Day nine in France and my return to the UK

Am back on home soil. My last day in France was a wet one and I had to dial into a work meeting. It was timetabled for thirty minutes but went on much longer than that.

My wife and I went for a drive later, the weather being warm, but not warm enough to swim. I did feel sad to leave my wife and daughter there, but they are going to enjoy another week there. I will see my son on Saturday when I pick him up, the dog being collected first. My hours are too antisocial for him to be with me in Colchester, so he will stay with his grandparents for a few more days.

Day eight in France and the Clamouse cave

My wife drove my daughter and I to the Clamouse cave. Today has been the hottest day so far and being in the caves was very refreshing. My daughter had been in caves when she travelled to Vietnam but I think she liked these as well. Caves hold no appeal to my wife who went shopping instead. So she missed out on seeing these sights. 

Day seven in France

Today was spent relaxing at the pool, the evening was spent at a Michelin star restaurant which is quite close to us. My wife had this recommended to us by our host and this meal made up for our disastrous lunch yesterday. The setting was amazing, though the attack of the insects once sunset happened did take some of the enjoyment away. If there is one thing about the holiday that my son will miss not taking part in, it will be this meal.  

Day six in France

Today, my wife and I had our worst meal in France, this being over the numerous trips we have had to France. When I say numerous, it is not that many, but our lunch today in Clermont-l'Hérault left a lot to be desired. The setting was great, live music from a busker, and a view where we could people watch. But while the waitress who served us was skilled and friendly, the food took ages to come and as not worth the wait. We had travelled there to enjoy the market, while I am not sure my wife liked the trip as much as I did, it was good to visit it.

Dinner was much better. We ate in a local place which brews its own beer. While it took time to get served, we were aware about this because they warned us. And the service was warm and lovely. I would recommend anyone trying the food here! 

Day five in France and the Afghan data leak

The holiday continues. My son has been volunteered to take part in gardening thanks to his grandfather but says he is enjoying his time outside London. I am sure that he is, but I find it hard to believe that he is enjoying himself as much as we are. 

The insect bites are healing and we have spent a lot of the day in the pool. We did go out for a meal in the evening where we were greeted by a puppy (who was taken away for eating the floorboards) and two other dogs.  My daughter too a photo of me cheating on our dog (she did as well) and is to show it to ours when she returns to the UK. 

Before I got to listen to The NewsAgents and heard an interesting story. It referred to a superinjunction about a data leak. I was sure I had heard about it before, but while I had, this turned out to be another one. Listening so far, it appears that the government initially did not want to resettle as many refugees as it has done since. I am concerned that this scheme is to stop. Those in Afghanistan risked a lot to help our troops there, I met one who is in a wheelchair for doing so. It may be that now the risk they face is low but I say we owe those remaining the chance of sanctuary in the UK. Forcing them to live in what is essentially The Republic of Gilead is not the thanks we should give.  

Saying that, I have yet to listen to the full story as a second episode dropped later, that will be interesting. 

Day four in France

Again another relaxing day, enforced due to the numerous insect bites that I have. My daughter has been sensible and has been using lots of insect spray but yesterday I did not and have payed the price. My wife has a lot of bites as well. I realised today that flies can inflict them when I saw one land and I had the pain on the bite.

While I rested, my wife was reading and my daughter enjoyed the pool. The covers are now off but we have been advised not to put them back on again.

Later in the day, we went to a nearby village where I bought some wine which I prepared dinner with. It was essentially bangers and mash which was improved by the tomato salad my wife made. The wine was nice, local, but had a little too much oak for me.

Our son says he is enjoying his stay with his grandparents. It would be nicer with him here, but it is his choice not to come and forcing him here would not have achieved much. 

My wife and I are hoping to be a lot better tomorrow and to be able to go out. We may just eat in the evening, but we are considering a day trip as well.

Day three in France

Another day in France. Today we had to do another supermarket run and my wife drove through stunning countryside to get there. My daughter and I tried to access the pool, but the mechanism to pull the covers back is not working. I was unsure if I may have broken it by accident or if it was broken before we got here. But, as tomorrow is bin day, I put our rubbish in the bin to see that the previous occupants have put items that should be recycled in the bin. I am hoping it still gets taken, if not, it will be a fragrant trip to the local dump! 

The down side of today is that I have been bitten, a lot. I need to get some decent insect repellent. And not scratch. 

Day two in France and discussing ethnic cleansing in Gaza

We are at the holiday cottage we have rented. It belongs to the parents of a friend of our daughter. It is amazing. The drive was not as bad as yesterday, and while it has rained since we got here, I am hoping for better tomorrow.

During the last two days, I have ensured that my wife sleeps by listening to podcasts. She hates the voice of Jon Sopel. My daughter has listened to some of them yesterday, less so today and this led to an interesting conversation, this being about Gaza. We were listening to The Rest is Politics and there was a discussion about if the horrors in Gaza met the international definition of a genocide. My daughter felt it did, I did not. We had to disagree agreeably about this, much in the same way that Rory Stewart and Alistair Campbell had to do.  Like on the podcast, we both agreed that what is happening in Gaza is horrific and should be stopped. I compared the horrors of Gaza to the genocide in Rwanda, what happened to the Rohingya and the evils of the Srebrenica massacre. I stated my view that the actions of Israel meets the criteria of Ethnic Cleansing but does not meet the threshold of genocide. My daughter disagreed with me and I found myself trying to defend Israel of one charge but not another.  While we did discuss it briefly today, notably with the actions in China where we both consider the Uyghurs to be subject to genocide. I will return to the topic of how Israel appears to ending the conflict through ethnic cleaning later this week if I can though. 

We went out for a meal today at a local place, this being called El Rancho Larzac and it was great. My burger was almost as good as that which I ate yesterday, the chips, while amazing, again not as good, but this place is still better than most burger places in the UK. We will hopefully be returning before I leave on Saturday.  You never know, it might not rain, for today, after we arrived here, it rained and rained and rained.  It is meant to rain tomorrow, but it should not be as much. On the way in, we had stopped at a supermarket and loaded up on supplies, my wife being shocked that I bought myself some Frosties! 

Anyway, it is late, so it is time for me to sleep and tomorrow, our plan is to test and recharge! 

Day one in France

We are in the city of Orléans. By we, I mean my wife, daughter and me.  My son decided not to come, preferring to spend time with the parents of my wife. We met them near the M25 to hand him over to them. My Mum is not too happy that he did not want to spend the two weeks with her. She is not aware that a few weeks ago, when he has an argument with us, that he wanted to travel to London to spend a night there to calm down.

Anyway, it was an interesting drive as we drove through Paris during rush hour and I ended up getting slightly lost in the city after encountering a huge traffic jam. But we are now resting. We went into the city itself to have dinner and gaze upon the statue of Joan of Arc. Sitting down, is when I started to relax. The picture is one my daughter took. In the square, we sat at a French restaurant, enjoyed good food, and if we wanted to, we could watch the basket ball games taking place.

My son would have loved it. On the way, we stopped at a service station where my daughter had a raspberry macaroon which she loved. He missed out on it, my daughter saying that it was better than any she has eaten in the UK. He also would have loved the menu at the restaurant where we ate, the dish of tagliatelle and shrimp being the one I would imagine he would have gone for. 

Retaining NHS staff

First of all, my son and I are back from France. He had talked about an early morning trip to Paris, but come the morning, faced with getting out of bed he decided to stay in bed. A trip to the airport in a taxi and then the flight home. Though it turned out we had not paid for everything and our cabin luggage had to go into the hold. My wife picked us up, having spent the weekend in London with my daughter having a great time themselves.

Anyway, one topic that has been discussed is if NHS staff are valued. In the last two months, as part of my job I have talked to two nurses who have left their jobs for better money elsewhere. One has now left for Australia, where she is to continue working as a nurse, just somewhere that will pay her properly. I need to write to by MP if they should have stayed in their jobs and accepted a below inflation pay rise, or if they should have left.

I am also going to ask him about an email from one of this fellow MP’s…

My return to Space Mountain

My feet hurt. Originally we had planned on getting to Disney so that we could be on the rides for 0930. But my son was asleep, so I let him rest and we did not actually wake up until 0900 when we went to have breakfast. My son did not eat much, but he normally does not have much for breakfast. I did eat, but the standard of the food here is not great. 

 

When in Disneyland, we went to Space Mountain. When we had been here before in 2014, my son was too short to go on it. My daughter did, but she hated it and refused to go on it again. He loved it but wanted to see the rest of the park. We later returned to the Indiana Jones ride, but he was not able to remember this, but that was almost ten years ago. After this we wen to the Marvel park. When there, I found my scariest ride ever, this being The Tower of Terror, and I also found my third scariest ride, this being the Avengers ride. When it comes to me and rides, the two things that get me are accelerating and dropping. Space Mountain accelerates, but it stops doing so before it gets very scary. Not so with the Avengers ride where it continues for longer. It was the Tower of terror that was the worst though. When I finished the ride, I was literally trembling with fear, and my son laughed. And then made me go on it again. 

 

We stayed till late, making use of the rides, including a return to the Buzz Lightyear ride that he loved so much back in 2014. We saw bits of the firework demonstration which is at the end of the day which I had wanted to watch. Seeing the few bits that I did see was good enough for me. 

 

Anyway, time for bed, and tomorrow, back to Blighty!

Paris, well a glimpse of it.

Today, my son has had a non-pupil day. I have tried to take such days off so that we can go to theme parks. Most are closed right now and my fabulous wife mentioned that I could take him to Euro Disney. We had been here many years ago, almost ten, 

She drove us halfway to Heathrow and drove the way back home by herself, which we were grateful about due to the Train strikes. The flight was packed but other than being late, was uneventful. Sadly, we did not bring toothpaste so we went into Paris for a bit of shopping to get some. An Uber drive later through the beautiful city and we were at the hotel.

I have just seen young children here, so it may be that we get to go on Space Mountain tomorrow (or hyperspace mountain as it is called now), something my son did not get to do before. 

Home again

Finally, we are back at home. The day was not as eventful as yesterday. 

I woke early this morning to find a charger and charge our car.  I found one that was being used by a mobile home, another which appeared to be residential and finally one in an industrial estate.   Had hoped it was part of the nearby shopping centre, but no such luck.  At first I could not work out which charger to use as it was confusing on the app, but by a process of deduction I sorted it,  we got enough charge to get to a supercharger closer to home, but in Belgium.  I drove in a more energy conserving manner and we had charge to spare when we got there.  This time, my wife visited the nearby truck stop so that I would have something to eat other than Cadburys eclairs!  It did not take long to get the charge needed to get to Calais and we were off.  Again we returned to the supercharger that we had used on Saturday, but this time we got a lot more charge.  One more charging stop on the M20 and we got home with 9% charge, though this time I was not as stressed as I was in France on Saturday! 

It was great to see the kids again and I soon crashed and had to rest a lot.  But it was a long drive, and one far less stressful than before,

Live is Live

Well that was a day. 

We started the day looking for somewhere to charge the car and failing, only for my wife to find the app (which I thought had not been developed) which allowed us to charge our car at the hotel.  We had tried to find a charger in town and also one in a nearby Aldi.  We found one at the Aldi, but issues with a lack of an RFID card were present.  We got back to the hotel despondent, after getting lost and my wife worked out there was an app and we got some charge in the car.  We hoped that it was enough to get us to a fast charger in Belgium, but I got spooked and we tried to find one in Dunkirk.  That did not end well as almost all of them needed an RFID card or fob.  We did find one with 4% charge remaining in the car.  Until then wife and I thinking that our weekend away was ruined were in a state of depression.  An hour at a free charger allowed to get to Belgium and use a very fast charger, again after some additional drama.  

We finally got to the hotel and what an amazing place.  It is a marked contrast to the historic and welcoming stay we had last night.  That had a small lift and very steep stairs.  This has been designed with equal access in mind and we have seen more guests in wheelchairs than we have in a hotel ever before.

We have just got back from the concert we thought we were going to miss.  Mika was amazing and my wife loved seeing Duran Duran live.  We did leave early but we were able to listen to Girls on Film as we left, but did miss the encore.  But it was cold.  From a heatwave two days ago to this,  mind you, it could have been worse.  There was wind and heavy rain last night, and today when at Dunkirk, I got soaked in the rain.  So while it was cold, it was dry.

I am hoping that tomorrow is not as dramatic. I am crossing my fingers that we can find a charger tomorrow morning..

Logis Hostellerie Saint Louis

We have arrived in France.  My wife and I are away from the children in Bollezeele.  Leia is at the dog sitters, friends are helping with the children and my wife and I are about to have our first meal in France in ages.

We drove down in my Honda E, but left home late.  We had to charge on the M20, but  it was quick and easy.  On the train my car grabbed the attention of many and another electric car driver gave us advice on where to charge and not charge in France.  Apparently Belgium will be better.  I am a bit nervous as we are low on charge now and there is only one quick charger nearby, the one next to the hotel not being able to be used without a card which has to be ordered in advance.  We did try to charge in Calais, but due to issues with my iPhone, this did not work well.  Hopefully we will be able to use it on the way home though.  I do love being in France and it is great to be abroad again.  It has been drizzling at times, and if this is the rain forecast for tomorrow, this will not be too bad.

A trip across the channel

We woke up early today for a trip abroad again.  This time, it was a quick dash across the channel.  Many years ago, when we had returned from one holiday, instead of heading home, we surprised the children with a trip to France.  Then, they were very excited to drive onto a train.  Since then, we have done this on a few more occasions, and I actually think that they are bored with this!  But, we decided to just go for the day, and having booked this at the last moment, we had to travel early in the morning to get on the train.  We made good time and in fact, it was good that we travelled so early as when we arrived at the Eurotunnel terminal, it was quite empty and was filling up when we left.  When in France, we did shop for some wine, but also cheese and yoghurt.  It was an expensive day out, but it did expose the children to French, which my daughter will be learning more about in the upcoming academic year.  What was interesting was the queues to get back into the UK, and I cannot but think that if a hard Brexit occurs, that this will result in longer queues on both sides, and a lot of economic damage to Calais as well.  My daughter is keen to travel by ferry next time, and while it may take longer, this is something I think we should consider as it will be cheaper if we do this again in the future.

Back in Blighty

Well, that was an interesting day.  At the time of posting this entry, I have yet to upload the post from yesterday, and this will make more sense when that is done.

Waking up with a full belly turned out to be important.  After getting ready, we went downstairs to find that breakfast was being served before we had been told it would.  We met up with the others staying at the B&B a family travelling to a similar area to us, between Bordeaux and Bergerac, they had brought the grandparents (I presume to baby sit).  This was over breakfast, which was in essence, a croissant and a brioche as well as a café au lait.  The setting of the B&B was amazing, but when it comes to value for money, and the stress we had, the Ibis would have been a much better place to stay in.  But hindsight is one thing and on paper, this place did look wonderful.

We left Tours today, to return to the garage and have our wheels replaced.  Having had the chance to look at the maps in the morning and last night, I realised that we had not been taken along the most direct route to our B&B.  A slow trip through Tours took us to the garage and I got us there 30 minutes late, but they were great and if you ever are unfortunate to break down around Tours, visit them.

When on the road, the issue of contacting EuroTunnel was raised.  My wife was driving, so when I was sure that I would not be needed for directions, I made the call to them.  Unfortunately, I did not ask the questions the way she wanted them to be asked, but before I was cut off with poor reception, I found out that we could delay our departure, but that there would be an additional fee to pay.  Again, once past some more navigational hazards, I rang again, but this time was placed on hold and once going through a poor reception area, lost contact with them again.  However she pulled over at a service station, which we had been to earlier this holiday when heading south.  But this time, as it was not when we usually went to them (i.e. before lunch) there was an issue with car parking as well as having to wait in line for food and the toilets.  But my wife got the food while I hunted down a parking space and then found them.  While eating lunch she made the various calls that were needed to delay our departure so that we could actually arrive on time and then we set off in good time.

But then we had decided to fill up with petrol in Rouen.  Which on paper sounded great, but my iPhone, which would direct us to the relevant petrol stations was out of action, and the iPhone of my wife was using Google Maps as a SatNav,  While this is great, it is no competition and due to a few more failings on my part, we wasted a lot of time there searching for petrol that we had hoped would be cheaper than on the motorways, but ended up paying more as well as losing time.  And that was a big issue as now we had little margin for error.  Fortunately, traffic was on our side and we made it with time to spare.  We thought that we would be able to visit Duty Free, as my son had saved his holiday money to buy something there, but were ushered straight to the train.  Cue a nap there, and then on the other side, freedom in England!

I am now at my in-laws house, with still no internet access (I am using the iPhone of my wife for this), and hopefully, if all goes well, it will be a trip to see my mother and then home.

Day Eleven in France - Flat

Just in case I have not said this often enough, my wife is amazing and is our hero.



We left La Batellerie today, our hosts being helpful with our departure. My wife and I had a disagreement about which route we should take to Tours and our next destination but she won. She had hurt her foot yesterday so I did not want her to drive so we went through the French countryside. I had wanted to make for the motorway and return by the route that we had come by, but Google said that it would take longer. A problem with this was that the SatNav, on my now malfunctioning iPhone when we came, had the ETA wrong due to the villages that we would have to drive through.  But, the scenic route it was.  



When we were almost at the dual carriageway, we stopped for lunch, just before a diversion due to roadworks blocking our route.  After this excellent lunch, we took a different route than initially planned and ended up driving near to Châteauneuf, my wife not being allowed to stop though (which was good as it was the wrong one)!  Soon we were on the dual carriageway and then later the motorway but after stopping at a service station we developed a flat tyre.  That was fun. My wife, the French speaker, had to walk to the emergency phone while we waited to be picked up. Our breakdown cover did not allow them to collect us from the motorway and while waiting a motorway service vehicle but some bollards around us and the police stopped to see how we were doing. The kids coped well with this but did love seeing our car being pulled up onto the recovery vehicle once it arrived. They were not going to change the tyre on the hard shoulder and instead took us to a local garage.  Who spoke no English! Fortunately, my wife, finally managed to get through to someone in England who could speak French and a lady there allowed us to use the Google Translation service until a local lady came around who spoke English.  Our tyre was changed and a new one ordered for the morning (hopefully).




Then it was a journey through Tours trying to drive below 80Kph (50mph) which meant avoiding as many dual carriageways as possible and driving close to the Ibis where we had stayed on our journey south. We arrived at our destination, a B&B on the other side of Tours to find no one here and no way in!  A lady came around later to let us in and show us around. We were told (in French as she spoke no English) about a local place to eat which was very close by. With no internet access we walked only to find that they were fully booked and did not have the dinner reservation that my wife had been told had been made for us (my fantastic wife found is out as they spoke no English either).  We walked to a hotel that the local signs said had a restaurant to find it was closed and then walked back home, my son despondent that he might not be fed, and my wife, who had been through a lot, started to show the strains.  How we wished that we had stayed at the Ibis in Tours now!  Fortunately, when we got back, one of the families from the restaurant arrived at the B&B, which meant that we knew that a table was now free. We returned and they took pity on us and let us dine there.

And the food was worth the visit, so long as you like crepes. So now we are back and have a journey back to the garage in the morning, but it should be more direct, and if we are lucky, less stressful and if all goes well, our only issue should be not making the EuroTunnel train that we have booked to travel on.

And while the kids showed admirable resilience during what must have been a scary time for them and deserve heaps of praise, my wife deserves most for dealing with this and keeping things together when everything seemed to be going wrong.

Day Ten in France - up and down again

Today is our last night in this area before we journey back north.  We woke and ate at a local patisserie and then travelled, as planned to Saint-Émilion.  We had heard that it is best to visit the town in the morning, but due to one reason or another, we did not arrive until about 1100 in the morning.  The reason for arriving in the morning is that we had been told that in the afternoon, tour buses containing loads of Chinese and Japanese tourists descend upon the town.

Unforutnately, we just missed some tours, but in a way, this was a good thing.  The town is pretty and certainly worth visiting.  I had the chance to take the children on a 90 minute journey around the town on a tour, but I decided that they would not appreciate this, something when they were told, they agreed with.  They were interested in the ideas of entering the catacombs below, but settled for a journey up the bell tower.  And they loved it there.  We spent over an hour as they enjoyed the view, something I fail to understand that others do not try to experience.  In a town where so many experiences appear to cost so much, this was €5 for the three of us (I think that we were charged for four of us to explore, but my wife decided to learn more about the local wines).  By the time my wife was ready to meet up, the kids were starting to get ready to leave the tower.

After this, it was a trip home, with a detour to buy biscuits for our respective workplaces and then lunch.  We had aimed to take the children to the river beach, but an injury to the toe of my daughter prevented that.  Instead we watched a film and then went out for dinner at the amazing restaurant that we had been to before.

Anyway, packing has commenced and I have to get to bed to finish this with my wife tomorrow morning before we journey north to Tours.

Day Nine In France - An Amazing Meal

Today was another easy day.  I woke late to the smell of bacon.  My wife and kids and woken up earlier, but I was so tired, that I had slept through them getting ready and then leaving and returning with breakfast. 

After this, we went into the town and wandered about.  I wanted to explore some of its history and my wife let me (I will post this to YouTube when back in the UK).  I found her in the central square and completed my quest which had started aided by my son, instead, with my daughter. 

After this, we returned for a light lunch and then a trip to taste some of the local wines.  My ability to do this was limited by my driving and also my reluctance to spit out the wine rather than drink it.  My wife, who was being the passenger, was making the use of her superior knowledge of wine to the benefit of us both. 

After a trip home to relax, we went out to eat later and had an amazing meal.  I feel that this was one of the best that we have had in ages, not just in France this holiday, and neither of use expected it.  They were great with our kids and now we are in bed recovering from a busy day.