Camping

I've been in a little rut because we just spent five days in Annecy, well Talloires actually, even better, and I have the montagne blues! We all miss living in the mountains. It all worked into a mini break because Seb had a few clients to see during the week in Annecy so he had a hotel for a few days and we tagged along. So while he shmoozed in a sweaty usine, we slept in and basked in the luxe of a real bath and buffet breakfasts. During the day I sat by the lake with the kids and drew in my sketchbook and pillaged from the English book library in the hotel. We decided it would be fun to stay the weekend as well and heck why not Monday too, but since we weren’t paying for the luxe after Friday we moved from the three star hotel into camping for three days. I thought it would be rough to switch but really it wasn’t that bad.

We bought a new tent, one of those amazing pop out tents that Doc introduced me and Little S to when she came to visit. The boys camped in Little S’s bedroom, had a great time, and ever since then S has talked about tents. We bought the Family Sized version with actual rooms and which you can stand up in, which is awesome if you've spent years of camping all bent over as we have, agh misery! After we bought it I talked to my friend Dee and she gasped "you'll be in hell trying to refold it!" because she has a mini one and hers has given her some serious grief over the past year and she’s had to return to Decathalon to get them to show her how to do it. So we stressed a lot the whole weekend and joked that maybe we’d end up leaving it on the site or kill each other trying to refold it. But in the end it really wasn’t hard at all as long as you're two people and if you follow the instructions to a T. I have a theory that the bigger version of these tents are actually easier to manipulate.



Since we had three rooms in the tent Little S had his own room, Charlotte hers with the Graco set up and then we slept in the middle of the tent. The only snag was Charlotte because she was a little freaked out being in a weird place and she cried each time she went to bed, no wait she wailed each time she went to bed. Since on two of the nights it was late we couldn’t let her go on crying (at the risk of facing the angry camping mob), we had to resort to those silly things that people do to get their kids to sleep like driving around in the car and rocking her (and feeding her Cheezits). One night she refused to sleep at all so we just stuck her in between us which was nightmarish because if there’s anything worse than sleeping with Charlotte it’s sleeping with Charlotte in a tent. In hindsight we realise we should have stuck her in the tent a lot earlier and let her cry it out while people were having dinner.



Even if this all sounds awful it wasn’t at all because we had such a good time otherwise. There’s nothing like waking up in the mountains and cooking and eating outside. The kids loved it so much that they didn’t want to leave. They ran around half naked and rolled in the grass, and I loved it too because I thought they were experiencing the childhood I had, total freedom and liberty to be outside in the open air. During the day we hiked and swam in the lake and at least one evening we drove up to Montmin with our friends who came for one night and had a nice apéro on a picnic blanket with a view of what heaven must look like (if you’re really very good).



We’re thinking of taking off again this Summer on a much longer trip now that we have all the gear (nearly 500 euros worth of camping stuff!) and a list of all the things we forgot (a lighter, hammer, dishsoap). I think we’ll probably stick to the mountains so maybe we’ll go back to the alps and then on to Italy for a half week. If anybody knows of any good spots let me know in the comments and if you'd like some addresses of good places in France I'm all about sharing so drop me a mail.