Right.

Following a brief discussion with Pedro, Jennie, Jonnyboy and the Tizzmeister on Sunday, we were mulling over the idea of hiring out a big villa / farmhouse in France in the summer. The idea being to have a Badgerfest holiday which is akin to the fabled Dartmouth week (i.e. very chilled out, people do as they please, eat a lot, sleep a lot, swim a lot, play games a lot, laugh a lot)

I am happy to organise, and my initial thoughts are as follows:

Where: either Brittany (easier to get to) or south of France (warmer). Rent a big villa / farmhouse with swimming pool (having done a quick scan there are some beasts that can sleep upwards of 14)

When: I was thinking late June before all the kiddywinks finish for the summer. One week only? (2 weeks is probably a bit much and we will want to throttle each other by then)

Cost: Will hopefully be quite cheap as there could be between 10 and 20 of us including WAGs, and we could take a few cars over either by ferry or tunnel. Ferry could be quite fun. Assume for now that per week it could be in the region of £1,500 - £2,000 this would only be roughly £100 a person for a whole week (depending on final numbers)

For the more adventurous among us there will no doubt be shorelines for surfing etc For those who are not we can lounge by the pool, read and play poker. Who knows they may even have a table tennis table!! Or a golf course nearby?

When I find out what appetite is like I can post a few alternatives.

Thoughts?

mmmm hmmmm sounds good, i dont have to adhere to school holidays any more either which is nice, September is another good time to go as still warm and cheaper and most people have less going on also. Our ears are open to your sugggestions!

June sounds like a plan, although can only do the very last week.

September is not great for us as Tizzy isn't allowed to take holiday in September (non-negotiable - we've tried).

Beginning of July also a possibility? Schools are still off then so should still be relatively cheap.

Me and Suzie are keen. Bring forth the planning phase.

Interesting; I'm going to the Lakes District 19th to the 25th June though so it's not a good time for me.

Sounds excellent - count me in and I'll try to persuade Cat to come meet you all so possibility of two of us there.

Driving down would be cool - economy of hiring a massive van/bus? Though suppose we'd need HGV licences to drive it? Sometimes actually cheaper to fly.

My preference is for somewhere and somewhen warm. Later in the summer is best for me but late June probably doable too. I cannot do last couple weeks of August (17th-29th) as preparing/in Liverpool at a conference with work.

Check it

http://www.bowhills.co.uk/property-details...oductid=146862#

I'm not saying this is the one we're going for, just that this is the sort of thing I was thinking of and looks awesome.

Looks like the shizzle.

It looks quite frighteningly perfect.

it'scool as beans, can't go June tho, After July 5/6th is ok tho..

oh man, that place looks awesome...

only concern is with the wedding now planned for the end of may, plus any honeymoon time etc, i dont know how plausible June would be.

as JB said, early july possibly? or sept would be ideal, but for the lameness of KPMG

Hmm... thats annoying. I've also discovered that most places will be a Saturday to Saturday deal for checking in and out.

So I'm looking at

20th - 27th June (although King cant make this or Rosie/Tart)
27th June - 4th July (again not good for Rosie/Tart)
4th - 11th July out of the question? Beyond that we will hit the school hols.

Guys,

Tizzy and I have decided to give this a miss. We would love to come, but given that KPMG have asked us to volunteer for either a 4 day week or up to 3 months part-paid leave, we are going to save what we can this year and just tough it out for a bit. We don't think that there is going to be a problem jobwise and with a bit of luck KPMG won't have to enforce the above measures, but better to be prepared for the bad times ahead.

Sampie - given that we were the only obstacle to a September date, perhaps check out some times then?

JP - sorry to hear the bad news. Though if part-paid means like 95% then bonaza! =p Unlikely though I know...

September still ok for me I think. Would prob prefer that to early summer. Up to July is always a busy time for my biz.

Dan

4th - 11th July is probably the best for me and Jennie.

Gentle Peeps

As I live relatively farther away from Le Chevreistan than most of you, this trip seems a tad difficult. Add to that the fact that Dubai is practically a quagmire of drowning fireworks and bad real estate, casholah is becoming a problemo. I'm probably going to have to go back to selling authentic chest wigs...I wonder how many goats I can get in these plagued times. *sigh*

I hear making miniature models of quicksand dressed real estate is doing really well though. Any takers?

Jonnyboy, sorry to hear about the kpmg-meisters doing that. It sucks ass, to be perfectly honest.


i've not commented on the france villa business, but if there was room in the proposed villa late august, i could be there with Ayesha, and if it was September, then i'd go along on my tod.


bo.

Sam, this thread is having trouble coming to a decision on which week to go for. Do you have a preference?

im hoping for a september jobby, so i can financially recover from the wedding/honeymoon

late summer in the south of france, eating bread/cheese, sipping some plonk, by the pool ... textbook

early september if its affordable!

In a bizarre twist, Tizzy's department have now decided to let her have holiday in September. However, we're still going to give France a miss. There is still a chance that we are going to be asked to take time off over summer and until we know for sure we're not going to book anything.

We'll probably do something for a holiday in September but we won't book until the last minute based on what we feel we can afford at that time.

If you guys want to do something similar next year as well then we would defo be up for that. Peace out.

Let me have a think about this again, I have dropped the ball slightly. I blame it on people having weddings and stag dos and birthdays and things.

To throw a minor spanner in the works, I may now be trying to go out and see Bowl in Botswana for a couple of weeks in Sept, before he returns to the UK.

I'll update again soon, sorry peeps, it all started out with so much promise.

What say ye we get some of this shizzle revived? I know some of you are mad keen and with weddings / stags out of the way I reckon we could make a good go of this this year!

My preference: late july (good for birthdays), early August or mid/late september!