Secret Blogger Writes Again...

Well, not so secret; it's Nad-le-Bad here to give all you faithful blogees another insight into the lives of the not so rich nor famous, but happily retired and relaxed oldies! ("Less of the old" I can already hear in my head!!!)

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Well I got here on Thursday, after my flight was diverted from Nantes to La Rochelle midflight due to a 'plane being stuck on the runway there. Obviously Maman and Papa had already gone to Nantes so I got myself a chocolat chaud and settled down for a two hour book reading marathon! Pas de probleme though, time flew easily and we were soon en route for La Tranche Sur Mer.

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Things have been very hectic since my arrival... bike rides, beers, visits to the beach, walks, watching downloaded American Idol, choosing floor tiles (!), having guests for dinner, going to the gym, sitting out in the sun, phew! No wonder they're retired, there's just not enough hours in the day to do all of this! Especially when you get up at 10am not realising the clocks have changed and it's actually 11am (ahem - as we ALL did yesterday!!!)

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Here's a few highlights so far then:

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Photo 1 - went for a drive to a place near Bourgenay and had a lovely walk around the coast spying VAST houses and all their land, but feeling sorry for them for not having a lovely sandy beach like at La Tranche. Poor them with all their land and secluded little rocky beaches and stunning views. Makes you feel really sad for them doesn't it?! After that we drove further towards Les Sables and stopped at a fab spot called 'Les puits de l'enfer' which translates as 'The wells of hell' and you could understand why. Even with a small tide the water ran up between all the rocks and exploded violently upwards. It was just a stunning place to see and I suggest any visitors request a visit! After that we headed to the much less attractive Les Sables itself to see where the boat had once been and stop for a cheeky biere on the sea front.

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Photo 2 - on Saturday night we had les cousins round to eat and prepared an array of gorgeous stuffed veg from the lovely recipe book given to Maman by Meryl (thanks!). We had planned to take a 'before' and 'after' photo, but obviously completely forgot the latter as we were desperate to dig in! A real winner. Was great to have Jean, Monique, Catherine and Jean-Pierre round even if my head was spinning by the end due mainly to the 100mph conversations and not of course to the wine...!

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Photo 3 - Maman and I on our coastal walk near Bourgenay as mentioned before. Notice the beautiful blue skies. It's not been perfect; torrential rain in the night, and yesterday morning, but the sun has been shining, and still is. Papa and I had a little sieste in the sunshine on Saturday afternoon in fact! Think we'll be back out there soon.

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Photo 4 - Papa in silhouette. We went on a great bike ride yesterday afternoon, really exhilarating. We cycled first to see the sea here in La Tranche, but once Maman realised she had two willing cyclists with her she took us on a lovely ride to another beach not too far away. The beach was incredible with waves and sunshine but very windy too. We saw some great beach surfers (don't know if that's the right name!) who speedily whizzed past us a couple of times. The highlight though has to be the monstrous hill which nearly killed me on the way there. On the way back, the three of us zoomed down at a ferocious speed and 'whooped' away! What a buzz! I was almost tempted to cycle back up and do it again, but not quite :)

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Final note - the BFGer is doing extremely well. I have seen him do all three so far. B - incredible, F - willing, G - enthusiastic till back hurts!

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Keep your comments coming, I know how much they are appreciated and I personally LOVE reading what everyone else has to say! For those of you who would like to comment, but aren't sure how, you don't need to sign up to anything. Simply press on the bit at the bottom which says 2 comments (or however many there are!) then write your comment in the box that pops up and choose Name/Url. Type your name in and press 'publish your comment' and hey presto! You could of course remain anonymous if you chose!

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Fin de message, bisous

Nadine xxx