It had been a full on week. Travelling and being out and about all day had taken its toll. A month into our trip we were pretty much exhausted. Of course so were the girls, but even they still had more energy than us. Thea was essentially bouncing off the walls of our small apartment.

We thought about going up to Estoul, a ski field close by but the weather was still very warm and we weren’t sure it was worth the drive. Instead we thought a chilled out few days were in order.

The first morning we were in Brusson we headed for a walk down the steel hill and into the main centre. We had a coffee at a cafe with a very kind lady who gave Thea a cookie and admired the two girls with choruses of “bella bambina”. A little further down the road we came across a sporting goods store. As it was the end of winter a large amount of the stock was on sale. Craig’s Lowa shoes that he got in 2012 had developed open fronts and slits in the side over the past few weeks. We’d tried to repair them with glue but hadn’t had any success. Thankfully this shop had a pair of North face boots on 40% discount so we bought them and wore them out of the shop. The Lowa stayed behind with the nice lady where they’d meet their ultimate end, the bin.

After Evie’s nap we headed for the lake on the other end of town. We were very pleased to discover both a playground, including a flying fox and a little friend for Thea to play with. Thea was so happy, and the Italian children looked after her and helped her on the flying fox. We spent a good hour there just playing and enjoying the atmosphere.

After a much better night sleep, the next morning after another delicious coffee and croissants we went back to the playground again.

This time unfortunately there weren’t any little people for Thea to play with. In fact a class of teenagers were there practicing their cross country skiing. They were too cool for the flying fox so Thea got it mostly to herself. She really wanted them to join in, it was a bit sad after the fun of having friends at the playground yesterday.

We headed home for lunch of some fresh bread from the local patissceria. The girls enjoyed a relax at home and some play.

Now that we’d explored most of Brusson, we decided we should probably get some petrol and have a wander around the town of Verres. Verres is at the base of the hills we had driven up to get to Brusson. We enjoyed wandering through the cobbled streets lined by burnt orange and yellow buildings with wooden shutters. It was a little more cloudy and cool today so we had to put our jackets back on.

Although we’d come with the idea of getting a coffee we couldn’t find anywhere open that had what we wanted. A trip to the supermarket for some choux pastries and dinner happened instead and that was basically the end of our Brusson time.

It was a good little side track on our journey and provides us with the opportunity to rest and recoup. It had been a stressful last week and a half with a lot of changes for our wee family.