....and your mother smells of elderberries

So Brendan turned 40 and we all took the opportunity to poke fun and laugh at his old age!

But it was a perfect excuse to go on holiday, our first all together in 5 years, so we packed up our kitbags and headed south to the sea - our first glimpse of it for over 5 years too!  Hence Thea's rush to get her feet wet (see the previous post - week 18 - Play).

Thanks to some wonderful friends who offered to house, animal and garden sit we set off after Brendan had had his full English breakfast on Friday!

Taking the main motorway south saw us crossing the Millau bridge that afternoon:

 

In the fantastic sunny weather against the glorious blue skies it was just like being on an enormous sail boat.

We decided to visit Narbonne that first night, having found a budget hotel for the night, we drove off to see the sea.

  

As it was evening we just had time for a quick stroll along the front, although Thea did find time to rush off to visit the sea itself.

  

Obviously I took my camera and spent my evening taking photos of my beautiful daughter,

before we headed back for a quick KFC over a bottle of champagne.

The next day, we headed off to Carcassone 

 

When we were trying to decide what to do to mark this momentous birthday, visiting a big castle was top of the list, and we are lucky enough to only live a few hours from this medieval walled city.

And of course it offered the opportunity to stand on the ramparts and re-enact key scenes from Monty Python's Holy Grail....

 

altogether now.....'I spit in your general direction', 'your mother smells of elderberries' and the classic ' fetchez le vache'......

 

Oh yes - we had all the classic lines - lucky me...

 

We wandered the streets and did all the touristy tat shops,  

 

then wandered around the castle itself, then back around the streets again for a bit of gift shopping.

And I took a couple more photos of Thea.

Our last day of the long weekend was spent in a small town recommended to us by some friends.  Séte is situated about half way between Montpellier and Perpignan, and has a lovely cosmopolitan air, with a boat harbour running through the centre of town.

 

With yet more blue skies and temperatures in the high twenties, it was time to spend some time on the beach.

 

While Thea splashed around.. 

I went for a long long long walk along the beach, collecting pretty stones, meanwhile Brendan fed his tapeworm..

As you can see he is a natural beach person, shoes and socks on, thick jumper and long jeans, no wonder we attracted so many stares from the speedo clad locals!

After a couple of hours poor Brendan had had enough so we brushed the sand from our feet and drove home.

I love living in France.