Silent Sunday - May 17th 2015

Silent Sunday - November 2nd 2014

25 MORE Child Friendly Activities to do at Eco-Gites of Lenault

Posted by Rosie

I recently drew up a list of 25 things you can do when visiting Eco-Gites of Lenault that do not involve leaving the gite at all and often are totally free.  However I quickly realised there was far more I could suggest so here are 25 MORE Child Friendly Activities to do:  

1.  See how many bird songs you can hear
2.  Ride a bike on the boules pitch or up and down our track
3.  Have breakfast, lunch and dinner in the garden
4.  Play Tag or Hide and Seek
5.  Play with all the toys we provide

Some of the toys at Eco-Gites of Lenault

6.  Do a Nature's Treasure Hunt
7.  Make leaf pictures 
8.  Toast marshmallows
9.   Do a puzzle
10. Feed the chickens
11. Make a photo diary
12. Play football

Football

13.  Have a race
14.  Have a water fight
15.  Have a snail race
16.  Paddle in a stream 

Paddling in our local stream

17.  Blow dandelion clocks
18.  Look for animal tracks
19.  Learn how to use a compass
20.  Jump on the trampoline

Fun on the trampoline

21.  Make a den
22.  Stay up and watch the bats
23.  Lie back on the grass and watch the clouds pass over
24.  Write and perform a play or have a fashion show

And finally:

25.  Turn off all the computers, TVs, phones, DSs etc, remove all headphones, disconnect from everyone except yourselves and have some quality family time together!

25 Child Friendly Activities to do at Eco-Gites of Lenault

Posted by Rosie

We all know going on holiday can be a great time to spend some quality time together.  We also all know how family days out can add up. So here at Eco-Gites of Lenault we have come up with a list of 25 things you can do when visiting here that do not involve leaving the gite at all and often are totally free.

25 Child Friendly Activities to do at Eco-Gites of Lenault

1. Blow bubbles together
2. Have a picnic under the trees
3. Fly a kite
4. Read lots of new books from our library of children's books (there are plenty of adult books too)
5. Play in the sandpit
  

6. Search for wild flowers
7. Play Hide and Seek
8. Collect eggs
9. Play a board game together (there's lots in the gite for all ages)
10. Pick blackberries
11. Go for a walk
12. Stroke a pig
 

13. Jump in puddles
14. Stay up and star gaze (there is very little light pollution here)
15. Go butterfly hunting
16. Throw a stick for Poppy and Saari (our dogs)
17. Paddle in the nearby stream
18. Draw some of our animals
19. Collect leaves
20. Make some natural art

 
21. Go tractor spotting
22. Have a race
23. Look for 4 leaf clovers (Tom often finds them)
24. Make a den
25. Make a family holiday diary

Lots of these things you can also do at home, right now - so why not put aside an hour or so and have some car-free family fun very soon!  Oh and there are 25 more things here!

Linking up with Letkidsbekids.  Do pop over there and see what other children based inspiration you can find!

 

Then and Now

Posted by Rosie

I said on Saturday how it has been seven years since the boys first saw what was to become Eco-Gites of Lenault.  We moved here 2 months later and since then things have certainly changed a bit.  Here are 6 double pictures of the gite and grounds then and now to show you what I mean.

What was to become the gite was an old hay barn with cattle shed and storage room.  It's a bit more habitable now it has been converted I think you might agree!

The gite

Next to the gite was an old bakery with crumbling walls and a leaky tin roof.  This is now our freezer and storage room and in summer the upstairs is where friends can sleep if they want, so long as they don't mind the odd spider!

The Old Bakery next to the gite

In the gite to be, upstairs the entire barn was full of hay, but we managed to scrabble up and get this photo of what was to become the mezzanine bedroom.

The mezzanine

Outside it was all very overgrown and full of dilapidated sheds and rubbish.  We cleared and flattened the ground to make the play area:

The Play Area

The old storage room is now the gite kitchen:

The Gite Kitchen

And the old cattle barn I mentioned is the gite living room with the cosy fireplace for winter visits:

The Gite Living Room

So that is my story for today - the story of how an old unused barn became a gite that has since welcomed over 70 families from 14 countries worldwide.  Hopefully we will welcome many more over the next 7 years.  Will you be one of them?

Toddlers VERY Welcome

Posted by Rosie

Toddlers are VERY Welcome at Eco-Gites of Lenault

 

We are the parents of 2 boys very close in age so we have done the whole "holidays with two tiny children malarkey" and to be honest they were not always as stress-free as we would have liked them to have been. There was the gite where we were met with the owners mopping a soaking wet and very slippery floor and bedrooms were damp (they were advertised as toddler friendly!). There was the gite where there were no comfy sofas to relax on once the children had gone to bed and to be honest there was rarely a gite that provided many of the things toddlers need, so we had to pack travel cots, booster seats, potties, changing mats, toys etc etc. It was a long list and we therefore needed a roof rack to get everything in, promptly lining the pockets of the ferry companies who charge extra for cars with roof racks.

When we set up Eco-Gites of Lenault therefore, we were able to draw long and hard on our experiences and provide you and your family with a toddler-friendly holiday that hopefully makes things much easier for you. Here's just some of the things we think will make your holiday here pass without some of the stress we have previously suffered:

1. The gite is kitted out with much of the stuff that you need for your toddlers. From high chairs to children's crockery and cutlery to stair gates; from a large outdoor play area to toys and books we hope we have covered just about everything.

Toddler toys

2. We are your only neighbours and the walls between us are very thick so don't panic if your little ones decide to have the screaming heebie-geebies at bedtime. We won't be disturbed.

3.  There is a large play area with equipment and toys for all ages and just a few metres away from your private garden. Mum and Dad can relax with a glass of wine whilst the children wear themselves out on the trampoline, in the sand pit or on the swings. This area also includes a hard-standing area, great for learning how to ride a bike or playing boules.

Our toddler friendly play area

4. Our front drive is over 300m long and the road it joins is incredibly quiet. Traffic noise is most definitely not going to be an issue on your stay here.

5. We supply and use eco-friendly cleaning products in the gite that are safe for everyone and safely stored away in a toddler-proof cupboard.

6. Heaven forbid you or you children are ill or hurt whilst on holiday but it can happen. We can direct you to the nearest doctor or hospital and are here to help you in the best way we can with any eventuality that may cross your path during your stay with us.

Learning about chickens

7. We can hopefully provide memories of a holiday that your children will remember forever - collecting eggs, seeing newborn animals, cuddling a piglet or eating fresh fruit and veg freshly harvested from the garden are just some of the things that stay with children a long time.

8. Finally, as I said earlier, we have done the holidays in France and at their youngest Ben was 3 months and Tom was 19 months. We had some great holidays but we also had problems and emergencies so we've used this experience to provide what we hope will be a great toddler friendly holidays for you here at Eco-Gites of Lenault.  A holiday you and your children will remember long after you have gone home and the holiday where you didn't need a roof rack and a trailer to get away to France with your toddlers.

For further details on toddler friendly holidays please have a look at our website Eco-Gites of Lenault or email us here

Children-Friendly Holidays in Normandy

Posted by Rosie

Whilst children love haring around in around in our play area and parents love relaxing in the garden you can't really come to Normandy and not see some of our fantastic attractions can you?  There is a comprehensive tourist information pack in the gite but to save you having to trawl through everything, I thought I would help you out with a few of our most local attractions and things to do, with an emphasis on those which are particularly suitable for younger children.

Festyland

Festyland

This is our local theme park about 45 minutes away on the edge of Caen.  It is ideal for children of all ages with a good range of rides for toddlers, young and older children.  It may not be as big as Disneyland but you will hardly have to queue meaning you'll fit in loads during your visit.

Girafou Soft play Area

In case the weather does turn wet this soft play area in Caen will allow youngsters to run off some energy whilst they wait for the sun to come out again.

Miniaiture Railway at Clécy

Thomas fans will delight at this wonderful working model railway just 15 minutes from us.  And afterwards you can enjoy an ice cream on the river front at Clécy and watch older children and adults kayak down the river or take younger children on a pedalo or little motor boat.

Zoo de Jurques

Zoo de Jurques

What child doesn't like a zoo and Zoo de Jurques is just a short 20minute drive away from Eco-Gites.  It has plenty of shade so makes a good trip out if the weather is hot.  As well as the animals there are plenty of keeper led feeding times as well as meet the snakes ... if you dare.  The restaurant area has recently been refurbished and we can vouch for how good their chips are!

Local swimming pools

Many of the local towns have swimming pools and virtually all have a baby pool as well as a shallow pool and "big" pool. At Condé-sur-Noirea just 20 minutes away the roof is rolled back from the indoor pool in hot weather and at Thury Harcourt, also 20 minutes away you can sunbathe on loungers in the garden area.

Beaches

Child Friendly Beach at Ouistreham

We are an hour away from Normandy's wonderful sandy beaches which stretch for mile upon mile. The sea is shallow and calm, many of the beaches have life guards in the summer and if you are looking to save some money there are not many beach-front shops so your children will not be nagging you to buy all sorts of things the moment you arrive.  Get there before lunchtime and you may well find the beaches almost deserted.

Falaise Castle

1066 and all that.  Falaise is the birthplace of William the Conqueror and has been rebuilt over the last 100 years to something close to it's original form.  New interactive displays using tablets supplied for you make this a very exciting visit for children of all ages and their accompanying adults.  There are plenty of towers to climb and everyone can imagine what it would have been like fight a marauding dragon or be a damsel in need of rescue!

Château de Vendeuvre 

So the the house and museum may not be of great interest to younger visitors but the gardens are sure to be a hit - there is a maze, a grotto a surprise water garden and lots of space to run and let off steam.  We've not been yet (it's on our list for this year) but lots of our guests have and all have come back saying it is lovely there. 

Quiet country lanes

The Countryside

You cannot come to Normandy and not be enthralled by it's beautiful countryside.  Rolling hills, steams and rivers, woods and lakes, quiet country laves as well as delightful hidden villages just waiting for you to stumble upon them.  You can take a stroll with your family straight from our back gate along a huge network of footpaths and let little (and older) ones discover the beauties for themselves. Say hello to a gentle Normandy cow, dip your toes in a shallow stream or relax under a tree and make daisy chains.  





This is just a quick selection of the most popular things to do and see.  It is far from an exhaustive list.  Have you visited this part of Normandy?  Do you have any recommendations of children friendly attractions to visit or things to do?   Please do let us know in the comments.

Linking up with Ket Kids be Kids to see what else children have been up to this week and Travel Tuesday which is all about, well all about Travel!  If you have time make a cuppa and have a read of some of these lovely blogs.

Guest Blog: holidaying in france

Guest post by Cheryl - welcometoholland

This is a blatant big-up for my friends Rosie and Simon, who have a VERY child-friendly holiday gite on their smallholding in Normandy. Go and stay with them. They're fab!

This time last year we were getting ready for our Excursion To France. We used to travel in France regularly BC*; but since the arrival of the kids we have been too scared to branch out from Blighty.

Rosie and Simon own and run Eco-Gites de Lenault, on their smallholding in Normandy. They live there with their two almost-teenage sons and they have converted their barn in to a lovely holiday cottage. I met Rosie quite a few years ago now via the downsizer website - an online community of yoghurt-knitters like ourselves. We have become real-life friends on her visits to her family who live near us in the UK and we felt sufficiently confident in her to give Abroad a try again with the kids. The gite is set up for children and that was a big draw for us, particularly given all the extra kit that comes with a disabled child.

One of the other big draws for us was Rosie's willingness to provide home-cooked meals for families that stay with them. I loved the fact that we could have someone else cook for us but not have to take the children out in the car to do so; we took our motability car, with all the children's clobber and Nenna's wheelchair. We spent a lot of time sat on the little patio outside the gite, watching Leo race around like a maniac on the playground, with bikes, trikes, balls, a castle and a trampoline. The children were also able to go and help with the animals - because they don't get enough of that at home! - and because we were the only ones there, they really got to engage with what was going on.

So much child-stuff is supplied free of charge and Rosie, Simon and the boys were so friendly and keen to make sure we had the best holiday we could possibly have had. I was a bit worried that we would all feel obliged to be friendly, because they were next door; but it was very much on our terms. They clearly had their lives to get on with and I didn't feel they were looking over my shoulder in case I broke the crockery. Which I did, actually. And wasn't made to feel like an evil clutz!

All the child-stuff is included in the price - cot, bedding, high-chair, stair-gates, the toys, games and books. The only thing not included was for the TV for the week; in the summer, lots of families choose not to have this and prefer to spend all their time outside. We were quite early in the season, so we paid the extra. However, because we got a 10% discount on the ferry booking by using the gite discount code, I felt that that made up for it! The other thing that I liked was that we could choose whether to pay for cleaning at the end of the rental, or to do it ourselves.

All in all it was an excellent choice for a first-time abroad trip with two young children. The accommodation is lovely and the setting is beautiful, with lots of rural countryside and market towns to explore. 

We will definitely be going back.

*Before Children

How did Tom do? (Part three)

Posted by Rosie

Over the last couple of weeks I have been going through the National Trust's list of "50 things to do before you are 11¾" because Tom has now reached the great age of 12.  Here's the next set to see whether he can better his score so far of 19/25. Link to Part One here and Part Two here.

25. Make a grass trumpet - he has tried but not actually succeeded in getting a sound.  Luckily he has more success learning and playing the saxophone!

Feeding a bird at the zoo

26.  Feed a bird from your hand - I was going to say no here then I remembered we went to the zoo last year and fed what I think were cockatoos by hand (or they might have been cockatiels).

27. Watch the sun wake up - erm, only in so much as he has to get up at 6.45am to catch the school bus on time and this has, at times, meant seeing the sun rise!

28. Climb a huge hill - yes - this area of Normandy has it's fair share of big hills, not least the ones we walked up one Boxing Day.  I thought a nice 5kms walk would do us good after the excesses of the day before but I had not properly read the contours on the map and boy did that steep walk feel more than 5kms!

29. Get behind a waterfall - A NOPE here - I'm not even sure where there is a waterfall he could get behind. 

30. Hunt for fossils and bones - yes - he has never found many fossils but our house is adorned with a few skulls he and Ben have brought home over the years.

Gardening or bug hunting - who knows!

31. Hunt for bugs - yes, yes and yes again.  Bug hunting was a favourite occupation of the boys when they were little and even now grubby hands proffering some poor unsuspecting mini-beast are shoved under our noses from time to time. 

32. Find some frogspawn - another big yes here - we currently have frogspawn that is on the cusp of hatching in our pond and always had frogspawn in our little pond in the UK - I reckon these were the most pond-dipped tadpoles in Kent!

33. Catch a butterfly in a net - he has certainly been off with a net in pursuit of butterflies but I don't think he has ever caught one. One year friends were visiting and their son and Tom headed off with net in hand.  The only problem was they had not told anyone they were going and whilst we are fairly used to the boys disappearing for a while, my friend was not.  We searched all likely locations without luck and her stress levels were rising.  However about an hour later I met them coming up the path, smiling, rather grubby, net in hand and announcing that they had had great fun butterfly hunting.  Brilliant I said but please let us know you are going next time!

34. Track wild animals - we get plenty of tracks round here from foxes to deer, hare to wild boar.  He has spotted them but not sure he had followed them for any distance. I think that just counts as a yes!

35. Discover what's in a pond - yes - see above re tadpoles and just substitute the words "pond minibeasts" for tadpoles!

36. Call an owl - we have lots of owls round here but as far as I know he has never called one so that is a NOPE.

37. Check out the crazy creatures in a rock pool - oh yes - we have some great rock pools on some of the Normandy beaches and even now he thoroughly enjoys searching for crabs and little fish etc.

Squiggly aka An Elephant Hawk Moth

38. Bring up a butterfly - a moth actually, called squiggly who turned out to be An Elephant Hawk Moth!

So - that that gives a sub total of 12/14 and a running total total to date of 31/38.  I think Tom can be very proud of that don't you?




Linking up with Country Kids to celebrate childhood fun away from technology for a while.  Something that our life in rural France does make a bit easier to achieve.

 

Rainbow over the Play Area at Eco-Gites of Lenault

Posted by Rosie

Rain doesn't stop play

Posted by Rosie

The guests in the gite at the moment have had some good weather but today things have taken a bit of a turn for the worse.  No problem though, because with all the toys in the play barn there is still plenty to keep young active children entertained whilst Mum watches on from the comfort of a deck chair!

On no - here comes the rain - run boys!

Quick - before you get soaked!

Lego in the play barn

This is fun!

Wow - that's a lot of rain!

So, rain or shine, summer or winter there is no problem keeping youngsters entertained here at Eco-Gites of Lenault. If you fancy booking a holiday please have a look at the our website for further details or email us direct.