Summer Holidays 2026!

Life is short and the world is wide.

- Simon Raven

Welcome back one and all to The Art of Caesura!

We have now returned from our summer holidays in Lake Annecy and Chamonix, France; and a bit of Novello, Italy. I won't do a whole play-by-play, but I will just share a few photos as much to help me remember some of the experiences that we had as to share them with you!

First a map (or two) to orient us of our route:

We flew from Dublin to Geneva and then drove down to Lake Annecy in the French Alps, where we spent about a week at Les Fontaine Eurocamp. We then drove to Chamonix to stay with our friends for about a week and a half. To end our trip our two families drove to a stunning area of the Italian wine country for a little "holiday-within-a-holiday". 

Here's a zoomed out map to better orient yourself:

Now, let's zoom back in (figuratively speaking) and take a closer look at what we got up to. 

The Euro Camp, and Lake Annecy in general, where honestly awesome! It had it all right on the camp grounds: amazing pools, incredible waterslides, a water park, a shop, a playground with a bouncy castle and loads of casual activities in the afternoons and evenings. There were a few days where we never left the campsite because there was so much to do. 

As a parent, it was really wonderful being able to give my girls more responsibility and see them rise to the challenges, and gain confidence doing so. Pushing them into their Zone of Proximal Development, to use an educationalist term. Saoirse would march off to the shop by herself in the mornings with her few euro to buy fresh baguettes and croissants. And both girls, initially tentative of some of the more intense waterslides, ended up trying and loving them! They even volunteered to take part in one of the evening activities - Saoirse was the magician's assistant for one trick!

An "Isla-eye-view" of the foam party that they had one day. 

I loved being the "King of the Grill" - well, more like the squire of the grill as I had never cooked on a charcoal grill before - but once I got the hang of it, it was great. At the end of every BBQ (as is only correct and proper) I would roast marshmallows for the neighborhood kids. 

We did adventure out into the surrounding climes as well. We borrowed bikes and rode to nearby towns on their market days, and we went to the titular lake a couple of times. The weather was perfect - high twenties (Celsius) every day and the water temperature (in the pools and lake) was similar. 

Back at the campsite there were discos in the evenings, a table quiz (which we won (won a bottle of wine, if you don't mind) and face painting...

Saoirse put the face paint lady through her paces, the first time she'd ever done a Snowy Owl. 

We were sad to leave Lake Annecy, but excited to begin the next leg of our trip:

Our friends' chalet is nestled at the base of Mt. Blanc - talk about a room with a view!

Karen and Calvin were fantastic hosts, and took us to all the greatest hits of the surrounding area: cable cars, trains, ice caves within glaciers...

Chamonix is such a vibrant place with so much to do year 'round (apparently even more so in the summer than the winter, surprisingly). We went to a music festival, down a luge and to this ropes course that our girls just loved:

Calvin got me in to daily trail running, and, coming from rural Ireland, it was so nice to be able to just walk out their front door and walk into Chamonix, or leave for a run from their front door rather than having to drive anywhere. 

For the last couple days of our trip we took a joint family holiday to a beautiful area of Italy, Novello; and it was like something out of a novella! We stayed in the stunning Relais Chiarene, which perfectly blended old and new, and were even in the pool to watch a (fairly) distant thunder and lightening storm - it was all very dramatic. 

It was a fantastic holiday all 'round and the first of it's type for us (we have gone to my stomping grounds on the West Coast of Canada almost every year since the girls have been born). 

Looking forward to do it again in the future!

Unfortunately, when we got back there had been a power outage, and our fridge-freezer had been without power for probably weeks. It stank out the whole house and only now, 5 days later, is the smell properly starting to dissipate! But we'll speak more of foetid, bloated, rotting flesh next week, right here on The Art of Caesura!

Reading: Red Rising - Pierce Brown

Listening: Dopamine - Wing

Watching: A House of Dynamite (2025)

Next Week:

Into the trenches...