How to entertain toddlers in Poitou-charentes when the weather's lousy!

The weather has been very up & down this month!

Having had the grandsons for a few days break last month, they returned for a longer stay-3 weeks! whilst Papa returned home after a couple of days, to organise the builders who were putting in a new kitchen, bathroom, central heating & re-wiring of their house!
So, after a week’s B&B’s it was back to toddlers!

The first 2 days were HOT!—where was the factor 50 & the sun hats? The new sand pit in the garden and the nylon ‘abri’ for 7 month old Sammy to sit under were in full use. Much more and we’d be able to get out the old paddling pool!

Saturday evening we went up to the model aeroplane field at Surin –watched the planes looping the loop for an hour or so, and then moved on to Lizant—for that all-time favourite French dish—of ‘poisson et frites’—which we ate in the lovely little ‘aire de loisir’
(swings/slides/climbing frames!) in the village.

I’ve not had fish & chips since arriving in France 4 years ago! They were delicious—and very busy, but did have time to tell us that the bar in Lizant ( le Salamandar’) welcomed people with fish suppers into their bar! Possibly another time—sans enfants!

Papa went home on Sunday, whilst Maman and the boys pottered up to Beauregard where there was a day of show jumping and dressage— and they also met one or two young mums with their offspring& managed to organise a couple of meetings during the following week.

The next day the weather went into decline—wind , rain and cold! What do you do with a child of 2 ¼ years and his baby brother? ( particularly when he decides that he wants to go home, and he wants his Daddy!)

So—Monday we went to ‘le plage’ at Savigne. It stayed dry long enough to try out every swing, slide, rocking duck and roundabout! We then went along to the café and all had hot chocolates—before going everything all over again!
Tuesday we went to the mill to buy some flour—made chocolate covered fairy cakes and tried out all the swings slides etc at the loisir area d’ Asnois!

Wednesday was the best day of the week—when they all met up with Anna and Alex and went to La Chouette-land at Smarves!
This was every parents ( & grandparents!) answer to what do we do with them whilst the weather is rotten?! There they found a large indoor play area—for 2 –12 year olds (so Joe was cutting it fine—but he didn’t care!)—slides and ball-pools and climbing frames—all wonderfully supervised, whilst Mums watched from the sidelines & partook in café & gateaux as their offspring shook off all that surplus energy that had been building up over the week!

It was a great success – as Joe told his Dad on ‘Skype’ that evening!

Thursday saw the weather cheer up enough to go to the stream and catch some tadpoles to put in the pond in the garden, whilst Friday we met up with a little boy from Charroux ( & his family!) and we all went back to the Plage at Savigne.

Saturday was not so good—the rain didn’t help—but the video of ‘Chitty chitty bang bang ‘ helped us get through the day!

Today we went to St Pierre de l’Exidieul—to the brocante. They have a great aire de loisir—slides, climbing frames—everything a 2 year old boy likes! –but, as we parked the car, so the heavens opened! That didn’t stop us! We bought ‘Winnie l’ourson’ videos—in French! ( that won’t worry the boys!) and second hand cars and tractors—which will be great in the sand pit once the sun comes out!

We went for a cup of coffee—and ended up—in true French style buying glasses of wine—or drinking freebies of rose with pamplemousse—and having a thoroughly enjoyable morning –despite the drizzle!
We’ve another week before they go home.

Entertaining little ones—with a very short attention span is quite an art—particularly when the weather is so unkind!

I believe, next week they are meeting up with other young families & visiting the more expensive attractions of the district—they so love the monkeys! They’ve met French children at the various ‘aires’—and Joe is quite aware of the different language—but totally infaized! I’m sorry we’ve no neighbours with young children—I’m pretty sure their French would, very quickly, be better than ours!

Next year they’ll be a year older—their attention span should be a bit greater and it should all be a bit easier! It’s been quite a challenge finding entertainment for them—but I think we’ve actually done quite well!
Any further ideas gratefully received!

About me

I am Heather Squires we bought our house in 2002, moved over to France to live here full time in 2006 and now run Maureville Chambre D'hotes in Asnois - 5 miles south of Charroux in the Vienne department.

 
Posted by: heather squires on 17 May 2010