Day 15: 28/06/17 Shopping in Rouen

A bit of a lazy morning and a cooked breakfast for to keep Patrick happy, then Patrick set off to find Christoph the mast man while I did school with the kids. Patrick returned bearing the bad news that Christoph was on holiday until Monday... no wonder we had had no reply to our emails! Luckily the Marina office had accepted our "don't know how long we'll be here" and said we could pay once we knew how long which means we can take advantage of cheaper rates for over 5 days. This was the first day I have had real objections to boat school and I'm wondering if this is due to the impending ramp up of school next week.

On the flip side there are some really interesting boats here including what looks like a solar powered one. AJ was really interested in this!

Once jobs had been done we dug out the scooters, bags, trolleys and pac-a-macs and set off for the supermarket having got vague directions from the office. After walking a while we stopped to check where we were only to have the Port Office Lady pull up in her car and offer us a lift. She said there was a bigger supermarket "a quarter" further... did we want to go to this. We said yes and encouraged the kids to look outside and try to remember the way back! Happily for the kids we spotted a playground en route  and decided to have lunch there on the way back.

The supermarket was somewhat traumatic as the kids were a bit tetchy, Patrick hates food shopping and I was desperately trying to work out low cost meals and snacks in a foreign language! Finally we were done and on our way back. Baguette and cheese for lunch, followed by bargain ice creams from the closer supermarket which we stopped to assess on the way back to Laurin.

The afternoon was taken up with putting food away (ever a challenge), an hour or so electronics, and sussing out the washing which is surprisingly free! We also met a guy on a Westerly who says his mast is supposed to be coming down on Friday. He wants some help, so we said we could be around, which will hopefully help us to learn what is to do, and perhaps get us an earlier spot with Christoph?

An early night for the kids, although they are still jabbering away to each other at 9:20pm. At least they seem to chat nicely and allow Patrick and I to relax at this time in the evening.