Wednesday 30 May 2012

Encore Brittany

This is the Côte Sauvage where  Rob has been surfing:


This is what he looks like when he comes back from surfing:


Fortunately, he has really loved it and had his best surf ever the other day. 
He likes the surfing much better than the Menhirs that surround our campsite:


[I had a much better photo of him yawning in front of the Menhirs, but he is breathing down my neck to use the computer, so I don't have time to upload it]

The Menhirs are the same vintage as Stonehenge with the same 'what were they for?' questions still unanswered.

Rob is much keener on Ricard - the aniseed flavoured liqueur that you dilute with water. My sister once nicked some from my parents bottle and then topped it up with water, not realising that water turns it bright yellow! 



We have had a wonderful time with mum and Jo. We had a lovely afternoon in Vannes - a medieval walled town. This is the best photo of Jo I could get...


We climbed up on to the walls...


And explored the beautiful gardens...


Someone had an ice-cream...


Mum and Jo left yesterday to meet their friends who are sailing in Plymouth. We will see them on Sunday and Flossie can't wait, so while everything feels a bit quiet, we are not feeling too sad as the cabin is now a bit more spacious. Space is pretty tight...

World's smallest bath

World's smallest shower
 In other news: FREDDIE IS WALKING!




Also, the sale of 33 Melrose went through today so, as long as all goes swimmingly with the sale of 38, we are set to move when we get back. Gavin the builder is heading in with sledge hammer and asbestos removal suit tomorrow.

Paris tomorrow too, and an evening out for me!

Saturday 26 May 2012

Shivering and sweltering in Brittany

We are now ensconced in our cabin on the campsite in Brittany with mum and Jo. We arrived on Tuesday after another long drive from Limousin, punctuated by a stop in Nantes to see a 45-tonne mechanical elephant.

Massive elephant

Jo says the cabin reminds him of a Beneteau (big plastic boat) and it has a definite nautical feel what with the general lack of space.

Roast lamb in our cosy cabin

However, we are managing not to kill each other or the children as the weather has been fabulous after a chilly start to the week. We called for more blankets after shivering through our first night but, since then, the temperature has soared and we have been swimming everyday in the glorious campsite pools.

Lovely pool

Big kid

Little kid and big kid

Rob has braved the freezing Atlantic to go surfing everyday. The conditions have been variable and the locals not particularly friendly (he got bawled out by a whole line-up for dropping in on someone's wave - good job he doesn't speak French), plus he has lost a load of fitness thanks to his broken foot. But he gets a big gold star for perseverance and sheer gumption - I wouldn't be getting in that cold water for any money.

Freddie and Flossie have been having a lovely time with Grannie and Grandpa. Grannie has managed to string out making a crown for the Queen's jubilee street party for five days and counting. Freddie has enjoyed driving Grandpa's Mazda MX5.


Other than that, we have been doing a little bit of exploring and a lot of lazing about eating ice-cream and drinking beer.




Mum and Jo kindly babysat for us the other night so Rob and I could go to a local bistro for big pots of meules frites and some spanking fresh oysters. Flossie is off to a kids camp this afternoon and Freddie is sleeping for France, so we are being rather spoiled on the childcare front. I've enjoyed finishing a book, getting on top of some work and, well, just having a bit of quiet time to myself!

Sunday 20 May 2012

Lucked out in Limousin

We have been in Limousin, just outside a beautiful little town called Martel, since Tuesday and have once again fallen on our feet with fantastic accommodation. We are staying in this beautifully renovated house, owned by the equally beautiful Deirdre who is Irish but has lived in France for 30 years. I think the bed is the most comfortable I've slept in for the whole trip - something to do with the White Company sheets, I'm sure - and the loo paper the most luxurious I have used ever!




Enjoying the view

Despite the forecast, the weather has been reasonably kind to us and the region is spectacularly beautiful - although totally different to the Alps. Spring flowers are crowding the hedgerows and the landscape is an appealing mix of rolling fields, escarpments and gorgeous medieval villages, sliced through by the majestic Dordoigne river.

Flower verges (Rob arty shot)

Martel is near the Dordoigne and we have spent a bit of time down by the river.  Rob did a three hour canoe trip on our first day, which he said was world class.

Messing about by the river
Messing about on the river

We've been using alternate days to do something the children will enjoy and then something more for us. We spent one afternoon at Quercyland - a children's play park with about 20 different bouncy castles, which the children loved.

I love bouncy castles

The next day was village visiting - the true-to-its-name Beaulieu-sur-Dordoigne and the also-true-to-its-name Collonges de Rouges.

Collonge de Rouges - made of red sandstone
The very beautiful Beaulieu-sur-Dordoigne

Yesterday we explored the Gouffre de Padirac, an amazing complex of underground caves, rivers and lakes with stunning calcium formations. Floss found it a bit boring until she realised it looked like fairyland and could imagine where the fairies lived and what their boats and animals looked like (variations on the palette of pink, rainbow and sparkling). 

The lovely Deirdre offered to babysit for us, not only on Friday night but Saturday and Sunday mornings too. We went for a great meal at a restaurant that specialises in regional cooking. The Limousin cuisine hinges on variations of duck and goose cooked in their own fat or fattened up to the extent their livers are of no use to them, but utterly delicious for us to eat.

A lot of foie gras
Rob's marginally more healthy cassoulet

I've been enjoying cooking with the local ingredients - we had duck confit from a tin last night and an amazing bottle of Bordeaux.

Dinner

We spent a lovely sunny morning relaxing in Martel sans enfants yesterday. So nice to have a peaceful coffee and a mooch around some antique shops without have to change a nappy, find a toilet or deal with a tantrum.

Child free!!!! (for two hours)

Unfortunately, our planned Sunday morning to ourselves has been marred by....

 


I'm not a great believer in teething, but Freddie has been running a bit of temperature, is super grizzly and keeps putting his fingers in his mouth, so may be these two big gnashers are causing him some grief. Anyway, he was up every other hour in the night, so we decided he was too tired to be left. 

So we are having a quiet day today, especially as the rain has set in. There are a few options for our final day in Limousin tomorrow - chateau, monkey park, train ride - so we will see what happens with the weather. It feels like this week has flown by - perhaps because we have now passed the halfway point of our holiday. We'll be meeting mum and Jo in Brittany on Tuesday...

Thursday 17 May 2012

The hills are alive...

Well, we are back online and now in Limousin in central France. But more of that later - I have some catching up to do.

We had a fantastic time in the French Alps, staying at my aunt and uncle's lovely apartment in a converted priory in Abondance (thanks Judi and Mike!). I really didn't think I was a mountains person, but it is spectacularly beautiful and I really fell in love with the area. Rob and I have decided if our children do what we have done to our parents and up-sticks to the other side of the world/country, we will be moving to the Abondance valley.

And for once, the children didn't stick out like sore thumbs...

Heidi and Peter the goat herd
Even more exciting, there was still snow! Albeit icy, slushy snow but the ski season would have been in full swing in Australia with the same conditions. We spent a couple of afternoons messing around making a snowman and a very low tech luge (French toboggan) with a plastic poncho.

Floss and the snowman
As this is my blog, I can choose to post the video of Rob sliding down the mountain on a plastic poncho, rather than the one of me sliding down the mountain on a plastic poncho into a muddy puddle.

 

Spring was definitely in the air, though. These are the mountain crocuses that survived an onslaught from my children...


In fact, we had some days that were positively boiling. We drove to Chamonix to ascend Mont Blanc on the cable car. Unfortunately Freddie was too little to go, so I spent the couple of hours that Rob and Flossie took to go up and down wandering around the town with my boot-shod feet on fire. I was about to buy some thongs, but then it was 12.30 and all the shops closed for lunch. I consoled myself with a raclette crepe (local oozy cheese, ham, potatoes, cream - yum).

Flossie and Rob had a great time up Europe's tallest mountain and, although she looks a bit nervous here, I'm assured that she wasn't scared of the height (or cable car ride) at all.


We did a couple of walks, Freddie carried by me in his backpack (thanks to Rob's broken foot, which is on the mend but not up to the extra weight of a fat baby). 


The scenery was spectacular and it was only being weighed down by Freddie that stopped me twirling around the mountainside giving it my best singing nun.


Here is Floss, looking like she was made in the mountains.


And here is Freddie, looking like he is made of the very delicious Abondance local cheese.


And here is Rob hanging out on the kitchen floor post-bath. Judi and Mike's flat is so exquisite (and has such a lovely carpet) that this seemed like the safest place to keep the children most of the time!


Our stay in the mountains was only marred by one bitterly cold day that coincided with Freddie having a bit of a vomiting bug. We drove to Evian (of the bottled water fame) on Lake Geneva [edited to say apparently not Lake Geneva - some other lake] on Sunday but, given we were visiting in low season, everything was shut and a biting wind was blowing off the lake. We had a coffee and then Freddie started being sick, so we drew a line under the whole outing and headed home, with poor Freddie vomiting all the way. He carried on for the whole afternoon until collapsing into exhausted sleep. Fortunately he was right as rain the next day and we were able to have a lovely picnic and enjoy our mountain views.

We did another early start to drive the 6 hours to Limousin and arrived here on Tuesday. A post tomorrow with what we have been up to...

Thursday 10 May 2012

Arrivederci Toscano

Arghhh! We have been brutally unplugged from the internet. I meant to do a final Italy post on Monday before we left Tuscany, but wifi on top of a mountain is a little inconsistent and it was off for most of the day. We have no internet in our new accommodation so we are relying on the local café hotspot.

So, a catch-up post. Our final few days in Tuscany were wonderful. We drove over the mountains to the coast to Forte dei Marmi, where rich Romans and Florentians go for their holidays. I was hoping to spot George Clooney having lunch in one of the chic bistros, but no luck.

Hoping to see George
Pier at Forte dei Marmi - spot mountains we drove over in background

Forte dei Marmi has a nice sandy beach, so that kept everyone entertained until it was time for pizza, gelato and another scary drive over the mountains.

I love the beach

Saturday was Rob’s birthday and, simple man that he is, all he wanted to do was go on a picnic. We found a nice grassy spot by the river and pigged out on local salami and cheese, followed by a stone skimming competition.

Rob knows that, as much as I love local cheese and salami, no holiday for me is complete without a couple of decent meals that I haven’t had to cook. I know that there is little he hates more than sitting in a nice restaurant trying to entertain the children, so I was very grateful that he agreed to go to Restorante Butterfly for lunch. Michelin starred deliciousness here we come!

Waiting for Michelin-starred spaghetti

The waiters were very gracious in finding us an unobtrusive place to sit and supplying some simple pasta and tomato sauce for the children. This pasta was so wonderful I could have eaten it as well as my own three courses. Silky with olive oil, Florence, of course, declared it not very nice and refused to eat more than one bite.

I'm not eating that!
In case you are interested I ate: confit pork with terrine of pig’s head, cuttlefish spaghetti with ink, pigeon three ways – breast, itty-bitty legs and liver pate sandwiched between two tiny discs of bitter chocolate.  A truly memorable meal.

Pigeon

Rob had foie gras for his secondi platti, which Freddie tried and seemed to enjoy.

I love foie gras

Monday was our last day in Tuscany and we woke to a lovely sunny day. We drove into Lucca, hired a family bike and cycled round the city walls. Freddie saw this as a prime opportunity for some baby acrobatics and stood up the whole time, occasionally trying to climb out. A nun looked at us a bit disapprovingly, but Rob kept a tight hold on his jumper the whole time. More pizza and gelato at our favourite places and then home to get packed up.


In the evening we walked down to the bar in the village and had a final aperitivo before putting the children to bed. The local one is campari based with additions of gin, red vermouth, orange or lemon juice and champagne depending on where you go. 

Everything was packed in the car before we went to bed and we got up at 4.30am in the hope that the children would go back to sleep for part of the 7 hour journey to Abondance in France.

This kind of worked and the trip was pretty straightforward thanks to the GPS Lady whom I am warming to. Apart from a screaming fit on Freddie’s part as we ascended the Alps, the kids were great and we were here by lunchtime.

Stay tuned for the next exciting instalment including our snow adventures!

Thursday 3 May 2012

Florence and silver linings

We had a wonderful day in Florence yesterday. Rob abandoned all dignity and careered around Florence on a Segway. He loved it, the big loser.


Meanwhile, Flossie, Freddie and I went to the big cathedral and hung out on the steps for a bit. Freddie was determined to jump the big queue and kept crawling under the barrier, much to the amusement of waiting tourists. Flossie decided that we had to go and have a look inside, so we joined the queue and managed to get in quite quickly. It is a magnificent space - the volume is extraordinary - but Floss liked the candles the best.

Florence is a city of queues, so we paid to jump the line to see David at the Accademia. Flossie was actually quite mesmerised by it, as was I. We sat down next to a lovely family from Florida - the mum was an art professor and her son was sketching David very competently. The dad looked after Freddie for me, while I tried to explain the Piety to Florence. 

We met up with Rob and walked towards the Arno. Freddie fell asleep, which allowed the three of us to have a relatively civilised lunch.

My beautiful Florence in Florence
Gnudi for lunch, very appropriate after visiting David

I then took the child-free baton and went off to the Uffizi for a small guided tour. It was truly wonderful, despite a 45 minute wait to get in. My guide was knowledgeable and animated - I probably learned 95% more than I would have done if I had gone round by myself. 

Rob, Freddie and Floss hung out in the main piazza, eating gelato and watching a clown. Flossie had her picture done by the (con) artists outside the Uffizi - I'm not sure it is much of a likeness.



We stopped for another gelato on the way back. We have avoided buying Freddie his own ice-cream, based on the mess and only-nine-months-old factors. But the lady in the gelato shop over-road us and presented him with his own scoop. There is no going back...



It was an hour and 45 mins to get back to Coreglia, so it was pretty late by the time we got home. I checked my email as I had asked the Venice hotel to arrange babysitting for us on Saturday night, Rob's birthday. Imagine, then, my surprise when I found a message from the hotel saying they had no booking for Bishop for Friday. Sure enough, Rob had booked for April, not May. I can't be too cross as I did exactly the same with the Rome accommodation - and that was for five nights, not three.

Anyway, all things happen for a reason and it has caused us to change our plans a little. Instead of driving across the country to Venice and then back to get to France, we have arranged with the truly wonderful owner of Paridiso to stay on until Tuesday next week and then go straight to France. There is still so much to do and see around here and it cuts down on the travel for the kids. And we get to enjoy this fabulous place and unbelievable view a bit longer. If you want somewhere to stay in Tuscany, please stay here.

View from the balcony this morning

In other news: we sold our house. Not quite for what we wanted, but it will do and simplifies life quite considerably. A big stress has lifted.

After this morning's auction excitement, we have just chilled here all day and went for a swim in the pool this afternoon.

Floss and the amazing pool-with-a-view

We will make the most of the sunny weather for the next few days and head to the coast tomorrow. It is nice to change down a gear and know we don't have to rush off anywhere for a few more days.