The Only Australians in the Villaaaage

For one night only we are Myfanwy and Dafydd in Llangefni.  You will only understand the title of this blog if you watch Little Britain!

We are staying at the Bull Hotel, advertised as being a 4 star establishment which makes me think the star ratings system in Wales is seriously overrated!  Judging by this place if we'd have booked a 1 star we would now be looking up at the stars surrounded by half standing stone walls and being greeted by wandering sheep with a hole in the ground for a toilet!  I can't believe they have the nerve to call themselves 4 star, they must have made it up themselves, as i can't see anyone else awarding it to them!

It is a one night stop over.  Our ferry for Dublin leaves at 10am tomorrow from Holyhead.  The bar is downstairs and sounds a bit rowdy so hopefully we don't get any drunkard skunkard welshmen staggering about and knocking on the door at 3 o'clock in the morning!

We haven't had internet for the past week, so just catching up on some things tonight while we have it, and not sure if we'll have it next week either. 

And another thing or two:

• The Not-So-Magic Roundabouts in the UK are terrible!!
• Before we left home we put all our music onto the Ipod thinking it will be great on long car journeys to listen to our favourite tunes.  Only it doesn't work.  For some reason we can't tune it in.  Or if we do it drops in and out of range which is extremely annoying.  More annoying is that the only CD's we brought with us are Norah Jones (it was just in there) and The Wiggles:  You Make Me Feel Like Dancing.  So for those of you who think we've been galavanting around the beautiful countryside listening to really cool tunes (or what we think are really cool), we've actually been learning the words to 'Old Man Tucker' and 'One Finger One Thumb' off by heart!!
• I never mentioned the water in Austria.  It comes out of the tap lovely and cold and so velvety smooth tasting better than the bottled water we get at home.  The sad thing is I hardly drank any!  I will definately make up for it when we go back.
• Noah still hates the car.  He seems to spend 4 hours whinging and screaming only to fall asleep 20 minutes before we reach our destination! 

Before I go I just want to say that whilst i've been here in Wales I've noticed quite a few strange looking flags hanging about displaying a picture of a fiery red dragon?  Not sure what that's all about, except that it could be the spirit of Nana Lol following us around??!!

he he he he!!

I say, Chipping, Old Chap

Chipping Campden

The farm owners residence

Our next stop in England was just outside a lovely village called Chipping Campden (rather posh), in the Cotswalds, on a farm where the stables have been converted to cottages.  It’s a stunning area, beautiful historical villages (must be good as even Maciek is impressed) and endless countryside.  And our cottage is not unlike the one we had in France, a bit more modern and luxurious though. There’s even towel warmer in the bathroom, and lovely thick luxury towels to hang on it!

Horsing around on our farm

Harry and Emily taking charge

It’s been a very full week, catching up with family and friends.  Saturday was a BBQ at my cousin Warren and Caron’s house with Nan P.  A lovely afternoon where Harry and Emily looked after the kids the entire time so we could just relax!  And to top it off, Maciek got to see Cadel Evans win the Tour!

A couple of days out in Stratford-Upon-Avon with Uncle Stephen and Aunty Karen and then Nan and Grandad.  Some photo’s outside of Shakespeare’s house, a beer in a 16^th century pub, a boat ride on ! Avon, a picnic, fish n chips and ice-cream and a pink balloon made into a pony for Amelia which was put down for a rest and subsequently carried into the air by a breeze which prompted Karen to say “That pony’s just blown off!” which of course had me in stitches!

Caron was kind enough to offer to babysit on Tuesday night so me and Maciek could enjoy a much needed dinner to ourselves in a traditional country pub called the Howard Arms a couple of villages away.  I went the whole hog and ordered a starter, main, dessert and coffee and was so full i had trouble breathing while i tackled the tiny unlit country roads on the way home!

Nan P outside our cottage

50P ferry across the Avon

Shakespeares house with Nan and Grandad

Fish n Chips with Steve and Karen

A trip to Tamworth to see friends and family and a day out a Warwick Castle.

Warwick Castle dates back to the 11^th century and is extremely well preserved.  I have been twice before but now they’ve added some attractions to it which makes it feel a bit more like a theme park.  At various times throughout the day there are shows such as sword fighting, birds of prey display, jousting and we even saw a medieval trebuchet (catapult) shooting a fireball into the distant countryside (mind your head!), all in full costume with hidden speakers belting out medieval music to go with the display.  It’s very impressive.  There are people wandering the grounds in medieval costumes, playing the part, and a Princess Tower, visited twice by Princess Amelia!  We paid to visit the Dungeon with live actors (Maciek was called up to demonstrate an execution and had his ear chopped off!) and the Merlin Tower, both new since I last went.  I wouldn’t recommend them though, not so much for the extra cost but the time they took up.  As children are not allowed into the Dungeon Maciek and I had to go separately which took up nearly two hours, and personally we don’t think they are worth it.  It would have been nicer to have more time to wander around the castle and grounds, as even though we were there for almost 6 hours we still didn’t see it all.  Amelia was given a pea in the princess tower to put under her mattress and she went to bed that night SO excited at the prospect of waking up a real princess if she felt the pea (we put it under her sheet and crossed our fingers!) but to no avail!  She was very disappointed but that didn’t stop her dressing up for the rest of the week in her princess dress and tiara!



The real princesses!



Warwick Castle





Oh I do like to be beside the seaside…..

Colourful huts on the beach

I'll have a cup of Tetleys!

Torquay: The English Riviera.  Colder than the Alps.  Two jackets, a woolly hat and a raincoat just in case! 

After I’d tried to hand our passports through a closed window to the passport control officer causing a few embarrassed giggles (well I had been ill and washing sick of my children’s clothes for the past few hours!), driving off the ferry and into Plymouth was a bit tricky.  Being on the right side (the left) of the road in a left hand drive car which caused confusion in itself, the wacky enormous roundabouts consisting of 5 lanes and traffic lights, tiny roads and loads of traffic didn’t do much to help!  Once we got out of the town and onto the motorways it was fine though, and we found our way to our accommodation quite easily.

Pattisseries and vineyards were replaced by pubs and amusement arcades, and the number of barbers’ shops on one street was unbelievable!  Our apartment was close to the high street, seafront and cinema (might get a chance to see Harry Potter!), and a 5 minute drive to Aunty Val’s in one direction and Lyndsey’s in another made it a good base to explore.  It was clean and comfortable if a bit cramped!

The weather wasn’t too good at the beginning of the week, but improved towards the end.  Although the four days wasn’t quite enough to catch up properly with all the family, especially working around the kids and Daisy still being at school.  We chose not to do any touristy things.  Being in England and so close to familiar shops we decided to do normal things like shopping!  We were impressed with how cheap things were and so treated ourselves to a few new items to add to our wrinkled wardrobe!

We took Amelia and Noah to an indoor play centre which was a converted church!  It was awesome fun, huge slides which you needed a mat for and a mini helter skelter.  We also had a couple of meals in restaurants that also had a playroom for the kids, one of them with soundproof windows so you could keep an eye on them but not hear a thing!

I also had a practice at driving from Lyndsey’s to our place, THE MOST STRESSFUL 5 MINTUES OF MY LIFE!!  Poor Amelia was even worrying from the back seat “No mummy don’t drive, can’t you drive Daddy?”  Stalled the car, took a few wrong turns, got beeped at a couple of times.  So much for “I’ll drive in England and Ireland Maciek”.  So much to concentrate on, staying close to the kerb, checking the mirror which is in the wrong place, gear stick in your right hand, indicators on the left, checking the speed limit which is in miles, trying to follow Karen’s voice on the sat nav, trying to stay in the correct lanes which sometimes disappear and you find yourself not knowing where on the road you’re supposed to be……really don’t know how Maciek has done it so far, he definitely copes with it far better than me!

Rainbows Funhouse

It was lovely to see Amelia and Daisy getting on so well (it reminded us of me and Lyndsey when we were little – one tall and blonde and the other short and brown, holding hands and playing tig on the way to the shops).

Val, Lynds, Simon, Daisy and us

Maciek was able to watch Le Tour de France, and it was nice to see some T.V in our own language!  We didn’t make it down on to the beach (not even in our woolly hats!), and I didn’t get to see Harry Potter.  But it was nice to be in familiar surroundings, read menu’s, be with family, and I love the sound of the seagulls at the seaside – reminds me of childhood holidays!

Nightmare on Pont Avon: Ferry from Hell

The Pont Avon

Up early in the morning to load the car and get to the port on time we noticed how windy and cold it was and Maciek even wondered whether the ferry would be sailing.  We’d been looking forward to a relaxing journey after a couple of very long drives in France so with fingers crossed, we arrived at the port in plenty of time, not a mention of any cancellations, so whilst we waited in the queue to embark we ate a small bread roll and banana to tide us over until we could enjoy a FULL ENGLISH BREAKFAST on board!!  Woo hoo!!

The ferry was enormous.  Amelia was so excited.  There were two cinemas, loads of restaurants, and an indoor play gym for the kids and heaps of space to sit.  We picked a spot right next to the kids gym and were feeling great about being able to sit in peace and eat our breakfast whilst the kids played.  I thought I might even get a chance to read my book, or maybe they were playing Harry Potter in the cinema?

As we took off, we were giggling at the amount of swaying going on.  I don’t usually feel travel sickness but I was beginning to feel uncomfortable after a short while. We wondered about the kids, given their past vomiting episodes in the car, but were reassured that they’d both had Kwells so surely they’d be fine, and they were busy playing anyway.  And we both took a Kwells just in case. 

The ferry was rocking considerably, and seemed to be rising up at the front and banging down into the sea sending waterfalls over the front windows.  I even joked to Maciek about sinking and then he said ‘it’s possible’ which wiped the smirk of my face!

Sick bag anyone?

Not long after that Maciek was sitting on the floor of the play area saying he didn’t feel too good and I noticed that Noah had been sick on one of the colouring-in tables.  Noah came to lie down on the floor near our seats but he was clearly uncomfortable and Maciek was lying across the seat looking so white he could have played the queen in an Elizabethan play (he’s even got the little red lips!)  Milly came to lie down just before Noah finally vomited, all over his teddy, and as I was cleaning it up Maciek joined in, crawling about on all fours sounding like a wounded donkey!  We had a small collection of sick bags on our table being slowly used up as Milly then started vomiting, only just grabbing a bag in time!  I felt awful but must have an iron stomach as nothing came up.  I went to the bathroom to attempt to wash Noah’s teddy and noticed people, including myself, staggering about like John Wayne after 10 bottles of bad wine!  The four of us slept on the floor for about an hour and a half, and when we woke up the sea and wind had finally settled, and people began emerging into upright positions again.  It was like the end of Sleeping Beauty, when everyone in the land wakes up from 100 years of sleep! Or maybe it was more like the bit from Michael Jackson’s thriller, when the zombie’s come to life and start groaning and staggering about!

What was meant to be a relaxing enjoyable journey turned into the most awful 5 hour ferry ride EVER!  So much for Kwells.  And the worrying part is, we’ve got two more ferry journeys to go, not including a 15 hour overnighter from the UK to Holland!  Eek!

Au Revoir France!

Roscoff

The past week has been a chance to unwind and chill out a bit, with no mountains to hike!  Except for a couple of days out we relaxed by the pool, or on the balcony, or even just on the couch with a coffee while Amelia and Noah played outside.  I had a chance to practice some driving (God know’s how Maciek has managed so far – it feels so weird!), I did okay though as it was such a small quiet village with no traffic apart from the odd cyclist or tractor!



Sunflowers



Driving through the countryside on our way to Roscoff we passed acres of sunflower fields (we’d been seeing them all week and by this point Noah was pointing out ‘sunflower’ instead of ‘bin’, which made a change and a much nicer thing to look at!).  But on the day we finally managed to take a photo of them, it was overcast, so they all had their heads down!  So unfortunately this picture doesn't show the blankets of yellow we saw everyday.

Another funny thing about France and Europe in general is smoking.  Nearly everybody smokes.  And most of the time it’s men driving cars, riding bikes, working on a building site, unpacking fruit that’s just been delivered to a shop, all with a cigarette seemingly glued to their top lip.  Don’t know how it stays there.  It’s like a symbol of the continent.  Man in cap (not a baseball cap, you know the ones) pedaling an old rickety bike through the village with cigarette stuck to top lip like an overgrown fang.  It’s just like the mandatory accordion player in touristy spots in the city.  It wouldn’t be Europe without it!

Another stupidly long drive brought us to the port of Roscoff.  We left our cottage at 10am and arrived at the Hotel L’Angleterre at 6.45pm!  We stopped for about 25 minutes along the way and Noah slept for 2 hours and nobody was sick.  Our hotel had no parking, so we had to park in a public carpark down the road and around the corner, which would have been no problem if it wasn’t for the 4 huge suitcases and various other back packs and bags we had to carry in (only to carry back out again in the morning and reload the car!).  And not only that, there was no lift.  And not only that, the staircase has to be the narrowest windiest one ever made.  And not only that the place was like a maze of these staircases and corridors, and the doors to get from one corridor to another were about as wide as two vertical 4 by 2 planks of wood!  At one point I just looked at Maciek and burst out laughing and couldn’t stop!

The pizza place at the back

Toot toot!!

We braved the weather (it was freezing and raining) to walk into the village for some dinner, which was so quaint and pretty (it looked and felt just like an English seaside village), and we enjoyed a lovely pizza (even if we were sitting outside as we’re too scared to dine in with Noah the Menace).  There was also a little fair/fete set up so Amelia and Noah had a ride and then Maciek bought us not one but two massive waffles piled high with cream!  So much for my diet then….

An Historical Day

The castle in the cliffs

We set out early on Thursday to fit in a few of the sights in this region, most of which are in the south east area, about an hour and half drive.  We began the day at Le Maison Forte de Reignac, which is a castle built into the cliffs.  It dates back 20,000 years as the caves were first used as dwellings for prehistoric man, and has been added to over centuries.  There are exhibitions of everything from stone age tools, skulls from various ages, drawings carved into the cave walls, kitchens, bedrooms and drawing rooms from more recent times (13^th century) to the dungeon area dedicated to an exhibition of an array of terrible torture instruments (yuk!). Even Maciek was impressed. 



Sarlat



From there we went to the town of Sarlat.  It’s such a well preserved Medieval town that it really is like being on a movie set, even more so than Soest.  All the buildings are built of the local Perigord stone which is golden in colour, and it’s a labrynth of narrow cobbled streets and alleys winding through arch ways and small market squares.  It never seems to end, and I was fascinated!  I wanted to explore every nook and cranny and climb every step that had been smoothed out and worn down in the centre from centuries of footprints – but that’s just me!

One of the many little alleyways

Although we were tired, we carried on to another village called Baynac on the river.  It’s just like Sarlat, only on a much smaller scale, and there is canoe hire on the river which is why we went.  But we found out you have to catch a bus which takes you to various points along the river then paddle back to the start, and the shortest one would have taken 2.5 hours, and as  it was already 4.30pm, we thought it would be a bit silly!

I had a great day.  Unfortunately the kids don’t share my love of all things old.  We went into the Roman Museum on Tuesday, and Amelia was asking ‘what was this in the olden days, and what was that used for in the olden days?’ and then asked ‘Where did we live in the olden days?’ to which I replied ‘we didn’t live in the olden days, we live now’ to which she sighed, slumped and dragged her feet and exclaimed ‘well why are we bothering to look at things from the olden days then!’ to which Maciek replied, a bit on the sarcastic side for my liking, ‘because it’s interesting.’

Cheese!!

Old things - BRILLIANT!

Happy 2nd Birthday NOAH!!

My first bike

nee naw nee naw nee naw!

On Tuesday in between small trips to nearby towns, including Brantome and Peregeux (the capital of this region) we managed to find a toy shop and bought Noah a little bike (no pedals, you can just run along and then lift up your feet!), a police car that turns into a fire truck by flipping over when it reaches a wall, and a shapes/colours/numbers puzzle (we snuck in a Rapunzel puzzle for Amelia too, all she talks about is Rapunzel).  We selected his presents then as I distracted the kids in another section of the store Maciek sneakily made the purchases, and even had them gift wrapped, which was a bonus as it meant I didn’t have to look around for sticky tape and wrapping paper!

Princess Funky Buns

He loves his new toys, and in the morning we went to the village bakery and bought some scrummy creamy cakes for the planned celebration, and tied some balloons to the tree outside.  The lady who owns the property (Alison) and her two sons joined us for a mini party of caramel popcorn, pretzels, Dora chocolate biscuits (hooray!) and jelly crocodiles, and of course the cakes and coffee! (chocolate filled profiteroles, eclairs and strawberry flans!)  We used a little sponge and custard cake in the shape of a pig for the two candles and all sang Happy Birthday to You!  He had a bit of trouble blowing the candles out as he’s only ever done it once before and of course we haven’t been practicing!

We saw these bikes a lot in Germany and Austria.  It teaches the kids to control the bike, balance and steer before worrying about pedaling.  As a result there were so many kids no older than 3 riding proper bikes with pedals, no problem.  Not a stabilizer in sight!

Just for laughs:  Amelia has three invisible friends – Rosetta, Maydee, and I Love You.  She also tells me that when she’s older and has her own kids she’s going to call them Rapunzel, Shine, Glitter and Santa (Santa is the boy).  LOL!!!!

Also, thanks to everyone for the birthday messages on facebook, skype and emails.  It helped make Noah’s day extra special! xx

Boating in Brantome

In a French Country Garden….

emailing in the courtyard

Our cottage - Le Balcon

Stupidly we drove from our place in the mountains seven hours straight, no stops at all, to here in the south west of France in the region of the Dordogne. 

The Grubs

We were waiting for the kids to fall asleep and then planned to stop when they’d woken up.  But they didn’t sleep for 5 HOURS!!  So then we just thought we may as well keep going.  We could have stopped earlier, but we’d packed enough food and drink for the day and nobody needed a wee so we didn’t see a point!  The roads were good, no traffic, but with hindsight, it was dumb, as Maciek’s eyes were almost popping out of his head and he had a terrible headache once we arrived. 

We are staying at a place called Le Grezes, near the village of Tocane St Apres.  As Maciek said this place is lovely.  It’s a farmhouse and barn, a few hundred years old (now we’re in my neck of the woods – mountains shmountains!).  The cottage we are staying in used to be part of the stables attached to the barn and the whole place is full of French country charm and character.  The ceilings are slanted (and so are the floors – I placed my little round bottle of perfume on my very lady like dressing table only to watch it slide towards me!) and striped with original wood beams, and there’s a huge one in our bedroom over the door that leads to the balcony (even I have to duck!).   There is a grapevine winding around the balcony complete with unripe green grapes, and the pool is a few steps away.  There’s loads of space for the kids to run around amongst various fruit trees (to my horror Noah loves collecting the rotten apples that are strewn along the ground) and an area where we’ve being playing Boules in the evenings.  The lady that owns it is from the UK and has been here with her two sons for three years.  She’s lovely, and unlike other accommodation we’ve had, she has provided us with a kettle, a microwave AND a toaster!  Not to mention lots of other little luxuries like a wardrobe and bedside tables (matching set of course!) and a welcome pack of a baguette, jam, red wine and she also went to the trouble of putting some milk, bottled water, and orange juice in the fridge as well as tea and coffee in the kitchen, which was all EXTREMELY welcome after a 7 hour drive!

Milly's new bikini's

To date it is the best accommodation we’ve had (the last place had been decorated some 40 years ago and never been changed, and it was filthy – we had to buy the kids some crocs to wear inside as their feet were constantly black!)  We seem to be unable to find a balance though.  Whereas the last place was walking distance to a gorgeous village and many attractions, the actual accommodation was horrible, and I found myself counting down the ‘sleeps’ till we could leave!  And although this accommodation is awesome, it’s in the middle of nowhere so requires driving, even to the bakery in the morning.  Hopefully somewhere along the line we’ll get it right!  The nice thing is about this place is the peace and quiet.  Sitting outside in the evening, once the kids have stopped shouting and fighting in bed, it’s silent.  Except for that annoying donkey and the occasional mooooo……

The Chateux seen from the driveway

Royale with Cheese

Hi there, we have arrived in the south west of France and apart from our lovely accommodation, which Melanie will write about, there hasn’t been too much to write home about as yet. So I will write about our experience at the French McDonalds today.

This was only the second time we have had Maccas in Europe, we try to stay away from it because it’s crap. We were driving into another old town and there it was, the golden M.   It had a big playground and it was close to lunch time so we decided that rather than spend an hour looking around an old town for something to eat we’d just have it.

What is This???

The girl at the counter didn’t speak any English so with my best French I proceeded to order:

2 large big mac meals with fries, one with coke, one with water

2 happy meals with nuggets, with fries, I didn’t know how to order a juice so I asked for water

When the order came I had everything for us and 2 happy meal boxes with 2 small cokes, I tried to question the coke but just got a blank stare so I thought ‘that’s not a bad effort we’ll settle for the coke, the kids can drink mels water’.  When we open the happy meal boxes there were two hamburgers, no nuggets. Our kids don’t know hamburgers, they know nuggets. They don’t eat what they don’t know so they had to settle for just fries for lunch and a strange banana and strawberry milk thing that looks like yoghurt. They were happy with their toy though, which was some weird contraption which apparently belongs on the top of a pencil.  I on the other hand didn’t want to waste their burgers so I ate them which in turn resulted in us spending our time in the old town looking for a public toilet and fast.

Every time I eat McDonalds I say ‘never again’.  And again I said it today. The cool thing though about McDonald in France is, like John Travolta said in Pulp Fiction, you can get beer.  But it’s not some expensive extra.  You can get it as part of your Big Mac meal, instead of coke for example, how cool is that?

Maciek

Annecy and Chamonix

Lac Annecy

By the Canal in Annecy

Lunch in the Park

On Tuesday we took a daytrip to Annecy, about half hour drive away.  Set on Lake Annecy, again surrounded by mountains and villages, the town of Annecy for us tops everything we’ve seen so far!  With winding cobbled streets and alley ways and characterful buildings dating back hundreds of years, it is ‘the Venice of the Houte-Savoie’ with canals streaming through it.  The water is crystal clear though, unlike the real Venice (and no pigeons!).  It is just stunning!  On the lake you can hire pedal boats, motor boats with deck chairs and a mini water slide atop, or just camp under an umbrella and enjoy a swim.  You can ride a gondola through the canals, or buy a ticket and relax on the ferry for an hour, taking a circuit of the lake, which is what we did.  For lunch we bought a baguette and some fresh strawberries from the market and found a mini enchanted forest with a stream and had a picnic (we’ve given up on eating out after we tried on Monday in La Clusaz and had death stares from an old french couple because of Noah’s reluctance to sit still and eat his pizza, and Amelia spitting hers out because she didn’t like the cheese!) It’s indescribably beautiful.  And I don’t think even the photos can capture it.  It’s a place you just have to see!

Another canal

Old prision

Mt Blanc, Chamonix

Thursday we decided to visit Chamonix for the day, one of the top ski holiday destinations.  It was a steep climb and a steep descent to get over a mountain to reach the valley to take us there.  We know of Amelia’s car sickness, and are prepared for it with Kwells and sick bags.  Not so with Noah, who vomited twice!  So once we arrived in Chamonix our first mission was to buy Noah some new clothes, as he reeked!  But he’d fallen asleep, and not wanting to wake him as it would just throw the whole plan for the day off, we pounded yet more pavements looking for Le Office De Tourisme and something for lunch, and a shop to buy clothes to change him into once he’d woken up.  It took the best part of the afternoon.  We found nothing but The United Colours of Benneton which luckily had a sale on.  So little Noah is now running about in designer clothing, all because he threw up!  And the funny thing was, in the shop, Amelia asked if she could get new clothes if she got sick?  So we bought her a tinkerbell t-shirt just so she didn’t miss out!  Unfortunately our day in Chamonix was overshadowed by vomit!  But also the magnificent mountains all around, and Mount Blanc which peaks at the height of about 4850m (which Maciek tells me is quite impressive!)  It’s actually very intimidating standing in the village with that towering over you.  The gondola’s and trains going up were very expensive (nearly E100 for the family) and we weren’t sure about the kids and the altitude (you can get a gondola up to 3770m!), so we gave it a miss.  Maciek definitely wants to come back when the kids are older to sample the heights.  And I’d like to come back to sample some fondue without the stench of sick! 

Bonjour!!

Dinner in La Gand Bornand

Walking down the Mountain

Driving to France was easy and the view of Lake Geneva and surrounding landscape took our breath away.  Turning from the highway into the town of Evian we understood why they bottled that water! It was a hot day and it was so tempting to park the car and just run into the lake and have a big drink at the same time!  We started the climb towards our campsite, winding and steep, and after a while the Sat Nav (we’ll call it Karen from now on!) told us we would reach our destination in 10 minutes.  Great, we thought, we made it within 3.5 hours, which will give us loads of time to settle in before dinner time.  We were still driving through green mountain pastures with the odd farmhouse along the road when Karen tells us we will reach our destination in 2 minutes.  That’s a bit weird, we thought, there’s no sign of a campsite here.  And sure enough, in a village with three houses and one church and a few cows we were told we had reached our destination.  Parked outside one of the houses we consulted the map.  Karen had brought us to the wrong ‘La Clusaz’.  Apparently there are two!  We searched Karen’s information for the other La Clusaz, and after another hour of driving we finally reached our ‘real’ destination in La Grand Bornand, in the French Alps.

We knew then why people choose to live in France.  The scenery is magic, our campsite 250m from a charming village full of character with a market once a week (they close the roads, and it’s just like the type of French market you would imagine, fresh fruit and veg, hundreds of sausages and cheeses, bowls and bowls of olives and all sorts of other things).  We have a pool (you have to wash your feet first and ‘non shorts allowed’ only ‘undies undies bathers’!) and there’s a playground in the village, a tennis club and a sports acro and trampolining club who set up outside and train there for the summer!

We found that our French was quite rusty after being in German speaking countries for 5 weeks but the good thing is, although we thought we didn’t know much German we automatically came to use it with shop keepers and waiters which proves we have picked up more than we thought!

Monday we caught a gondola up and hiked back down, and just because it was down, doesn’t mean it was easy!  It was about 500m vertical, a winding track full of rocks and mud.  We had the stroller (I swear those wheels are going to fall off very soon!).  It took us 2 hours, but gorgeous views of the hills and mountains and the valley below where our campsite was.  The next day our butts were extremely sore!

We have found it difficult adjusting to the French ways of doing things, as its totally different to the other countries we have been in.  They are certainly laid back!  Nothing opens till 10am.  Then closes again for lunch between 12 and 2pm.  We put the kids into the crèche Wednesday afternoon thinking we would enjoy a long lunch, taste some traditional French cuisine and local specialities, have a couple of wines only to find that nowhere was serving lunch, lunch time service finishes at 2pm!  (We had met an Australian man with a boy in the crèche who came here for his honeymoon 10 years ago and never went home! and so didn’t reach town until after 2pm).  We eventually found a place serving only pizza, so that had to suffice.  And then today, the kids in the crèche again, we wanted a crepe and coffee at 9.30am.  Couldn’t get one.  No-one opens till 10 (if we’d have known we would have waited but we only found this out afterwards).  So we settled for a Pain au Chocalat from the Pattisserie instead. 

And nowhere serves dinner until 7pm.  Which doesn’t work for us.  So it’s been pizza or cold chicken and salad all week!  Oh, C’est La Vie….

Hats by Monika

Somewhere over the Mountain...



Lucern



Tanja, Jolie,Amelia & Donna-the horse



Friday we took a long drive towards the south of Switzerland, near Thun, to visit my life time friend Tanja.  I met Tanja 25 years ago on a Christmas trip with my cousin to Germany.  We’ve kept in touch ever since, and have only seen each other twice since our initial meeting, so this made it the third!  She now lives on a beautiful property high up in the mountains surrounded by fields and forest with her cute little daughter Jolie and two horses to look after, and of course her husband who unfortunately we couldn’t meet as he was away on business.  We ate lunch outside in the lovely sunshine and while Noah slept we helped rake the horse arena!  It was fun being out in the sunshine with lovely views and chatting while we worked.  Poor Tanja has such a huge job looking after all that land and a little one I only wish we could have stayed a few days and helped her out!  I think Maciek’s ideas about helping on a farm are fading after that!  She made us some delicious Canadian coffee (she lived in Canada for some years and has it sent over, I don’t know the name of it but it was so nice!) and a yummy chocolate cake while the kids raided another child’s toys!!  It was really lovely seeing Tanja and meeting her little girl, and hopefully if we stay in Austria for a while it won’t be seven years before we meet again!



Tanja's place - gorgeous ( for sale too)



From Tanja’s we took the ‘scenic’ route (Karen’s choice, not ours) through some pretty hairy and scary mountain roads, (nearly lost the side mirror a couple of times, and at one point while climbing a steep section of road, we got stuck behind a tractor, which was trailing a ride on lawn mower!) to Lucerne, a city we both remember from our Contiki days!  We didn’t arrive till 6.30pm, and had just enough time for a quick dinner and a wander around.  It was nice actually in the evening, as the weather was lovely and there were only a couple of tour groups oohing and aahing and snapping pics!  Needless to say, Lucerne is another one of our favourites.

We’ve had three full days in Switzerland, visiting friends and famous places! (“how do you know so many people in Switzerland?”, said Suzanne!)

Peach and Monika were fantastic hosts.  We really enjoyed sitting up in the evenings and chatting, eating Ben & Jerry’s and drinking tea (of course Peach and Maciek didn’t have tea, they had BIER, because they’re MEN!)  Every evening we had a delicious meal to come home to.  Monika even made hats for the kids!  Thanks guys – we really appreciate all you did and your company.  And thanks Yannik for sharing your precious toys!

And no, as tempting as it was, we didn’t set up a Swiss Bank Account…..

Suzanne & Rapunzel

Suzanne, Victoria & us

Lenzburg Shloss 

Thursday we visited Suzanne, a friend I used to work with in Dublin.  She lives a half hour drive from Peach and Monika but its lucky my memory held out for her street name as the Sat Nav had us pull up outside an electrical store!  Her street was on the corner of this one, and luckily it was signposted, as we have come to find that not many streets are in this part of the world!  By the way the name of our guide on the Sat Nav is Karen, who is Australian.  Karen has a habit of leading us up the garden path, and it doesn’t help that Maciek gets so confused with his lefts and rights, especially when this is a typical instruction – “keep left on A223, then keep right, take the exit ramp and then keep left, then take the 3^rd exit right on roundabout”!

Suzanne made us a lovely lunch with her 3 gorgeous girls (once again Amelia and Noah had a field day with little Victoria’s toys!) and showed us around her surprisingly large and beautiful house set over 4 floors!  (it’s deceptive from outside, tucked away there around the back – I only found it as I knew her garden was being renovated and so I followed a gardener/builder type looking man to her front door!)  After lunch Suzanne proved herself as the new coffee maker of the household (move over Andries!). 

King Maciek & Heir

Mummy's Knight in Shining Armour

Suzanne told us of Lenzberg Castle not far from Peach and Monika’s so on the way home we stopped in for a look.  It dates back to the 11^th century and has a museum and at the top of a winding staircase in the tower is a kids museum, full of medieval dress ups including jewellery and hats and a mini castle the kids can play in, plus puzzles, dolls and other toys, and colouring in and games!  We had so much fun trying stuff on and taking photos.  But as we arrived a bit late in the day we had to cut it short.  But what a fun day! Thanks Suzanne!

Rapunzel in her Tower