We’ve just got back from our annual 2 week holiday, this year at the Siblu Bonne Anse Plage site (thank you Tesco’s vouchers!) in La Palmyre which is in the Charente-Maritime region of France, just south of La Rochelle. It was a great holiday, lovely weather, and a nice site with good facilities close to the beaches. The girls really enjoyed staying in the static caravan and there was loads of room for them to run around with a terrace area to sit on and eat dinner.

Among the highlights were La Palmyre zoo, the largest in Europe, which exceeded our expectations and we spent the whole day there, almost 8 hours, the girls loved looking at all the animals. We spent time at the beaches of La Grand-Cote and the Cote Sauvage and also went to the Aquarium at La Rochelle and had a couple of trips to the Ile d’Oleron.

I was also introduced to a new drink, Pastis de Marseilles. I met a group of French holidaymakers in a neighbouring caravan on our first night and ended up drinking and eating with them after they borrowed our BBQ. Their preferred tipple, being from the south of France, was this stuff, made by Ricard, which they heavily diluted with water. After drinking a few of their beers and the bottle of Pineau de Charentes I’d brought over I decided to sample the anniseed firewater for myself. In my best pigeon Franglais (thankfully one of the guys, Jerome, spoke half decent English) I asked if I could sample some and then, to their amazement, proceeded to drink a number of shots neat, explaining that the Brits don’t water down their alcohol! Fortunately (for me) it was their last night as I’m not sure how many times I could have rolled in at 1am and gotten away with it!

Just had a quick look round the garden and I can’t believe how things have grown, there’s been a fair bit of rain here whilst we’ve been away apparently. Bit more on that later. It’s always a shame to have to come back from holiday but good to be back to home comforts as well.

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