It is Friday morning 7:15 am, the last full day of our stay in Saint-Malo and summer holidays. Tomorrow morning we will head North towards Honfleur for a final over-night stay to make the return drive more pleasent to the whole family (and admittedly further extend our wonderful break by another hint). As in every morning, Taica woke me up, by his gentle scratching on our bedroom door. He is very intelligent we think, as he does not bark knowing the family is sleeping. I have to absolutely write a few words about this adventure for Taica. He has turned out to be a marvelous, flexible, discreet travel companion of all times. Starting from the roadtrip to Finland, where he travelled in a backpack in planes, boat, train and a car without showing any signs of stress. His bravery has continued in the second leg of our summer journey in France, where he follows us everywhere and silently sits in our daughters laps hours in the car, less and more fancy restaurants, castle tours and most recently - in a kayak ! Fortunately, the French love dogs, and he has been accepted to most places without a hic. We are very proud of him and again, thanks to him we encounter and interact with people around us in a whole new positive angle. Who would have known a family dog could trigger such emotions and an aura around everything - not us!
Another great thing happened this summer, as our children have reached ages, which allowed us to tend to the plenty of water sports and other activities available in the reagon, and we have been busy. When asked in the evenings about the favorite things happening in the day, we hear first things "wind surfing, kayaking, surfing, char a voile, sailing..". I must mention, practicing these sports in Bretagne has not meant always sun and pleasent temperatures. For example, our experience of wind surfing in Ile Grande close to Perros Guirec last week - early in the windy morning with fog, light rain, and water/air temperatures well below 20 degrees set the consitions far from ideal and yet we all considered it was amazing experience to exceed ones limits and learn new skills! Another event definitely building resilience of our children was our biking tour from Dinard to Dinan. Supposingly an idyllic family trail from one scenic village to another in a dedicated bike trail. All this proved to be true, if it was not for the un-announced pouring rain that shadowed our trip. The kids (my 7 year old included), biked the whole 47 km without a cry. As we reached the village half-day, we indulged ourselves with hot chocolates and delicious breton galettes to fill with needed energy and endorfins. More importantly, I invested in gorgeus yellow rain coats, which protected the kids and raised smiles in the surroundings so cute where my four pussins biking and bringing light to the grey day.
Personally, I am so pleased to see our kids (and us) so very relaxed, happy and very funny together. The days are long and full of program, and it is a huge logistic challenge to transfer our family anywhere with the 5 bikes,ski box and luggage (ode to my husky husband!!) - but it is definitely worth it. Discovering new places, new flavours, skills and encounter with different people make our children grow and keeps myself and husband younger It is actually also very rewarding -amidst all the everyday business - to hear the positive comments about us from strangers. Yesterday at the beach, an elderly lady stopped for a good while to discuss and give compliments of our family. It makes me smile and I feel truly fortunate.
Today awaits new adventure and we will discover the joys of navigating a catamaran in Saint-Malo. As ahead of any new adventure, I feel slightly concerned and play with the idea of comfortably strolling the streets with a coffee mug instead of braving the way to the waves. But I will not give in. And hope it will be worth it this time as well !
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