Sainte Maxime, France

After 2 weeks on the Côte d’Azur we are now crossing France making short stops on our way to Biarritz. The temperature has shot up in the past few days and we now find ourselves thinking that it is getting too hot. Oh why as humans can we never be satisfied, must we drive ourselves mad with our constant complaining?
We voted the campsite at Sainte.Maxime one of our favourite. This was due to the perfect location, upon the water’s edge, an unspoiled view of St.Tropez bay and the great Dutch couple – Hank and Corry next door. While Hank enthralled us with tales of life as an Amsterdam police detective and tickled us with his subtle sense of humour, Corry was always bright and upbeat. Like many women away from their grandchildren, she was smitten with Krista. Krista took a particular liking to their little dog Lotja. However even she could not compete in her affections with the gang of pigeons that popped round to our awning for their daily crumbs of French bread.
As usual we took few trips out in the car, preferring to walk or run along the cycle path into Ste.Maxime or Port Grimaud each day. Graham was the victor in the great race to submerge the whole body in the sea and achieved two strokes of breast on the 19th April. I came in third on the 21st but did swim for at least five minutes. We therefore held our own against our Lyonnaise neighbours who took second place by swimming properly on the 20th.
Krista is now approaching her 8 month anniversary and growing up faster than possible to believe. Keeping us amused with her chatter and songs, we now need eyes in the back or her head as she explores every nook and cranny of the caravan. She sits up securely rolls and almost crawls on all fours, held back not by an incredible strength but a slight lack of technique. She can just about pull herself up to standing and will use any available structure to do so. She likes to play with anything that is not a toy, the more unsuitable the better – electrical wires being the number one favourite and now as we have moved outside mud and daisies.
She gets extremely frustrated when things are not quite as she thinks they should be … we look forward with trepidation to the ‘terrible twos’ if this is how she is at 7months. She still has no teeth but doesn’t let this stop her in the food stakes. Like Graham she has developed a fondness for French bread (far more appetizing than the rice cakes I’d like her to prefer). Also like Graham she’s been developing quite a tummy on the ever abundant supply of French patisserie!
To keep tummies in check we have bought her (ourselves) a wonderful racing red pushchair designed especially for running. (Although we really don’t have the space for two large pushchairs, this was a bargain we just couldn’t pass on at a local boot-fair). The spokes in one of the wheels need repairing but once that is fixed we can’t wait to get it down to the park-run for a trial. In the same deal, we also got a baby back-pack. Krista sits in it like the Queen of Sheba made up with her new view of the world.