Semaine Trois

A busy week with many visitors. Aunty Dianne and Chris joined us for a few days, great to see them and we will again be catching up at their property in the Vendee in July. We certainly experienced many wines and cheeses from Bordeaux and the Basque region during their visit. The weather this week was consistently around 30 degrees, abnormal for this early in the French summer however we'll certainly take it. This amazing weather allowed the kids to enjoy the surf beach and lake everyday. Madeleine and Hudson's favourite activity is to go fishing in the lake with handheld fishing nets. They, with the help of daddy catch small fish and crabs, handle them and then let them go. It is such a thrill for them and great to see their confidence increase around the water and what lies beneath.

We continue to walk into town everyday for baguettes, cafe creme and petite bon bon. The kids love the local park which incredibly has a full size carousal open most lunch times. The kids are slowly using more french phrases - thank you, please, hello, good byes and numbers up to 10. The locals adore the  kids and them trying to speak french and continue to be encouraging for them.

Brad C stayed for the week which meant Trav was now surfing with 4 Australian's over here (Bruce from Sydney, Brad and Simon from Melbourne). The waves were epic, 3 days of 10ft plus sets (approx 3 times over head and some) offshore or no wind and incredibly no crowds. One particular surf was probably the best beach break waves Trav has ever surfed and they had the break to themselves (filthy sick pits, wave after wave)! Brad, borrowing one of trav's boards, had a horrendous wipe-out snapping the board in two and seriously lucky it wasn't him.

Here we are in one of Europe's most renowned surfing areas and no one surfs before 8am, about when the boys finish. It has a lot to do with the french culture commencing their days later than we are use to, many of them starting work around 10-10.30am which suits us just fine.  Trav has surf and home in time for family outing before often squeezing in another lunch surf.

We put on a great dinner for 14 in the backyard for our visitors staying with us and invited our new friends over.  Living in the Atlantic we decided to eat locally and had fresh bbq Atlantic Salmon, prawns with a variety of fresh salads and local cheese and wine including the very french Kir Royal. It was a great night!

Just to finish off the month Noah who obviously felt left out, pulled a temp of 40.7, heart rate of 190, short of breath unable to sit up from pain, whining but not crying (bad sign), so off to our favourite hospital in Dax. Emergency department then up to the children's ward staying overnight. He had a nasty virus and on top of this, post xray, an impacted bowel (too many baguette crust) which was pushing up on his diaphragm making it hard to breathe! He has become much happier post a good cleanse out and a few days of mummy milk on tap.

Coming up, Trav's birthday, a week with no visitors then Steph arrives from London for a few days.