Chateau Chenonceau

Today we drove to the tiny village of Chenonceau, with the chateau of the same name. First we stopped at Montrichard, a little village we picked off the map, headed for the 'main' square, parked, and walked into a beautiful, authentic little restaurant where no-one spoke English and the food was divine. We're getting good at this, gotta love it!

Lunchtime!

Paul and I had been to Chenonceau years ago, and remembered it as being 'the ladies' chateau, mainly but not exclusively owned by women. In actual fact, 5 queens of France lived here. At one stage the chateau was given to the king's mistress in perpetuity, but when the king died, his wife kicked the mistress out and reclaimed the chateau for herself, and who can blame her.

There is also an interesting was history - the chateau bridges a river at a time when on one side France was occupied by Germany, and on the other ruled by the Vichy. The priest of the chateau led the keys for the secret passage and refused to give them up, letting Jews and other resistance workers through to safety as he could. We have learnt about bravery and selfless acts of extreme courage again and again on this trip.

The chateau today was not grand in the sense that Versailles was. It was furnished according to the era in which it was dwelt, and was in many places dark - dark bedcovers, tapestries on the walls to keep out the drafts, dark ceilings and floor tiles. So not flamboyant and no gilt! I think Amelia was a little disappointed, and for me too, it wasn't up to my expectations. But it was so interesting, we used audio guides and learnt an amazing amount (most of which I have already forgotten - hopefully some of it has stuck).
I especially enjoyed exploring the kitchens, in the part spanning the river, at the bottom, so periodically will flood, poor servants!

The kitchens

After spending a few hours nearly by ourselves, we wandered the gardens, which are huge and symmetrical. 

The stables were larger than most schools, and the authentic carriages were inspiring.
Altogether a beautiful afternoon, and we were blessed with the weather - it rained on the way there and back, but our window of 4 hours or so when we were out and about were fine. Thank you! It seemed a long drive home in the dark, and on the long wet road from Bourges to la Charite. We found out it is an old Roman road (hence the straightness) and goes through to Switzerland!!! Our NZ history does look just a trifle new by comparison!

la Charite sur Loire, and exploring Sancerre

So here we are, at la Charite sur Loire. The trip from Nontron took about 5 hours, with a break, of course, for our mid-day meal en route.

Toll booth - normal on the motorway, but brilliant roads with little traffic

No sooner had we arrived in the Centre Ville than we were approached by our lovely hosts, who walked us the 20 meters or so to our new home. The spiral stone staircases were pretty daunting, and Paul started muttering about repacking all our clothes into little bags instead of hauling the big ones up. Sorry, darling, no chance.

It might look quaint, but it's a challenge!

We are 2 floors up in a 16th century building, next to the old catholic church (it's not a cathedral, if it was then this would be a city). After bidding farewell to our hosts, we unpacked the car and began the exhausting task of getting our luggage into the apartment. And then taking Paul's and mine the even narrower spiral staircase to our bedroom in the attic. It is absolutely beautiful and authentic, but if we'd known.....!!!!!

Our bedroom, it took 3 days to warm up.

So that was Saturday. Sunday morning Amelia and I climbed out of my bedroom, up a ladder, pushed open a steel cover, and emerged onto a TINY little terrace, from which we could hear the organ and singing from the church next door.

Up to the tower.

Neighbours - the bells ring every 1/4 hour, nice.

Stunning 360 degree views, nearly worth the climb. Time to explore the town, which was amazingly active. It seems everyone comes to church, great, and the few that don't, open their shops until noon. There's no figuring out the French! We walked down to the Loire River - we are right by an island in the middle so can only see half, but even that is powerful and somewhat flooded. 

The town is yet another example of stone buildings, pretty shutters, cobbled streets, etc etc, but somehow each village has its own character.

Today (Monday) we visited Sancerre - this village is famous because of its fierce loyalty to the Resistance movement during the 2nd world war. The Germans surrounded the town and announced that every week they would shoot either a man, woman or child, until the villagers surrendered up their resistance members. 50 weeks passed, 50 villagers were shot, and no-one admitted a word. Wow. There is a statue of a woman and child, the only war statues of non-males in France. That sobering news being said, today it is of course a gorgeous village on top of a hill. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch (dinner) at a local restaurant (with a very nice local red), then followed a walking trail through the town.

View over the Loire from Sancerre

Sancerre

Sancerre

The history is amazing and humbling, reminding us yet again of how new NZ is.

Lounge/dining room (note the rather large chandelier!)

Back up to our apartment, where we have had the heat pumps on for 3 days, and the 2 foot thick walls are just starting to warm up so our toes can thaw. The weather is growing chillier, and wouldn't you know it, the forecast is for snow on Saturday, but we leave for Paris on Friday! Grrrrr. And apparently the snow is waist deep in Yorkshire where we spent Christmas! Not fair!!!!! But seriously, we are incredibly grateful for all our blessings to date, and have made the most of every minute.

At the hairdresser in Nontron

Today in Nontron I had my hair done. When I made the appointment earlier in the week I was with Amelia, and I didn’t find the lady very friendly, so was a bit apprehensive at returning by myself. Also, when flustered I tend to get my words muddled, plus the word for hair (chevaux) is very similar to the word for horses (chevals) so I had visions of confusing people when asking for green horses…….

I was tempted to wake Amelia to accompany me, but decided to get over it and go alone.

There were 3 ladies waiting for me – the owner, a junior, and an in-between. They all seemed very keen to communicate, one big worry off my mind. Between them they had maybe 3 words of English, and thus began my challenge.

Colour was easy enough to explain – basically ‘je ne l’aime pas le gris’ (I don’t like the grey). The type of cut was a bit trickier, and involved lots of puzzled hesitations on all our parts. Eventually I was offered pictures in a magazine (‘vous regardez, oui?’) and with much hilarity we managed to come to some sort of agreement to all parties that I really had little idea of. Never mind, if the worst came to the worst, I decided I could wear a hat for the remainder of the holiday.

And so it began. The senior lady applied some colour over my grey – not foils as I am used to, but what looked like a type of cartridge paper. Then the intermediate lady applied colour to the remainder of my hair – I hadn’t realised I was getting that, and wondered what colour it was.

Time to sit with a wonderful cup of coffee and a magazine, and eavesdrop on conversations with other clients to practise my French.

Examination of the colouring process took much consultation between the 3 ladies, with hand gestures and dramatic vocab, and I wasn’t sure if this was a good or bad sign. On removing the foils my head seemed to me to be distinctly orange. However I was moved over to the basin, and the next step was an experience in itself. I lay back in the chair, which was then lowered at the back and raised at the feet. It was switched on, and began a full body massage from my calves right up to my shoulders – bliss! Above my head was an oval contraption going from one shoulder to the other (kind of like a mini MRI), and this emitted both soft lights and classical music. During this my hair was washed, toned, conditioned, my head was massaged – it could have been shaved for all I would have known, lulled into stress free nirvana in my little cocoon.

I came back to earth when requested by sign language to move back to the chair in front of the mirror. Nearly keeled over when I stood up, and the ladies watched anxiously as I grabbed the bench to steady myself. I was quite unable to explain dizziness, vertigo or inner ear problems, so goodness knows what they thought – could they think I was drunk at 10am?

So, the serious job of cutting began, during which we attempted to converse. I had practiced for this, and explained I had 6 children, where they lived and what they did. C’est bon! In turn, she explained the local politics and the upcoming mayoral elections, and how lazy one of the candidates is for the money he is paid. This was tied up with how she used to work in Paris where there was an employee whose only job was to sweep the floor – I couldn’t quite see the connection, but agreed enthusiastically, mais oui, bien sur!

I was slightly concerned at the one handed cutting technique but reassured myself that she must know what she was doing if she had worked in Paris. Faulty logic of course, as maybe she had been fired, and so the mind games continued.

Eventually she stopped cutting, drying, straightening and razoring, and I took a good look. Hmmmm, no orange in sight, and a very stylish look.

Je l’aime, merci beaucoup. Phew, no hat required!

A la Francais

Les Baux de Provence

Blue skies - a day to take off and explore!

First we Facebook chatted with Si and Chloe and caught up on all their news. So good to see them and hear their voices.

Then - onwards and upwards - literally

Today we went to Les Baux de Provence - one of those little hillside villages you see on calendars and never dream of visiting.

It was about half an hour's drive, and the road became narrower and narrower. Paul was worried as our rental car is not little, and there wasn't much room for cars to pass.
Eventually we arrived at a series of carparks. Luckily we kept driving until the third lot - we would have had a long walk!
There is no vehicular access inside the village except for the 500 permanent inhabitants. We climbed steps and wound our way through cobbled lanes to the bottom of the village, then popped into the info office, and headed on up.

Les Baux de Provence

It was unbelievably beautiful. I tried to imagine how it would be in summer, when about 1.5 million visitors pass through. I think we saw 4 people all day!!!! Most of the shops were shut, and since it was by now 1 minute past 12 noon, we thought we should eat first, and explore later. We found the 1 open restaurant, so decided to chose that one! Lucky we did, as some locals and the other 4 visitors then arrived and the little place was full. The menu was sketchy to say the least, we had crepes, not great but ok. Amelia noticed some other guests struggling to read the menu (no English here!)
so went and helped them, they were very grateful.

Amelia helping out with the French menu

Then we continued up through the village, just gorgeous cobbled lanes, steps up to cottages each side, hard to put into words so hope the pictures do it justice.



At the top of the village is a partially ruined chateau from the 12th century. We collected audio guides and spent hours roaming and learning. Some of the chateau has been restored, and there are many illustrations scattered about to give a realistic picture of life in those times.

The views were stupendous! 

We saw the keep, the battlements, ramparts, and the village houses beside the castle - bakery, smith etc.



Around 4pm it started to become cold, so we retraced our steps back to the car and headed home. A quick stop at the Super-U for chips and nuts - we had been invited to drinks at 5pm.
Drinks was fun - we were at our hosts for the week, beside their roaring log fire. She is a kiwi, he is ozzie, a very nice and friendly couple.
Then the door opened and who should walk in but the other guests from the restaurant at lunchtime whom Amelia helped with the menu! They are the 2 couples staying upstairs from us. One couple live in Rome (he's with the UN), the other couple are from Lower Hutt. A lovely few hours ensued getting to know each other and swapping travel stories.
So another day ends - it has been full of new places, wonderful sights, and friendly people. Life is good.

St Remy de Provence

After a well deserved blob day yesterday at home in the rain, we woke to blue skies and decided to venture forth and explore one of Provence's beautiful villages.
St Remy de Provence is just gorgeous. Amelia did her navigation thing with the sat-nav and we found parking at the edge of the town then walked. 

We had no idea what to expect but were hoping for old stone houses, cobbled lanes, and what we imagined as 'French Provencal Character'. We weren't disappointed! 

The very centre of the town has been largely resurfaced with cobbled lanes and tiny shops. We walked along marvelling at the old buildings, then suddenly came across a gorgeous square with houses on 3 sides, a statue in the middle and a black cat, with whom Amelia of course immediately made friends.

It was 12 noon, and our surroundings turned into a ghost town. Shutters pulled, doors locked - displays still outside some shops, obviously a trusting community. We searched for a restaurant - the first few we found were astronomically expensive so we kept exploring until we reached the busier part of town and had a choice. A very nice meal, I loved my steak, Amelia had I think the biggest cheeseburger I've ever seen! The restaurant facilities (it would be lying to call it a bathroom) came straight off the dining room as often happens - no '2 door' between the loo and the public eating area in France. At the end of our meal Amelia came back from the toilet in fits of laughter - she had gone to use the loo, opened the door and walked in, but before she could close the door the waiter followed her in, walking backwards while talking to a customer. Amelia said 'excusez moi!', he turned and saw her and was absolutely horrified, said 'Mon Dieu!'and ran out of the room! we all had a good laugh. 

At right is the restaurant where we wiled away a few hours

After lunch we resumed our wandering, succumbed to some more linen, and finally headed home as it started to drizzle around 4pm.

A last wander before leaving

Arrived to find a note in the door inviting us to drinks tomorrow with our hosts, very nice.
Now Amelia is doing a jigsaw, Paul is reading the NZ Herald on-line, and I'm about to open my kindle and have a cuppa.
A great day!

Sunday in Provence

A good sleep in a big bed! The shutters on our bedroom are very effective, so the room was in darkness until we decided to surface at 9am.
We headed to L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, where we heard there was a big Sunday market. I was quite under the weather, balance wise, so again Amelia navigated for Paul and we found our way without mishap.
The market was as described - it seemed to take up half the town, and stalls ranged from foods of all description through to clothes, linen, toys etc. Provence is know for its linen and tableware, and I had been looking forward to seeing if something caught my eye. I wasn't disappointed! I found several stalls with tablecloths, quilts, kitchenware etc, and could have filled another suitcase! It was fun pondering, I finally bought 2 tablecloths, with napkins for each. Then of course some tea-towels. Then some cushion covers. Then Paul dragged me away, I have no idea why.
Home around 2pm, and Paul cooked us a lovely steak lunch. Sat down to eat at 3, thought we would be there till breakfast trying to cut up our steak! Note to self, don't buy steak at the supermarket, ALWAYS go to a boucherie. Poor Paul, not his fault. The criss-cross potatoes and other veges were yum.
Amelia and I explored the site where we're staying. The owners are kiwi/oz and we can see the influence throughout the property. They maintain it beautifully, there is a lovely pool, with a poolhouse, bbq, library and outside kitchen. The gardens are perfect to ramble through. The gites have bright blue shutters, and each has it's own bbq and outside area, very kiwi!
Decided to walk into the village of Rognonas, about 1 km away, and give the steak we had managed to eat a chance to digest. It's weird walking on country roads with traffic coming the opposite way than we expect. Rognonas is very Italian influenced, the buildings are mainly cream with tile rooves. We saw the town square where lots of old men were playing boules. We heard church bells and saw mainly women attending Sunday mass. Most of the town was closed, it was very quiet and the streets deserted. It will be interesting to see the difference on a week day. We are close to Avignon, which was the papal centre before the Vatican, so it's not surprising that at first glance we could be in Italy.
Home for a relaxing drink. We all seem to be very tired, I guess we have been living life to the max, and need a few days to catch our breath. The tv aerial came down in the last storm, but the owners have a huge selection of dvds available, Amelia found all 10 series of Friends........ and in English this time!

Arriving in Provence

The last few days in England were a bit of a challenge as the dizziness that landed me in hospital reared its head again. Not as bad, and not scarey, but a bit debilitating. Was determined not to miss anything but did have to go a bit slower and keep to walls and handles!
Mel drove back from Bath, and we arrived to the aroma of a lovely beef stew Paul had waiting. Dave was due home around 7.15 so just prior to that we all hid. Mel taped a notice and camera to the front door; she was in the 'man cave' ( a cupboard with coats, tools etc); Paul was under the huge beanbag in the lounge with the tv remote, changing channels; Amelia squeezed between the futon and airbed; Crys wriggled under Mel and Dave's bed; and having photographed everyone in their spots, I lay in the bath with a glass of wine. Heard Dave come in muttering 'nothing's ever easy'. Actually it wasn't hard to find us, and a fun way to start the evening.
The flooding was higher than before. Mel went for a run and ended up stranded in the middle of a huge roundabout, rescued by a truck driver and deposited safely on dry land. We did go for some walks and took quite dramatic photos. Very sobering.
Saturday we packed up and Mel and Dave drove us to Heathrow. We had checked in on-line, how simple it makes it!
The flight was uneventful, we collected our rental car at Marseille Airport, and headed north to Avignon. I sat in the back as I'm still not 100% which makes my thought processes slower. Amelia did a sterling job of navigating, Paul drove brilliantly, and we only got lost twice!
Arrived here at our little country gite about 7.15, very dark, so am looking forward to getting out and exploring today.
Bonjour France, le revoir est tres bon!

Bradford-on-Avon

Today I woke again to bright skies. Went in to Crys and Mel to read until Amelia woke – she had been under the weather last night. Sure enough, she woke with a dreadful throat so we rethought our day and discarded another trip into Bath. Instead, after a lazy breakfast and lovely long chats, we headed out to explore Bradford-on-Avon. We were so glad we did!

The river is in flood, the water barely fitted under the bridge and we saw sandbags in many places. There was a maze of public paths up to the top of the town. First we devoured an early Saxon church, tiny, just perfect. Then in our climb up the hill we passed so many old terraced rows of cottages that I nearly filled my memory card. Views were exquisite, we found overgrown wilderness gardens, it was fabulous.

Wending our way back down was a lot easier than going up! We reached the town and walked through the Shambles – a lot shorter than York but quite cute. I noticed a gold letterbox – apparently a resident won a gold medal in the last Olympics so the walking bridge was renamed after him, and a letterbox painted gold in his honour. How very cool!

We lunched at the Victorian Tea Rooms – high tea again, very spoilt. The waitress was dressed accordingly and the food was divine.

Coming out of the tearoom the weather had deteriorated so we quickly made our way around a few shops. We found a store called Piha! Couldn’t believe it, went in and found it was indeed a sea/beach shop, so called because the owner loved surfing in Piha Beach, NZ!

Home for a well deserved cuppa, and Mel and I popped up to the car to fetch the map so we could plan our route home tomorrow.

Amelia wallowed in a bath, Crys, Mel and I watched Clueless - what a hilarious blast from the past!

Snacks, Scattergories, bubbles courtesy of the landlady, and off to bed. Another sterling day!

Bath

I woke to the sound of plastic bags rustling in my ear, and thought ‘why on earth is Amelia packing?’ Turns out it was rain. Very heavy rain. I snuggled under my feather duvet and pondered on what I would do with the wet day.

When I surfaced again a few hours later there were no clouds in the sky – maybe I dreamt it?

A milky coffee, drunk sitting in the enormous open fireplace in our kitchen woke me thoroughly. We gathered our wits and wallets and caught the 11.20 train into Bath.

Bath is beautiful. The earliest mayor decreed that all buildings should be made of Bath stone, garnered from the local quarry (which he owned). The result is a gorgeous city of cream coloured stone buildings of a similar design and age. I had read many novels set in Bath – by Jane Austen, Emily Bronte and Georgette Heyer, and it was a thrill to see the streets, squares, buildings and parks that I knew from those books. First up was the abbey, which I think must be the prettiest one we have seen in our travels.

We rambled around, partially following an audio guide Amelia had downloaded, and sometimes just following our noses. We saw the original Sally Lunn bakery and tea rooms dating from the 1600’s. A bit crooked but still standing! We marvelled at the River Avon, very flooded and racing past Putney Bridge. The Pump Rooms were under renovation so we walked up through the Royal Circus, where we stopped to take photos of the stunning circle of Georgian apartments made up of 3 blocks. Amelia has a panoramic facility on her camera, so we managed to be in both ends of the same photo and thought ourselves very clever! Then it was on to the Royal Crescent, again a most amazing design of Georgian architecture that is still lived in by the wealthy residents. It was a challenge to stand back far enough to take a perfect picture but we had lots of fun.

The upper assembly rooms were closed for a function so we headed to Jane Austen’s Bath Museum and tearooms where we partook of ‘Ladies Afternoon Tea’, made up of cucumber sandwiches, salmon sandwiches, scones, cake, and a choice of teas that I had never heard of! We followed this with a talk about Jane Austen, her life and works, and then time to wander through the museum. We thoroughly enjoyed it, and at the end could dress in costumes of the time and take photos, a light-hearted way to end the visit.

The Bath shops were well worth browsing, very few chain stores and lots of little boutiques. A pain to be limited by budget and luggage allowance!

We caught the 5 o’clock train back to Bradford on Avon, and rested our tired feet. Some light TV, snacks, games of Trivial Pursuits and story-telling finished off a wonderful day. Good times!

Windsor - Bradford on Avon

Today we embarked on our girls’ road trip!

We planned to leave by 10am, and were on the road at 10 to 11, not bad! The weather had been atrocious and we saw numerous flooded fields. I had checked the roads on the internet and found that although there were flood warnings everywhere, the route we intended to take was clear. Or so it said.

Crys sat beside me, and with her expert navigation and the support from the back seat, we hit the M4 with no problems and I settled in for a 2 hour straight drive. Sounded easy, but the clouds came over and the rain was torrential. I was pretty nervous passing trucks – the combination of the spray from them and the rain from above meant that I often couldn’t see more than about a car’s length in front. At some times I slowed right down to about 40kmph. This, on a 110kmph motorway!

We planned to stop at Lacock for lunch – this is a Heritage Village that was used to film Lark Rise to Candleford, Downtown Abbey and Harry Potter. As we turned off the man road there was flooding right across and along the road we needed to take. We pulled in to the side and considered – I got out and had a look and really didn’t know what to do. Another car came past us and went slowly through the flood and emerged safely on the other side – good enough for us! A bit of an adventure!

Lacock has an old abbey, plus a tiny village of ancient houses, all owned by the National Trust and tenanted with folk who dress in olden outfits. We went in to a bakery, tithe barn, some shops, and lunched in the pub. A really gorgeous place.

After lunch and a wander we headed down a closed road to see the abbey from a different view – the river was flooded over the adjacent farmland, and came up over the bridge onto the road. It was good to stretch our legs, but we could see the rain was going to set in again. Sure enough, no sooner had we arrived back at the car than the heavens opened and down it came.

Back across the flooded road, onto the main road, and on through some little villages until we came to Bradford-on-Avon, our home for the next 4 days. We watched the street signs carefully, Crys said “pull over while we decide where to go”, so I did, we looked up and we were outside our cottage! Another place that Amelia and I had found on the internet after hours and hours of searching. This is always a bit of a chancey thing, and we breathed a sigh of relief to have struck gold yet again.

Bridge cottage has to be seen to be believed. The floors are all over the place, but we’re used to that by now. The front door opens onto the footpath, there is a tiny internal porch, then a gorgeous renovated kitchen with a table and 4 chairs. The owner must love a designer called Cath Kidston – we lost count of the items throughout the house in this range. It’s basically little flowers – they are printed on the blinds, tablecloth, crockery, rubbish bins, lightshades, wallpaper, teatowels, ovenmits, wallprints…. You get the picture. It’s very girlie, very quaint, and so homey we were charmed. On the kitchen table was a cake plate with 4 beautifully iced cupcakes. In the fridge was a bottle of champagne and some milk. We felt very spoilt! The lounge was warm and cosy, with TV and Wii. Upstairs are 2 bedrooms and a bathroom, the floor waves around as if we’re on a ship.

After unloading the car Crys and I headed off to park it safely – there is no legal parking directly outside. On return we had a cuppa, then all walked to the supermarket on the edge of town for some supplies for the next few days.

Arriving back home we cracked open a drink and played Scattergories, such fun as we became inventive with words we were sure existed.

Tea was a range of healthy snacks – celery, carrots, cheeses, grapes, fruit and crackers. Then it was seriously into the Wii – first up 10 pin bowling which I’m proud to say I creamed, then bob-sledding, skiing and snowboarding. A hilarious evening.

Bed at midnight – an eventful day, lots of laughs and some new memories to add to the many we have made this trip.

Blobbing at Mel's + Windsor Castle visit.

All of a sudden I seemed to come to a stop! 
New Year's Eve was SUCH a late night, then we had a full-on day at the footie. The next morning of course Paul and Ali were up at 5.30 to get to the airport for their flight to Belfast (Christmas pressie to Paul from Dave and guaranteed to keep Dave in Paul's good books for a good decade or so!).
So ....... time to relax. I was incredibly tired, and Amelia felt the same. Friday we tried to go for a walk. The first time we got to the gate and came home again as the rain started to fall heavily. No sooner were we inside and had discarded our wet weather gear than the sun came out and the skies were blue. I should add that there were approximately 100 gale, storm and flood warnings over South West England at present. However we couldn't resist the sun, so wrapped up and headed out again. This time we tramped at least 5 mins down the road, avoiding mud and puddles as best we could, before the heavens opened, lightning struck and thunder boomed directly overhead. Time to shelter under some trees (intelligent in an electric storm) and ring Dave to say "please can you come and rescue us?" We gave up after that and I retired to the beanbag with my kindle.
Later we went to the supermarket for some bits and bobs. 'Supermarket' seems a strange word to describe the store that has food, sure, but also: a foreign exchange counter; a section for clothes; a tv/dvd/camera/phone department; a cobbler; café; drycleaners..... Interesting.
Amelia made a scrummy quiche for tea, and we spent the evening in turn reading, chatting, we watched a bit of Forrest Gump and Graham Norton. Lovely lazy day.
Saturday was another late start, sooooo good! Missing Paul, but definitely appreciating having the bed to myself for a few  nights.
Amelia's camera died, so she and Mel headed to the supermarket (haha) to buy a replacement. Mel bought a huge lamb rack from the village butcher for tonight's dinner so I mixed a mint, garlic and rosemary marinade for that. The rack hadn't been trimmed at all - it's the first time I've done that, so that was fun.
Mel and I headed out for a ramble, she assured me we could make our way round one of the many reservoirs in the area. Sounded good in theory! It wasn't long before we were struggling to find the path among the flood water, mud, brambles and horse droppings. It was lots of fun but we got very muddy. When the water and mud started oozing between our toes (inside socks and sneakers) we knew we may as well stop worrying and just go for it! At one stage we laid a thick branch across some mud and water and walked across that. When the path was totally blocked by floods we took a detour and ended up doing an extra kilometre in a circle to miss about 30 meters of mud! After an hour we caved and rang Dave again - our rescue hero!
Showered off the mud and we 3 girls headed to Windsor to visit the castle. What a treat! We were there 3 hours and only left when it closed. We saw so many rooms - some were only open in the winter when the queen is not using them. She was in residence, but didn't pop out to say hello, we were a bit disappointed. We learnt about the history of the Knights of the Royal Garter, and saw where all the ceremonies take place. We also explored the church on site - saw King Henry VIII and Princess Charlotte's tombs. A fabulous afternoon.
Home to do dinner - fortunately my NZ Masterchef memories held up and it was delicious. Mel's friend Anna from Drama School came over for the evening and it was lovely to renew my acquaintance with her.
Sunday, another gloriously late start - slept till 9am, nearly caught up! Mel made sandwiches, we took them with us. First stop was Datchet to take photos of the flooded Thames, then into London to see Crys's flat, walk around her local area, and bring her home for the night so we could set off from Bath tomorrow morning.  
Now, I have never driven in London, but felt only sightly nervous with Mel navigating - her confidence is definitely contagious. All went well until we reached a very nasty, huge round-a-bout. By huge round-a-bout I mean one with buildings in the middle, and streets that bisect it, as well as 2 or 3 lanes going round it. Ok until between us Mel and I became confused, I tried to change lanes at the last minute, stalled, panicked, pumped the accelerator and flooded the engine, right in the middle of the road. Mel kept her head and put on the hazard lights. I turned the car off, considered leaving it to Mel and walking to Crys's, but took a deep breath, restarted the car, and carefully edged forward. Then cried.
We had a lovely walk around Earlsfield, through a giant cemetery, ate a belated lunch with Crys, then headed home. It was rather hard to summon up the nerve to drive again, but I was determined not to let it beat me.
Again, Mel was full of confidence - this would apparently be easy as it was straight on to the round-a-bout, hug the left, and take the first exit. LIES! I made it into the round-a-bout, it was the third exit not the first, so I had to get into a right hand lane initially: I heard someone say, turn right, turn right, (from the back seat) which I did and found myself in one of the bisecting roads. Leaving that, we went right around again, and again....... Mel asked the back seat drivers to sshh, I was stressing, we started again, and finally exited at the correct place. Then it was on to the drive through the rest of London (it seemed) until we hit the M4, and crawled along, eventually passing a stalled car (not mine!!!!!) in one lane. An eventful trip home!
Now we are relaxed in the warm, soup for tea, TV on, glass of wine in hand, planning for our Bath road trip tomorrow,all is well with my world except that I need a Paul hug.
Photos on facebook, sorry, uploading not working on this site. Very glad no-one in the car had a camera handy!
Looking forward to bed tonight!

Windsor, Eton, and dinner with the prospective in-laws

Still very tired today - getting old sure sucks!
We had planned to have a blob day catching up with laundry and not much else, but the skies were blue and I couldn't bear to waste it inside.
Dave was studying and then going to the gym, so the rest of us piled in to our rental and headed for Windsor.
It was still as pretty as last time - Mel knew where she was going which was great as she led us to the Long Walk (the Queen's back yard), a pretty amazing stretch of park leading away from the castle.

The Long Walk

Windsor Castle

Then it was back into Windsor itself, where we stopped at a little French café for lunch. I find it surprising that Windsor town surrounds the castle and is such a draw for tourists, but has managed to retain small cobbled streets, little boutique shops, quaint old pubs etc.
From Windsor we crossed the river to Eton. The Thames is flooded so makes quite a statement, with some seats under water, and bridges nearly covered up to the top. The current is impressive. 

The Queen's swans on the Thames at Windsor

We saw the Queen's swans, all tagged and protected. They have huge webbed feet, and seem rather supercilious.
Eton is another very pretty little town - VERY posh, and of course the school is an integral part of the town. On the walk down High Street to Eton College I lost count of the number of designer men's hand-made clothing stores. Figures. The buildings are well preserved, and I tried to imagine what it must be like to grow up in a country with this kind of history, and attend school with princes and future kings.

Eton College

En route back through Windsor to the car we see a school actually in the Castle grounds - it advertises itself as St George's School in the Castle, and takes boarders from 3 years to 13. Goodness.

Walking back from Eton, across the Thames to Windsor

I was flagging by now so we dropped me off for some peace while the rest went to the supermarket. An hour's silence while I lay on the couch - bliss!
Tonight was dinner with Dave's parents. I had met them for brunch when over in 2012 with Lynette, and was looking forward to getting to know them better, and of course introducing Paul. After a drink at home we went to another local pub in the village and had a lovely evening sharing stories and jokes. Very successful!

Dinner with the in-laws at the George

Paul and Ali leave at 6am tomorrow for Ireland, so there was some reorganising of bags and people in preparation, but at last I could hit the sack. Another very full but enjoyable and satisfying day ends. 

New Year's Day at the footy

A very late start today! It was pretty impressive to have 7 of us up, dressed, fed, sorted and out of the house in an hour and a quarter. Mel is a drill sergeant when necessary, in the nicest possible way, she is amazing!
We had been warned that it would be COLD, so it was double layers of everything. Outside it was raining and windy, we were glad our seats were in the top 2 rows under cover and shelter.
It took a while to drive in to Hammersmith and find a park - eventually in a parking building beside a partially renovated mall, the exit was rather convoluted and we laughed and agreed we would never find it again to get back to our cars that night (why do boys think things like that are funny?).
Then it took nearly an hour to walk in the wind and rain to the park. The path went along the Thames for quite a while - it was flooded and choppy, actually I loved it! Nearly as good as the beach! We saw a small sailing yacht break its mast and need rescuing.
Arriving at Fulham Football Club we were exceedingly wet - sopping jeans and feet; and puffer jackets don't hold water well either. On entering the stand we found we were in fact in the front 2 rows - no cover and very exposed to the wind. Amelia and I immediately made a pact that we would stand out of the weather for as long as we could, then find a pub and wait it out there.
We were an hour early, so took seats about half way up and hoped the ticket holders had something better to do than come out on such a day. Wrong. After moving several times we decided to go for gold and went right up to the top 2 rows. A few of us were praying. Mel (that girl is just the person you need in these situations) made friends with an old Irish gent sitting by himself. We were in the middle of the season ticket stands, so he knew everyone who usually sits around him, and who were away on holiday. Brilliant! So we ended up with the best seats in the house, and where we had originally thought we were going to be!
The game was amazing fun. It's impossible not to get caught up in the excitement. Dave was so on fire he found it hard to sit down. Ali created and started a chant - I was the only one who followed it, but it was good! Amelia became quite vocal, haven't seen that for a while. There was a lady next to Dave who at one point called out "We need to get the ball out of there, it's VERY important" in a polite British voice and we cracked up!
The opposing team scored first, then Fulham scored, and then scored again, so we had lots of emotion rolling round the stadium. Such a brilliant experience.
Time for a walk in the rain again, in the dark this time. We stopped quite soon at a Pizza Express and thawed, warmed up, dried out and compared notes on the experience.
Finding the entrance to the carparking building was as difficult as we had anticipated, and we knew it locked at 8pm, so it was a relief to find some teenage girls doing who knows what in a deserted area, but willing to help us out with directions.
So good to get home! what a fabulous day.
Evening prayer: thank you God for Your favour with our seats; for family who will have a go at making anything a good time; and for thermal underwear.

New Year's Eve!

On New Year's Eve we had a lovely lazy start. Mel, Paul and I walked into the little village and bought some steak for dinner - it's Paul's and my turn to cook. A quaint tiny village, but lots here - a couple of pubs, a cricket club on the village green, a few shops. The best of English village life.
After lunch the kids all went to Anchorman II. That was fine - Paul and I spent some rare quality time together, yey!
We had a cuppa after the kids left, then walked back into the village and caught the train to Windsor. What a pretty town! Coming off the train we exited the station and there in front of us was a delightful old pub with the castle behind it. So gorgeous!
We wandered for a while, walked around the perimeter of the castle, browsed the cobbled streets and shops. Bought Mel a new coffee plunger and a meat thermometer. Finished with a glass of wine and a lovely talk at the old pub by the station, then caught the train back to Wraysbury.
Paul took care of criss-cross potatoes, an old family favourite. There was salad from last night, and I had been marinating the huge chunk of steak all day with rosemary, garlic, some olive oil and balsamic vinegar - it smelt divine! After searing it all over, into the oven it went, and time for a drink with the kids and to hear about their day. I was glad we had bought the meat thermometer, it was such a big piece of steak and at 40 quid I would have been pretty upset if I had ruined it! Some Jamie Oliver recipe gravy and dinner was ready. Loved the rave reviews! Not much left over! It felt very satisfying to be the mother figure and cook for once, although I have so enjoyed not playing that role so far in England.
After dinner we all wrapped up and walked in to the local pub, The Perseverance. We were lucky enough to find an empty table for us all, and out came the Trivial Pursuit cards. Fun! The pub is very old: beamed ceilings, open fires, rooms coming off rooms, a great intimate and laid back atmosphere. At around 11pm we went through from the 'quiet' room to where the bar and band were. A couple of guys on guitars, some boxes for drums - they were ok, but needed a little something......... That something, of course, was the contribution from the Mawhinney/Ravenscroft household. First Ali got onto a box and drummed it, then switched to guitar, then to bass. Mel was dragged up and given a mike, she had a great time! After a few songs that went down very well, Crys joined them on another mike, I was given a tambourine, and we introduced everyone to Crowded House. Such fun!!!!!
There was a large screen TV on mute that showed a huge party at Big Ben. At 12.59 the sound was turned up and we did the big countdown thing. We all joined hands and sang Auld Lang Syne, then the band got going again and we had a party! At around 2am we finished with "Show me the way to go home" - I couldn't believe my kids didn't know it, we used to sing it all the time with Pop, Gran, Graeme and me!
We wrapped up again (getting used to this lifestyle) and walked home. Time for a cuppa and then off to bed - what a fantastic evening!