Our Easter Weekend

Posted by Rosie

In France, Good Friday is not a Bank Holiday and the Easter school holidays take place so many weeks after Christmas, regardless of when Easter falls. With Easter being fairly early this year it meant that the boys don't start their Easter break until this coming Friday evening (and for schools in other regions it is even later) ... so whilst people in the UK had a day off and were tucking into hot cross buns, here in Normandy we were at work and the boys were in lessons.  We did however take an Easter delivery, a new sheep and her lamb.

Mabel or Korma Katie?

They are yet to be named with some dispute between Simon and me as I mentioned yesterday.  He wants them called Korma Kate and Vindaloo Vinny and I like Mabel and Monty.  What do you think?

Saturday was also work as usual getting the gite ready to greet guests.  However by Sunday we were able to celebrate Easter and had a lovely late lunch with friends ... one of whom, I found out, learnt much of her pub trade in the pub I used to drink in when I lived in Gloucestershire!  The New Inn in Coln St Aldwyns in case you were interested.

Luckily in France Easter Monday is a Bank Holiday (Jour Férié) so with no school, I arranged an Easter Egg Hunt for the boys and the children in the gite.  I think they all look sufficiently pleased with their haul don't you?

Searching for Easter eggs

5 happy children at Eco-Gites of Lenault

After lunch we packed up the car and headed to the beach with the dogs ... as did vast numbers of other people it seemed and the beach was really quite busy.

Ouistreham Beach

It was certainly MUCH busier than two weeks ago when freezing temperatures kept all but the hardiest of folks away.  On that visit Harry didn't want to go in the water and his enthusiasm hadn't much improved by Monday.  The boys, in comparison, were keen and whilst we stayed wrapped up nice and warm they donned wetsuits and went in.  Harry didn't follow them, although I think he actually wanted to!

Some-one is not keen to go in ...

... but he does want to really!

We worked out though that it was the waves he didn't like and he quite happily follow Tom into some of the large pools left as the tide went out.

That's better - no waves.

For history lovers, this beach at Ouistreham, north of Caen in part of the D-Day Landing Beaches known as Sword Beach. On June 6th 1944 thousands of British troops landed on the beach to begin what would be the start of the end of World War II.  It's hard to believe, looking at the calm sea and yellow sand, what carnage took place here just over 70 years ago.

How was your Easter weekend.  Did you manage to get out and about or did you stay home and eat too much chocolate?