Last summer we had our Best Family Holiday yet.
One of the many tricky bits of parenthood is finding a holiday that suits all involved. I had travelled a lot in my life before parenthood but realised quite quickly how different it is with kids in tow. I wanted enough style, adventure and facilities to suit the traveller in me but couldn't quite stomach the "family package holiday" nor have enough time or bravery for a real adventure.
When Ro was just 2 years and Cole only a few months we even tried a second-mortgage priced Mark Warner holiday... the kids wouldn't go near the kids club and I had overwhelming yearnings to shout "poo, poo, wee, wee sick and blood" over the never-ending conversations about "little Hermione's tennis serve". Or how ski-ing is best learnt under the age of two.
We've had lots of lovely cottage in England experiences but last year went to Eurocamp in South of France.
It was like Woo Hooo! Hurrah! Eureka!!
OK, so we didn't actually stay in a tent but a mobile home so I could still blow dry my hair, find the loo in the middle of the night and keep out the mosquitoes.... but we all slotted into the laid back, very French but still family atmosphere.
The photo is the kids coming back from the morning croissant run.
On our campsite, you simply had to speak French. The croissants and bread were baked on the premises; Ro and Cole learnt how to ask at the counter on their own for "quatre croissants et quatre pain au chocolait s'il vous plait".
This photo is them returning with their supplies after going on their own for the first time.
They had bikes on the campsite was contained so totally safe for them to cycle off together and return with breakfast.
One morning Cole decided he wanted to do the breakfast run on his own. He'd had a week or so with his big sister queuing at the counter, saying the French phrase and coming up with the goods.
So, we let him go it alone.
Off he went on his bike.... he was only 5 years old but pretty sure about the whole thing.
On his return he was still trying to play it cool.....
"Er Mum, I couldn't quite remember what to say, so I got this instead..."
He placed on the table some Toilet Blue Loo freshener and a bottle of water.
What I would give to have been a fly on the wall in that little French shop.... to say we laughed hard is un petit understatement, thankfully Cole knew full-well he'd deviated a little from the shopping list and think he already knows I will still be mentioning it when he is 24.
By the way, another stroke of luck on that holiday was we ended up being asked to do a photo shoot for the Netherlands Eurocamp brochure.... and they just wrote to us offering a free week's holiday in payment for it. It was quite fun though harder than I thought. The scene was two families having a meal outside so we all sat round and I had to pretend to serve up food and drink which we got to eat at the end of the shoot.
Again, Cole does not react well to waiting for permission to eat, he just couldn't get his head round the fact that I was putting it on his plate then back in the dish and he was supposed to smile.
I had to do a lot of cajoling to get Cole to smile whilst putting spaghetti on his plate that he wasn't allowed to eat - then the director of the shoot had the cheek to tell me I was over-acting!!! Moi?! The cheek of it.... our family are used to having our Toilet Blue the minute it's served thank you.
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