C'est fini and what I've learnt from taking a break

Keeping the holiday feeling 

when you're back to real life

It is with sadness that I am now writing about la fin de nos vacances 🙁 but ooh la la what a fabulous time we’ve had. It feels like we’ve been away for months rather than just a couple of weeks. We’ve had a brilliant balance of doing things, seeing places, relaxing and recharging our batteries. We’ve enjoyed the most delicious food and wine and had some culture too. The weather has been wonderful, late summer is my favourite time of year to visit France. It’s not too hot and it has that delightful autumnal glow about it. 

We ended our grand tour de France 🇫🇷in the region of Picardie, an area of France we’ve come to know and love very much. Our base was the chic little town of St Valery sur Somme on the Baie de Somme. It’s a fabulous place for walking, running, cycling, kayaking, sailing and bird watching. The French word for bird is oiseau (pronounced ‘wazzo’) which always makes me giggle 🤭 as it sounds like a mild insult. Mr Bob has been called a daft oiseau on many occasions!! 

One of the things I especially love about being on holiday is not having access to television or newspapers. I’ve kept in touch with people via social media but I haven’t looked at any news so I've had no idea what’s been happening in the world and I quite enjoyed it, I must admit.

Holidays also remind me that keeping things simple is the way to keep sane and happier. You become more resourceful, less egotistical and make your own entertainment instead of being over stimulated by 500 channels of garbage and the internet.  It’s been so nice to just sit and talk with Mr Bob instead of one of us saying ‘I just need to do this, check my emails etc etc’.  Although he wasn’t very talkative after I whooped his arse at Yahtzee!! 

Holidays give you a kick up the reality backside in terms of what’s important and how many material things you can actually live without. For example, I only took the minimum make-up, hair products and the one body lotion - you don’t need dozens of the same product in different sizes and fragrances!  And don’t get me started on clothing - over the years I’ve learnt that you don’t need things ‘just in case’! Being minimalist makes your decisions so much easier and saves you time. 

How to keep that holiday feeling in everyday life:

1. Plan ahead so you're not constantly running around and feeling stressed.
2. Take time out to read a book - a proper old-fashioned book, not one on your phone or kindle.
3. Go for a walk, preferably out in the countryside and away from crowds of people.
4. Turn off the tv, emails, social media etc for at least one hour every day.
5. Limit your wardrobe and beauty products - work with what you've got before even thinking about buying anything new.

Have a great week and I'll be back to let you know how my first week back in the real world has gone, eek this is going to be painful I fear!