En francais

Bonjour! Although today's weather has been beautiful, I prefer my hot weather enjoyed by the beach with a cocktail in hand. Which is exactly what I've been doing for the past week, as I've been in Biarritz (in the south of France). So you know, I've had harder weeks! After travelling down to Stansted and staying over on Saturday night, we enjoyed an obligatory few airport drinks before we jetted off. We didn't know this when we booked but Sunday was actually Bastille Day in France (French independence day) so it was a bit of a nightmare getting to our hotel (because all the roads were closed) but when we finally got there, we were very happy. We had booked the apartment at the Best Western Karitza and we ended up having the whole top floor with a massive sun terrace and sea view (if you craned your neck anyway, otherwise the pool view was pretty good too).

My goal for this holiday was to create a wardrobe as French as possible so I packed plenty of stripes. For night 1, I wore this open back striped dress (river island) with gold sandals, gold headband and red lipstick, and we headed out for dinner along the seafront. We timed it perfectly too; just in time for the most gorgeous sunset! And after some amazing food, we ended up glad that we had accidentally arrived on Bastille Day because the firework display was amazing. You know how normally firework displays last about 5 minutes? This one literally lasted for 25 minutes (I'm not joking). Every time there was a break, everyone assumed it was the end and clapped and then they just started up again!

I continued the French wardrobe for our first full day in red frilly shorts and wide brimmed hat - I always burn my scalp when I go on holiday so the two floppy hats I took with me were both fashionable and practical decisions. Because guess what? They worked! I managed not to burn my head the whole holiday (result). My mum and dads fashion choices were even more spot on than mine though - they were accidentally dressed like mickey and minnie mouse! 

After a morning by the pool, lunch on our terrace and the afternoon at the beach, we got ready for night 2. One thing I love about European culture is how much later they do everything; the restaurants are still serving people dinner at midnight. Which leaves plenty of time for a long day spent in the sun, time to get ready (as my family like to remind me often, I take ages and then have to add an hour for the photoshoot), and then time for predrinks too. This time I got ready in palm print skirt (PLT), red lace bodysuit (Shein), black laceup sandals (primark) and gold palm earrings that matched my skirt perfectly! After a few drinks and a few games (which was based on deception so obviously I had a natural knack for it), we hunted down an Italian restaurant (apt, seeing as we were in France) for pizza and wine by the sea.

My favourite part of having an apartment (rather a hotel room) is the fact that you have a kitchen and stuff, so we were able to sit and enjoy freshly baked pastries from around the corner every day! Doing nothing for my bikini body but I'm not complaining (the bikini my body was in on this day was from missguided). After breakfast, we walked round the bay to the surfers beach where the boys ran off bodyboarding while me and mum did a spot of sunbathing. Although we didn't realise that the great waves quickly come in and the tide came in twice and nearly wiped out us, our towels and all our stuff! Luckily, we narrowly saved it each time and to reward ourselves for our success, we headed back for lunch on our terrace; brie, sangria and ice cream may not be a conventional mix but it was SO good.

We'd been drinking aperol spritz every night for predrinks so for night 3 I figured I would dress to match. My orange skirt and criss-cross black bralet gave me very 80s vibes so I did some super silvery makeup and wore my hair back and straight to fit my theme. Surprise surprise, we had another amazing meal and I was a massive fan of the miniature dessert selection I ordered; cake, macarons, profiteroles and creme brulee are pretty much all the best desserts you can get.

As much as I could happily sit lounging in the sun for a whole week, my brother certainly cannot and so on family holidays, we usually throw a few fun activities into the mix too (which I also love). Whenever we do activities, I always make sure to wear sensible swimwear (after I did flyboarding in a teeny tiny bikini one year and pretty much flashed the whole of the bay, multiple times) so I wore this tribal one piece (from pretty little thing). I then wore an all-Shein outfit over the top; ditsy floral blouse and nude zip skirt. The activity of choice was a really fun one too; we went to a place called Base de pop which not only had a big run of massive slides but also a total-wipeout-style water obstacle course. Which was pretty difficult for someone with balance as bad as mine but it was loads of fun and we literally didn't stop laughing. The lake it was all based in was so pretty too so we got brawn and beauty!

For night 4 I went with a very golden look; golden smokey eye, golden yellow headband, golden lipgloss, golden earrings and gold sandals. Plus, you know, my actual clothes; printed skirt (shein) and black bralet (shein) under black frilled bodysuit (pretty little thing). Although lipgloss ended up being a terrible decision because we ate right on the seafront where there was a massive sea breeze; not ideal. What was ideal was the fact that the amazing patisserie we'd spotted earlier was still open when we went past at 11pm so we got dessert from there instead of from the restaurant!

The following days bikini of choice was one of my favourites; I love the lemon print of this little ASOS set. And it was also another bikini that I was in no risk of falling out of in any way, because it was another activity day! After adding striped playsuit and my trusty hat, we walked back round the bay to the surfers beach and had a lesson for a couple of hours. I've done bodyboarding/surfing a few times now and although I'm obviously no expert, I do always love it so much and this time I actually managed to stand up loads of time! STAYING standing up was a different story of course; I think the longest I lasted was like 0.3 seconds. But I'm still taking it as a win. I certainly felt like I'd earned an afternoon of lounging round the pool; surfing is exhausting.

That night, me and mum had both had similar outfit ideas; it was obviously at the stage of holiday where you're tanned enough to wear white to show it off. This playsuit is a key holiday piece of mine (anyone with a good memory will know I wear it on pretty much all of mine) and I jazzed it up a bit with red and leopard print scarf worn as a headband. Instead of heading towards the seafront again, we went the opposite way for dinner and found a lovely stretch of restaurants; the spot we ate at was our best meal of the holiday so far.

The place we were staying was right near the border of Spain and just over said border, was some beach from Game of Thrones. Being massive fans, my mum and dad set off on a road trip there and having never seen a single episode, me and Aidan opted out and went to our own beach instead! It was a day for a teeny tiny bikini (no activities) and a jazzy one at that; this bright marbled number was from missguided. Then after tanning, wave jumping and nearly drowning a few times, we headed off for lunch at a little mexican place which was incredible.

Having been so impressed the night before, we went to the same strip of restaurants for dinner and were again impressed; this time at a steak place. But first, we had to have the daily balcony photoshoot! This time, I wore midi skirt with thigh split, white milkmaid top and gold headband.

The next day was super cloudy and overcast so we literally could not have planned our days any better, because we were booked to go white water rafting. Not only are wetsuits a nightmare to wrestle yourself into, but they can also get very overheated if the weathers hot so it was actually nice that it wasn't. The rafting was such good fun; we were in a boat with the French leader and a group of Spanish girls so we all had fun and games trying to communicate and work out which words meant the same. We also got to do a cliff dive, remnant of what I did in Wales about 6 weeks ago! Then it was back to our apartment for lunch, suitcase packing (me, mum and aidan) and napping (dad).

I started our last night like the true princess I am; sipping a glass of wine while my mum gave me a pedicure (she's a babe). I was already ready by this point of course, in topshop playsuit, lace up sandals and golden eyeshadow. We'd been eyeing up a restaurant near us all week so after another family photo shoot, we finally ate there and it was so good! I treated myself (well, dad treated me) to another dessert platter and it was equally amazing as the last.

Our flight home wasn't until half 5, which is a bit of an awkward time. Either way, I was determined to soak up as much sun as possible so me and dad spent the morning doing puzzles by the pool before we had to get ready and pack up. To come home, I wore denim shorts and off the shoulder pinstripe shirt, with gold sandals and pink lipstick (I would've added one of my hats to look more French but unfortunately I'd already packed them). After a lovely lunch, we had one last stroll along the beach (complete with ice creams) and then paid one last visit to our favourite patisserie for (edible) souvenirs!

Then, macarons in hand, we headed to the airport (which may actually be the smallest airport I've ever flown to or from) and headed home bound. Funnily enough, the flight from France to London actually took less time than the drive from London to home! Anyway, I feel lucky to have such a close and loving family year round but always more so when we have an amazing holiday together. I've said it before and I'll say it again; I plan to continue going on family holidays for a long time yet and the south of France was certainly a good one!