Our latest update from single dad Daniel in Italy

French motorway playground for the children

Hi everyone,

It has been a little while since my last blog but I’ve just returned from a mini-break with my two boys and I thought I’d tell a little about it! Here at the Bambini Baby Awards, we’ve been working hard to make sure this year’s baby awards are the best yet and we’ve been very excited to test and analyse lot’s of wonderful baby products and child products. But everyone deserves a holiday and a long, digital-free weekend was definitely in order. So here is my story:

As you may know, I live in Italy and I am a father to Frank who is 9 and Eric who is 5. They spend half the week at their mother’s house and half with me. That might be a story for another day but today let’s concentrate on the holiday!
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In February I booked three nights with Eurocamp at a holiday park in Frejus, which is on the French Riviera between Nice and St Tropez. The three of us went to the same park two years ago and had a great time, so the kids were eager to return. In my experience, going back anywhere great for a second visit is always a bit of a let down, I don’t know if my imagination means that my expectations are a little unrealistic but there never seems to be the magic from the first time. I was thinking about this when I rebooked it but decided to take the risk!

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This time the drive there (which should be about 6 hours from where I am in Northern Italy and passes by Genova) was easier than before when I spent 2 hours driving around Nice during Friday rush hour but I can’t say it was overly relaxing as the night before, when I went to get my passport from its drawer, it wasn’t there!!! After pulling my house apart until the early hours, I finally decided that I’d risk crossing the border with my Italian ID card. That would be fine for Italian citizens but I’m not so sure it’s the same for British citizens. As we approached Ventimiglia, the last Italian town before the border, I was pretty stressed but apart from some toll booths there weren’t any checks (although some gendarmerie were stopping lorries after one set of tolls).

​On the way, we made one stop at a nice little motorway rest area and had a picnic. Thank goodness for hats and sun cream as it was hot!  It was the same one we’d stopped at before and silly as it may sound, it was fun to go there again and repeat our little holiday ritual! There were some nice picnic tables, a children's play area and a large green area with a view of the Med! In my panic to find my passport I’d neglected to put anything in the car for the journey but I have to say the boys were great and didn’t complain at all about the length of the journey!

I realize now that I’ve already run out of space so this post is going to have to be a multiple-parter but since it was a short holiday and a long drive I suppose it makes sense to include the journey in the recounting of our adventure!
I’ll be back soon to tell you about what happened once we arrived!!!

Ciao for now,
Dan