Back home

We left St. Hilaire de Riez at 7am this morning and got home at 6pm. We had a wonderful holiday in France. We enjoyed every minute. It was a very relaxing holiday. The girls slept till 9am almost every day which never happens at home. Of course they went to bed later than usual, but they were pretty exhausted at the end of the day due to the outdoor life and swimming. We spent a few hours in the swimming pool each day, and especially Fleur had a blast. She just loves to swim. Sanne didn't really swim in the first week. She could spend hours in the paddling pool, but as soon as we bought her new Winnie the Pooh armbands she finally dared to swim. We visited St. Gilles Croix de Vie, St. Jean de Monts and Île de Noirmoutier. I especially enjoyed our visit to Noirmoutier. I was there about 27 years ago with my parents and brother, and although I didn't recognize everything it reminded me of our stays in the Vendée at the late 70s/early 80s. No day passed without playing jeu de boules with Fleur. She loves that ball game, especially when she is in the winning mood. And believe me, she won a lot. We also played games like Mens Erger Je Niet (don't know the English name of this board game) and Yahtzee and I read 5 books. My favorite books were the Dutch versions of Moonshine by Victoria Clayton, Learning by Heart by Elizabeth McGregor and Showdown by Tilly Bagshawe. I like reading books, but I never allow myself time to read a book. Too busy with other things at home. A holiday is always a good occasion to catch up on my pile of unread books. We didn't really feel like going home, but once you start packing your stuff you do long for home again. At least I do. We took about 450 pictures so enough material to scrap. Below you find a selection of our pictures. I will spend the next few days on washing and ironing (the worst thing about coming back home), but also on catching up on my favorite blogs.