France roadtrip – part 4 'The road to Provence'

We had heard so much about San Sebastian in Spain and it was only an hours drive from Hossegor so that was our next stop. The drive past the pine forests was great. I love seeing them from afar and it looking so natural but then when you drive by you notice that all of the trees have been planted in straight lines and it suddenly looks so orderly.

We worked out pretty quickly that Spain is much cheaper than France – everything from food to shoes (damn I didn’t find a pair!). The old town was really nice and the main beach was beautiful with the island in the bay.

Another place on our big list of places to go was the Pyrenees. A good starting point was Pau. It was here that Michael got his haircut and instead of a no.2 Stephane gave him a no.1 so for a few days he looked like a skinhead and I had to make him shave everyday to make it look a little better.

We had planned to stay a night at Laruns but when we arrived to the little village in the valley there was nothing open (yes, it was 2pm again) and all of the hotels had not opened for the year yet. So we went on a drive to Cauterets through Lourdes, and no we did not throw holy water on Lily. There were only two hotels and a couple of restaurants opened in Cauterets with the rest of the town opening up in December for the ski season. It was quite breathtaking with all of the mountains surrounding the village. The mountains had a little bit of snow on their peaks which made up for it being so cold.

Unfortunately with Lily we couldn’t do any walks (well we could have but she is getting too heavy to carry for long periods) so we were limited to driving instead. The winding roads took us through the mountains up towards Cirque de Gavarnie and the scenery was absolutely spectacular.
Since a few of the mountain passes were closed due to ice we took the safe option and drove the motorway to Foix. Ho hum not much to see there apart from a castle which stands guard over the town.

It was a great coincidence that my cousin Warren and his girlfriend Merci were staying near Carcassonne for the week and we just happened to be there at the same time. It was great to catch up with them since I had not seen Warren for a couple of years as he has been living in London. They took us to a great restaurant in nearby Minerve and the food was absolutely divine – I didn’t actually think we would get to take Lily to a Michelin star restaurant but she was so well behaved even though one of the waitresses paid her no attention. We stayed the night with them in LaRedonte and Warren is convinced that Lily has the Lum nose!

The old city of Carcassonne
Lily with Warren and Merci
After a lunch stop at Aigues Mortes, we spoilt ourselves on our last night of the roadtrip with a four star hotel in Arles, home to Vincent Van Gogh for a time. Unfortunately we were there on a Monday so everything was closed. We did get to see the café thought to be painted by Van Gogh in ‘Café Terrace at Night’ and I ate the best palmier since being in France.

The four of us (including Monty) are back in our villa now and it is good to be back. As much as we enjoyed being on the road for four weeks it is nice to be in the one place for a while and I think Michael had had enough of being our pack horse. Yesterday at home Lily seemed to get bored so we took her to Carrefour to people watch and get supplies – she got used to being on the move and seeing loads in a day but at least here she can enjoy homecooked meals instead of jar food. I think she appreciates all of the space here since she is rolling around everywhere and trying to crawl but not really getting anywhere…yet.

Having said that we are not in Provence for long, on Sunday we head to Lake Como in Italy for a few days in Bellagio.

Also, through much deliberation we’ve agreed that at some point we need to get back to reality so we will be home on 12 December. I can’t believe it is almost time to come home…..

France roadtrip - part 3 'Death by formule menu'

After a wonderful time in Jersey it was time to head back to France. This trip reminds me of our honeymoon – getting back to the hotel after dinner and trying to work out where to head to the next day. Although of course Lily adds a whole new dimension and I won’t lie it isn’t always easy but I think she is enjoying all of the travels. She is still always smiling even when it’s 11pm and she doesn’t want to go to bed (we are generally not smiling at that point). She is a little spoilt getting her own way since we have been staying in hotels on this roadtrip and we can’t really let her cry too much so she has us eating out of the palm of her hands! Plus she has been spending way too much time in our bed but we love it!

Lily is really enjoying her three solid meals a day and her two teeth make her look grown up and it’s hard to believe that she is almost eight months old! She has such a personality and she is very used to getting a lot of attention here – I think it’s the eurasian factor. We even get stopped in Carrefour with people saying ‘magnific bebe’, ‘tre jolie’ and ‘tre belle’. If a waitress or shop assistant does not at least smile at her she follows them with her eyes staring at them with a look on her face as if to say ‘what is the matter with you? Why won’t you pay me some attention!’. It’s quite funny to watch her in action.

We had a very brief stop in Nantes for nothing more than a place to sleep and a stroll around the food markets the next morning. It was all we really could do since it was a public holiday in France – they have more public holidays than anywhere else in the world.

When we planned this trip one of the stipulations was that we stay at a beautiful old chateau and we found the perfect one in Saumur in the Loire region - Chateau de Verrieres. We stayed in the Le Papillon room which reminds me of a brilliant French movie of the same name about a little girl, an old man and of course butterflies.

One of the most wonderful things about this trip is driving through the French countryside during autumn. It is hard not to enjoy the vibrant colours of the leaves drifting off the trees – the drive through the Champagne region has been the prettiest by far.

Since we were traveling mid-season we did not expect to encounter any issues with accommodation and plus we didn’t really know where we were going to spend the next night but in some places it has not been easy to find a bed, especially when we arrived into Bordeaux at 6pm on the Friday night of a long weekend! Luckily we found a tiny room so we didn’t have to stay out of town. I was not expecting Bordeaux to be as nice as it was – it has a huge boulevard with the city set along a river and of course there are all the shops the three of us love…like Zara.

The next day we took a leisurely drive to Cap Ferret through the national park and once again found it hard to find a bed for the night. A few hotels in the smaller places are starting to close for the winter even though there are still loads of people around so we ended up in a small village on the coast for the night.

Michael caught the surfing bug when we were in Portugal and Hossegor is one of the best surfing spots in France. A combination of Michael struggling with a lower back injury and there being no surf he didn’t take a board out. But we found a great hotel with a view over the lake so we stayed for a couple of days.

We took a day trip to Biarritz on Monday. Supposedly it is the choice holiday spot for the Paris jetset now. We weren’t overly taken by the place but it has a nice main beach. Once again we managed to arrive after 2pm so found it hard to find somewhere still serving lunch. Plus all of the shops in France close between midday and 3-4pm so we had a nice stroll on along the beach. The opening/closing hours in France take a while to get used to.

Lily still had a bad cough so it was off to the doctor again in Hossegor – once again we were told she just needs to ride it out. She has been her normal happy self so I think it is bothering us more than her.

Latest stats
Weight: 8.5kgs
Length: 69cm
Head circumference: 44cm

I was concerned that she had not put on a lot of weight since she was weighed in Ireland a few months ago but the doctor assured me that she is certainly not wasting away. She certainly still has those cheeks and those beautiful chubby thighs!

We on the other hand are definitely putting on weight. It’s hard not to with all of those croissants, millefeilles and macaroons. Not to mention the formule menu for lunch and dinner! Even though you know you only want one course for lunch the restaurants all serve two or three courses for the same price as a main meal so you may as well get the menu and we’re suckered in to it everyday! We really should know better.

France roadtrip - part 2 'Where are all the jersey cows?'

There was a big group of schoolkids on the ferry trip back to Calais so needless to say Lily enjoyed the ferry trip since she got to watch all the kids run around and even sat with the girls for a little bit.

From Calais we took the Cote D’Opale (Opal Coast) route along the coast to Boulogne sur mer. It was a 40km drive seeing cliffs, sand dunes and beaches. We stopped off at Cap Gris Nez again to marvel at what Michael had achieved a few months before. It is just amazing.

We were told by a few people to visit Honfleur in Normandy. It’s a lovely little seaside town and was perfect for a lunchtime stopover. Lily now likes the car which is great but she needs to stretch her legs after about 90minutes so it’s nice to be able to stop at little towns and villages on the way rather than Quick (France’s answer to McDonalds) on the roadside.

We hadn’t heard of Bayeux before but we needed a place to rest our heads for the evening. Turns out it’s a beautiful little town with an impressive cathedral and a very very old tapestry – supposedly ‘the worlds most celebrated tapestry’ according to the Lonely Planet. The 70m Bayeux tapestry tells the story of the Norman conquest of England and is only about 1,100 years old!

Cathedral Notre Dame in Bayeux

One place I have always wanted to go to was Le Mont St-Michel on the Normandy coast. Just amazing – did not disappoint at all. We stayed on the Mont at an inflated price of course since they prey on tourists like us! The restaurant charged €4.50 for a glass of Coke, that’s about AUD7.50! The Mont only has a population of 42 people but walking through the narrow streets you can tell it is a tourist trap. The tides are quite phenomenal – depending on the season the difference between low and high tide can reach 15m which is more than five times what it is at home! At low tide you can walk around the Mont on the sand banks but as the tide comes up it even engulfs the car park! This bus had a lucky escape!
We walked up the steep stairs to the Abbaye Du Mont Saint Michel although I had it easy since I only had the backpack, Michael had Lily! It was great to be at the top to see the tide coming in although it got a little too cold for us so we headed back to the room before it hit high tide. Of course I sent Michael out in the cold night air after dinner to take some photos of the Mont all lit up – I had to look after Lily!
St Malo is one of the prettiest places we have visited. It has a walled city which is set against the ocean but then also has a long stretch of gorgeous beach. Once again we strolled around town and bought Lily more clothes.
View from our room at low tide
and high tide
I must admit Lily is very well behaved and happy given every day she is somewhere different with no set routine but every now and then she is a little monster, especially when we want to eat dinner – ok, so it may be her bedtime (or what would be of a normal child) when our mains arrive but it’s our holiday too! Since it was a really cold night we thought we’d have dinner at the hotel restaurant and it looked really nice with a delicious menu. The restaurant was busy and that always helps since Lily loves to people watch and as long as she is getting attention from anyone she is a happy little girl. But no, our little monster appeared that night and we took turns at taking her for walks and entertaining her so we basically ate on our own on rotation. By the end of our meals she had the few diners who were left wanting a cuddle so we got to enjoy our desserts while she was flirting with everyone. That was one night we probably should have eaten take out in our room!

It was only a 90 minute ferry ride from St Malo to Jersey so we thought why not?! Michael’s friend Paul Berghouse lives there and Michael has wanted to go back to Jersey following his drunken pub crawl there many years ago. What a beautiful place – the scenery is absolutely breathtaking. It reminds me a little of Ireland as everything was so green and yes we did get to see a few jersey cows!
Lily made a new friend on the way over to Jersey. Since she has loads of toys already and we need to somehow get them back to Sydney, Michael said ‘only a small one’ and then they walked out of the shop with the biggest toy there – a 60cm labrador named Monty. She absolutely adores him. Unfortunately Lily got quite sick with a cold and a really bad cough so our two night stay extended to five nights. We took her to the hospital and the doctor checked on her and it was a case of Lily just having to weather the storm. It meant that we had a few quiet days which is what we all needed – it allowed Michael time to do all of our washing!

Had a great Sunday roast with Paul and his wife Yvonne plus some more shopping! Thank you to the both of you for spoiling us while we were in Jersey. It has been getting very cold lately so we thought we would make our own little marshmallow baby….As revenge for dressing her like that Lily has persuaded Michael to buy her a car for her first birthday.

France roadtrip – part 1 'The landing spot'

Although we had every good intention of leaving first thing in the morning we eventually got on the road in the late afternoon. So instead of driving through the French Alps to Lyon we took the expressway so the passing scenery paled in comparison.

Lyon is a beautiful city – the city centre is on a 500m-800m wide peninsula bounded by two rivers, the Rhone and Saone. Walking along the river reminded me of Budapest but on a much smaller scale. By the time we arrived in the late late afternoon we found that Lyon was completely booked out on a Monday night but we did managed to get the last room in the city centre not priced over €200. It did cost us €100 for a two star room that was very small with a smelly bathroom and had not been touched since 1972 but it was in the centre of town.


There was a huge moment that morning in Lyon – Lily’s first tooth appeared! We celebrated with a morning stroll around town and after Michael bought three pairs of jeans to add to his collection we headed to Dijon, the home of mustard. I was craving Asian food so we headed to the local Chinese restaurant for dinner. As usual Lily wanted our full attention as soon as our meals arrived and as usual I was going to have to eat cold rice but then a hungry tour group came in for dinner and Lily was taken around to every table by the Taiwanese tour guide and we got to enjoy our hot meal! Just brilliant!

It was here in Dijon that we spotted a divine piece of art for Lily’s bedroom – it was a huge canvas covered in a patchwork of 390 little squares of japanese paper. It was ‘impossible’ to be sent back to Sydney so we ended up buying a few boxes of paper instead! I have a huge job ahead of me but well worth it…whenever I finish it!

The thought of creating this piece of art made me think of champagne. I had penciled out Epernay as our next stop since it was in the Champagne region and it is the home of Moet and Chandon. On the way we went to Troyes for lunch which was long enough. The lonely planet describes the town as what ‘Europe would have looked like back when William Shakespeare was alive’ – to me it felt like we were in a theme park.
I was happy to join the champagne route to Epernay straight after lunch. In Epernay we didn’t get to stay at Monsieur Chandon’s previous residence since it was completely booked and we are not that organised so we stayed at a very far away second, the Kyriad (it is about 10 steps below an Ibis hotel and was once again the only hotel room available – thank god Michael beat the traveling toy salesman to the door even though he had to help my beloved open the front door since he couldn’t work it out!).

The three of us went on a tour of Moet and Chandon. I don’t think either Lily or Michael were as excited as I was being so close to thousands and thousands of bottles of champagne. Lily had her first taste of Moet but I think like her mum she prefers Veuve. The one bad thing about the hour tour was 10 minutes in I smelt something. Without wanting to change Lily’s nappy in the cellars of Moet and Chandon we stayed at the back of the group hoping the smell of champagne was not being overtaken by something else.

There is over 20,000 bottles of Moet in this cellar cave alone
As you can see Lily is growing although she is still smaller than the largest bottle of Moet. The third bottle from the right is the normal sized bottle.
A couple of hours north of Epernay is the town of Arras. We drove out to the Somme although we did not intentionally stay here for this reason but after we arrived we realised that it was less than an hour away. We visited the Australian Memorial Park in Le Hamel, which still has some trenches, and the Australian National memorial – carved in stone are 10,982 names of the missing soldiers who have no known grave. Also went to the Franco Australian Museum in Villers-Bretonneux. The museum was on the top floor of a primary school and was given as a gift to the schoolchildren from primary schools in Victoria.


The Australian Memorial
As we have been heading north the weather has been getting cooler and there is certainly no need for those t-shirts I packed. It has been about 12degrees during the day but still clear sunny days.

The main reason for our roadtrip was a Channel swimmers reunion on the French coast. We spent the night in Wissant since Des was made an honorary citizen after landing there so many times on his swims. I wanted to stay at the Hotel Bellevue as that was where Michael had stayed with his dad in 1974 on one of his swims but when we arrived it looked like it was stuck in a timewarp so needless to say we stayed somewhere else. I like old world charm but I’m not a fan of smelly old hotels. Wissant is a tiny little town and even though the French were playing Argentina there were no places showing the match and our room didn’t have a tv so Michael used his broken French and they found a tv for us. That night we ate very expensive and very ordinary pizza on the floor of our hotel room lit up only by the glow of the tv since Lily went to bed early for a change and we didn’t want to wake her.

Wissant before a storm
Every year a group of Channel swimmers get together to tour the French coast to see their landing spots, have lunch at Cap Gris Nez (which means the grey nose) and of course to chew the fat. We met the group of about 40 people (15 swimmers and their entourages) at Sangatte then drove along the coast stopping at Cap Blanc Nez, Wissant and finally Cap Gris Nez. The coastline was absolutely beautiful and certainly worth the drive if you ever find your way to that part of the world.

Sangatte beach
View from Cap Blanc Nez - you can see Cap Gris Nez in the distance

Road to Wissant
It was wonderful to see where Michael landed on his swim and to steal a few pebbles as a memento. It was a beautiful clear day so you could see the White Cliffs of Dover and it made you think ‘why on earth would you want to swim across it?!’.

Cap Gris Nez
The landing spot (or around abouts there since it was dark on the night of 01 August)
A big thank you to Cliff and Laura for organising the day – it was a memorable one.

We caught the ferry to Dover and watched the rugby world cup final that night - it was hard to watch since I didn’t really want either team to win. But I did get to have KFC so I was happy enough (I know it is very bad for you but there is something so special about the colonel’s 11 herbs and spices!).
Michael finally got to meet Kevin Murphy and his wife Jane who he hadn’t seen since Kevin raced his dad across Sydney Harbour in 1977. Kevin is the current King of the Channel with 34 crossings! He is arguably the greatest endurance swimmer of all time having spent 52 hours in the water during a three way Channel attempt.
Kevin and Alison Streeter (queen of the Channel with 43 crossings...yes 43 crossings!) were both at Hubert House being interviewed for a book on Channel swimming so we got to hear some great stories of their swims. One funny story was on one of Alison’s swims and involves the restaurant where we had lunch which is right on the beach at Cap Gris Nez. After swimming from England to France, Alison kept walking up the beach to the restaurant, ordered a beer and pulled some money out from under her swimming cap - of course they didn’t let her pay for her drink! I mainly went along to enjoy THE best club sandwich ever only to arrive to find out that the gas wasn’t working so I had to have a pain au chocolat instead.

We went to the Dover Museum and saw the King of the Channel trophy on display. On Sunday afternoon we were in search of a dream cream tea and we were tipped off to head to St Margaret at Cliffe. The Bluebells Tea House is located in the old coast guard station and overlooks the Channel. The Johnstons would have been jealous since they had loads of plain and fruit scones served with homemade jams and cream. Lily enjoyed her first taste of a traditional cream tea. Absolutely delicious – I could easily survive on cream teas, hot chips and bacon…..mmmmmm.