This weekend we were joined by the Dixies for an explore in the forest at Mervent. It wasn’t specifically a mushroom hunt, us being the worst mushroom hunters since time began, but we came equipped with our books for identifying the good/bad ones, plus a (small) bag to carry them home in. Just in case!
We began, as all good explorations should, with a picnic dinner. Having filled ourselves with bread. cheese. crisps and fruit (NOT eggs…) we marched off into the woods. We quickly marched back out again when the kids heard the approaching sound of hunting dogs - la chasse was in full swing, so perhaps walking through that part of the forest was not such a good idea!
So we diverted round the edge of the woods and wound our way down to la Pont du Deluge. This is our favourite spot due to the lovely stream flowing through the trees that the kids like to try crossing on precarious stepping-stones. There was no chance of them getting wet on this occasion however, asd the stream was virtually dry! What a disappointment.
Undaunted by the lack of flowing water, we set our sights on harvesting the chestnuts that were littering the ground. Always the hunter-gatherers, Kevin and Sylvie were very excited at the thought of taking them home and adding them to the evening’s meal. So we all started trawling the area for the green spiky balls (…behave!) that sheltered the chestnuts.
After pricking ny fingers several times, and being the geek that I am, I fashioned a “gadget” out of a twig for picking them up, for which I was basically laughed at. Meh,,,some people just don’t recognise genius when they see it 
In the end we collected quite a haul and, supplemented by a few edible mushrooms, we had our starter for the night:
Or so I thought…….
In fact, THIS was my starter for the night:
Clockwise, from the top, we have spleen, tripe and veal head. Not pictured is the pigs trotter.
Yes folks, Sylvie had lined me up with a traditional French bush-tucker trial as a challenge especially for me! How kind……
So, with the pride of a nation at stake I did my bit for blighty, closed my eyes and sampled some slices of these French treats. I have to say, they weren’t as disgusting as I thought they would be. The spleen took me back to school dinners eating cold liver. And the tripe and veal head were vaguely like the inside of a cheap pork-pie. Pigs trotter was just a fatty pork chop with very little meat. I managed to eat a little of everything and thereby took another step along the path of integration into proper French society
Luckily. the rest of the evening passed without further challenges and I could sit back and enjoy the lovely birthday meal that Lisa had prepared. The company, once again, was excellent. All the kids played like they were life-long friends and the adults could just relax and chat…and try not to fall asleep *cough*Sylvie*cough* 
Another excellent night. With everyone sleeping over it was a very relaxed affair, followed by a very lazy morning. The perfect end to my birthday celebrations and the first of many more such occasions I suspect.
The enormous forest at Mervent is not only a great place to explore, with lots of places to walk, lovely lakes and streams, and picnic areas dotted about, but it also contains a great little adventure parc called “Parc de Pierre Brune” [website - click on "attractions"]. Rosie had been here on her end-of-term visit with school and had really enjoyed it, so we thought it would be a great place to take our visitors.
So we packed the coolbag with some lunch and headed off to the woods. We managed to find an empty picnic table and settled ourselves in for a bit of sustenance. Once there, we were under attack by a brutal gang of orange slugs, although we managed to survive the onslaught until the end of our meal and made our getaway before the strange creatures could move in for the kill!
The park itself covers a large area and is great value for €10.50 each. The first section you find is full of “old-fashioned” play park equipment. You know, the sort of things that you used to have in your local village park but they were banned because of “health & safety” (yep, none of that here as usual). So there were things like huge swing boats, two-meter-high see-saws and witches hats. All great fun. There were also some big wooden wheels for people to run in like hamsters. Molly, always the first with an injury, took a tumble in one of these, but luckily dusted herself off and lived to fight another day!
Further up the hill were various bouncy-castles and other large inflatable structures. The kids all enjoyed these, as well as the trampolines. One trampoline was really long, allowing for some great kangaroo impressions as they bounded from one end to the other.
The next area we encountered was really old-school - a “hall of mirrors” and those funny pictures that you put your head through for poeple to take photos of. All totally daft end-of-the-pier stuff, but we all had fun laughing at the strange reflections and taking silly photos of each other. Who says kids need fast rides and computer technology to be entertained?
Another ride that we discovered were the flying chairs - the kids and Lisa and Annie were brave enough to go on them, although poor Emily was very disappointed that she wasn’t classed as tall enough to go on, even though a girl her height had just got off the ride. Most unfair.
From there, we ventured to the mini-golf. This was highly amusing, with the kids all taking a club and ball and finding their own various ways round the course. This mainly involved lots of mis-hits, scoop-shots, hockey-style dribbling, kicks, pokes, drops and all manner of leaping about. The adults had great fun watching all the fun and listening to the kids protesting that of course they weren’t cheating! Not much… We had a go on the bumper-boats - basically round boats with an outboard motor, surrounded by a rubber ring. These were pretty mad and went like the clappers. Unfortunately there was a teenage miscreant in one boat when we were having our go who was determined to soak us all, which he did. Joe and I came off the worst and spent the next few hours walking like John Wayne due to our soggy shorts!
Just next to the boats was a huge bumpy slide where you come down in a sack. It really was a huge slide and the kids really enjoyed this one. “Again, again!” was the cry after each turn. For the adults, well Lisa and Annie mainly , it was indeed fun coming down, it was just the long climb up the steps to the top that was hard work…
Finally, we took a trip on the petit train. This runs around the length of the park at about 1mph, juddering and creaking along like something out of the wild west. But it was a nice way to see the interesting (and not so interesting…. “ooh look, dustbins, someone’s washing…”) parts of the park again. Having done one round-trip, we decided to stay on for one more ride to get us back down to the bottom of the park again. There we all had another go on the old-school play equipment, before heading back home again.
That evening it was the turn for Annie & Drew’s family to sample mussels for the first time. This is something we like to inflict on offer our guests whenever they visit for the first time, as a way of getting a bit more into the French way of life. And luckily they passed the test! Everyone liked them, although some more than others. Hurrah for them, a resounding success!
All told, this had been another fantastic day. The kids had all got on amazingly well, which is all credit to them as they really didn’t know each other very well before they came here. But I guess the same could be said for the adults to some extent. We had never really spent that much time with each other before, although we have always got on very well. But having them here in France really made us realise how similar we are and, actually, what a great friendship we have developed in such a small period of time.
Warm glows from everyone today, and not just because of the Pineau
In the final part of this series, I will talk about our visit to the beach down the road at Chassenon-le-Bourg.
Wowsers. Fresh on the heals of my gaining “Blog of the day” over at FuelMyBlog, I have now gone and won the weekly photo contest on the theme of Landscape.
Drew runs the weekly competition and this week I submitted a couple of shots. My photo of the lake at Mervent came out on top, which is really good as it is one of my favourite photos I have ever taken.
Thanks for picking it Drew, much appreciated
