Hit the road

The best laid plans have gone awry which is how I find myself typing at my computer at 10:45pm, rather than tucked up in bed asleep in preparation for what promises to be a tiring day travelling with children tomorrow. We have to get all six of us up and out by 9:15am, a feat of Hurculean proportions that has never been attempted successfully before, then keep the children calm and fed during a day spent in the car, on the ferry and at a strange, foreign hotel. That should be a doddle then.

Still it will be our first break flying (or should that be driving and sailing?) solo with all the children since the twins arrived. We have done weekends with the bigger boys and a holiday with the grandparents to take up the slack, but this is our first go at being proper parents to our new and enlarged family. I am hoping it will prove to be more of a success than our first ever holiday with child, which was an Italian odyssey of searching for swings and organic produce to feed our precious firstborn.

This time round I have taken the precaution of stuffing the car full of pre-prepared organic meals so I don't spend my week trying to puree lentils by hand in an ill equipped holiday kitchen and the twins have yet to be introduced to the joys of swinging, so fingers crossed it will all go swimmingly in our more experienced hands.

We are off to sample the delights of Disneyland Paris, our credit crunched attempt to feed the big boys Mickey obsession without paying the fare to Florida, and then a week in the South of France, which should just about wipe the horror of traipsing around theme parks from my mind before it's time to turn around and drive all the way back home again.

I can't say I am looking forward to changing nappies in French service stations again, as I remember many an unsavoury experience en route to skiing holidays when the older ones were babes in arms, but I have noticed a recent Pampersification of the aires of France, so hopefully the hole in the ground stops are a thing of the past. But I can say I am looking forward to 30 degrees of sunshine, proper croissants and access to enough swimming pools to gives us a slim chance to tire all four boys out sufficiently to sneak in a siesta or two.

I will report back on my return, but I fear that I will need a holiday to get over holidaying with four children, so suggestions for a relaxing mini break sans enfants on a postcard please.

Au revoir.