the Atlantic wind, making it all comfortable despite the heat.
I loved the fact that when we cooked, we could barbecue outside and eat outside too.
What was tough, the supermarkets being open for short times and being soooooo packed and having to queue for hours at them, then not being as good at speaking French as we thought we were, the language was a huge problem at times, some people like the lady yesterday at the Port/Marina restaurant, were really tolerant....others like in Rochelle were so intolerant as we stumbled over the words....(she didn't get a tip at all)..she made you feel awful for being alive.
Relationship wise, I love my brother so much, he is fantastic to his son, drives for hours and hours to get us home overnight, without complaining ever. He got his leg peed on by my nephew (by accident) and didn't complain!! He goes shopping in the morning for fresh bread, after waiting hand and foot on sis-in-law, he cooks and is just so sweet natured, I am proud to know him.
Sis-in-law, gets grumpy easily, is cleaning obsessed (makes me feel trampy and I can clean for England) and pokes at peoples weak points often, particularly clucky this time. It'll be the very last holiday clucky goes with her. Never ever ever makes a pot of tea! On the good side, she relaxed the most I have seen her, speaks better French than all of us. Takes complete pride in her appearance at all times, is confident and believes in herself and what she gets/wants....
Clucky, a little moody at times, highly offended very easily, obviously in love, good manners/toilet obsessed
Nephew, loving and caring...somewhat spoiled at times and spends a lot of time with adults....fun, with the worsed table manners at times.
But we had fun and rub along well despite all of this.
Back to the grind stone on Monday!
Yack
