Madhouse diaries : Family fun at the Sailing Tour de France

You've no doubt heard of the cycling Tour de France but did you know that there is also a sailing version? Every year, it kicks off from Dunkirk and we usually go along to see what's going on in the "village", where all the sponsors set up stands and put on activities for the kids.

As it was a beautiful day, we tied in some time at the beach and Pierre was obsessed with making sand angels as soon as we arrived !

Our first stop was a ball-throwing game, where Pierre managed to win some stick-on tattoos.

Both Juliette and Pierre coloured in a badge so that they could take a free magazine or toy at the Disney Club tent, but I couldn't convince them to go and pose with the seagull mascot !

After playing the video game about managing a banana plantation, we sampled the banana smoothies, which were very tasty.

When we arrived home, we'd received a souvenir of our plantation by email !

We moved on to Swingball, which reminds me that we need to get our one out of the garage and set up on the patio for the summer.

There was a poignant display as we headed to the sand - a "plages propres" (clean beaches) sign, made out of all the rubbish that has been found on the beach. The giraffe's head wsn't part of the display - it was a bouncy castle in the background !

Finally we headed to the beach, where I managed to find a shady spot on the sand - perfect for reading my book while the kids played.

See how crowded the beach is at this end, near the town, compared to the vast, deserted stretches of sand down the other end by the bunkers ? At least the seagulls are happy because they get plenty to eat from the tourists.

Action shot !

Pierre had lots of fun burying his big sister ! She wanted to be made into a mermaid but the sand was too dry to shape it into a tail.

On the way home, we popped into the Sculpture Garden to pick up a geocache that I'd hidden next to some concrete sheep. Unfortunately it was too close to be accepted, even though the nearest geocache is on the opposite side of the canal.

I stood looking at the pretty water lilies ...

... and spotted some bright blue dragonflies. I even managed to snap a quick picture of one that wasn't out of focus.

It was the perfect end to our first summer holiday adventure ... but I'm sure it won't be our last !