UK and France Sep/Oct 2024

Wednesday, 11 September 2024

Well we arrived at Heathrow tired and expecting to pick up our Avis hire car at the airport, but no, we had to get a shuttle bus to their place and pick it up there before driving off into the London rush hour on out way to Chesterfield.

It wasn't too bad actually and we cruised off fairly easily.

We arrived in Chesterfield and checked into the Olde House where we'll be staying before calling round to see my brother Fintan.

Thursday, 12 September 2024

I dropped off Karen at Marks & Spencer to do a bit of shopping before we just spent the rest of the day with Fintan (who had forgotten we were in town) and took a drive out to the Peacock.

Friday, 13 September 2024

We did a little more shopping and called in to see the caregiver who has done the most for Fintan, dropping off a couple of thank you gifts. She has been wonderful.

We picked up Fintan again and had another beer or two in Bakewell before saying goodbye. Not that he'll remember that we were there.

Dinner was fish and chips of course :) 

Saturday, 14 September 2024

Today we drove to Crewe to catch up with Glynis, our sister-in-law. She is hosting us for a few days and it was great to see her and Martin again.

The drive over, was beautiful aside from the queues of cars everywhere. Busy!

Sunday, 15 September 2024

We drove over to Congleton to catch up with our nephew Mark and his family. Helen, Darcy and Isla.

What a beautiful family and they made us feel welcome and part of the family.

Monday, 16 September 2024

Today we caught up with Dave and Sue Carthy - old friends from 50 years ago. Lunch was excellent and the years fell away as we chatted in their new home in Nantwich.

Tuesday, 17 September 2024

We left Crewe early as we were driving to Deal in Kent to catch up with another old friend Gill.

She has booked us into the Royal Marines Club in a flat upstairs. Quite a nice place although the stairs up there were something of a trial! 

Gill cooked a splendid meal for us and really took care of us.

Another old friend, Marie-Pierre Berger, drove down to see us and stayed for dinner before driving the nearly three hours home again. It was really humbling that she did that sort of trip just to see us! 

Karen felt quite relaxed of course while I was outnumbered three to one! 

Wednesday, 18 September 2024

Today was a day for sightseeing around Deal. This is an old town with lots of medieval links.

Deal castle is one of many castles built along the Kent coastline facing France. Most of them were built by Henry VIII and most are in a reasonable state of repair.

Deal is a port of some significance in the past (Julius Caesar landed her for example) and they built a Time Ball Tower. The ball would be hoisted up to the top of the pole at about 11:45am and then would be dropped at exactly noon. This allowed all ships in the harbour to synchronise their clocks.

As I said, Deal has medieval echoes and these include many, many streets that are narrow.

Any walk around the town wouldn't be complete without a beer in a pub (or two) and we called into the local craft beer micropub, The Last Reproach.

Beers were purchased and enjoyed. 

Thursday, 19 September 2024

Time to leave Deal arrived all too quickly and we said farewell to Gill as we drove off to Waterlooville (near Portsmouth) trying hard to stick to more country roads.

Along the way we stopped off at a couple of places for a look around.

The first was along the White Cliffs of Dover which, as you can see, are not as white as those that are falling straight into the Channel. Still, these were impressive enough.

A little further on we called into Rye. Another old medieval town (and one of the Cinque Ports) that retains much of its charm.

This is one of the original gates into the town.

The plaque explaining something about it.

We took a walk around the place and had some lunch in a cafe. It's a very pretty town. but the traffic is awful.

One of the pubs.

An example of the traffic everywhere. 

Friday, 20 September 2024

We arrived at the Dalley's place last night and today we were taken out for a tour of the area with a particular focus on Bosham, a coastal village that the Dalleys would love to move to.

The people were small when this house was built - it wouldn't suit us!

There is a strong French connection here. This is the pub where we had lunch and very tasty it was too.

There are some cute thatched cottages everywhere.

This is part of the Bayeux tapestry on show inside the local church.

High tide almost drowns the village though. Global warming is going to kill this place. 

Saturday, 21 September 2024

The Dalleys were tied up with something today so we took a drive out to Stansted Forest for a pleasant walk in the woodland before heading back into Rowlands Castle for lunch.

A tidy little village, we had a coffee in the cafe before we headed off for the walk and then lunch in a pub when we got back.

Lovely!

Yep - Fullers beer is as good as I recall.

Returning to Waterlooville we found that Sarah Dalley and her boyfriend had arrived and we all ended up sitting around the firepit chatting and sipping cold beer until dinner was ready.

Sunday, 22 September 2024

Today we were happy to be the guests of honour at a gathering of old friends. Not only Bob and Jayne (and their daughter and son plus partners), but also Mike and Shirley Smith, Paul and Judith Stilwell and Little Graham all arrived to say hello and eat lunch with us.

Somehow this was the only picture I took!

Monday, 23 September 2024

We said goodbye to everyone and headed off to Brixham to see Carolyn at whose flat we'll be staying for about ten days.

We took a walk around the town in the late afternoon and a pretty little place it is too although the narrow and steep streets makes driving difficult and parking nearly impossible.

Tuesday, 24 September 2024

Today was the day when we caught up with Karen's old schoolfriend Avis Potts and her husband. We were to meet them in the Buckfast Inn in Buckfastleigh, but first we wanted to take a look at Buckfast Abbey.

It had been destroyed by Henry VIII but was rebuilt over the last couple of centuries and is now pretty impressive.

This little balcony is where any monks who were sick and in the hospital (part of the Abbey) would come out to see mass said.

That small window between the red candle glasses is where you can see the hair shirt that Thomas More wore until the morning of his execution. He took it off and asked for it to begiven to his daughter and it was preserved from then.

In the grounds of this magnificent Catholic cathedral is an old Methodist chapel.

The contrast between the two is startling.

We moved on and met with Avis and hubby in the pub where we enjoyed a lovely lunch.

The selection of beers was particularly good.

Wednesday, 25 September 2024

More sightseeing today with a drive out to the Doyly Carte country estate.

After walking the grounds and exploring the house (magnificent place all round) we returned to Brixham and called into the Yacht Club which has a gorgeous view out over the harbour. 

Thursday, 26 September 2024

Carolyn left today to fly to Tahiti to sail a yacht from there to NZ. She'll be gone three months so we have the run of the flat for the rest of our stay.

It was a dark and murky sort of day so we decided to park the car and walk around Brixham and see what it is like at a slower pace around.

As you can see, the day was dull and blustery and cold, but we enjoyed it as it didn't rain and we loved exploring the place.

Inevitably we ended up in a pub. 

Friday, 27 September 2024

We were so close to Dartmoor that we thought we'd take a drive up there and do some walking.

However, when we got there is was cold and windy and rain was forecast so we just drove around.

The moor itself is, well, a moor that is pretty unwelcoming, just like any other moor in poor weather.

A view from the top.

A tor.

As we drove around we found the prison (now empty of prisoners due to some health issues) and we took a walk around the museum which was interesting but not exciting,

We thought we'd try a walk in a more sheltered part of Dartmoor and it started near this reservoir 

The walk was to start in the village of Meavy and take us past a nice pub as we walked beside a creek. 

However- - the village had its own nice old pub so we said forget the walk let's just have lunch here.

The Royal Oak pub in Meavy. A nice touch are the horses waiting outside. 

Just outside is an old oak tree that has been there over 1,000 years.

This old stone cross is a few hundred years old itself11

The beer - what else would you have on Dartmoor?

The aspiring convict! 

Saturday, 28 September 2024

Today was brighter and warmer so we went for a walk along the coast path (the Salt Path of the book) and checked out the scenery.

A medieval drinking fountain! (Joke) 

We went home for a rest and then took a walk to a local pub (not a tourist trap one) and had a drink and dinner with the locals.

Sunday, 29 September 2024

Today we took a drive to the north bank of the River Dart and took a foot ferry across the river to Dartmouth.

It's a lovely old town but our time was short here - we'll return tomorrow.

This is the foot ferry.

Dartmouth Castle

We called into Berry Heads (another old castle site) and walked into a blustery late arvo.

We found a cafe (really surprising as there is nothing else there to see) and stopped in for a coffee and a cake.

Tuesday, 1 October 2024

Dartmouth looked so interesting that we took a drive there again to see a bit more of the place.

Our first thing was to take a bit of a cruise up the river. That took us past the famous Dartmouth Naval College and also one of Agatha Christie's houses.

Then, after a walk around the town, we drove out to the mouth of the river to take a look around Dartmouth Castle - built to protect the town from French raiders.

Some big ship killing guns here! 

Right next to the castle is an old church, originally built in the 900s and added to since then, that was well worth visiting.

That's an old pulpit.

Wednesday, 2 October 2024

Our last day in Devon so we decided to stick our noses into Cornwall and we drove off to the delightful old fishing village of Polperro.

Parking is always a trial but they have an expensive car park outside the village and you walk in. 

They seem to have a disproportionate number of pubs, but I suppose fishermen and tourists all get thirsty.

Thursday, 3 October 2024

It was a long enough drive to get back to Heathrow to return the car and to then take the tube to Holborn - the nearest tube stop to the hotel we had booked.

That was The Lincoln Suites on Kingsway.

Once we had settled in we took a walk around to see where we had both worked (Kingsway (Karen), 214 High Holborn (me) and Bloomsbury Parrs (both of us and the place we first met) before grabbing a drink at the Princess Louise.

It's amazing how changed the whole place is now.

Friday, 4 October 2024

Time to play the tourist. After all, it's nearly forty years since we were in London.

So we booked a ride on the hop on/hop off bus and did the tourist tour of the city. This was actually well worth doing although we were not hugely impressed with things like The Shard and The Gherkin etc.

When we got to the Tower of London we got off and spent the afternoon there.

Now this was really interesting! 

We returned to the hotel for a rest and to get ready to go out to the Prince of Wales theatre to see The Book of Mormon. Thoroughly enjoyable show and just a short walk away from our hotel. 

Saturday, 5 October 2024

More tourist stuff today and we walked to Covent Gorden. This place has changed from the market it used to be to a high class shopping mall. Pretty, but not really our thing.

From there we took the tube to Knightsbridge to have a walk around Harrods.

The food halls were gorgeous, but take a look at the price of that Kobe fillet!

To save you the trouble I'll tell you - it's GBP775 per kilo. That's just bloody ridiculous! 

We bought a couple of minor items before heading off into Hyde Park for a walk to the Serpentine and a light lunch there.

All very pleasant indeed.

We then walked on to Oxford Street and eventually caught a tube from Oxford Circus back to the hotel.

Sunday, 6 October 2024

Time to leave London and fly to France,

This was something new for us as neither of us had ever flown from Stansted airport before and taking the train from Liverpool Street was new too.

Interesting trip.

We picked up our hire car at Limoges airport (a nice Fiat Tipo Hybrid) and met our old friend Peter Burden who lead us back to Pam's home in Chalus.

Pam cooked us a delightful dinner with a duck gizzard salad (very tasty - love the slow cooked gizzards) followed by a slow cooked confit duck. Just delightful.

Monday, 7 October 2024

We had planned to visit the Loire Valley and check out the chateaux along there, but the weather seemed to be looking horrible (the remains of an Atlantic hurricane blowing wet and stormy weather across France) so we decided that all four of us would head south towards Perpignan to get away from it all.

We booked an Airbnb in St Jean Pla de Corts that seemed suitable and we drove down in two cars

Once we arrived (after getting split up at one point and Pam and I having a scenic detour around Toulouse) we arrived and checked into a nice little house on the outskirts of town.

To get some of the travel kinks out of our legs we went for a walk around the area and found a lake that, in summer, has lots of activities for people to engage in. It was closed for business, but we appreciated the peace and quiet anyway. 

Tuesday, 8 October 2024

What to do today? Well, why not take a short day trip into Spain?

So we did. Peter drove as our hire car was not supposed to go out of France and he knew the way anyway. 

So about 35 minutes drive saw us arriving at Roses, a lovely town on the Costa Brava. 

We parked up and took a short walk across the road to get a coffee.

The coffee was great and we checked the menu and saw that they served paella so the coffee turned into lunch with paella and a delicious local wine and a lot of laughs. 

Karen was laughing with Peter but then we had to change seats to get out of the sun and Karen ended up giggling with Pam.

The paella wasn't quite as good as we hoped, but it was still very welcome.

Having driven there along the motorway we decided to return via the coast road and check out the scenery.

A great decision! 

Wednesday, 9 October 2024

More tourist stuff, this time looking through the beautiful town of Perpignan.

Yes! A French cheese shop, and glorious it was too.

Karen was attracted by the butcher :) 

Like every French town or any size Perpignan has a cathedral and it is simply gorgeous.

Check out the multiple, richly decorated, altars.

The town's wealth was created through the existence of a cigarette paper factory and the factory owner has a stunning home - now open to the public.

There's never any room for a normal garden in French towns so they created one on the rooftop.

Walking around the town was a great way to spend some time.

And or course, they had an old castle! 

The view from the top was awesome.

There's a canal that flows through town. Originally part of the defences, it is now just a pretty waterway,

We walked along this canal and found a spot to have some lunch.

And when we got "home" we enjoyed some of the cheese we had bought,

Thursday, 10 October 2024

Pete and Pam headed off home today so we decided to take a drive into the port town of Collioure, just a 30 minute drive away.

What a gorgeous little spot it is! An old medieval town with the typical narrow streets etc, but it's all kept in fantastic repair.

The pictures tell the story. 

The fortifications facing out to sea are impressive.

The river that flows through town is open to the sea and would have been a primary mechanism for getting things into town.

There's a large open area next to the port wall that would have seen loading/unloading done in the past. These days it's an area where markets are held and where the restaurants spill out into the open.

Bloody beautiful! 

We sat down to enjoy a coffee and check out the view.

A crucifix is a normal thing in this old Catholic area of France, but it's not usual to have it facing out to sea. 

The whole "old town" looks like this - well preserved and just gorgeous. 

We stopped for lunch (plat du jour) at the restaurant below and had a superb meal with a great local wine.

We are LOVING this side of France. 

It was a lovely and relaxing day in a lovely town. We won't forget it in a hurry! 

Friday, 11 October 2024

It was time for us to move on again and our planned stop was at the walled city of Carcassonne. The old city is still completely surrounded by a couple of high walls (one inside the other) and at first sight it looks like something from a Disney movie.

This bust is of the wife or an early lord and she welcomes you to the town.

The town still has a working drawbridge! It feels like a theme park but it's a real thing! 

The gap between the inner and outer walls.

Medieval streets again!  Narrow and with the drain running down the middle.

Coffee time in the central square.

Another crucifix, but this one made of iron.

The cathedral - there's always a cathedral! 

A magnificent organ inside the cathedral.

Check out the concentric circles that seem to radiate out from the rear entrance into the city.

The gap between the inner and outer walls would have been used as a moat - the bridge gives it some scale.

'Nuff said

We nipped into a city restaurant and enjoyed a local delicacy - cassoulet! 

It's basically a sausage and haricot bean casserole with a leg of confit duck and it was lovely. Again, with a local wine for Karen although I had a local beer.

Our hotel was just outside the city walls and we had a great view of the walls as the day faded and the lights were turned on.

Just magical. 

We noticed a tourist advert for an Australian zoo so on our way out we called in to see it.

It was too early to go in (not that we were bothered) but I took a photo of the entrance board. There was a woman standing there waiting for the door to be unlocked so I said (in my best schoolboy French) "Excuse me, I'll just take a photograph of this - I'm Australian and it's nice to see". She replied, "I'm Australian too!"

It turned out that she was an Aussie vet who was going to do some checkups etc on the animals.

Saturday, 12 October 2024

We headed out onto the motorway (great roads and fast to drive, but expensive on tolls) and drove on to our next stop at Sarlat la Caneda.

Another medieval town! 

I never expected to see a Burtons Tailors here! 

We stopped for a coffee at a streetside cafe on the Rue de le Republique (there's one in every town) and to enjoy the place. 

This is one side of the main square in town. We were tired so we put off a better look around for a day or two - we plan to be here for a few days,

Sunday, 13 October 2024

Today was drive around this part of the Dordogne Valley to check out the area, and what a beautiful area it is!

Our first stop was at the Chateau de Puymartin which we had almost to ourselves. Set in glorious grounds it was beautiful.

First of all we took a walk around the building.

Then a walk around the inside. 

Monday, 14 October 2024

This fine day we chose to visit Domme - this had been recommended by Richard and Cheryl Wistow and they were absolutely right,

The town is an old medieval town (yes, another one!) and is set up on top of a hill overlooking the Dordogne River. 

It still has the old entrances to the town and the walls surrounding it although the walls have been, in part, recycled into buildings over the years.

Guess what? They have a beautiful old church too!

The French have a way of dealing with drink drivers and others who lose their license - the sans permit (literally the "without a license") which is a two seater vehicle with a top speed of 45kph. 

Lovely idea.

This is the back gate.

We ate a delicious lunch in this restaurant in the main square.

We shared the dessert :) 

Tuesday, 15 October 2024

No driving today - we thought we should explore Sarlat itself and, of course, the cathedral.

It was a lazy start to the day and we stopped off for lunch and a beer and Aperol spritz as we explored. 

They even have a chapel dedicated to that cross-dressing, homicidal maniac that heard voices in her head, Joan of arc.

I love French food!

Wednesday, 16 October 2024

We left Sarlat and drove to Chalus to see Pam again. She took us for a wander around the town of Chalus and we learned something of its history.

There are two old medieval strongholds in the town, one in town and one on the hill outside of it.

The one above is in town and from there you can see the older one up on the hill.

We took a walk through the town to the older fortification which also has the old Chateau attached to it.

The tower is really all that is left of the stronghold, but it remains in reasonable condition.

This tower was one that Richard the Lionheart (Richard Coeur de Lion to the French) attacked as he tried to regain control of his French dominions after being released from ransomed captivity.

While besieging the stronghold he was shot by a French crossbowman and after a few days, died.

I climbed up the inside of the tower and quite a narrow and worn set of steps it was. 

The view from the top was great though.

We returned to Pam's and had a very pleasant afternoon and evening. Pam had cooked up a lovely meal (she's an excellent cook) and Pete joined us with his brother-in-law who had been over to play a game of golf.

Pete's BIL is a Liverpudlian and I rather pissed him off with some jokes. Ah well, I didn't mean to do it! 

Thursday, 17 October 2024

The next day we drove to Limoges airport to return the car to the hire company and Pete met us there.

He was going to drive us to his place but we took a detour to a very sobering spot - the  Oradour Martyrs village.

This village was the subject of a series of war crimes performed by the SS in 1944, just after the D-Day invasion on 6th June.

They rounded everyone up, shot the men is small groups and put all the women and children inside the church before setting it alight and burning them all to death. 

The village has basically been left untouched since then and retains a real feeling of horror.

You don't hear birds singing.

The entrance to the village has a lot of information to absorb and as you walk out of the entrance you have the names of everyone who was killed, and pictures for most of them, on the walls as you pass by. A solemn voice reads out each name, their age and family as you pass by.

The cemetery has many further tributes on most of the family burial plots,

We took a drive around St Julian (the town where Pete lives) and had a much needed drink in his favourite bar.

Friday, 18 October 2024

Pete dropped us off at the railway station in Limoges where we were to take the rail to Paris. 

I have to say that the French do the railway stations really well - check this one out.

They also love a bare breasted woman! 

We had booked into the Hotel du Lys, 23 Rue Serpente, for three nights and took a taxi there after a wearing train journey.

The hotel is a 17th century building and wasn't designed for lifts, so when the installed one it was a very small thing indeed - just about the size of a double coffin we couldn't fit ourselves and the cases inside so we went up one at a time.

The distance from the back to the front is less than the length of my forearm and fist!

Dinner was at a small bistro near the hotel and was rather disappointing.

Saturday, 19 October 2024

Our first day in Paris so we went for a walk, crossing the river just next to Notre Dame which was, at the time, still being renovated.

Some buildings were still clad in Olympic Games finery.

We decided that the easiest way to see the major tourist sights (and still remain dry - it was raining virtually all the time) was to take a bus tour, so on we hopped.

The pics below don't have many labels, but the overall impression is that Paris is just stuffed with beautiful and very impressive buildings.

Yep - the Arc de Triomphe

I had thought that Marble Arch in London was impressive, but this dwarfs it.

We thought about going up the Eiffel Tower, but the queues put us off.

It's still impressive though. 

The Tuillerie Palace - this is where the Louvre is built.

Yep - The Louvre

The Tuillerie Gardens are magnificent.

Karen decided to go the full French experience and bought a beret.

We finished up with a beer and I bought something that I regretted - Sour plum beer.

Sunday, 20 October 2024

Another tourist day, but this time we wanted to focus on Sacre Coeur and the Montmartre area.

 We took the Metro from near the hotel to the station of Chateau Rouge. This turned out to be the wrong choice as we had to walk through an area that was pretty poor and then climb steps and steep streets all the way to the top. This was a pretty long walk, but we had time. It was just frustrating to find that there were funicular railways on the other side. 

Good exercise though. 

I can only imagine that there was a 2CV club doing their thing here, but the different colours were striking. 

The impressive cathedral of Sacre Coeur

This view is from the steps of the cathedral - magnificent 

The habit of locking a padlock onto some railings has gone wild in Paris. 

I'd love the name to mean "The little butty kiosk" but it actually means "The little kiosk on the hill".

Everything was impressive in this church, but a statue made of solid (not hollow) silver just blew my mind.

And then onto the hill top suburb of Montmartre where every tenth person seemed to be an artist wanting to draw your portrait.

It seems that there are Irish pubs everywhere. 

We had lunch in this little bistro (the pizza place was next door) and it was lovely.

Montmartre markets. 

We took the funicular down towards the bottom of the hill, but there were still some steep stairs to descend. 

Dinner was in a bistro overlooking the Seine and more beer exploration was performed. This time with happy results. 

Monday, 21 October 2024

We spent most of today just lounging around the area and napping in the hotel room before we took the Metro to the airport.

Charles De Gaulle is a nice enough airport, but it's never a great way to spend time.

Still, we boarded on time and set off for Singapore and then home.

Tuesday, 22 October 2024

Singapore Airport for three hours

Wednesday, 23 October 2024

Home!