Rivers and/of Sunshine

We're back from our hols now and our photos are uploaded and in my Flickr account in the side bar for anyone who is interested.

I gather that we had as much rain over in Brittany as most of England did for the time we were away. The first 4-5 days were hot and sunny enough for us to only want to be on the beach for a few hours during the afternoon. We played in the waves and laid in the sun and enjoyed the warmth. Then the rain set in, each day we would hear that it may improve the next, and each day we woke up to overcast skies and strong winds, and often, lots of the wet stuff.

Of course this meant that we couldn't go out on the Trike, so we played lots of games and read alot, (7 books by me). We had Mexican dominoes, Scrabble, Uno, Rummikub, Canasta, and towards the end of the holiday the Dutch lads bought us Triominoes too. The kids were happy because they had friends to hang around in tents with, and at times, several of them joined us in games.

One day we headed off to St. Cast de Guildo, about 20k's away, and sat in a beachside cafe for a while. When we returned to the Trike we discovered that the 2 K & N filters on the carburetors had been stolen. Someone had come along in broad daylight and armed with a screw driver and just unscrewed the hose clamps and gone off with them. We knew that there was no point in going to the Gendameries because they would take one look at the Trike and have no sympathy because Trikes are illegal in France, though we are legal as visitors. So off we headed back to the tent. Gman has a French friend on site who has a 4x4, and after explaining what had happened he took Gman off to find some replacements.

Another day it poured with rain and during the morning Gadgetman and Gadgeteen decided to catch the bus into a nearby town for the afternoon. Near enough as soon as they were off the rain came down harder and harder and before long, a lake gradually appeared in a dip next to the 'party tent'. It got to the point where I was bailing out the lake to try to prevent flooding the area under the party tent because next would be our tent. Friends from surrounding tents and caravans came and helped with buckets, saucepans and dustpans for scooping and the rain stopped for a while. We thought we were winning when we reduced the lake down to a puddle and all my helpers retreated back to the comfort of their tents to dry off.

Then the rain came down again, and not just sprinkling down but absolutely pouring down and there was nothing that I could do to prevent the lake growing and growing until the whole area under the party tent was a lake too. Gteens shoes and football started floating around. Gadgetgirlie called me from inside the tent and when I opened the tent flap and poked my head through, my heart sank. There were rivulets of water worming their way all across the floor over the green floor covering. Everything on the floor was wet, including the electrical things. I got Ggirlie and her friend out and Roget, a neighbour turned the electricity off for me. It was so difficult to communicate because the rain was coming down onto the roof of the tent so hard that we had to shout.
Roget and his wife are on site every year and always have 2 caravans with a porch each, so that their grown up kids can visit during the summer. The second one was empty now, so Roget and Ann-marie offered the use of it to put all the belongings from the floor of our tent, oh, how grateful I was. Our individual sleeping spaces were fine because they are in separate compartments but everything on the floor had to go into the porch of the caravan. It also enabled the 'river', as I called it, to flow through the tent unimpeded too. (This is where I am reminded of the film - 'A river runs through it'). The dutch lads gave a helping hand and ran back and forth carrying our stuff for me, they were so speedy and in no time at all the base of our tent was flowing freely!

Some of the electrical items got a good soaking, like the ice boxes, (2), and phone and battery chargers. This is one of the downsides of being a Gadget family, there is just so much stuff to get wet and so much stuff to move! I am not a natural Gadget person, so find some of what we take so unnecessary but Gman makes sure that we use it so I stay shtum as much as I can.

Gman and Gteen were gobsmacked when they returned later on, said that it had hardly rained where they were. We decided that moving the tent to a place where there was no chance of a lake would be a good idea......

Many of the campers in our area were familiar faces and many were friends, Jeremy, who we met the first year we visited was absent, but he rang us a couple of times from Greece. This is the first year that he hasn't come and I reckon that he was suffering from withdrawal symptons over there on a beach in the sun. His brother Leonard was in our camping area though, with Inge, his wife, and daughter Manouk. Dick and Leni are regulars too, and later on Nico & Jackie and their son Maarten and Wendy with their 2 kids came too. Last year we met Gills & Marie-Lawrence and her associated large family. Gills has a Harley Davidson too and belongs to a club in Paris. He and Gman got on really well and fortunately Gil also speaks some English. We met up with Dirk, a 38 yr old German (who doesn't really speak any English), that we met last year too. This year though he is in love. He has met and fallen head-over-heels in love with Isabelle, who is French, a 41 yr old mother of 4, and lives locally. She doesn't speak any German either, and neither does Dirk speak any French, but they manage. They spent every day of his 5 weeks holiday together, and during the last week he packed up his tent and moved in with her. They popped back for evening visits a couple of times and looked just so happy together.

I spoke French at every opportunity which was every day really. Roget and Ann-Marie don't speak any English, and each year they have noticed that I spend more and more time chatting with them. We socialised with the usual French crowd too, the crowd of about 30+ caravans that all seem to be related or know each other. They are from Angers, so not far really.

We met up with Patrick & Ingrid for a BBQ in night. He used to be the baker and owner of the Boulangerie in the local village. This year he has sold up as a result of the break up of his marriage, and with Ingrid, his girlfriend, has bought another boulangerie a 2 hour drive away. They returned to see her mother, Claudie, who we had popped in to see during our first week.

We started socialising with Melchure and his family this year too. We have seen him and his dad every year since 2001 but they seemed to go off and do their own thing every day and we just didn't get the opportunity to meet and spend time with them. His dad, Pierre plays a mean fiddle and often would practice in the evening outside his tent. This year Melchure is 17, and more out going as a result. I find out that his parents are not together but that every year his mother rents a Gite nearby where she stays with his half-sister. Nicole is a teacher of Philosophy and quite wacky and quirky, and his half-sister, Megali is studying linguistics and although petite, plays rugby. During the days of all the rain we spent a couple of visits with them in the Gite, watching a rugby friendly between France and England, and sharing a roast chicken dinner.

Gman took loads of campers off for rides on the Trike up to the Lighthouse a couple of miles away and is on youtube now. You can check this out for fun.

Well, another summer is over, my first spent without smoking! Yep, managed to keep going with the no smoking but found that I ate more instead. Pain aux chocolates and croissants every day! We had a few meals out too, for us to be satisfied we had to have Moulles & Frites, Gallettes and crepes, and a visit to our favourite pizza place hidden away in Sable D'or des Pins only found by those in the know. We had a couple of visits to the cheapy shops too, and I found a lovely sweet wine so came back with a couple of cases.

Our camping is not over for the year though, we're off to somewhere in Cambridgeshire next weekend for a bike rally, bare essentials this time though, no Gadgets......