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