Pretty Perfect Pezenas - Arriving at Maison Alaric!

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At around 3pm local time we finally arrived at Maison Alaric! Although in true holiday we did have a slight dilemma when we arrived. With Stella's bad thoughts of 'too good to be true, the house doesn't exist' running through our heads, we arrived at the road unable to locate the house. After a few moments of wondering the 'adults' finally discovered they had driven right past the massive sign. Doh! Our official arrival time was not until 5pm so as we were early we parked our cars and walked the short stroll into town, sat at the first restaurant and ordered drinks. The adults table consisted of Rob, Stella, Dudley, Vicky, Katherine, and Andrew whilst the kids table was Dylan, Brandon, Emma, Alice, Lewis, Elliot and I. Even though I am 18 I still consider myself to be a child! The 2 hour wait was horrible, whilst we were all deep in conversation, photo taking and games we were all desperate to get into the pool. A little while later Karen, Graham and Grace arrived, Grace's attempt to make Dylan jumped miserably failed thanks to Lewis but our game of hangman continued soon after. At 5pm exactly we began walking back to the house leaving the majority of the adults behind to continue drinking. Upon arrival we all stood in awe of the size of the house and immediately ran to take a look at our rooms and the rest of the house. After finally reached the pool the excitement set in and we were all ready to jump right in...until we realised the adults had the keys to the cars which held our swimming costumes and towels. The heat and excitement caused us all to decide that we didn't need the normal practise of swimming costumes anyway and since we all came from adventurous, outgoing, if not slightly strange, families we all decided YOLO :P and that we would just jump right in fully clothed. The feeling of the pool was fantastic, after we got over the initial shock that it was not heated.

Eventually the adults arrived, the look of both amusement and shock took over their faces when they stepped outside to a pool full of fully clothed children and pool noodles. We all clambered out of the pool to dry off and help unload the cars and unpack, this allowed us to properly settle in and begin our holiday officially.

Maison Alaric was a beautiful house with a fantastic marble staircase and three floors! The top floor held three bedrooms which belonged to Rob and Stella, Karen and Graham and Grace, Emma, Alice and I. The top floor also held one toilet, as well as the ensuites, and a small working area with a desk and computer space. The second room held 2 bedrooms, a toilet, ensuites, and a massive room which had space for a dining room, seating area around the fire place and a living room with TV leading onto the balcony. This is by far the largest room I have ever been in! floor space wise you could probably fit my whole 2 bedroom house in it! The second floor was led to by the T shaped marble staircase and also held an outdoor courtyard. The ground floor held a spare bedroom, garage, 2 bedrooms, small living room, large kitchen and entrance area. I will post photos and videos so you can view the house, should you wish too. The house fits 22 overall, even though there was just 16 of us, and is available from a google search of Maison Alaric.

I shared a room with my sister Emma and our friends Grace and Alice (who are cousins). Our room had two single beds, a bunk bed, balcony and en-suite bathroom. As the eldest Grace and I took the two single beds whilst Emma took the bottom bunk and Alice the top. Our balcony had a view out over the second floor courtyard and views of Pezenas. Our bathroom had a large mirror with two sinks and space for toiletries, an electric toilet and en extremely small bath. After viewing the other grand bathrooms with massive baths I was shocked to find that our bath looked like it was made for a baby to bathe in! Whilst it was surprising, and slightly uncomfortable, it did not effect on the holiday over all.

As it was our first night and no one fancied cooking we all got dressed up and decided to eat out. Grace and I both wore our maxi dresses with sandles. We strolled the two minute walk into town and decided to eat at the restaurant we earlier had drinks at, adventurous I know! As usual kids sat one end and adults the other. On one side of the table sat Elliot, Alice, Me, Lewis, Stella, Rob, Dudley and Vicky whilst on the other side was Graham, Karen, Andrew, Katherine, Emma, Grace, Dylan and Brandon. The majority opted for pepperoni pizza whilst some had steak. After the meal we all headed back home and after a few drinks around the pool went to bed, ready for our first full day in the house.

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