#CountryKids Port-Louis, Brittany

After a successful drive south we headed north west on day 5 and ended up at Port-Louis as it was marked on the road map as a medieval town. It turned out to be well worth the drive:

The children were intrigued by the old town walls which rise impressively around a lot of the town:

Along a lot of their length is a walkway allowing access to the top of the wall:

There were some interesting plaques to read if your French was up to it:

We had to keep descending and ascending to get to the various parts:

There was a pretty strong wind so gramps chose to remain at ground level! I plucked up enough courage to stay up there so that each child had an adult to supervise them. It did give some great photo opportunities:

Eventually granny and I ruled that the walkway was too narrow for safety and made the children descend. We later saw someone cycling on the bit we had wimped out from! Instead we headed to the park and the children found another of those fantastic climbing pyramids:

This time my son was brave enough to get to the top:

Reunited with gramps and restored by churros we headed over to the citadel:

The citadel was first constructed in 1591 but it has plenty of later additions. The only access is through this impressive gateway:

It wasn't cheap to get in as grown ups, though children were free, but it proved well worth every Euro. The full star shape can only be appreciated from the air so I snapped a picture of an aerial photo:

Inside the former barracks have been converted into various museums. The first was a history of ship wrecks and life boats which was fascinating. Then there was an exhibition about treasures discovered from shipwrecks:

Dotted around the site were various pieces of seemingly random modern art which I never did find out any more about:

The old armoury was filled with various guns from medieval muskets and cannons to 20th century pieces:

Of course we had to take a walk around the battlements and the children were thrilled when some sailors on a French naval vessel waved back at them:

There was also time to sit on the cannons and think about what it would be like to fire them:

The final museum was about the French Indies Company as the port was once a thriving hub for trade:

It was fascinating to see how the ships were constructed and to see some of the items brought back from these voyages:

It must have felt wonderful wearing a silk dress like this:

There was more random modern art too:

And right at the end an impressive set of Samurai armour which my children found fascinating:

The citadel was closing for the day so we headed into the old town centre in search of a restaurant for dinner:

Unfortunately French restaurants cater for French timings and are generally closed from 2-7! Therefore we had to jump back in the car and start driving back towards Carnac keeping our eyes peeled for any open restaurants. Luckily one enterprising owner had realised that plenty of foreign tourists like to eat from 5 so had an open creperie: 

Of course this gave us grown ups another chance to sample locally produced cider:

Altogether a fabulous Country Kids day out and we can recommend as a trip to anyone in this part of Brittany.

Family Fun: Liverpool

My daughter and I were being filmed for a Canadian TV documentary about the dangers of dog fouling and were invited to Liverpool to do it. We were put up for the night at Base2Stay which is a converted warehouse in the Rope Walk district. Whilst my son was looked after by a nanny my daughter and I earned our stay with plenty of filming at Waterstones and in the nearby streets:

Today we had plenty of time to see what Liverpool has to offer despite the rain and a lack of money we had a brilliant time. These are some of the best bits:

Family Fun: Museums - Kendal Museum

Here we in week 9 and this week's theme is museums. These are great places for family fun especially on a wet weekend and many of them are free! We are very lucky to have a nice little museum here in Kendal which is within an easy walk/bike ride from our house. If you have a post about museums why not add it to the blog hop:

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On Saturday after doing some chores in town we happened to be passing the museum and the children were more than willing to detour in there for a bit of fun. In the downstairs section of the museum they have different exhibits that run for a fixed period of time. The current one is Rock Solid and is artistic interpretations of why Cumbria is short listed for storing nuclear waste (a highly controversial scheme):

The previous Egyptian exhibition was more interesting for my children so we didn't last too long before they wanted to head back upstairs to the main exhibition room. This takes you through the history of Kendal from the Stone Age to modern day with lot of items on display that have been found in the local area:

As you can see from the above photo my children know their favourite part of the museum and weren't interested in stopping to look as they were wanting to play with the castle in the medieval section:

#TheGallery: 11/11/11

An interesting challenge from Tara to chart one day as our Gallery post for a chance to win £100 of Amazon vouchers! This was actually an unusual day for me as I went on a school trip to Manchester with my daughter's entire Junior School. At least it made for some different photographs than normal and this is a taste of what we did:

Early arrival at school to catch a bus to Manchester

A very brief pause at the village war memorial to remember the war dead

Family Fun: Kendal Museum

Today we were in search of family fun on a shoestring and went for our first visit to Kendal Museum as entry is free and we only had to stump up a £1 for an hour's parking (with hindsight 2 hours parking would have been better!). It's only open on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays so there is a limited chance to get in but its worth it.

When we got in another child was asking about quizzes so I paid 10p for each child to have an age appropriate quiz. For my 4 year old it was to spot the objects matching the silhouette and for my 7 year old solve the hieroglyphics and find the objects mentioned in the museum. Both of these took us through all the various rooms in the museum with very keen children.

The museum has a great mix of Kendal/Cumbrian history back to pre-history, natural history and currently an exhibition on the Egyptian excavations of John Garstang. There are also a couple of exhibitions (1 art and one natural history) centred around the dodo:

These are designed to make you think about extinction and what we can do to prevent more animals becoming extinct. I would love to go around without my children to read more about the exhibits!

The museum has a very hands on approach to history and encourages children to try things and get involved. Both of them enjoyed trying out the rock xylophone and having a go at being mini archaeologists:

All in all a fab and incredibly cheap way to spend a couple of hours as a family. We will be back and next time will allow more time to explore. The children were proud of their Kendal museum badges they got for completing their quizzes and I'm sure they will be happy to have a go at another one next time.

Having had a quick browse of their web site whilst writing this they also offer adult education evening classes and a children's astronomy club. A great local resource so we need to use it (and make some voluntary donations/spend in the shop) to keep it free).