Family-friendly gite in Normandy

Mont St-Michel

We recently enjoyed a lovely two week holiday in France. In a rather spooky case of history repeating itself, my very first trip abroad was to northern France, when I was 15 months old - the same age Bobble was during this holiday. My parents were a little more ambitious than us however, as they opted to camp and they also had my two year old brother to keep entertained too! My mum also likes to remind me that this was also the days before disposable nappies were widely available! We went for the slightly easier life and decided to have a week in a gite in Brittany, followed by a week in a gite in Normandy.

Finding the right place

There is a plethora of holiday cottages and gites available in northern France. We didn't book until fairly late (2 months before) and found that availability was still very high. The biggest issue we found was that the two bedroom places that we were looking at hardly ever seemed to have baths, providing a shower instead. It seemed that Bobble was at a slightly awkward age. Too old for a baby bath (many places offered these along with cots and highchairs) and still too young for a shower. It might have just been a coincidence, but the two places that booked both had baths and both had English owners. Maybe relaxing in the bath is more of an English pass time than a French one!

Another tip related to availability... As you can usually see online how booked up the accommodation is, if it's still got lots of free weeks and you feel confident enough, why not see if you can negotiate on the price?

5 good reasons to stay somewhere family-friendly

After spending a great week in Brittany, we moved on to our base in Normandy. While our gite in Brittany was lovely, I was excited about our second week in Normandy as we had found somewhere that was very catered towards families with young children. I'll tell you why this was great.

1. We only had space to take a small number of toys with us. After 1 week, Bobble was getting a bit bored of these, as were we!
2. When there's lots of things to do at your accommodation, it's a bit like being at home in the sense that you don't feel the need to rush out in search of entertainment. You can relax while your child plays and has fun too.
3. There is usually equipment available for you to borrow, freeing up a bit more space in your car which is probably already packed to the rafters.
4. It is very likely that the owners have children of their own. If they're close by (ours were in the house next door) they'll be on hand with ideas of days out and help if you need it. They might even have children of a similar age, providing instant playmates for your own children.
5. The accommodation will have been prepared with children in mind. This not only means that stair gates and other safety measures will be in place, but I think it also means that the owners will be a bit more relaxed about general wear and tear, which is more relaxing for mum and dad too!

Kestrel Cottage, Le Hamel Roger, Normandy

 

Kestrel Cottage is a former cider mill that has been converted into a four bedroom gite. It's found in the calvados region of Normandy and is a little over 20 minutes drive from the large town of Vire. The very friendly English owners, Angie and Danny, have been there since 2007. They have six children (yes, six!) aged between 1 and 12, who were really friendly, polite and incredibly well behaved.

Quick list of the gite's features

• Four bedrooms, but the gite can sleep between 2 and 12 with additional beds and cots
• 2 bathrooms - 1 with bath and shower, the other with just a shower and loo
• Large kitchen including washing machine, dishwasher and all the kitchen essentials you could wish for
• Large living room with plenty of seating, a DVD player, TV with English channels and a log fire for cool evenings
• Large upstairs gallery landing area/play room with lots of toys and a second television for watching films
• Outside seating area including a bbq.

Kestrel cottage

The really large garden

The big selling points: family-friendly extras

• Next door, there is a play loft stacked with toys for all ages. Ball pools, ride on toys, dressing-up clothes, toddler roller coaster (Bobble loved this!), mini pool table, air hockey, table football (we loved this after Bobble had gone to bed!) and much more!
• The large garden, as well as giving lots of running around space, provides even more toys including a trampoline, swings, slides, basketball hoop. Oh, and a solar heated above ground swimming pool!
• The list of baby and toddler equipment that is available to use or borrow is huge! As well as the usual things like highchairs, cots, steriliser, spoons and bowls etc. they also have bigger things like an off-road pushchair and baby carrying rucksack.
• The price you pay includes all bed linen and towels and the end of stay cleaning - this is unusual for France, where you are usually asked to clean before you leave to avoid losing some of your deposit.
• Angie runs a weekly music class which we were invited to attend. Unfortunately we couldn't make it as we already had plans, but it would have been great to do some singing in English and French!

What is there to do nearby?
Here's how we spent our week - I've included driving times.

• Viaduc de la Souleuvre (20 minutes) - a great afternoon spent watching people way more adventurous than us bungy jumping, zip wiring, riding a luge or on a completely insane swing that takes you from 0-120km in 3.5 seconds!
• St Sever Forest (25 minutes) - good place for an afternoon walk in a mysterious and brooding forest.
• Mont St-Michel (1 hour) - France's third most visited attraction and for good reason! Unlike it's English equivalent, you don't need to go by boat or rely on tides.
• Arromanches - one of the D Day landing beaches (1 hour). Packed with history and home to a museum and 3D cinema.
• Honfleur (1 hour 25 minutes) - my favourite place! An enchanting little town with a gorgeous port, a lovely park and lots of interesting streets for pottering along.
• Bayeux (35 minutes) - go and see the tapestry and enjoy wandering the streets.
  

A few pictures from our week

Find out more

Prices (2013) start from £350 and go up to £690 per week depending on the number of guests and the time of year. You can check availability online or contact Angie directly bookings@lehamelroger.com

Visit the Kestrel Cottage website

*Our week at Kestrel Cottage was paid for by us and I have not received any compensation for this review.

Read more ...

For the love of good beer

I realise that quite a number of weeks have now passed since Father's Day, but I don't think it's too late to share what Bobble 'bought' his daddy as I think it's a great present for any beer-loving man or woman or your life.

Bobble's daddy's birthday is only a month or so before Father's Day, so I was slightly struggling to come up with a good present idea. Then I remembered a muttering about the beer cupboard looking a little bit empty. For the record, the beer cupboard contains a lot more than beer. Our house is not that big and his love of beer is not that great! So I decided to visit a website that my beer obsessed brother had introduced me to beermerchants.com And just for the record, my brother's beer cupboard is more like a beer cellar!

Buy beer online and get it delivered right to my front door - what's not to love? Tell me more!

Beer Merchants is an online beer specialist selling literally hundreds of different types of beer from their website. Want beers from Belgium, Estonia, Germany or Laos? This is the place to get them.

Glug glug

Choices, choices

I was totally overwhelmed by the number of choices of Belgium beers (327 to choose from) so I contacted my brother and asked him to make a shortlist. I selected 10 and including delivery paid a little over £30. If you can't decide what to order, their mixed cases look like a safe bet too.

 

Would you tip the barman? Yes I would!

As we were going on holiday, I emailed them immediately after placing the order and asked if they could delay the delivery until after we got back. They quickly responded to say that was no problem at all, and they arrived a couple of days after we got back.

Any reasons not to drink up?

My only slight disappointment is that they don't seem to stock the Leffe Ruby that I really enjoyed supping in France. Good job we brought some back with us, eh!

So if you're looking for a great gift idea for a beer drinker, I would really recommend paying their website a visit.

www.beermerchants.com

Please drink responsibly

Just to be clear, this isn't a sponsored post. I visited this website through personal choice and have not received any compensation for this review.

Read more ...

The mega bib

It's been a while since I posted as, lucky old us, we've been away on holiday. More about that, and lots of tip sharing in future posts.

In the meantime, I wanted to share one of my ultimate, best-ever, do-not-look-any-further baby shopping tips - the bib to end all bibs!

It's called the Ultrabib and is made by Bibetta. Frankly, if you're not sold on simply the name of the bib and the company that makes it, then I doubt I'm ever going to win you over!

Bobble demonstrating the Ultrabib in action

Bibs? Kinda boring topic isn't it? Why is it important to buy a good one?

Since the good old days (aka when we were all babies) bibs have changed from uncomfortable plastic 'pelican' bibs, to something more comfortable, and that little bit more stylish. Many have sprouted sleeves, and most have become more stylish. Hard plastic is out too, and replaced with something a little softer. The style factor, I can leave or take as ultimately this garment is only going to get plastered in food. But practicality in the form of sleeves? Love that. And a comfortable baby nearly always equals a happy baby.

During weaning food goes everywhere, and not just in a small circle below the baby's chin so bigger is definitely better in the case of bibs. Food stains are not cool, especially when adorning an outfit that you took great pride in dressing your baby in that morning.

Another element of the food-going-everywhere scenario is that with 3 meals a day to get through, that's a lot of bibs. And yet more washing for the ever growing pile.

You get the picture, there are a few important things going on here:

1. Cover up your baby's clothes and therefore prevent major food staining.
2. Don't add to the growing pile of things to wash.
3. Ensure your baby is comfortable.

So yes, while they're not as exciting as a toy or a cute outfit, I think that buying the right bib can Make Your Life Easier.

So why buy the Ultrabib and not something else?

1. It's made of neoprene (sleeves are splashproof nylon) making washing it a dream as it dries almost instantly and doesn't stain at all. Many shops offer plastic backed cotton bibs with sleeves but trust me, these are not as good. They stain after 1 meal and will need washing constantly.
2. It fits babies from 6 months to 3.5 years - elasticated sleeves help for when your baby's arms are shorter.
3. It's soft and comfortable against your baby's skin.
4. It has a fold out pocket at the bottom for catching food if you have a really mucky pup - and who doesn't!
5. It covers the whole of their top half beautifully.
6. It comes in three colours. I wish that two of them weren't the dreaded pink or blue, but at least green is an option!

Downsides?

Yes, the price. At £8.99 this is expensive compared to other bibs. But in my opinion, other bibs are cheap imitations. I know because I tried them. Buy two Ultrabibs and you have one to wash and one to wear.

Where can I buy one?

I bought mine from Kiddicare.

Last words

This isn't a sponsored post. I bought these bibs through personal choice and have not received any compensation for this review.

Read more ...

Down on the farm

In need of something to do this Sunday (9 June) that's fun for all the family, costs nothing and comes with a large dose of fresh air and (cross them tight) sunshine?

Then why not head down to your nearest (participating) Open Farm Sunday? 

I must now confess that I've never heard of this annual event before, even though it's been running since 2006. And even more shamefully I know that we can't try it out this year either! However, I thought that it sounded like such a good idea, I couldn't help but want to share it.

I hope that you will be able to get along to a local farm to meet some animals, find out what it means to be a farmer and be inspired by finding out more about where your food comes from. 

There's a handy tool on the website that helps you find participating farms in your area, while the rest of the website explains a bit more about what Open Farm Sunday is and why it was started.

Find your nearest participating farm

Read more ...