Bon Voyage

10/02/22

After arising, preparing, Lake tending and prepping and lunch eating, Mike and I buckled up and waved goodbye.

A mom and dad, off on their first ‘sans Lake’ adventure since his arrival.

In the first year of Lakes birth, Mike had days where he didn’t see Lake. Leaving pre his awakening and getting back after he’d went to bed and so on. 
I on the other hand, had never as of yet, been without Lake since September 15th, 2020 🤓 
If we aren’t getting technical and also adding in the time I was pregnant with him that is 🤪 
That was about to change and Lake, was getting some special, one on one time with Oma and Opa ☺️

Their first day together held a 20 km bike ride, just for a start 🤪

We…well, Mike, drove to Belgium.

I held out as long as I could, but traveling in a mode of vehicle transportation that has a BED, is like having a whispering audible voice, lulling you to surrender to sleep 🤪 
So, I obeyed. 
It was lovely 💗

Our hosts (also known to us as our uncle and aunt  ) welcomed us into their home.

Actually, they didn’t 😂 
We got there before they’d returned home and we let ourselves in 🤪 Once they did return and  some pleasantries were exchanged, we along with our uncle, cousin and his wife, went out for a drive to the current renovation project our uncle was working on.

It’s so interesting to see the different processes and designs used in the more cement/stone structured, more vertical than horizontal, homes. As well as hard not to let our imaginations take flight and envision all that could be done and remodeled ourselves, what with furniture and design stores on every corner🤪

Back at their house, Turkish delivery had arrived, and we sat down to partake of it 🤓👍🏻

Walking over a few feet landed us in the loft style home of our cousins, were we got a tour of their unique space, and visited for awhile, before moving the visiting back next door.

I eventually said my goodnights and relocated to the RV to go to bed, leaving Mike to play catch up with the family ☺️

It was very cold but once I warmed up, the sound of rain lulled me to sleep…

 

10/03/21

 

We went to Sunday morning church with the family. 
It was the first entire service I’d got to listen to since Lake’s joining the family, and it was a pleasant change ☺️  
After service was over and we’d eaten lunch, we said our goodbyes to those we’d not be seeing again that trip, and headed back on our way by 1:30!

To where precisely? That was to still to be determined, but with suggestions from a few people during lunch, our route was a made a little clearer.

As was the weather! It had looked like rain and cloud in most every direction and location, but as we drove, the sun began to peek out more and more ☺️ 
As we drove along, what looked like a race track caught our eye, and then after that got our attention, the Ferrari driving on it really did 🤪  
We’d already driven past the turn off to get closer but we decided to turn around and try for a closer look anyways. 
We watched from the shoulder of the highway for a few minutes, trying to decide if the signage in French was saying that anyone was allowed or if we’d be kicked out, pulling up to the parking lot in our RV, which was obviously home to some Audies, Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Austin Martins 🙈 
Eventually, Mike pulled up and after getting a welcome and directions in French, used the two words he understood, ‘ bridge & blue’ to get us to the allowed parking area, closer to the cars.

Turns out, it was a race track where you could rent any of the sports cars, for different time allotments. 
None appealed in either price, time or passenger / instructor rules, so we decided just to watch a little more and then get back on the road. 
But we couldn’t get back to driving, until Chef Michiel whipped us up some camper hot chocolate 😉

Thanks to the very thoughtful mother-in-law for having stocked the fridge with chocolate milk 😉👍🏻 As it turned out, Lake was busy being a chef back at Oma’s house as well 😅

As we continued on, I slept 😬

I knoooow, we’re road tripping, together, through France, without Lake, just the two of us. 
I should have stayed awake and hung out with my husband!

I didn’t.

Do I regret it?

Honestly, not that much 😂

Being able to just go sleep, relax and enjoy it, knowing I’d wake when I wanted and not when a child required it, was absolutely lovely 🤤

When I arose, an observation was quickly made that there were many potatoes being harvested.

Potato HILLS if you will. You could even smell them 😅

Another observation, was that there were many hunters with there dogs traipsing out and about the many fields and hillsides. 
Anyone able to tell us what it is they would have been hunting??

Le Crotoy was the place we wanted to call it a day at, so we found a place to park, in what turned out to be a little more of a city than what we’d been driving through.

Hoping beyond hope, that they’d have an open restaurant, it being a Sunday evening in France, making finding a place to eat, a slightly trickier thing than it should be 🥴

La Côte d’Opale was the first restaurant we seen after passing multiple closed bakeries and the odd open fish store, so we happily entered it, not expecting to be served more than a bland tourist meal, but being ok with that, rather than our other options of going hungry or having raw fish 🤪

It turned out to be a happy surprise! After we asked the waiter if he spoke any English, which thankfully he did (to a degree 🤓), we decided on our choices and awaited them. The exuberant chatter and laughter of a raucous group of fisherman, who were enjoying an evening out,  behind us as background noise 🤪 I think it’s best we couldn’t understand them 🙈 
As the restaurant had wifi, we finally got an update on our son, seeing/hearing that he was flourishing by day and sleeping by night 👍🏻  
Making me feel better for Inge’s sake, and a little lame for mine, realizing my absence played seemingly no part in his day to day 🤪

A bread basket and our drinks held us over until our burger came out. We’d decided to share, as we hadn’t expected it to be very good 🙈

The burger had a thick, cheesy sauce oozing down over the toppings, which included a hash brown patty and thick bacon 🤤 
Crème brûlée was on the dessert menu, and we figured since the main had happily surprised us, we’d might as well go for it too 😉

It was also really enjoyable, including some toasted candied almonds which was a very nice added touch 👌🏻

After dinner, Mike found us a spot to park for the night, with grassy dunes and the setting sun behind them, as our bedroom view.

 He convinced me we should run down to see the water before settling in, and I’m glad he did 😉  There was some form of bet made about whomever touched the water first, won. I did. It was me. He didn’t make good on the bet, he never does 🤪

The rain coming in over the water, plus the sun starting her bedtime routine, caused some sky drama that was truly lovely to behold 👌🏻

We hung out on the beach for a little while, taking in the unfolding drama, and then raced the rain back to the RV, where we settled in and watched a 2 hour soccer documentary I’d downloaded especially for Mike 🤪 I figured it was the least I could endure for him, as he was the one driving, navigating and being ok with my sleeping during those things 😉