France 2

We arrived on the Sunday of a four-day holiday weekend stretching until Tuesday. No local shops or restaurants would be open until Wednesday. This posed a food problem. My stash of food from home came in handy after all. David actually went to work on Monday morning, though he, the fellow he was sent here to manage and one poor support person (who had been assigned holiday duty to support them) were the only people there. They took David to a huge Wal-Mart-like store near the office (which was open on Monday, the unofficial holiday, but would not be open on Tuesday, May Day, the official holiday – this practice of having Tuesday holidays and stretching them into a four-day-weekend is common here), so he got us some basic food items. He told his coworkers to take Tuesday off.

Tuesday had beautiful weather and we used it to sleep late and go to the large park near the hotel. The hotel has amazing blackout shades, so, after a rough night with the kids, all four of us slept in until 11am. The park, Lacroix-Laval, is on the large property that used to be the grounds and woods of an estate. I had briefly visited in on Monday afternoon with the kids, when Mo was extremely disappointed to discover that there was no playground equipment. There is an outdoor café, a fancier restaurant, lots of trails and open green area, a tourist “train” and ponies. We took advantage of the café, the trails, the train and the ponies on Tuesday.