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At the end of August, cousin Penny came over to stay with us with her partner Andrew and their newborn son Benji, short for Benjamin. Later that week, we took them for a walk. As it was hot, Emma put on her cardigan. Ripe blackberries were very easy to find at this time of the year.
As oma had returned to the Netherlands, Emma read a book about a very hungry caterpiller with Pen and Benji, while Piet and Emma played football with Andrew. We went to Monpazier, a nearby fortified town (bastide). We had lunch with the Klamp family, who had come over from London to visit us and stayed two weeks in a cottage nearby. Afterwards, we did some window shopping in the town and went to the square. Emma walked around, while mum sat down. We took magic pictures with and without Piet. How did he disappear so suddenly? After returning home, Piet and Emma were allowed, as every day after lunch, an hour iPad time. As we did not have internet in the cottage, they could only watch carefully selected videos in Dutch during the holiday. After dinner and desert, Piet threatened us:
With four days to go until our flight, we took him up on his threat.
The next day, we visited the local castle Bonaguil. After inspecting the moat, we sat down and had a bite to eat. Piet was impressed by a knight's armour and we went down a spiral staircase. When we came down some other stairs, Piet suggested putting electricity on the handrail as a defence. I guess he got the idea behind castles. After a not overly succesful family picture, we went home for lunch and to the Klamps for a swim and splash. The next day, we had pancakes in Monflanquin, another bastide town. Unfortunately, a tree climbing activity failed as it appeared to require prior reservation. The last day of Pen and Andrews stay, we went out for a gastronomical lunch in a nearby inn. The cousins said goodbye and we dropped them at the airport.
Back to home
On Friday, we packed up and went to Bordeaux in the afternoon, for a stay at the airport hotel. We got up at 5.30am the next day for our flight to Paris (Piet walked to the plane), a forgetable transfer at Charles-de-Gaule airport, a flight to Singapore during which Piet managed to watch the inflight entertainment system for 10 hours in a row until he fell asleep on mum's lap, a stopover at Singapore airport where Piet slept on the floor, and a final leg home, where we minus a car seat that has disappeared during the flight finally arrived on Sunday night. After three days, the kids were over their jet-lag and life was back to normal except for an unforgetable memory.
In addition to the memories, the kids had also markedly improved their foreign language skills. Piet is speaking more Dutch to his father and his Dutch teacher could notice the difference. During the holidays, it was already clear from small conversations like:
With his cousins he would converse exclusively in Dutch, which made his speaking slow, but this did not frustrate him; he took his time. Even Emma made some progress: before the holidays she would never speak Dutch to her father. After the holiday, she would occasionally manage a sentence. Finally, Piet learned three French words (bonjour, pain au chocolat and au revoir) during the holidays and now understands there are languages other than English and Dutch (and French).
