From sandcastles to chainsaws: Just another week with the Coley's!
- Phil & Kirsti
- Oct 31
- 3 min read
The last week saw us head to the coast, about a 3 hour drive away. We went to Les Sables-d'Olonne on the Atlantic coast and we could see why it was so popular with the French, not just those living there but the many French that visit over the year, especially in the summer.
The beach there is a lovely sandy beach that sweeps around the bay. There are two main beaches either side of the famous port, made famous by the Vendeé Globe, around the world sailing racing. There has been much investment in the town especially along the promenade and the port, places to sit and eat plus a really well kept beach plus a seawater pool open all year around.
The children had great fun as we stayed in an AirBnB close to the sea and managed a paddle and lots of sandcastle making plus rock pooling. Summer in France does see the popular beaches packed but outside of July and August you can still enjoy days on the beach we much fewer people about and still reasonable temperatures. We did arrive at our destination just as Storm Benjamin was passing through, but it did cheer up and on the last couple of days the sun was shining and it was around 20 degrees.
Lici, our eldest, goes back to school on Monday, but went to play with her friend on Thursday, they went swimming and playing dolls and all the things little girls (I am a big girl Daddy, not a little girl – I hear her say!) do.
It is so heartwarming to hear Lici speak in French with her friend, she is only 4 and has picked the language up and now is off and running – she is having a 7 hour French lesson each day and how envious we are of her, but equally so happy for her. Teddy our youngest will be starting school in the spring and we look forward to him going the same way.
At our shop there has been a stray cat with kittens that seems to have made home on the terrace of the salon de thé, we took the cat to the vets last night and she will return tonight and stay for the weekend at home after being spayed.
As it is Halloween the children will have their first time around our hamlet and “trick or treat” with our neighbours, we have lovely neighbours who are all French bar one house and they have been so welcoming to us and all of them adore the children. Integration really began with just trying to speak the language and then we have got better at our French and it has become easier, they still smile at us when we get a phrase or word wrong that can have a completely different meaning.
Today is also deadline for our quarterly submission for our business taxes, we have to make these each quarter and declare our income for the quarter and pay the tax. It is relatively straight forward and a simple system, although we will be changing one of our business tax regimes in January.
Everything is online so it does make it easier than reams of paperwork of even having to do a phonecall in French, which still is scary as it is difficult to get someone to slow down as they speak.
The weekend will be family time, but not after Kirsti chopping wood in the morning at the local farm where we have done a deal on some wood in return for woodcutting services – Kirsti is in her element with a chainsaw…..
