August...... the month of 'gadding'..... part one.....

yes, august was a month of gadding about for us.....

and lovely gadding it was too.....

we started the month off in France with my sister,

brother-in-law and their granddaughter, the ever poppity imogen.....

we made our home in a little gite in the middle of somewhere

in southern Normandy...... I actually have no idea where we were

because for the whole of the journey we just followed the car in front

{which happened to have my sister and a GPS in it}

and we had no map...... not even my ipod could tell me where

we were when I looked at the 'where is my location' gadget thingy.....

I really didn't mind not knowing where I was, it was

kind of liberating.....

the gite was lovely and quaint and the garden was HUGE, with an abundance of fruit trees

and raspberry canes, which happened to have quite a few ruby-red fruits on them

{we found these quite early on and had to sample some just to see if 

French raspberries tasted different to English ones......

research, carried out over a number of days,

determined that they tasted just as good.....}

we spent most of our days visiting a local lake for swimming 

{for the adventurous and hardy ones amongst us},

sandcastle building and general relaxing {for the rest of us}, 

which included much crocheting and reading of magazines

{the relaxing that is, not the sandcastle building.....}

we took a jaunt to Bayeux to view the most splendid tapestry.....

the above photo is not one of the splendid tapestry itself,

photo taking of that is not allowed, 

but there were modern replicas hanging around the place that you could take photos of..... 

there were even cushions and wall hangings you could puchase

 if you wanted a Bayeux-esk feel in your loungeroom when you returned home.......

I have to say that Isaac was not everso thrilled about 

joining us to visit this amazing piece of history...... 

he complained about the thought of having to stand around 

for hours while Brian and I 'ooooohhhhhed' and 'aaaaahhhhed' over it.......

however, the reality was that we were each given a little earpiece which talked

us through each event depicted on the tapestry as we walked its length....

 Isaac and Evie both opted to get the commentary designed for children

and it was so interesting that I wanted to go round a second time

and listen to the their one.... 

the result was that we all came away having really enjoyed the visit....... 

phew......

it can be a little tricky on holiday with teenagers as they are not always

interested in seeing the things you want to see and vice-versa but we

usually try to strike a balance of 'something for everyone' and this seems

to get us through most of the time.....

we had a wonderful picnic lunch in Bayeux just sitting in a lovely sunny, 

quiet square eating fresh bread, cheese and pate - which is how we ate

lunch every day - out in the sunshine munching on lovely fresh goodness......

we then continued on from Bayeux to Omaha beach on the north Normandy coast 

to visit the American cemetery and memorial of the D-Day landings.....

it was a wonderful memorial to an amazing bunch of men who gave 

all they had in a fight for freedom...... and I learned so much about

the when, where, what, why and who of the D-Day landings which I have to

admit to having been pretty ignorant about before.....

this was the view from the cemetery over Omaha beach......

our week continued with a visit {by the boys and Imogen}

to a model railway exhibition........

I stayed home and drank more coffee, ate more food and did more crochet......

I had my fill of model railway visits when Isaac was little and I tend

to opt out of such visits now...... 

there were plenty of games of garden cricket to be enjoyed

{this has become one of our favourite holiday games -

often played in pj's with dressing gowns on.......}

and Brian always manages to find something to use as 

'equipment' as invariably we don't have the right 'tools for the job'

{though this year we had taken a plastic bat and tennis ball, which was

a huge step forward from one of our holidays in Oz when we visited the Whitsundays  

and we used a large piece of bark, which had fallen off a tree, as a bat and some 

nuts/large seed pods, which we found lying around on the ground, as balls.......

seriously, there's no stopping us when we want a game of garden cricket.....}

ahhhh, it was a lovely week with much relaxing

and general lazy holiday behaviour.....

just perfect......