Last day… and we are super stressed by this point!
The evening before, we experienced a sudden thunderstorm (which is not unheard of in the mountains). It had just kind of came up from nowhere, and was on us before we really knew how close it was, and just our luck, the Gite was struck by lightning. Very frightening, actually, as Liam was in the shower at the time, and the ceiling light above him sparked when the lightning hit the house. Apparently it was quite spectacular, and the owner and her friends in the lower level really got a good show, and it seemed to have come right into the house. Our electricity was restored very quickly, but the lower half of the house took much longer, and there was a distinct ‘burnt’ smell. It was the WIFI router, of course…. now we were completely cut off! No mobile phone service, and no WIFI… even the landlines in the house (and the whole town) had been taken out. And that will take at least a week for the owner of the house to get sorted.
We seem to have the worst luck with communications in our travels: In Tuscany last year the WIFI signal was only available when poolside , and in Lake Como in the fall we were again felled by an electric storm that blew up the WIFI router! How can this happen to us AGAIN????
Needless to say, since I had specifically explained to the property manager that we work while we travel, and communications was of the utmost importance to us… we were stressed and just wanted to return home as soon as possible. But with Nicole and Colin staying at our apartment, we really couldn’t do that. So we, again, did our best to make the best of the situation and give Liam one last great day.
And it was a great day. The weather started off clear but chilly, and warmed up nicely by afternoon. We took a little peek into an olive oil mill and bought a litre to take home (we go through tons of olive oil!), then one last quick peek into St Jean du Gard for a coffee and a last look at Liam’s favourite clock tower (‘it goes bong, bong, bong!’), and then back to the river.
At the parking area for the cascade pools at the river is a little restaurant called Le Martinet, again, which we had passed every day on our way in and out of town. We were interested to finally give it a try, and we weren’t disappointed! Although we ordered Liam his own kids menu of beef and chips, he happily nom-nom-nommed down as many of mummy and daddy’s mussels as we’d share with him, and then helped himself to mummy’s sausage too! (the sausage was in a chestnut sauce that was indescribably good and sweet!)
After lunch we all pulled on our river shoes and headed over to the cascades for a last play in the river! We had bought Liam a new lilo (as his hippo seemed to have sustained a rather large leak, which we blame the dogs for… or the teenagers), and he was excited to give it a try and do some floating!
We spent all afternoon at the river, either pushing Liam around on his lilo, relaxing on the rocky beach, and building a little mini-pool on the shore with some very carefully placed river stones. Liam really enjoyed building the wall with daddy, and with every rock we’d give him, he would give genuine thought as to where it should be placed, ‘this goes there… and this one goes… there!) Another little boy and his dad were trying to catch the fish with a net and a bucket…. Liam eyed them with great interest, and I can see that we’ll be doing that with him the next time around!
When the sun was finally behind the trees, we made our way back to the car, back to the house, and started to get ready for a nice early start home the next morning. Bags are packed. Ready to go. Sleep tight little man, there’s a long drive ahead of us in the morning!
