Easter break

The family took a trip over the Easter break to a small town in the south of France called Sonnac Sur l'Hers, which is close to a slightly larger (and more well known) town called Mirepoix, and about an hour and a half drive from the Toulouse airport. We were in the Languedoc wine region, which we learned has only recently become a legitimate area in France for wine. It was more well known, until the past few years, for mediocre table wine.

Ric had read about a small B&B (only 4 rooms) called Le Tresor that is "family friendly"... a new criteria by which we plan our holidays. It's run by two Brits who have a couple young kids of their own and do a fabulous job of making your stay as easy as possible. We were able to eat dinner every night just downstairs from our room in their dining room and feel like we were getting a night out without really being away from James. Tilly, the woman who runs the B&B with her husband, is an amazing cook and we had every dinner and breakfast there. We didn't do a whole lot other than enjoying long lunches, going for a few walks, and driving to a winery for Easter Sunday.

Overall, it was a great trip, and we learned a lot about what's going to work, and not work, when traveling with James. I think one big lesson is that it's really better to travel with him if we can go somewhere for at least a week. The quick weekend getaways that we were so used to doing from London, aren't quite as enjoyable with a little one. All the traveling is exhausting for him (and us) and just as he's getting adjusted to the new place and settling back into his normal schedule, we're leaving to go home. We also will look for places where we don't have to "do" a whole lot and can just hang out, relax, hopefully have a nice room that we can spend time in, and some simple activities close enough by that we don't have to drive or train anywhere.

Hopefully as we do more of these trips we'll continue to get a feel for what kinds of things are most enjoyable. In the meantime, Ric found a great site that lists nice, family friendly places to stay all over the world so we'll be studying this intently :) www.babyfriendlyboltholes.co.uk. And getting mentally prepared for our next trip, which is a week in Italy at the end of the month.

All the pictures are up on Flickr and videos are on their way. Enjoy!