We spent a fantastic five days at our friend's house in Damgan on the Atlantic coast of France. We fished for crabs and "crevettes", collected shells, made sand castles and made new friends! Above, Jack with his net and bucket hunting for crabs and Jack with Simon and all the neighborhood kids hunting for crabs. It is very good to speak French if you want to go crab hunting in Damgan! Hunting for crabs is Jack's favorite part of visiting Damgan!
Kate and Mama hunted for shells while the others hunted for crabs. Kate found a tiny, baby, cute crab the size of your thumbnail, camouflaged in the sand. We showed the others the crab and then let it go back into the ocean so it could grow big enough for us to eat him on our next trip to France!
The mornings at Damgan were usually cool and cloudy and the afternoons were sunny and windy. Jack and "Papie" Andre worked on a sand castle together one afternoon. "Papie" Andre is a retired school teacher, principal, bus driver and summer camp counselor (they do it all in France!) and he said a very wise thing at the beach this day... "It is important to help children in their creations but to let them take the lead and to make it in their own vision."
It is GOOD to have grand-parents in France too!
While Jack and Papie were constructing, Jack's new friend, Lena, found a rare shell ( une porcelain graine de cafe) and gave it to Jack. The sweetness of summer friendship!
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Such a lovely, lovely, almost magical day.
ReplyDeleteReminded me of lines from Mary Oliver's poem- Have You Ever Tried to Enter the Long Black Branches?
"Under the peach-light,
I cross the fields and the dunes, I follow the ocean's edge.
I climb, I backtrack.
I float.
I ramble my way home."
Thanks for sharing all your adventures. Mary K