In search of the perfect lake

The French Alps near St John Montclar

You can keep sunbathing and sandcastles, my ideal holiday activity is swimming in a warm, freshwater lake. And France is rammed with them.

I decided that my perfect 2011 lake might be found in the French Alps. Having persuaded the rest of the family (not known for their love of outdoor pursuits) that it would be fun to explore a new area we eventually set off for St John Montclar.

The tiny little ski village looked rather sad without snow, but the surrounding scenery was stunning. We spent the first few days ooh-ing and ah-ing at the magnificence of it all until we were fair worn out with it.

Over the first few days we took our bearings and I surreptitiously scoured maps looking for a suitable lake. We were staying close to a huge reservoir which had swimming points indicated, so this was our first attempt at lakey nirvana:

Pretty lovely and we spent a whole afternoon there, but not my ideal. A couple of days later - I had to allow my family some respite - we tried the other side of the lake (pleasant, more shade but still not good enough). The whole man-made reservoir thing didn't do it for me. I was beginning to feel concerned.

I resigned myself to:

Attending mildly deranged local festivals

Going up HUGE mountains

Watching paragliding!

And it was great but not quite perfect. Then, while we were driving through the local village for the umpteenth time, I spotted a tiny wooden sign with 'Lac' written on it. Not on the map! We took a chance and wound down a tiny little track which opened up into THE PERFECT LAKE. Surrounded by trees. Natural. Gorgeous:

And I am pleased to say that it was soon pronounced perfect by all of us. It offered wonderful swimming for me, but was ideal for the children too. The lake serves as an outdoor leisure centre for the village in the summer with a safe area for kids to swim with a lifeguard. We spent our time swimming, eating at the lovely waterside French cafe (enjoying the view above from the tables), fishing for crayfish and relaxing.

Discovering the lake transformed what would have been a great holiday into what will be our favourite holiday for a long time to come. It was utter bliss and we all came home feeling like this:

This post was written for tots100 for a entry into their chance to win a holiday courtesy of Al Fresco Holidays. For more information on how to enter yourself click here!

NB: Earlier entries in this blog contain images of our youngest daughter when she was very poorly as a baby/toddler which you may find upsetting.

Bruce, Ballet and Bobs

I finally got a photo of Bruce Jaffray, Anna's surgeon, last week. His knowledge and skills undoubtedly saved Anna's life so, as you can imagine, he is very special to us.

I also can't resist uploading these photos of Ella and Anna to show off a) Ella's tutu and b) Anna's bob.
Janie x

Anna is three!

Anna is three - it seems very grown up indeed and we are all thrilled that she has made it to such a great age! She is still keeping us on our toes - we had an admission for a few nights in February and she was ill for much of March and April, but she is getting stronger all of the time. We are still staying pretty much close to home, but planning a holiday in Holland (house swapping our house for my sister's house in The Hague) in August. We have been very lucky with Anna in August in the past and paediatric services in Holland are excellent, so we reckon it's worth a go.



Putting her health aside for a while, Anna is a funny, feisty little ball of energy. She is very sociable and loves a party. Her speech is coming on really well and she makes us laugh a lot (and occasionally cry with frustration!) She has developed a great line in funny dancing and loves to make people laugh. Interestingly, Anna adores medical folk and hospitals in general. In fact, she demands to be taken to see Dr O'Brien (highly-experienced paediatric consulant) if she just grazes her knee. She also asks to go to the RVI when she is feeling sad. Feeling sad is a new emotion for Anna and she does it beautifully with very sweet sighs and lots of leaning her head against walls.

She is an adorable little girl and she and Ella have developed a lovely relationship despite the age difference. In fact, they have chosen to share a bedroom in our new house. They have already made some new friends since our move and are both enjoying their new town-centre life. I wish we had done it long ago.

Janie xxx

Anna update

A belated Happy New Year to everyone.

We are pleased to announce that Anna went the whole of 2007 without an overnight admission. Yippee!

Will she or won't she?

Anna has been a little poorly again (the week before last), but we managed to keep her out of the RVI this time thanks to the out of hours doctor service (which is very good here I am relieved to report). The steroid tablets really help and she is much stronger than before. We have also been in touch with the dieticians at the RVI as madam has managed to stay the same weight since June despite having grown 6cm over the same period. Nev's one year old weighs more than Anna now!

She is starting playgroup a couple of mornings a week next month and we are hoping that she will cope with that. Obviously, if she starts getting ill more regularly we will whip her out of there and cancel her place .

On a more positive note the photo above is from August and shows Anna with her friend and fellow exomphalos baby Grace, who lives in Edinburgh. They are both little miracles.

J x

PS: Anna has a tan Judith Chalmers would be proud of on that photo. I would like to stress that the antibiotics she is on make her tan very easily - we haven't been basting her under a strong grill...

Anna unwell last week

We had a little visit to the RVI last Friday. Anna had a minor cold but it went to her chest and she became very wheezy. I took her in for the day on the advice of our GP. Anna was started on her extra-strong antibiotics (she is till on the weekly prophylactic ones) and was much better by Tuesday of this week.

That Friday was definitely one of the worst (and funniest) mornings of my life. It involved Anna hyperventilating, Andy being away for the week on a course and the discovery that Ella had nits! Compared to that, any job would be a doddle for me now. Lion tamer? Wing walker? Those are jobs for wimps!

Aside from being a nitty nurse, my other occupation has been plotting (with Mr Jaffrey's support) to get some research done on the surgical treatment of exomphalos. Geeps has seen loss after loss of little ones born with giant exomphalos recently. Only three out of nine babies, including Anna, have survived and that doesn't count the ones whose parents understandably chose not to go ahead with the preganancy because the prognosis was so poor. Well, the good news is that the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons is considering carrying out some research and we are doing everything we can to make that happen.

Janie
xxx

Summer update

Hi everyone,


I'm sorry that I haven't been updating the blog - it's partly down to the school holidays and partly because there has been mercifully little to report on Anna.

Anna has been doing really well and everyone keeps commenting on how healthy she looks these days (as you can see from the photo). Her new regime of meds really seems to be working and I also think that the damp summer has helped - I may be the only woman in England who was grateful for all that rain.


Andy and I are starting to relax, finally, and to believe that the worst is over. Anna is going to try out a couple of sessions at playgroup next month and I am starting to do some work from home (as a market research transcriber if anyone needs one!). We are enjoying a social life together, which is something of a novelty.

We has a real treat last week as we finally got to meet an exomphalos baby other than Anna! Her name is Grace Campbell and she lives in Edinburgh with her lovely parents, Gen and Mike, who are Australian. Grace was treated in the same way as Anna (conservatively) and is almost the same age, so they have an awful lot in common. It was also really great to finally meet Gen, who has been an enormous support to me via Geeps.

Anna is coming on really well developmentally. She's still very small for her age and very slim, but she is chatting away happily and is a very sociable little thing. She can count up to twelve thanks to tutoring from her big sister. Ella and Anna are very much in love with one another and have lots of fun - long may it continue!

Janie
xxx