Our holiday – day1 &2: the outbound journey

Just back from our holiday to Brittany and keen to get posting the mountain of great photos! We went away for a week with Granny and Grandpa to stay in a cottage in the grounds of a Chateau. Given the amount of blog material I am going to post each day in turn.

M took the Friday off even though our ferry sailing wasn’t until the evening, but it was a real help as there was alot of packing to do. In the preceding week I had been laying out outfits and other stuff we would need in the spare room. Incidentally – I laid out my favourite suitable outfits and then had not much to wear for the week leading up to the hols, I laid out Fidget’s outfits – she had twice the amount needed and still had spare lovely clothes!!

Anyway, Friday was spent packing up, then in the late afternoon we got the girls dressed in their pyjamas and got their milk, then into the car and away. The first leg was to drive down to Exeter service station to meet up with Granny and Grandpa before driving onto Plymouth for the ferry cross to Roscoff.

On the way down the M5 we spotted a really weird phenomena in the sky (later finding out it is called a halo effect), there was a patch of coloured light burning through the clouds that was definitely not the sun – it was quite spooky at first!

Fidget was awake when we met Granny and Grandpa and was very excited about our holiday. We drove on down to Plymouth in convoy, got through the initial passport booth and our two cars were directed to different queues. Granny and Grandpa got on to the ferry well before us. We were sat at the front of our lane watching everyone else go on – with Squidge screaming in the back and Fidget wailing that she wanted to get on the boat – we soon joined in the chorus crying that we too just wanted to get on the boat! Eventually (not long before 11pm) we were let on. I picked up a bag and a sleeping Squidge. M took a rucksac and a tired but excited Fidget and we trudged up several flights of stairs to find our cabin.

Granny and Grandpa’s cabin was next to ours, we had only been able to get a 2 birth cabin with cot for the outward journey. We stood outside the cabin and I opened the door expecting a room and did something of a double take when I opened the door to what appeared to be a cupboard with 2 beds and cot stored in it. Once we squeezed in it was not too bad at all – it even had an ensuite! Squidge went into the cot (taking up all spare floor space). M was intending to share with Fidget - using his sleeping superpowers to perch on the edge of the slim bed and still sleep. However – when the light went out it was pitch black and Fidget freaked out bigtime. I was able to calm her down but M had already hopped up to the top bunk, and the 3 of them all fell asleep.

The bed was really slim, the sea was rough – I didn’t feel ill but had my foot braced against a small side table so as not to fall out. Fidget kept elbowing me in the face. At one point she was trying to push herself across the top of my head (in her sleep).

At 3.30am I checked my phone to find the time – I had not slept at all. I had a brainwave and flipped around to put my head at the other end – I still had to brace against the bedside shelf but I had more room and did fall asleep. At 5am the ship’s wake up call started. We all dressed – while I was impressed by how they had prised ensuite facilities into such a small space – I couldn’t face the faffing about. We met up with Granny and Grandpa and had breakfast.

Breakfast on the ferry…

We arrived at Roscoff at 7am French time.

It was a beautiful morning, the valleys were filled with mist and the views were fab as we drove along.

It was not a long drive down to where we were staying, but we weren’t able to check in until the afternoon so we had decided to visit a beach on the way. M and his family used to holiday in Brittany and so we visited a beach that they had camped at a number of times when M was a teen. A good surfing beach! Porz ar Vag.

The beach was wide with soft sand and gently shelving – good paddling with gently lapping waves. Squidge and Fidget were really excited about exploring…

There were some cool rock pools for exploring…

M and I left Granny and Grandpa to be the tour guides for Fidget and Squidge while we had a snooze on the beach…

We had a couple of bucket and spade sets that went down well…

We packed up and went across to the next bay for lunch at a place specialising in pizza and moules! (not in same dish). Very friendly place – we all tried our best to speak French and the staff were very patient and very taken with the girls. Pizza was had all round and yummed down. I ordered tea after the lunch and it was terrible – made a mental note not to bother with that for the rest of the week.

Then drove to Manour de Hilguey. The main house was very impressive. Our cottage was in the grounds and was really well laid out for us. Granny and Grandpa had a double with ensuite and we had a double next to a big family bathroom with the girls next to us sharing a big twin room. We had a wander round the grounds – finding the outdoor pool and having a quick paddle in the baby pool. The girls went down to bed after a bath – both worn out. The adults then had tea outside on our little patio – bread, cheese and wine – yum! Before bed, M and I had a further walk round. We sat by the outdoor pool – dangling our legs in and looking at the sky turning pink to lilac to blue.