Vacation Beach Time - an afternoon in Lacanau

La Plage....at Lacanau

Our Spring school vacation is coming to a close today.  Two weeks off in early May - a great concept in theory - should be warmer weather, sunnier days & a great taste of the summer months which are arriving all too quickly. This is the last hurrah, before our final stretch of school.  School ends here in early July, so this little break give the kids a refresher before the final push to the end of the year.   However, this vacation proved to be cooler and cloudier than most - a lot of my French friends compared the weather to how the break is in the Fall.  We really shouldn't be too surprised this whole winter has been wet, cold and gray.  But there is always hope, hope that the sun will shine more, hope that the rain stays away, hope that we break this weather pattern of the past few months.

Our vacation was broken up into day trips and a weekend away to the Dordogne to visit the grandparents.  Pretty relaxing overall & a nice change of pace for everyone.  The one place the girls really wanted to go was to the beach - They were hoping for a warm sunny day to spend the afternoon at the ocean- go and frolic in the waves.  So last week, we kept watching the weather, waiting for that perfect afternoon.  Unfortunately, each day was forecasted to be cloudy & rainy so we didn't go, but by the middle of each afternoon, the sun was peaking out of the clouds and it always was nicer than was forecasted.  By Thursday night, I decided we had to go anyway, head up to Lacanau, spend the afternoon.  I figured we could always walk along the beach and just enjoy the salt air.  There are many beaches and beach towns along the Atlantic coast,just West of Bordeaux, but we decided we wanted to try Lacanau, as some place different.

The good news, we found sunny skies and nice enough weather to spend a lovely afternoon on the beach.

We were not the only ones who decided to enjoy the beach, there were a lot of people doing the same thing as us!

Surfing schools were even giving lessons.  Yes, most surfers donned on wetsuits, but they were still others who were in bathing suits!

The water seemed to call out to many people daring them to jump the waves, catch the waves or just get a little wet.  Yes, the two girls in the picture below are my oldest daughters.  I swear they are like Polar bears!

My youngest was happiest just playing in the sand near the water - making friends and keeping dry!

 It was breezy, cool, but also sunny.  I love the range of clothing on all the beach goers....swimsuits, shorts, pants, sweaters and even winter coats & scarves.  We saw it all that day!  The tide came in quickly and caught a few sunbathers off guard, leaving people to grab their things quickly and scramble up the rocks.

As we ran out of beach and it was getting later, we decided to walk into town to find some ice cream.  Lacanau-Ocean is a fun little beach community.

Have to say the ice cream was delicious.  We all had a tough time choosing our flavors!   

 It was an excellent afternoon and a wonderful way to end our Spring break.  We are home this weekend getting organized and set for school tomorrow. Today is Mother's Day in the United States & in some other countries too!  Happy Mother's Day to everyone out there celebrating.  (We celebrate it here in France on the last Sunday of this month ).

You may have noticed, I'm playing around with the formatting of the blog - expect a few more changes - but trying for a cleaner, crisper look.  Love to know what readers think.