France

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After an overnight trip across the English Channel to France, we drove to the farmhouse of our French relatives, Nat and Cathy, and their children Alex, Suzanne and Emilie. The 17th century farmhouse came with three hens, a rooster, two cats and various other animals, as well as a tractor, copse of small trees, orchard, trampoline and redcurrant and blackcurrant bushes. It is near La Mesiere, a small village. My Uncle Stu, Auntie Isa and their children Julian and Lucas were visiting from Australia too, so we spent the weekend with lots of family.

The next day we went to Bayeux to see the Bayeux tapestry and the Bayeux Cathedral. The Cathedral had a crypt underneath. I took a video of the whole building, which took up a lot of space because the Cathedral was huge. The tapestry was long. The pictures and stitching were really good. After that we went upstairs to a museum to learn about the theories of how it was made and by whom. The whole tapestry uses three types of dye to make ten different colours. We watched a short film about the history of the tapestry and the story it tells.

We had lunch in a roadside cafe and then headed to a beach in Omaha Bay (Collville). The beach was fun but we had to leave our sand creations as the tide came in fast.

On Saturday we had a big family lunch. Pierre and Nicole Petour, Cathy and Isa's parents, visited us from a village near Rennes so there were even more people. To prepare for the lunch Cathy and Mum went to a local market to buy salami, cheese, meat and vegetables.

We (Samantha, Nathan, Alex, Suzanne, Julian and Lucas) built a village in the forest in one corner of the farm. We divided it into four territories, each border marked with sticks and reinforced with dead brambles. There was Lucas's territory, where his mum helped him build a cabin with a thatched grass roof, and Alex and Suzanne's territory, where they build a big stick cabin and a little house for Shrimp (Crevette), the big ginger cat that wandered around the copse. Nathan and Julian's territory took up most of the forest, with roads, two grass cabins, a bear trap and an unlit fire. My territory was a thick strip at the far end of the forest, the only bit that had a lot of grass. I built a hermit cabin in the very corner of the forest and built a fire with the sticks people paid me to use my grass, with Shrimp keeping me company. Shrimp also almost caught a baby vole too, but it escaped down a hole, which she pined by for ages.

We played 'Rabbit Garou' on the trampoline until it was almost dark. Just before we went to sleep one of the chicks under the broody hen started to hatch.

Before we left the next morning I got to hold the chick. It was fluffy and warm, with dark down, and so adorable!

While travelling back to England on the ferry we learnt that Aunt Kari had passed away. Our thoughts are with our New Zealand and Australia family and friends.

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Comments

[Allan Stephenson]

Hello Megan
I have enjoyed reading about your trip to France

[Allan Stephenson]

Hello Megan
I have enjoyed reading about your trip to France