Patrick had read about a really good aquarium in Boulogne and suggested it might be nice to visit. At €52.40 for the 4 of us it wasn't crazy expensive but significantly eat into our tight budget. But, it's Father's day so we decided to go for it as at least it would mean we were out of the mid day sun, and we could go to the beach later in the day.
Laurin was a bit of a mess, and we are still finding homes for random items that are left from the big move aboard so we made a "Happy half hour" playlist and tried to make an impact on jobs before it got too hot. Jobs done we headed to the Boulangerie to pick up bread for our lunch, then made the short walk to the Aquarium, stopping briefly at a park for the kids to let off steam. The kids had a great time playing with a French family and AJ kept running back to ask me how to say certain things in French so he was at least trying to communicate in French, although he said the boy didn't really answer!
Next on to Nausicaá which is the French national Marine centre by the sounds of it. So much better than the sea life centres I have visited in the UK. There were 21 different areas, many of which represented different areas of the world, with a large focus on conservation and looking after our oceans. In addition to the usual tanks full of brightly coloured fish there was a fisheries vessel simulator, a 4D film, sea-lion show and mangrove area as well as a penguin beach. All very modern and clean. Kids had a good time and hopefully learned some stuff. Esmé was particularly affected by a film of a pacific island being continuously flooded due to global warming. We talked about what it would be like to have your home washed away and we looked at the sand bags they used to try to prevent this. I didn't really set any school work for this visit but hope it will be something we refer back to throughout the trip.
Opening our picnic didn't seem to be the done thing in the aquarium so we had an over priced snack of cold drinks, microwave chips with ingenious packaging, and mini donuts. Then once out of the centre we had our picnic next to the beach and made the long walk to the sea at low water so the kids could swim. Back at a sensible time for showers and to pick up bread for tomorrow before drinks with the crew of Pluto, who brought stories of their time in the Mediterranean as well as wine! All in all a tiring but lovely day. Still extremely hot at 21:45 so need to start taking siestas as the kids are only just starting to settle down. Long day tomorrow as we're heading to Dieppe.
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