“But how will his friends get here?” asked little WB when we broke the news that his elder brother would be celebrating his birthday on a campsite in the Languedoc. Gently we explained that Big WB’s friends would not be arriving by helicopter to attend a conventional birthday party with presents and party games, but that it would be a special day nonetheless.
“I feel taller” said Mr Five on the big day: “I think I grew in the night.”
Anyone who celebrates their fifth birthday with a visit to the Lego Museum, followed by a visit to the largest soft play centre in the South of France can’t be doing too badly.
When Jacqui says she will make a plan it’s always a work of genius. Many thanks to Tony and Bernard, who most generously allowed us all to stay in their beautiful gite near Arles so that we could meet half way for a very special evening, fuelled by their hospitality and Tony’s wonderful cooking. The WBBs loved Bonnie in particular and, despite some concern regarding her propensity for shredding logs and rubber objects, have spent all their time since meeting her asking if we can get a dog just like her when we get to Australia.
So it took major back surgery combined with a wrong turning that led to a mini-family reunion and our introduction to the newest member of the extended Kretzschmar clan – Bonnie the beautiful border collie. While rolling (yes, the car rolled but we felt all Wild Berries did too thanks to the great food) down the hill from Fontjoncouse, we took a wrong turn into France into Spain. These kinds of wrong turns on our trip have been frequent and can usually be corrected in less than 20 minutes of navigating motorway on and off ramps. However on this occasion we saw it as a sign (see Lourdes entry later) that we were being divinely drawn towards Mama WB’s cousin who lives on the other side of France and is recovering (splendidly we must say) from back surgery. “Let’s visit” we said, before realising that based on our current rate of progress and WBB2’s propensity towards regurgitation, it would take almost a week to get there. So instead, we pulled over and made a phone call and a plan to meet each other near Arles.
Plans made, we hove to at the charming Domaine La Yole campsite in the Languedoc. The site had all the usual stuff: a playground, trampoline, pools etc – but our favourite feature was the fridge hire service. Yes, dear friends, in less than a day we were the proud renters of Gertrude, a handsome fridge/freezer, fully stocked with luxuries from the Carrefour – frozen peas! Ice cream! Three types of cheese! Vive la France!
What a great game – Uno! A must for all small children who need to be taught poker, I mean, how to count. Great entertainment and requires little skill, by which I mean little players can easily end up embarrassing the oldies and taking them to the cleaners and winning every game. Wild Berry Mums almost had to resort to cheating just to prevent losing all face and status😝. Thanks to the proprietors of the Aonghusa hotel for explaining the rules. Every time Wild Berry One sees a 6 or an 9 he yells at the top of his already loud voice: ‘these are the ones you cheat with so don’t cheat’ resulting in WB Mums feeling guilty at their cheating attempts.
When not playing Uno, it was rejuvenating to manage a little grown-up conversation, and generally relax after the hectic pace of the last few weeks. The children loved visiting the Domaine Aonghusa vineyards – little WB pretended to grow carrots for all the rabbits, while big WB drove Pat’s tractor all by himself, ploughing a circular furrow, the purpose of which remains mysterious. We looked for fossils and found some! We were lavished with amazing food and wine, then astonished Pat by managing to fit two cases of wine into our tardis-like boot; people who are prepared to take their toaster camping have no shame.
‘I don’t want to leave this lovely hotel’ said big WB plaintively, echoing all our thoughts as we waved goodbye to our hosts, peace and quiet descending in our wake.
Wild Berry Boys 