We were invited by our friends Tom and Katharina to spend some time with them at
their lovely house in the south of France, about 45 minutes from Bordeaux. As Nick was still relatively new at his job and had already taken two weeks leave for Thailand (booked well before he started) we decided that I would go down on Sunday night with Tom and Katharina (and Annamaria) with the boys and Nick would come down after work on Thursday and we would all leave together on Sunday. The trip down went surprisingly well (the flight is just over an hour to Bordeaux) and the four days without Nick were actually not too bad - helped immensely by Tom and Katharina - but still pretty tough in unfamiliar surrounds.
We (me, Milo and Henry) were up around 6.30 every day for an early breakfast. At around 8am Katharina and I would go for a run with Henry in the running buggy while Tom, Annamaria and Milo went to get fresh bread for a later breakfast. The rest of the day varied. A few days we just spent relaxing around La Sarrotte (which has a pool, though unheated. I found it far too cold for swimming except for the first day when it was quite hot. Katharina and Annamaria had spent the last few weeks swimming in lakes in Germany so were used to the cold - they went swimming every day, brrrrr!) On Wednesday we went to the market in Blaye and after Nick came down, we went spent most of the day in Bordeaux on Friday and Blaye on Saturday (more photos to come).
Here are, firstly, some general photographs (and now having reviewed the almost 400 photos I took, I am frustrated, once again, by missing so much. I always forget to take photos of adults - this was the same in Thailand - and I didn't take any of the interior of the house apart from the jelly photos below...argh!)
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| The house, originally built in 1860, extensively restored by Tom. |
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| Henry in the running buggy. He would last about 5 minutes before falling asleep. |
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| The trampoline was a hit |
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| Lots of bouncing and falling down |
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| and more again |
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| Annamaria |
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| Milo on the bike trailer with Tom |
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| Eating Katharina's fresh raspberry jelly |
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| Exploring (there hasn't been much rain down there) |
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| At the playground in Blaye |
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| At the playground in Blaye
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| At the playground by the lake |
