Chinon
So many tales to tell; such little time to write them all up.
We’ve been back from the south-west of France for exactly a week. We arrived home last Tuesday having spent six hours stuck in the car. We were all so pleased to see MT 26, to stretch our legs and rediscover the house. The painting of the hallway in shades of very dark and dark grey has been a huge success. It has not made it look like a mausoleum (as I feared) but rather a very elegant entrance. Even the kids liked it.
We had spent a couple of nights in the Loire on the way home. As always, and even in the driving rain, it turned out be great fun. We said good-bye to Mum and Dad early on Sunday morning leaving them behind to face a house which had housed seven adults and seven children for nigh on two weeks. It had housed the VC-G's since 8 July. Were the car to have rafters you could say that it was packed up to there. Very little wriggle room for anyone. Luckily R. slept for three hours.
We arrived in Chinon at around one thirty so the restaurants were still serving food. Good thing too. We were all starving. We stumbled into the first Pizza joint we found along the way, which was packed with Sunday diners. The waitress found us a table crammed into a corner behind a screen with not a lot of wriggle room their either. One up from the car mind but bad news for four, hungry, kids who’ve been locked into car seats for most the day – still it was better than nothing. G. and I spent the twenty minutes waiting for the pizzas to arrive trying to ensure that knives weren’t thrown, bottles turned over, legs kicked under the table, and our good names dragged through the mud. Very stressful. Good humour soon returned once we had all eaten.
R. who is being potty trained decided to go with K.M to the loo and took off his pampers (which he’d been wearing for the car) sat on the loo and peed all over himself. All over his shoes. Oh and on the floor. Oops. Most serious challenge was to find him some dry clothes in our overly packed car. When I went outside to dash to the car I discovered that it was raining: heavily.
What to do with the kids next? We had planned to go straight to the hotel since they have a great little play park but that would be out of the question in the driving rain. Oh God and they had been sitting still all day and R. had slept for three hours. We would not get any peace that night.
With much protest and “its boring Mummy” and “I hate old castles” we went to go and visit the ruined fortress of a castle that over-looks Chinon and the river Vienne. Good thing we did too. It stopped raining by the time we reached there and the kids managed to get rid of a whole load of energy running around and climbing up towers.
When we finally arrived at the hotel at six o’clock the receptionist said: “But I was only expecting you tomorrow.” My fault. I had forgotten and we had left one day too early. Luckily for us they still had two adjoining rooms free. Phew. We ate a baguette and cheese in the room and then took the kids to the play park where they discovered a little mini-golf set up. They played there until well after eight o’clock. R. finally went to sleep at around ten.
We’ve been back from the south-west of France for exactly a week. We arrived home last Tuesday having spent six hours stuck in the car. We were all so pleased to see MT 26, to stretch our legs and rediscover the house. The painting of the hallway in shades of very dark and dark grey has been a huge success. It has not made it look like a mausoleum (as I feared) but rather a very elegant entrance. Even the kids liked it.
We had spent a couple of nights in the Loire on the way home. As always, and even in the driving rain, it turned out be great fun. We said good-bye to Mum and Dad early on Sunday morning leaving them behind to face a house which had housed seven adults and seven children for nigh on two weeks. It had housed the VC-G's since 8 July. Were the car to have rafters you could say that it was packed up to there. Very little wriggle room for anyone. Luckily R. slept for three hours.
We arrived in Chinon at around one thirty so the restaurants were still serving food. Good thing too. We were all starving. We stumbled into the first Pizza joint we found along the way, which was packed with Sunday diners. The waitress found us a table crammed into a corner behind a screen with not a lot of wriggle room their either. One up from the car mind but bad news for four, hungry, kids who’ve been locked into car seats for most the day – still it was better than nothing. G. and I spent the twenty minutes waiting for the pizzas to arrive trying to ensure that knives weren’t thrown, bottles turned over, legs kicked under the table, and our good names dragged through the mud. Very stressful. Good humour soon returned once we had all eaten.
R. who is being potty trained decided to go with K.M to the loo and took off his pampers (which he’d been wearing for the car) sat on the loo and peed all over himself. All over his shoes. Oh and on the floor. Oops. Most serious challenge was to find him some dry clothes in our overly packed car. When I went outside to dash to the car I discovered that it was raining: heavily.
What to do with the kids next? We had planned to go straight to the hotel since they have a great little play park but that would be out of the question in the driving rain. Oh God and they had been sitting still all day and R. had slept for three hours. We would not get any peace that night.
With much protest and “its boring Mummy” and “I hate old castles” we went to go and visit the ruined fortress of a castle that over-looks Chinon and the river Vienne. Good thing we did too. It stopped raining by the time we reached there and the kids managed to get rid of a whole load of energy running around and climbing up towers.
When we finally arrived at the hotel at six o’clock the receptionist said: “But I was only expecting you tomorrow.” My fault. I had forgotten and we had left one day too early. Luckily for us they still had two adjoining rooms free. Phew. We ate a baguette and cheese in the room and then took the kids to the play park where they discovered a little mini-golf set up. They played there until well after eight o’clock. R. finally went to sleep at around ten.
posted by Kathleen at 1:37 AM
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