Everybody Goes to Royan

Sunday afternoon, we loaded the kids in the car and headed to Royan about 1.5h-2h from Pessac.  Royan is at the mouth of the Gironde and so almost on the Atlantic Ocean.  A's mom has a small house here and lives here part-time, alternating with a much larger house that her and her brother inherited from their parents.  But the brothers live elsewhere and someone has to keep up the family home.  Anyway, we arrived in the little house in Royan on Sunday afternoon.  And where were the kids and I sleeping I wondered, I had assumed the guest bedroom.  Mais Non.  The attic.  The attic?  Are you crazy?  The stairs leading to the attic are steep and dangerous for the kids. 

MIL -- But I put a sheet on this thin twin mattress on the floor and set up a pack-n-play.  Plus laid (not put on) a set of sheets on this thin 'futon mattress' on the floor for you.

Me -- See how getting down is dangerous for my kids and dangerous for me to carry them?  And look how my head hits the ceiling and I look like the Hunchback of Notredame.

MIL -- Bof (meaning suck it)

Instantly my SIL set up the guestroom for herself and I was screwed.
To get over our disappointment we went to the beach, which we could have walked to, but we forgot Zach's stroller b/c while I was letting L using the restroom before the grand departure, they loaded everything into the car and were driving away slow enough so that we could hop on without slowing down.  Reminds me of the trains in England.

To my surprise, we are not the only ones vacationing in Royan (from the anonymity perspective) .  You can hardly go out without running into someone you know, well not someone I know, but someone that vacations here regularly.  Many of those people you run into don't live here, but are vacationing here too...

Anyway while I thought I new MIL BF quite well, here are some new things that I learned:
1) He thinks that woman are not clever enough to turn on the cable box, it's too complicated.
2) When getting up in the morning at 5am to make coffee, he likes to turn on all the lights so that anyone sleeping in the attic will also wake up.
3) After his 5am morning coffee it's back to bed, let the mother of the boys he just woke up deal with their cries, he is tired.
4) He thinks that American eat ketchup with everything, never drink coffee, hate all cheeses and can't see light shining in their eyes at 5am.
5) He loves depressing WWII music.
6) Manners are for sissies, woman and children.

Because I am working during the day it is rather hard for me to spend very much time enjoying myself.  Went the the beach twice, which is very nice.  Otherwise besides a 30 minute grocery store outing that no one wanted me to go on by myself, I haven't really explored.  Leaving for Pessac tomorrow and then Marseille Friday -- YIPPIE!!!  D, A, V, B, A, M et al here I come;)