Rain or shine, we'll make it to the beach: Dinard(France weeks 9 and 10)

These past two weeks, we have been in Dinard, Brittany, which is the North-Eastern area of France.

I was considering posting something at the one week point, but I figured that the second week would be very similar to the first(I was right! Ha!) so I decided to keep you all in suspense an extra week, since I'm sure you were all DYING to know what I'm doing. ;)

Let me start by stating, it's really beautiful here.

Like, very beautiful.

We arrived here Saturday, August 2nd, the day after we got back from London. It was a whirlwind, getting ourselves repacked, sleeping, and then up bright and early to beat the traffic on our way to Brittany(Bretagne, if you're French).

And with the exception of a very few days(I think maybe one day) we have gone to the beach. Despite rainy weather and high tide. If it stops raining for 5 minutes, the kids are in their suits, ready to go to the beach.

The sand castle that E and I made on our first day in Dinard!

My morning run on the beach is BEAUTIFUL. 

Dutifully collecting shells and making castles.

E did M's hair and we were cracking up for an hour.

The first week, S and E had pony riding lessons every day. It kept us busy, because E had her lessons for 3 hours in the morning, then we had two hours(for transportation and food) and then S had his lesson for 3 hours. Then we'd squeeze in the beach, do baths, dinner, and put the tired kiddos to bed. And then do it all over again! Helene(my host mom) and I traded off taking kids to their lessons. And when we took them, we would stay the entire 3 hours before bringing them back home. It definitely made for good reading time.

Then this week, S and E had sailing lessons everyday. Luckily, their lessons were at the same time, in the afternoon. So we fill our mornings with various activities(the beach, coloring, writing postcards), and then after lunch, the parents take the big kids to their lesson, and I put M down for his nap. Again, good reading time(AKA, lots of job applications...).

One of our "rainy day" coloring projects. 

Mini golfing with S! :)

Learning how to do cartwheels...

The house we're renting is overlooking St. Enogat beach. Literally, the beach is down a flight of stairs. It's practically in our back yard.

Despite the sunburn(only for me, I make sure to slather the kids up really well!!!), occasional tears(from all parties, I'm sure), and the inescapable sand on every surface, the experience in Dinard has been amazing. E told me that this is her favorite destination of the holidays so far, because of the beach, haha. The kids are loving it!

Tomorrow morning, we head off to our final destination, about 4 1/2 hours away from Dinard. I'd tell you the name, but I'm not entirely sure of where we are going. French people have very thick accents, and after asking them to repeat the name of our destination 3 times, I just say, "Oh, that sounds lovely!' and decide to wait until we arrive to figure out where we are!

There are 10 days left until I head to the airport, which is very bittersweet. I'm so dang excited to get to school(even though I'm missing the first week...oops), but I'm going to miss these kids a ton.

All good things must come to an end, and I look forward to getting to visit the family, when I return to Paris(which will be who knows when!).