Riley is heading back to Singapore today so that last two days have been devoted to kids’ fun, to give him some lovely memories to send him off. Yesterday we all headed to Cri de Tarzan which is an outdoor adventure play area with big trees to climb and flying foxes. When we arrived with five very excited boys, we found out that Michael could not participate because he was wearing the wrong shoes (crocs instead of sneakers). Michael bore this news pretty bravely and luckily he was allowed to go into the little kids area where there was a less challenging parcour course and a jumping castle.

The big boys were briefed in French regarding the safety equipment as they climbed into the tree tops, with Blaise translating for Nick. (Blaise has acted as a translator for us several times over the last week and Nick has started to become interested in learning French – he downloaded a French learning app onto his iPod and has been practising in the last couple of days). And then the boys were off – climbing trees onto high platforms, walking across rope bridges and sailing across gullies on flying foxes. It was absolutely excellent boy fun and hopefully we can return before we go home so that Michael can participate fully.

Today we drove into Toulouse to have lunch at an American Diner, which the boys loved, and Go Carting, before dropping Riley off to the airport. He is such an experienced traveller that he is flying to Singapore by himself with a changeover of planes at Heathrow. He is the oldest of the boys in the family and a really lovely person who has made Michael especially feel very welcomed and included. We miss him already. Tomorrow morning Darren leaves to give a paper at a conference in America. The house will be much quieter and emptier without the two of them.