Isle d'Oléron

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Our good friends invited us to vacation with them in France.  We didn't have the heart to say no.  We maintained a schedule that was very rigorous.  We started out every morning with a bike ride to the bakery where we bought more bread than one family should eat in one day but somehow we managed.  It was delicious.  Then we went to the pool, the beach and at some point the ice cream stand. 

Our first day there the kids had an impromptu swimming party.  I don't know who was pushed in first but they had fun. Their clothing held onto the seawater smell all week.  





We visited a lighthouse where we could climb to the top.  It was quite crowded and the stairs were narrow so we had to wait to climb both up and down.  Note to others who may climb lighthouse stairs:  don't wear a skirt/dress.  It could be embarrassing. Luckily for me I always under-dress.

There were over 200 steps.  That's more than my house.  I have only 100 (give or take a few).






Back at the beach Ryan tried his hand at sailing and loved it.  He had a lesson and the next day he and our friend Gery went out on this sailboat on their own.  At one point Ryan ended up overboard but he made it back on the boat safely.  Nicholas really wanted to go sailing but I think we'll let Ryan get a little more experience before we join him.
While the big boys were sailing one morning we went for a long walk along the beach.  With the tide cycle you can see a different part of the beach throughout different times of the day.  When the water was low we went on a rescue mission to toss the living starfish back to the sea. Hundreds of these little guys were saved.

We saw many interesting things, dead and alive.




The afternoon beach time was for swimming, building sandcastles, and shell collecting with the occasional badminton game thrown in.



 


I could get used to island vacations.

Comments

Shana Hamblin said…
Sounds like a wonderful time. I also could get used to island vacations.
October 31, 2011 at 4:56 AM
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