Perfick!

Blink and you've missed it - but what a lovely stay we had at the safari park. We got there around mid-day and as our chalet wasn't ready yet we went for a wander round the park first. The weather was glorious and not at all cold - which obviously helped - so we got to see quite a few animals before it was time to head on up to our chalet. The chalet was lovely with two bunkbeds in one room and a double bed in the second room, but the best part was that our balcony overlooked the wolf enclosure! As soon as they heard rustling they came running over to the balcony, although we were under strict instructions not to feed them, of course!

If you can imagine a place designed and furnished by IKEA this would be it, and the design fit so well with the location!

One of the windows in the main bedroom!

My boys get along really well and both have a great sense of humour, so we were treated to their renditions of various songs from The Lion King as we made our way round the park. The funniest had to be at the lion enclosure though, when André raised Charlie above his head and yelled "he's alive" in his best gibbon voice!

At one point we were heading down a tunnel in order to get below the waterline at the seal enclosure when Jen turned her head and came face to face with a hyena. She yelped and they both beat a hasty retreat! I think the seal enclosure was probably Charlie's favourite spot in the whole park, and I must admit we all found it fascinating to watch as they kept swimming past us, "showing off" or probably just playing around!

Charlie really was a little trooper and the only time he whinged was when Jen tried to put him in a stroller. He wasn't having any of it and when my fitbit logged 15,000 steps at the end of the day we had to give it to him - he'd done so well!

The company prepared dinner for us, which they left in the fridge and all we had to do was heat it in the microwave. It was really good - foie gras for starters (not my thing though), roast capon, gratin and green beans for the main course, and tiramisu for dessert, with a chocolate yule log and a bottle of wine to top it all off. After that none of us particularly felt like trudging back into the park for the light show, but we were all so glad we did as they had all the fairytale characters lit up so it took us another hour or so get round it all yet again!

We were also first in to see Father Christmas,
although to be honest Charlie was none too sure!

André and Jordan stayed outside chatting until around 2 a.m. and said they could hear the lions in the background most of that time. I didn't hear that but oh my goodness, at least three times the wolves set off a complete howling cacophony during the night and it was wonderful!

As we were staying in the chalets onsite, the next day we were allowed access to the park one hour before it opened for the day, although even when it did open up it still wasn't busy so we had none of that Disney feel to it where you just get shuffled along with the crowd. This was when we did the car ride through the main park to see the elephants, rhinos (you wouldn't want to cross them, I can tell you), hippos, moose and so on and we were lucky enough to see what must have been a very confused bear lying around in the sunshine, probably wondering where all his mates had got to!

We got back home around 6 pm and were all so tired I don't think anyone really wanted to "celebrate" Christmas Eve. Next day everyone was coming to my place and we'd decided on raclette (basically melted cheese, potatoes, dried meat and salad) to make it easier all round. Presents were exchanged, we all enjoyed a really good meal - and then of course André spotted the whoopee cushions and false noses so off we all went. Jen's mom's partner, Fabrice, is pretty quiet but André had him doubled up laughing, particularly when he unleashed an app on his phone with (I think) 112 different fart sounds! I thought Fabrice was going to fall over, he was laughing so much. Oh, and I forgot to tell you, when I asked André what he was doing for New Year he told me he was off to Genoa in Italy! Huh??? Turns out on his trip to Thailand they met up with a couple who were travelling together with a young Italian designer and they sorta followed each other's circuits and kept meeting up. So now he's off to Genoa for New Year and having dinner with her parents (????) I just hope she's equally enthralled with his farting app, 'cos he's classy like that! If it goes well, she's coming up to France on 18th January to spend a few days with him - so things could be looking up for him. At least I hope so for his sake!

Oh and I also forgot to tell you another bit of news. When we were in the chalet Jen was getting Charlie ready for bed when he came out of the bathroom wearing his jammies and a t-shirt which read "sometimes you've got to be able to read between the lines". I never paid any attention to it because, well, a t-shirt, but Jen's mom read it out several times and said "are you trying to tell us something?" - and she was. It was maybe a little early to be spreading the news but --- Jen's pregnant again, and we're all thrilled. So right now I just can't see how things could get any more ...