Picture This

Here’s why there are no photos of our week in Ile de Ré:

On the morning we leave Toulouse, the car is packed to the brim with all the Stuff (the capital S is required) we think we will need in order to spend 7 nights away from home with two offspring.

Said Stuff includes (at random): four towels, two prams, bed sheets, teddies, dummies (regular and back-up), jumpers of varying thicknesses, scarves, gloves, olive oil, butter, bread, kilo-size bags of pasta, etc, etc.

By the time we heave ourselves away from the curb, the car is so jam-packed that only two little pairs of eyes are visible among the heaps of things on the back seat. Good: the kids appear to be on-board.

We reflect briefly on the fact we purchased this “bigger” car only 8 months ago.

It seemed like such a daring move at the time.

And yet, we’re already thinking of trading it in for a small lorry.

And no, the punchline to this happy little tale is not the predictable “we forgot the camera”.

Oh no, we did much better than that.

We are such organised parents that we PLAN AHEAD and actually think to remove the camera battery and recharge it the night before we leave!

Then, of course, we throw the camera in with all the other Stuff.

“Did you remember to pack the camera?” we ask each other worriedly at the first traffic lights.

We stop to check. Yes of course we packed the camera: we are such organised people!

In fact, it is only as we line up the first happy holiday shot, two days later (a sort of breezy, here we are running and laughing, pink-cheeked on the beach, having fun shot) that we realise.

Sure, we packed the camera.

We just forgot to put the battery back in.

Back in Toulouse, that battery will be charged up for the year.

So, while we all wait with bated breath for the photos we managed to nab with our freshly purchased disposable camera, here are a few Ile de Ré shots from 2007 (we are two years younger: just pencil in a couple of dark circles and a few lines and you pretty much have the 2009 version…).