On the road for six days

What a great holiday we've had - three whole days in Mèze, the south of France, and a day getting there, and one and a half getting home. I had brought both my cameras, which was lucky, since I had forgotten both recharger and extra memory card (and toothbrushes..).....But I still managed to take a few photos :). I guess some of the themes for these three days would be: children, food, sightseeing, relaxing. I've chosen to make a few collages to save time and space - pls click on them for better view of the smaller photos.

Day one (Monday the first) was hard work - leaving home at 6.15 and driving for an hour to the trainstation. Not our normal one, but this way we gained half an hour of sleep in the morning and didn't have to change trains - I thought it was worth it! We got to the airport well on time, the flight went nicely, no earproblems, but once we got to Paris the smoothness disappeared. Had to queue for a really long time for the traintickets, once at the counter the computer got stuck...but we managed to catch the train I had planned to take, since it was delayed. Just before we got to Montpellier, it stopped. It was sooo frustrating to sit and wait for half an hour at the station before it. D was sleeping, thank God, but I was really exhausted. Finally it moved again, my friend met us at the railwaystation and drove us to her house in Mèze. We had arrived, after 18 hours of travelling!
When we got up, everyone else had left for work or school (kids begin school at three years old in France!) so we had the house to ourselves, which was really nice. We had a bath, checked out the garden and just enjoyed the sun! I almost fainted of happiness seeing lemons on a lemontree, the palmtrees and a mimosa in bloom! D was equally happy to find a tractor, a bike and some other toys in the garden :).










When Rocio got back, we went to pick up her kids and headed for the beach for a picnic. I learned Mèze was right on a lagoon, Etang de Thau, well-known for its oysters and seafood!
















What a lovely start of our holiday - the kids were running around with each other and we could sit and chat. Rocio has a son, who is five and a daughter who just turned four - in other words, almost the same age as D.The kids' needs set the pace for the days - Rocio's children still slept in the afternoon, so we had to get back for that. I didn't mind at all, it was just so nice to have someone to talk to all the time and feel like we were living a French "normal life" - despite the fact that my friend is Spanish :). The language was a bit of a problem, but I know enough Spanish to make myself understood most of the time, and I also studied French in school, so I can say simple things and understand a bit. D seemed to prefer French, he refused to repeat Spanish words, but managed to squeeze out "Salut, ca va, merci, bonne nuit" for instance when I asked him to :). Rocio and I speak English, though.

Wednesday was a rainy day, unfortunately - but I wasn't too sad - it wasn't snow :). On Tuesday (our first) morning I was drifting in and out of sleep and at one point I dreamt it was snowing in the garden - it was terrible, that was the only wish I had had for the week, no snow!

We had planned to drive to Sète, a town on the other side of the lagoon, and we did go there also, but quite late. It was nice to have a lazy morning. On the way we stopped for coffee at Rocio's friend's place, drove around Sète and then returned home for the nap. In the afternoon Rocio drove us around Mèze - lovely small alleys and old buildings. I was so positively surprised - I hadn't found anything on the internet about the place and had thought it would only be a modern suburb of Montpellier.

In the evening I finally saw Rocio's husband, who is French and whom I've met about nine years ago when he and Rocio visited Helsinki. Rocio and I had become friends a few years before when she worked in Helsinki for a year - in fact it was her that introduced me to salsa :). When the kids had fallen asleep we had wine, ate, talked and laughed until late at night - lovely, lovely :).


On Thursday the weather was better and we went to the market and then I also conducted an interview. I really felt like writing articles and taking photos for them, even if that hadn't been part of my plans at all. My problems nowadays are 1) finding time to write 2) finding a paper to sell an article to. So let's see if I'll managed to sell any - anyway, it was nice to get into the right "mood"!!
















In the evening we picked up the boy from his tennislesson, spent a bit of time on the beach and then Rocio drove us into the countryside just outside the town.
Friday morning it was time to take off again, unfortunately for us, but I think a relief for the family. The kids were getting a bit nervous with D playing with their toys :). I think I've also heard a saying about guests starting to smell after three days :).

I was so relieved to have a friend pick us up at the airport in Helsinki - we stayed overnight in her flat and then continued home on Saturday. Only to arrive to a house where the temperature was 5 degrees...I had lowered the temperature too much on the oilburner and it was freezing cold inside :(, but upstairs the radiators were really hot, for some reason, so we didn't have to be cold while sleeping. I had expected the weather to continue like it was when we left (around zero), but it had actually been - 20 and snowing as well. So it was quickly back to reality - of course the chopped wood had run out, so I had to start doing "exercises" immediately. I managed to raise the temperature so it was almost normal when my mother got back today. D insisted on skiing today, so here ' as a contrast - a collage of our day at home after the short, but ah so sweet holiday!