Hi all, day 2 is drawing to a close here at the beautiful Chateau Chantereine and the children are taking part in mini olympics and the trail of mystery as I write this.
Our day began with the usual breakfast of cereal/brioche/fruit or yogurt and then children are asked to construct their own baguettes as part of a packed lunch before we set off for our day trip. There was plenty of pork going into most baguettes; ham and salami were being thrown in at will, and, of course, no one forgot the little French galette for pudding.
The tour of Rouen was really great once again and our guides were superb, they are extremely knowledgable and are sure to focus on the gorier side of history to keep young minds interested. One such story was based around the use of ‘ lucky cats’ to ward off the Black Death, unfortunately these ‘lucky cats’ did not meet a happy end – much to the disdain of our animal lovers. The end to this tale was a chance for the children to see one of these mummified ‘lucky cats’ that was found beneath the streets of Rouen some years ago. One of the children remarked how cute the cat looked – I wasn’t so sure.
The children then had a chance to visit a market in Rouen and one child managed to spend 11euros on pic and mix with another boy buying some rather fetching bright pink nail varnish which was ‘for his sister.’ I look forward to seeing his handy work at the disco…
After Rouen, we had the chance to stop off at a former Nazi bomb factory and it was a great chance for the children to see some history as it was left 70 years ago. They were able to see where the bombs were stored and transported; there was also a life size replica of a V1 missile to capture the imagination of eager boys.
So tomorrow it’s off to Dieppe for some more French history and a chance to buy some more ‘interesting’ items at another market. I’m anticipating a large array of garish sunglasses to be added to our luggage 🙂
As ever, all the the children are happy and are really into the swing of life at the Chateau, keep gazes onto Twitter for some pictorial updates of Dieppe and I will blog tomorrow.
Mr Powell