Low-income families are having their first holiday in years, thanks to a charity. But should it be during term-time?

By Chris Arnot

Ten-year-old Amelia Martin liked the croissants and the “crunchy” bread. But she didn’t fancy the frogs’ legs or the snails. “No, thanks,” she shudders. “She made us try them, though,” puts in her mother, Natalie. “They weren’t as bad as we thought, and the frogs’ legs tasted like chicken.” The family lives just 40 miles from Dover, but last August’s trip to a chateau in Normandy with seven other families of year 6 pupils from Delce junior school in Rochester was their first visit to France. In fact, it was their first holiday of any kind for five years.

“If I don’t work, I don’t get paid,” says Martin, a beauty therapist. Her husband, Jason, works for a diamond drilling company. “He rarely gets home before 7.30pm,” she says. “Spending a week together in France brought it home to us how little time we have together as a family. We had a wonderful time and Amelia wanted to know so much.” At which point her daughter tells me about their trip to the Normandy beaches and a nearby cemetery for allied soldiers. “There were over 9,000 crosses,” she says sadly.

Source: GUARDIAN