Off to see a tent.....

We have been talking about getting some form of tent for the garden – an outdoor room for us all to enjoy, something that would provide both shade during the hot summer months (although at the moment it has turned cold and rainy) and somewhere where we can eat outside and be another room to the house.  We have looked at pavilion and safari style tents and each time the safari tent wins – it is aesthetically pleasing as well as being spacious and 'homely' inside.  There is a supplier who had a static tent at a campsite about an hours drive that we were able to go and look at so today we decided to take a family day out and go and see for ourselves.

Once there we quickly made ourselves at home as we were shown two sizes of tent - the 4m and the 5m.  Immediately the 5m was for us, the 4m being too small for our needs - long term we will be expanding the garden so although the 5m might be a bit tight for now, in the future it would be just perfect.  

The kids loved it straight from the start - in the one we looked at there were three blow up beds, a small coffee table and still plenty of room.  As the sales man went through the spec, he mentioned that they were bought from Holland as that was where the sales trends came from.  We had already been given a link to a Dutch company who sell the same style tents at a fraction of the price that you would pay in France (thank you Free range adventure!)  We had seen enough to make out minds up that this is what we wanted and we thanked our host and then headed off to find somewhere for lunch - it has been some time since we have all been out for lunch and we were all looking forward to it.

 

               

 

Now you might think of France as being spoilt with fine dining and good eating establishments - however this has never been the case to date.  We headed back towards home and each town we drove through we looked for somewhere good to eat - nothing too fancy, just clean and somewhere that would welcome kids.  Finally we found somewhere and installed ourselves to enjoy a leisurely dinner as a family - it was a special time!

So with full bellies we headed home and the heavens opened - just temporarily, then the sunshine came out so we took a walk, fed the animals and visited some friends who were in town.  Once the kids were in bed I got on the internet and ordered our tent - direct from Holland and half the price we would have had to pay in France - how much fun are we going to have in it? The kids have already started saying that they want to sleep in it