Oh to be back at La Grande Metairie...

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It's cold and its wet and all it took to make me wish I was back at La Grande Metairie was the arrival of a case of the beer that my dad and I enjoyed drinking in Brittany:

It takes me back to the week we spent on the campsite with my parents enjoying its 5 star facilities including the pool complex:

Only the Brits wanted to swim on wet days!

My children just had so much fun getting water confident jumping into the water that was deeper than they could stand up in:

Or just messing about in the rings we bought at the campsite shop:

There was even a chance to try out pony trekking:

#CountryKids Carnac Megaliths and La Grande Metairie

Time to have a sneaky peek back at our last full day in Brittany this summer. It was a grey day but we headed to the famous megaliths as on one day a week they had a tour in English:

In summer months the megaliths are fenced in to help protect the vegetation from too many people trampling it down. This means you can only go on tours. I can remember doing one at my children's age where the guide only spoke French but did it slowly!

One thing you aren't supposed to do is pretend to push the stones over but I only got told that after this shot:

Its such an incredible place and hard to imagine how neolithic people managed to construct all the straight lines with such huge rocks:

The tour guide told us plenty of fascinating things about how the stones such as the stones being bigger on the ridges and shorter in the bottom of the valley:

And they haven't come from very far away and you can see which side of the rock was underground and which one was on the surface if you look close:

Afterwards my son decided to join me to run back to the campsite alongside the standing stones and through the woods:

It was well signposted and we weren't super speedy:

He was treated afterwards to another go in the lazy river at the pool complex (please not many other people braving the chilly air!):

Then we retreated to the warmer indoor/outdoor pool with its retractable roof. It was 1.5 m deep all round so perfect for jumping into:

Plenty of room for water play:

Then the kids tried pony trekking (shortly after this shot my son asked to get off as the pony kept shaking and he didn't like it!):

Big sister actually managed the full ride and loved it even if her pony didn't always agree with the direction we wanted to go:

In the evening the kids had a brief dip into the junior disco before rounding off the evening with air hockey:

All in all a great way to end our week in Brittany - more to come from our second week in France...

#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.

#CountryKids Château de Suscinio, Butte de Cesar, Port Blanc

On a roll with these catch up holiday posts! Day 4 of our French adventures and we jumped in the car to explore further south... First stop was the Château de Suscinio which has been tasteful restored by the French government after being allowed to fall into disrepair:

It now looks like something out of a fairy tale with an impressive main entrance:

It was a real shame my children didn't know enough French to appreciate the hard work the curators have done to make it interesting for them. They did appreciate the fact that they could dress up:

And have a go at some interesting medieval games (the English instructions weren't as comprehensive as the French ones!):

It has all you could want from a medieval castle including walkways from which the garrison could drop things onto besiegers from:

There was a special hands on archaeology exhibition built for children but unfortunately all in French so my two only got a little out of it. It looks like the French are really keen on engaging young people into history which is fabulous.

By the time we came out it was very wet and we had a bit of an adventure finding somewhere to eat in the middle of nowhere. Just in time we followed signs and found an auberge:

This was a proper little French restaurant in the middle of the country side and we all got our first experience of galettes:

For the grown ups there was house cider:

And desserts were yummy crepes:

There was a scary moment when in the midst of a thunder storm all the lights went out... one waiter was quick of the mark and started to sing Joyeux Anniversaire which had everyone giggling! Luckily when we had finished eating the sun had come out and we went off to find the Butte de Cesar:

It was very easy to find our way to and up the Neolithic burial mound upon which Julius Caesar allegedly stood to watch his fleet in the bay. We let the children choose a less well used path down and they were keen to be adventurous: 

As you can see the bracken was very high and the path wasn't always easy to follow:

In fact at times we were almost fighting our way through:

The children were very amused that Gramps picked up a hitchhiking slug on his way down! When we reached the bottom we saw a sign that intrigued us so we went to find out what Pen Castel was:

Either the sign was wrong or we missed something as it was a lot further than 1.6 km when we reached the sea shore:

We were able to walk along the beach as the tide was out:

When we got to Pen Castel we discovered that it was a former tidal mill that still has some of the workings left in it:

Next to it were the funkiest public loos I have ever used which had auto flush and clean! Some how my daughter and I managed to confuse it though so hope it wasn't broken when we left...

We then walked back to the car and we still had time to head further along the peninsula in search of a bathing beach. Eventually we reached Port Blanc just after the car park became free: 

This was a proper beach but with high winds the surf made swimming by novices impossible. There was still plenty of fun to be had digging in the sand:

Having all this space with hardly anyone else there:

Proper lifeguards to keep everyone safe:

And for the brave you could go in the sea:

And enjoy the waves:

Of course a willing victim had to be buried in the sand:

And then there was time for one last jump in the waves:

before we had to head back to Carnac. There was time before bed to play cribbage:

And write those all important postcards home:

More adventures to follow...