Sorry everyone for not writing over the last couple of days... We've been very busy and haven't been able to find many WiFi providers.
As you may have guessed, we've left the UK and are now in beautiful France. We decided to leave the UK 5 days early and make the trip over the chanel as the weather in the UK was driving us nuts (shocking I know). The UK was very kind to us during our time there. We met some wonderful people who helped make our experience so much better.
France has been all that we expected so far. Our first night was spent in one of our "France Passion" free camps which was a little different as our hosts were no-where to be seen. We ended up camping in their car park, then scooting off early in the morning to avoid any angry or confused people. The second night was much better, we stopped at a great little caravan park near Duclaire which is not far from Roun in Normandy. We went to the local village and stocked up on local produce which included Pate, Camembert (originally created in Normandy), a Baguette and a couple of bottles of Bordeaux red wine. The bakeries here are beyond belief, the French reputation for their baked goods is absolutely deserved and we've been enjoying the produce daily.
We've been to the Bayeux tapestry which is a 70m depiction of the Normandy Invasion which was created around 1066 and is still in amazing condition, Bayeux Cathedral, HonFluer (BEAUTIFUL TOWN), Juno Beach which is one of the DDay beaches near Caen which the Canadians charged. The Museum/German bunkers are well worth the visit and are quite an emotional experience.
Last night we spent the night at another free camp which was at an orchard/cider producer. We parked Callum within the orhard itself, and enjoyed more of the local beer and wine, it was exactly as we had dreamed this part of the trip would be. We sat back and enjoyed some beers, wine and more cheese and bread. Definately one of the highlights of the trip so far. In the morning we were able to sample some of the farm produce which was a beautiful apéritif. It was a little daring to taste just before driving (and before breakfast) but it was worth it. The old lady showing us the farm spoke no english at all so it was quite funny attempting to have a converstaion with her. After our morning on the farm, we've been to visit Le Mt Saint Michel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Mont-Saint-Michel) which was a great experience and worth the drive. We arrived just in time to make the English speaking tour with a very intelligent Frenchman that was telling other visitors (and even another tour guide) quite plainly to be quiet while he was speaking (very amusing).
Today we're starting to make our way back up to Belgium to hopefully meet some family, then on to Holland.
Quick update on Callums health... Clutch was driving beautifully in the UK, as soon as we touched French soil, the clutch started slipping... Wonderful news obviously, and our excellent mechanic in Bath has told us to "just pop back in, and we'll have a look."..... Real bloody handy that is... We're heading to Germany for a real mechanic to look at it. :)
More pictures to come as soon as we can...
Love A&J xo
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
About Us
- Andrew and Jamie Griffioen
- Andrew and Jamie are a married couple from Brisbane, Australia. We have embarked on an overseas adventure for 6 months leaving in April and returning in October. We plan to cover the UK and a lot of Europe. To see more details, check out our posts below.
Apparantly it took the French a long time to really embrace the internet as they already had an alternative called Minitel. In other news and useless facts the word "queue" is the only word in the English language that is still pronounced the same way when the last four letters are removed (I expect a useless fact in return Andrew, they dont come free).
ReplyDeleteYummmmmmmmy, real french baguettes, best bread in the world.
If it makes you feel any better about the clutch, our oven has died... again... nah... probably didnt help eh?
I printed out some of your photos (buckingham palace and one of Callum) to show Pop today and stick on his wall as Fiona is popping in to see him. I also printed out your blog journal in size 22 point so he can keep up with what you guys have been up to. I reckon he would be pretty stoked to get a postcard from you if you havent already sent one.
Might be cool to send him a video postcard via something like www.qik.com (for iphone) and we could take a laptop in to show him. He gets pretty excited when we take Daisy in to see him which is great to see, he's in a room now with another bloke named Cliff although not sure how well the conversation flows since they are both hard of hearing, Pop did have his ears syringed recently though which seems to have made a big difference, all you Hayes descendants should get together and open a candle factory.
(I think Cliff might think Im a long lost son or something as he requested a lift home the other day and was a bit perplexed when I asked him where he lived and he said "You know where I live." hmmmm).
I hope we get back to France one day... we missed out on seeing so much as our time ran out.
Really enjoying reading about your travels guys, keep it up. I think Fiona and I account for 1075 of your 1083 hits so far. Sad when your blog is probably getting more visits than my business site, maybe we can start selling T-Shirts and I'll go you halvies?
Love your photos guys. Reminds me of the good ol days in Smurfy. Re: the clutch - it feels huge now but it will become a part of the memories and you will one day laugh about how shit it was!!! I promise. x fe
ReplyDeletephotos are great, they take us back to when we were there, it is really fun looking at them and knowing we have been there. I sent you an email about news on Italian stay at Rod and Goldies. Let us know if we can ring you.
ReplyDeleteLove, Mum
I Also am enjoying the next chapter of your trip. I will never get there, so it is very special for me to see it all through your photos. Give my regards to the rellies
ReplyDeleteLove Ina xx