So, we went to France. And it was OK. In fact the painful bits are fading as the days go by and I guess on the whole it'll be remembered as a qualified success. It could be described as The Holiday Of Thwarted Ambition, or The Holiday Of Stereotypical French People, but it could just as easily be The Holiday Of Incredible Scenery or The Holiday Of Fresh Water Swimming. So, you know, Yin and then again, Yang.

We drove a lot. A lot. Mostly me, because I'm a control freak and Sally likes to look at the scenery. My first Gallic Shrug was from the shoulders of the man in Hertz as he listened to how the car seat they supplied was too big for Roisin, but they managed to dig another one out of somewhere and we set off.

Our first stop was on Lake Annecy, which is really beautiful, but not that warm to swim in -- for me anyway. We were staying in that area for three nights and we made a trip to see the Matterhorn Mont Blanc, but were thwarted in our intention to take the little train to the Mer du Glace as it was not running that day. Sally wanted to go up to one of the other glaciers in a cable car, but I looked at the heights and the massive, seemingly unsupported runs of cable and broke out into a cold sweat. Heights are not my thing. Especially when suspended in a plastic bubble with no way to get out!

Out next stop was a chateau near Montelimar that we'd booked in March. Unfortunately when we arrived the owner (a deeply unfriendly man) said that he didn't think we were coming and so he wasn't ready for us. Words were exchanged (four hours driving with your kids will shorten ones temper) and despite the impression that he really didn't want us there, we took a room for the night in the main house and he said that the apartment would be ready the next morning.

This guy was big on rules and everything was under lock and key and generally it wasn't very relaxed. At all. We spent a couple of afternoons by the pool, which helped, but we were glad to leave. Although by day three, his boyfriend had turned up and he was much nicer and made us less uncomfortable.

One of the day trips from there was to Avignon, which is a very nice place indeed. We went to the pont and discovered that the song was originally sous le pont (under the bridge) as there used to be a cafe there that was famous for its knees-ups. We also saw this duck, hiding in a corner of the little chapel on the bridge, and when we were coming back, we found out why it was sitting there.

We then went to Le Puy which is where Puy lentils come from. This is a really interesting place too and we liked it enough to stay for three days. We got a really nice little two room suite for Eur86 a night and the restaurant attached to the hotel was very good (The food kind've disappointed me in general, I have to say. I think my expectations are out of whack. It was mostly tasty and all, but relatively little that was special. Except the lentils, of course).

Our final stop was back near Annecy, at a place called Aiguebelette. This is billed as the warmest lake in Europe, and it really was warm, so there was swimming done. The place we stayed in was very nice and the owner was very chatty, and they had a little boathouse with rowboats (most of their customers are there for the fishing). So we boated about and went to Chambery (on the only rainy day) and cooked for ourselves in the little kitchen.

One memorable event was when Anna and Sally went out in a rowboat and Anna jumped in for a swim but couldn't get back in to the boat afterwards. Sally tried to help, but was laughing too much to do anything useful, so in the end, Sally rowed in with Anna in tow. I'm just glad only one of them went in. And that it was Anna, not Sally.

Our return home was marred a little by a lost bag and a flat tyre, but we returned home relieved enough. I was glad that I had taken the following day (Friday) off and had a long weekend to get used to the idea of going back to work. Our luggage was found and returned to us (they didn't do the laundry, for some reason) and we had a complete chill out weekend with equally nice weather.

What the condensed version of the holiday doesn't really get into is how the kids never went to bed before we did and how Roisin didn't sleep well at night and how this took a significant toll on the adults' humour and how I dinged the car in the hotel car park and how the younger two didn't eat well at all and other trying things. This was the first holiday we'd tried with all five of us since Roisin was too big to stick under your arm and drag around. We learned that we should probably split up a bit more -- Paddy and I had a great time sightseeing just the two of us -- and try and get our timing a bit better. By that I mean that in France everything shuts between 12 and 2 which always seemed to be just as we were hitting our stride. So we needed to be better organised in that respect. We're spoilt in Ireland with everything being available almost all the time.

I took a lot of photos, but there aren't that many good ones. About thirty out of 250, I think. I also fell over with the camera open and smacked it off the ground so now the lens cover doesn't close or open properly and there's an irritating shadow in the frame. I tried to clean it up myself, taking it apart and using compressed air, but to no avail.

So I am going to see how much it will cost to have it mended, and if it's more than Eur150, I'm going to get a new camera. I finally got the justification I was looking for!