Brittany and Bordeaux

Travel has cycles. Ups and downs that have nothing to do with where you are at that moment, just how you’re feeling. We’ve been at the bottom of one for a few days. The “lowlights” include bed bugs in the camper (don’t worry, they *exclusively* bite me), a distracted near miss in a roundabout, a toilet that continues to leak (clean, we think) water on the floor as we drive, no clean clothes for the kids, crappy internet to research campsites which led us to a dud last night and kids who are just being asked a lot of in the midst of it all.
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At times today, we discussed driving directly back to Amsterdam to return the camper and fly to Lisbon for three weeks. We discussed asking our French speaking sister in law call RV repair shops in Britanny for us. We discussed turning on the gas stove and tossing a match into McLouis (okay, fine, I just thought that last one). We discussed leaving the 3 year old on the doorstep of the caserne de pompiers (okay, Ann just thought that last one).
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But after an hour on this beach, giving the kids all the time they wanted to make dams of out sand to divert the receding tide and soak their last remaining pairs of pants and undies in sand and saltwater, we left with a plan. We moved the camper to the better campground, used the WiFi there to troubleshoot the toilet issue (which ended up being a plugged drain in the cassette toilet compartment that I cleared with a wire coat hanger), did three loads of laundry (all bedding on extra hot to go with the four new pillows we picked up yesterday after throwing the old ones in a dumpster, dirty towels we’d been using to sop up toilet water on the floor, and fresh undies and pants for all), researched our next couple campsites and let the kids play another two hours on the playground.
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Tomorrow’s a new day and here’s to hoping this cycle is on the way up.
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#familytravel #travelwithkids #rveurope #itsnotalways🌈and🦄

Stay klassy, France. #outdoorlaundry #casinosupermarche

We’ve been pleasantly surprised that many restaurants have menus “pour les enfants.” Often, the chicken strips or ham and cheese galettes (savory crepes) on them come with two scoops of ice cream and “a surprise” which is usually a fancy toothpick or, one time, a pipe cleaner animal stuck in the top.
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While we usually try to eat most meals in the camper, often shopping at the well-stocked and fairly ubiquitous Carrefour supermarkets, this afternoon we stumbled across a market in Trinté-sur-Mer with food vendors. The girls ate galettes on wooden cutting boards at a kid-size plastic table and I had a “sandwich saucisse,” basically a couple sausages smothered in a tasty mustard sauce laid in an entire sliced baguette. “Petit” dejeuner my (growing) ass.
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Oh, and we couldn’t resist saying yes to these cute scarves at 3€ a piece, especially since we’d been tempted by similar ones in Mont St-Michel for 20€.
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#sisterhoodofthetravelingparents #travelwithkids #familytravel #francewithenfants

The megaliths in Carnac, France date from 5000 BC, almost 3000 years before Stonehenge, just as nomadic communities were beginning to transition to stationary farming at the beginning of the Neolithic period. Unfortunately, their meaning or purpose has mostly been lost after 7,000 years. For more information on Neolithic megaliths, I’ve included a link to a documentary by a group called Spinal Tap as a link in my profile. Enjoy. #ohhowtheydancedthelittlechildrenofstonehenge #carnac #megalith #roadschool #worldschool #woldschooling #schoolofrocks #travelwithkids #familytravel

Almost immediately after the “woe-is-me”/bed bugs/poop water on the floor post earlier in the week, things turned around completely. With a regained confidence, we’ve been feeling a lot more fearless, possibly too much so.
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This afternoon we busted a u-turn when we saw a sign for a pumpkin festival. We strolled right in and plopped the kids down in line for face painting. As we queried Google translate for “She would like her face painted like a magical fairy princess,” people started talking and gesturing to us in French. Armed only with our best French phrase, “I’m sorry, I don’t speak French,” they switched to miming (they must teach it in school?) from which we figured out that we needed to buy tickets. Of course, that started an entire other miming session at that booth.
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In the end, all was resolved easily and with smiles all around. Both girls got a pumpkin on the cheek, a tiny one to play with and one to carve tomorrow, and we had another experience we likely would never have put ourselves in had we not decided to #travelwithkids. #familytravel #outofourgourds #maquillagevisage #francetravel

Mae is very much three right now. The slightest misstep from any of us can result in her “going boneless,” flopping onto the floor and screaming her head off. But two seconds later, she can be skipping along the walls of a medieval walled city. Of course, a ride on an awesome carousel of vintage vehicles and creatures and a chocolat drizzled waffle can help. In leu of a picture of the waffle, I’ve included one of a double cab LandRover Defender which is almost as sweet. #familytravel #travelwithkids #roadschool #worldschooling #worldschool #stmartinderé

We’re ready! #fenchpeoplethinkwerenuts #nomadhalloween #holidaysontheroad #notexpectingtrickortreaters

A few days ago, we started panicking a little about Halloween. Last year, we’d scheduled the entire final leg of our two years in the Airstream around getting back to Petaluma in time for Halloween. Even better, we’d both best friends from home and road friends @livingistheadventure/@h_livingistheadventure with us. The kids had loved it.
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This year, we Googled “Halloween in France” and determined that enthusiasm for it was hit and miss, many people feeling it was an “American holiday” and hence being dismissive. Nevertheless, we’d stopped on our drive yesterday at a larger supermarket and scoured the single display of Halloween plastic stuff to assemble the beginnings of a couple costumes, a Viking for Wynne and a pirate for Mae.
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Last night, we’d wound into the hills of Bordeaux, following GPS coordinates down one lane roads to a campsite close to some prehistoric cave paintings. We’d arrived in the dark, honestly not even sure if we were near a village. This morning, Wynne and I walked toward a cluster of buildings and found the sign pic 2. Google Translate’s “live” translation isn’t perfect, but it told us enough about the evening’s activities to be relieved and excited.
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After completing the costumes with a brown pillowcase from the camper, some grey garbage bags for a Viking hat and belts and a cereal box shield, we gathered with parents of 15 or 20 other kids in front of a local restaurant in the village at 6 pm. When the “Riders of the Vézère” - a miniature pony pulling a cart the kids took turns riding on - showed up, we all marched behind them through the narrow alleys of stone houses, looking for those with “candles” (lights) in the windows and screaming for “bonbons.” Thank you Saint-Léon s/ Vézère! An amazing unexpected Halloween experience! Hope all yours were (or will soon be - time zones) awesome too!
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#familytravel #travelwithkids #halloweeninfrance #saintleonsurvezere #sisterhoodofthetravelingparents

We’d detoured inland toward the Vézère Valley in search of prehistoric cave paintings. In fact, “Cro-Magnon” man got his name after being discovered in 1868 in a “cro” (“hole” in a Regional French dialect) on a guy named “Magnon’s” property in this valley.
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The first cave we visited was at Rouffignac and consisted of an electric train ride a kilometer underground to which Ann said “nuh-uh.” That turned out to be a smart as she and Mae played in the camper while Wynne and I spent an hour inside a really dark cave listening to a tour in French. In the end, we saw some very impressive original 16,000 year old sketches of mammoths, rhinoceroses, and horses that would have occupied the area in that period.
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I point out that these were “original” because another famous cave, Lascaux, has actually been reproduced for tours and the original closed. However, we arrived at Lascaux II just in time to learn that the only English tour of the day had left 30 mins before and were sent down the road to the Lascaux International Centre, call it “Lascaux III,” a super modern building with yet another full-size reproduction. After having to troll for parking in the huge lots, we skeptically booked the next English tour three hours from then.
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Working on their own “cave paintings” back in the camper, smearing on the same ocre pigmentation used by the ancient artists, turned out to be the highlight of the day, since the tours which launched at 6 minute intervals all day spent most of their one hour time in the cave replica waiting for the previous group to move on. Ann once again wisely bailed with Mae. Imagining the real ceilings of chambers and passageways teeming with red, yellow and black prehistoric animals, hinting at what the valley must have looked like filled with game for these early hunters, was powerful, but it took some vision with the chatter of tour groups ahead and behind. .
A couple educational books from the gift shop and the painted stone tablets, and we left with a solid road/worldschool experience, but I’m not sure I can recommend the visits we did with kids under 6. Still a nice progression back in time from the Neolithic stone alignments we saw in Carnac.

If all goes to plan (admittedly not likely on a 200 mile day), we’ll leave France after almost three weeks and find our first campsite in Spain tonight! #rveurope #adventuresofdaveandannandmclouis #campingcar #mapporn