Back to England

On our way to Calais Dennis tried a cup of espresso coffee from a vending machine in the Motorway service area. All the French were drinking it and he though he had better try it before we left. he was pleasantly surprised by the quality, not at all like English vending machines !

We stopped off at Calais to do a bit of last minute French shopping. It was almost like we were home already, the aisles were full of indecisive elderly English shoppers on day trips, we did not hang around too long.

After a quick trip though the tunnel we were back on English soil, the quality of the road surface was far inferior to that in France, we stopped at the first services on the motorway, we had to go round a roundabout that was overgrown with weeds, we had just spent nearly three weeks where there was a pride in the appearance of many towns and villages, where you saw flowers rather than weeds.

Wendy decided to get some English cash out of an ATM in services and got ripped off with a service charge, welcome back to rip-off Britain !

Ay – The Champagne region

Today we moved up country to Ay, this is a small town in the heart of the champagne region not far from Epernay.

We stayed at Le Logis des Pressureurs of Roger Brun, our room was quite basic but overlooked a magnificent floodlit 15th century church, but luckily the bells didn’t toll during the night.

After dropping our luggage we went into Epernay and took a guided tour of the Castellane caves.

This was a very interesting tour, our guide spoke very good English and we were the only couple in his group.

One of the caves holding thousands of bottles of champagne

We ate in an extremely nice (expensive) restaurant, there was only the choice of two and the other one did not look very appetising.

Over breakfast we spoke to Philippe and his wife Sophie, they visit England often to promote their champagne. Sophie said that she really liked England, and she liked our food except for the meat which was always ‘burnt’

A second night with ‘Ernie’

After a good day out in Dijon we returned to our accommodation looking forward to another splendid meal. Things turned out a little different tonight. Once again we had no menu, the first course arrived, this consisted of salad with escallops. Wendy does not like seafood but done well to eat a few escallops before passing them over to me. We sat in anticipation of our main course, when this arrived it was a large piece of steak with all the trimmings. It looked like we were in for another treat, however disaster struck when we attempted to cut our meat.

Dennis does not mind rare steak, but this was almost raw. We started to try and eat it, but we could not. We attracted Ernie’s attention and requested that the meat was cooked a little more. Luckily Graham had taught us the term ‘bien cuit’ which means well done, Ernie took our plates and disappeared off to the kitchen. A few moments later we heard a loud wailing from the kitchen, it seems that we had offended Ernie’s wife !

A little while later Ernie returned with our plates and we continued to eat, Dennis managed all of his, but it was still very rare and Wendy could not manage all of hers. Not wishing to push Ernie’s wife over the edge we hatched a plan to smuggle the remaining steak out of the dining room in Wendy’s handbag, so she wrapped it up in a serviette and placed in her handbag. We then remembered that Ernie had a dog and was praying that it did not enter the dining room and detect the meat in Wendy’s bag. Ernie’s wife did not reappear from the kitchen until the dessert course where she arrived red faced with a very large tarte tatin, she served up very large portions which we could luckily manage as we had passed on the meat !

A day in Dijon

We arrived in Dijon at about lunchtime, it was not very busy.

Being a Sunday all the main shops were closed, however there was a antique market which consisted of many stalls set up in front of the shops. The weather had taken a turn for the worse and we spent a while sheltering from the rain. We found Dijon to be a pleasant looking town with good architecture.

Before leaving, we bought some Dijon mustard (it just had to be done)

Chevalier du Tastevin

We moved on northwards and decided to stop around the Dijon area, Wendy telephoned to book, the guidebook we were using said basic English spoken, however Wendy ended up talking to a guest who could speak both English and French, we booked in for two nights, we were told that they could not accommodate us for a meal that evening.

Upon arriving, a small man, not dissimilar to Ernie Wise greeted us, he showed us to our room and before leaving us to unpack, he stood in the doorway making knife and fork motions to his mouth, to say his English was basic was stretching it a bit ! Anyway, we joined in the sign language and managed to arranged dinner for 8 o’clock that evening.

We went down for dinner as arranged, there was no menu so it was case of get what you’re given. As it turned out the food was first class, three good sizes courses followed by a cheese board, Ernie’s wife described the various cheeses to us by making the appropriated animal noises and facial expressions, much to the amusement of the other guests which had now arrived. We noticed a silver wine tasting spoon on the wall with a rather splendid certificate, it turns out Ernie was a retired Chevalier du Tastevin, (A Knight of wine tasting) he had his own cellar from which he produced some nice wines to accompany dinner.

The following morning we had a stroll around the village before heading off for a day in Dijon.

‘Le Palais Idéal du Factuer Cheval’ at Hauterives

This was a very unusual place, apparently Ferdinand Cheval was a postman, he tripped on a stone in April 1879, he noticed that the stone was a strange shape, he dropped it into his pocket to admire later. He went back to the place were he picked up the stone and found more beautiful stones and he said to himself “since nature wants to sculpt, I will produce masonry and architecture”

He had a dream to build a beautiful fairy palace, he finished the palace in 1912, twelve years before his death. In 1969 the palace was recognised as an historical monument. More information can be found on the offical website.

Wiffy Woman

We left Les Sabots late afternoon and travelled north to Romans-Sur-Isere (the accommodation arranged by Stephanie). We drove up a long drive, through some trees to be greeted by a very imposing building. We were greeted at the front door by a pleasant woman called Thérèse, she showed us to our room up an old wooden staircase, the room looked quite dark at first, she through open the massive shutters to let some light in. The room was full of antiques !

We were offered some afternoon tea, and when this arrived Dennis was using his laptop and mobile phone to check our e-mail, Thérèse announced that she had wiffy, we soon realised that she was referring to her wi-fi internet connection which she said we could use. Dennis connected up, however the walls were very thick and the connection was a little unreliable.

Thérèse suggested a good place to eat, a restaurant in the local town called La Raviole Gourmande which were specialists in Raviole, although similar to the Italian Ravioli this was smaller and with a wide selection of fillings, we even had a chocolate version for dessert.

At breakfast we learnt from Thérèse that the house had been passed down through the family and the antiques are original heirlooms. She also informed us that they were beekeepers, and her husband travelled around France with hives, especially in the perfume regions for the bees to pollinate the flowers. She was very interested in our satellite navigation system and said she would buy one for her husbands birthday.

After a hearty breakfast Thérèse suggested a place to visit on the way to our next stop. ‘Le Palais Idéal du Factuer Cheval’ at Hauterives.

Saint-Nazaire-en-Royans

After leaving Stephanie we visited the village of Saint-Nazaire-en-Royans where there is a magnificent lake and viaduct.

The views were stunning.

Les Sabots near Valence

After lunch in Avignon we moved on to find our accommodation. We headed for ‘Les Sabots’ and then tried to find the Chambre d’Hôte. After hunting around for a while, we gave up and started to try and ask the locals, this did not bring any results (apart from holding up the queue in a small supermarket). We then decided to ring our hosts to see if they could guide us in... The man of the house answered the telephone and said he would get his husband ! his English was about as good as our French. Anyway, Stephanie said she knew where we were and would drive out to meet us. A few minutes later we had followed Stephanie back to her home.

Her husband Denis had been refurbishing the guests quarters and had made a very good job of it.

View from our room

We went out for an evening meal, only to find the one restaurant in the local village did not open for evening meals. We found a pizza restaurant in the next village. We were the only people in the place (not normally a good sign), however I think we were a little early and it did fill up later.

On our first morning Stephanie served up an excellent breakfast, we then retired to our room to plan our day. Stephanie knocked on our door to say she was taking her children to school and would we have left by the time she returned. We explained that we had booked for 2 nights, however due to the language barrier it turns out we had only booked for one night and would have to move on. Stephanie allowed us to use the room for the day as well as her pool and also found us some alternative accommodation for the night. She explained that when we had rung to book her children’s dog had just died, so that probably explains the booking confusion.

Passing through Avignon

We started our move up country today, we decided not to venture to near to Grahams area as we planned to come back and visit him later in the year. Wendy rang and booked two nights at a place in called ‘Les Sabots’. So with our accommodation booked we decided to stop off on route at Avignon. Avignon turned out to be a pleasant walled city, we parked just outside the city walls and spent a nice couple of hours wandering round. We exited the city walls briefly on the opposite side to take a look at famous bridge.

Den gave me a rather poor rendition of the song ‘On the bridge at Avignon’ which is about all he remembers of French lessons at school.

Molinard

A visit to Grasse would not be complete without a visit to one of the many perfumeries nearby.

We chose to visit the house of Molinard, a short tour around the factory with commentary in French (not a lot of it understood by us!) and off into the shop to make our purchases. Plenty of chance to sample the perfumes and make our selection. The trouble is once you have smelt one or two they all smell the same.

Monaco

We arrived at Monaco quite early in the morning, and eagerly looked for somewhere to park. The signs for car parking led us to a tunnel carved in the rocks which in turn led to an underground car park. On leaving the car we followed the signs to the shops, we emerged in a modern covered shopping centre.

Dennis was quite keen to walk the Grand prix circuit, so we set off on foot in search of some familiar land marks. After walking for a while we discovered we could not get around the harbour easily so jumped on a bus that took us to the other side, from here we managed to walk along some parts of the circuit.

We located ‘Casino’ then down to ‘Mirabeau’ around the ‘Grand Hotel Hairpin’

We eventually came across the famous tunnel we took a few shots of Dennis as souvenirs and then headed for the harbour.

How the other half live. I don’t think a lottery win would have funded some of the boats in the harbour. One in particular had it’s own helipad on the roof and sun deck that lowered over the water, what a nice place to take breakfast!

The cars in the surrounding area were obviously owned by the boat owners, Ferrari’s, Porches etc to name but a few, there was even a Hummer.

Time for a spot of lunch, we headed back to the town and headed for McDonalds, we know how to live it up in France.

Route Napoleon to Grasse

After a very enjoyable breakfast, chatting to Yanns father we bid our farewells and headed south. We had decided to take the picturesque Route Napoleon (N85). This did take rather a long time, but was well worth doing for the stunning views. We were very glad our car has air-conditioning, this trip would have been unbearable without it.

We stopped for lunch in Castellane, the waiter did not speak any English, but we managed to order a couple of toasted sandwiches and diet cokes. We decided to visit the toilets before continuing our journey, Wendy was not impressed, typical French hole in the ground!

We stayed just outside Grasse at a place called Peymenade, we were greeted by a friendly woman, Josette who made us very welcome.


We had a quick freshen up and headed off for an evening meal, could only find one restaurant open, so we were not exactly spoilt for choice. Our meal was regularly punctuated by calls from our youngest son in the UK, he had been left in charge of Wendy’s business and was finding it a bit stressful!

We had a good nights sleep, a very pleasant breakfast in the veranda enjoying Josette’s home made bread and cakes. Then it was off on a day trip to Monaco.

Mer De Glace and Chamonix

We parked the car in Chamonix, a picture postcard ski town that you can almost imagine drenched in a layer of crisp white snow, we took the short walk to the train station where we boarded the Train Du Montenvers, it is one of the last rack and pinion trains in France. The train took the slow chug up the mountain to the Mer de Glace.


If you have not had the opportunity to visit this spectacular site I must strongly recommend it.
After debarking from the train we took a look at the glacier from above, it looked almost unreal, a dirty sort of grey colour. It was hard to believe this had been here for thousands of years.


We then climbed aboard the cable car that took you down to the grotto de glace. A cave cut deep into the glacier with manikins strategically placed around the cave to bring to life the ice carvings inside. The cave was very cold and quite wet in places, but a definite place to visit.

Another night “in the nature”

Time for another luxurious night in the nature…

After a tiring day at the gorge, we were ready for another hearty meal at Yann’s. Dennis is a fan of the formula 1, Yann told us which channel would be showing it, so Den laid on the bed to watch the race, about 20 minutes from the end the TV started showing the news, and after about half an hour we were convinced that they were not returning to the formula 1, how strange! We eagerly approached the dining room in anticipation of tonight’s speciality.

The dining room was unusually busy with a table full of business looking people, we learnt from Yann that they hire out one of his conference rooms companies to use for training courses. And today they were playing hosts to Michelin who were discussing the merits of a new tyre.

On the next table to us was another couple who were English, they had met Yann a few years previously at the ski resort where Yann worked in the winter. We had to wait rather longer for our meal this evening due to the number of people in the restaurant.

Gorges du Fier

After a more than adequate breakfast with the very charming Mrs Cadet we set on our way to Gorges du Fier, we had read with interest in our guide book of the Gorges du Fier a place of natural interest since 1943 and decided we would go today. We are not ones for planning our days as we like the very much go as you please type holiday which has come to catch us out from time to time, we do tend to forget that the French like to close for the afternoons and this includes most tourist attractions.

On this particular day we had not as usual taken too much notice of our timetable and headed off for the gorge. As we were approaching the long walk to the entrance we were met by some French people who were just departing the gorge, they beckoned at their watches and indicated that we should speed up, as the attraction was about to close for 2 hours. Dennis pulled the short straw and was given the task of running ahead to purchase our tickets before it closed.

By the time I reached the entrance I was greeted by a barely breathing Dennis who gestured to a notice board that advertised the new summer opening times, you guessed it…they were not going to be closing for the usual 2 hours until September.

The famous gorge is one of France’s most impressive examples of water erosion. Two gigantic limestone pillars form the gateway before entering the strait, the narrow crevice of the gorge. The gap here is so narrow that when it rains hard the water can rise by 85 feet in just a few hours.

If you are ever in the part of France, the gorge is located at Lovagny approximately 10 Km from Annecy, then it is definitely worth a visit.

As you wander along the walkway suspended in some places as high as 100 feet above the low water level you will see some wonderful sights, not for the faint hearted as I don’t know if you feel the same but the construction of these type of things never seem as solid as the ones in the UK.

If your nerves will let you then continue along until you reach the arch of the first bridge, according to legend this was built at the spot where a Lord of Pontverre threw a page boy to his death.

A visit well worth the run to buy a ticket!

Map to Mrs Cadet from friendly Chambre’s D’Hote owner

We were given some basic instructions on how to reach Mrs Cadet by Yann, we thought we were doing very well until we realised we were horribly lost. We saw a sign for Chambres D’Hotes and thought we could ask directions!! Armed with our trusty French Phrase book we knocked on the door, we were greeted by a rather jolly lady with a head full of curlers.

In our very basic French we asked directions to Mrs Cadet’s bearing in mind we did not have a proper address only a note scribbled on a piece of paper, I realised we were in a very vulnerable situation. The very jolly French lady luckily knew Mrs Cadet, we both grinned and kept repeating her name over and over again to each other in somewhat distant hope we could instantly begin to converse in French and she could converse in English. It is funny what you resort to in a crisis, it might not seem much of a crisis to the average person but I kept thinking back to our previous accommodation with cold water etc. This was a crisis…

The very kind French lady fumbled on her dresser and returned with a map and directions to Mrs Cadet’s. Voila she cried and thrust this map in to our hands, crying Mrs Cadet render, Mrs Cadet render. We understood this as Mrs Cadet will return the map to her. After lots of bowing and repeating merci beaucoup many times we got back in the car and headed for Mrs Cadet’s.

We were not too far away and we arrived shortly after. Mrs cadet’s was a sweet lodge type chalet with a homely feel.



We were shown to our room, with a balcony overlooking the surrounding countryside. The room had an old wood floor which creaked with every footstep! It was decorated in a country style with a large bed with lots of pillows and a clean and fresh en-suite.

After a freshen up and a quick nap on the bed we set off for an evening meal.

Something else I should mention not all the restaurants are open all of the time only some of the restaurants some of the time. Deciding which ones would be open and which ones would be closed is a bit like is the glass half full or half empty, the restaurants that you drive miles to is closed and the restaurant that is just around the corner that you did not try is open but by the time you have driven back to it, it is now closed.

I must add that we never went hungry, we always somehow managed to find some food. Which is lucky as Den always uses the rule of thumb that he never eats on an empty stomach. So we had to keep him topped up. With this thought I will now move to our next days outing with the thought that we went to bed after a hearty meal!

Annecy

Annecy is said to be one of the most photographed towns in France, I think this is because it has very picturesque buildings and narrow alleyways and houses decked with geraniums and petunias. We spent a very leisurely day strolling around sightseeing and of course having lunch. In the afternoon we retraced our steps took the compulsory holiday snaps to show the family on our return. The Palaise d’isle is the most photographed building in the town, which is often referred to as mini Venice, you can see why as you stroll around the canals in the town.

Geneva

Arrived in Geneva after a very pleasant and pretty ride through some very nice countryside. We joined the queue of motorists who were waiting to cross the border, they were being divided into two lanes one lane speeding through the customs barrier the other lane (our lane) were being stopped and issued with a 04 sticker for the princely sum of 40 euros I think we had just bought Swiss road tax for a year. Did he not know we were only visiting for the day. And to add insult to injury our change was given in Swiss francs. Ah! just remembered they are not in the European Union.

Headed into Geneva and parked the car, the expense aside we had a very nice day and a very nice meal. A leisurely stroll around the lake and a quick visit to the offices that Den had visited on a trip to Geneva he had been on whilst working for Cotecna.

With our stomach’s full of perch fresh from lake Geneva we bought some Swiss chocolate to get change for the car park and use up some of those Swiss Francs. Hit the road again and headed for Thorens-Glieres and the our most welcoming host Yann.

Arrival in the Nature!

We phoned Yann while we were on route to give him our expected time of arrival and to request an evening meal. He offered to give directions if needed, but explained we would phone if we got lost (we did) Followed the signs until we were on a road that said Domaine de la Sapiniere was in 200 yards, after a couple of miles realised we had gone wrong. Turned around and followed the signs again, and again and again.

Eventually after plenty of phone calls to Yann (felt I had known him for years) we arrived at his home.



To say it was a contrast to last nights accommodation was a bit of an understatement. It was set deep in the forest (in the nature) and we were greeted on the drive by Yann’s father, they both run the B & B together through the summer and in the winter Yann is a ski instructor at a nearby ski resort.

We were shown to our room by Yann who offered us to make ourselves comfortable and to come down for dinner when we were ready.

The room was a dream, fresh crisp linen on the bed, large soft fluffy towels in the bathroom and lots of pine and beams. Time for much needed shower, but after entering the bathroom the large bath was too inviting and I just had to have a long soak.

Dinner was a dream, Salmon, copious amounts of wine and a huge dessert. We could hardly move.

The next morning breakfast was served in the large dining room with a view to die for, croissants, rolls fresh fruit, cereal and coffee in cups with no handles.

Hard as it was we dragged ourselves from the breakfast table and set off on a day trip to Annecy.

No Electricity, No Carpet, No Water !

As this was going to be a go as we please holiday, we thought we would be laid back and book our accommodation each night on route, phoning ahead on the afternoon of our arrival as we thought that we did not know how long we were going to be driving each day and how tired we were going to be. Nice plan if it works, we had not envisaged:

A. The Chamber d’hote being full.
B. The language barrier.

We had got ourselves a rather good Thomas Cook bed and breakfast guide book before we left home, and we are careful to only phone the places that advertised that the owners spoke a basic amount of English, in some cases basic meant just being able to say hello!

After stopping and phoning on more than one occasion only to be told by the people that could speak English that they were full or a rather long sentence in French by the people that spoke only basic English, so if they had a room I could not understand what they were saying, (should have spent more time with the French DVD)

We decided to stop and call in if we saw a B & B on the road, after driving for far too long we saw a place on the corner of a main junction. Armed with my French phrase book and my fingers crossed I went in nervously to see if they had a room for the night. Den decided to wait in the car as he had had enough of getting in and out of the car, was tired and thought my French was better than his (it is) so I would have more chance of success.

I read parrot fashion from my phrase book “do you have a double room with shower and toilet” and if so how much. In very broken English the friendly looking lady replied yes, when I asked how much she replied 20 Euros I thought this seemed very reasonable and expecting the price to be per person came out triumphantly to break the good news to Den.

We got our cases from the car and went in. The old looking gentleman behind the bar said she was just getting the room ready………unfortunately that gave us time to look around, it was a rather old looking hotel with lots of dark wood and furniture (have you seen the film Psycho?) After what seemed like an age she came down and said the room was ready, don’t know if you have ever been in the situation where you want to run, well this was one of them.

We were shown up the stairs and into our room, a very basic room to say the least. I asked where was the bathroom only to be shown a rather dingy and dark looking bathroom and toilet along the corridor. En Suite had not translated well into French!

We were tired and hungry and thought well we are only staying one night, we asked if we could get a meal in the Hotel and she said we could have something later. It was surprisingly good or we were very hungry, I was only too glad I had learnt to say Bien Cuit (well done) when she said she was going to be cooking beefsteak.

Thought I had better arrange tomorrows accommodation as we were going to be spending a few nights near Geneva and it would give Den a break from driving.

Phoned ahead to a rather nice looking ski lodge at Thorens-Glieres from our trusty B & B book. Phoned and spoke to pleasant young man called Yann who advised me in marvellous English that he could only accommodate us for two nights as he was full on the Saturday with a wedding party and that if we wanted to stay with him that we should know that he was in the nature!!! Luckily I had read the guide book and knew that he was situated in a forest, and he was not expecting us to get our kit off.

I thanked him and said I would try and get fixed up elsewhere. While I was relaying the conversation to Den, my phone rang and it was Yann, he said that he had told his father of our request and he had said that it is usual when they are full to offer the hospitality of another local B and B. I accepted graciously as I did not want a repeat of today driving around.

Time to retire to bed, I don’t know why we were excited. The reality of a room for 20 euros now came to fruition. I went to plug in my mobile phone (what no electric sockets???) started to get undressed, took off my shoes expecting a nice fluffy carpet (what no carpet??) only underlay……. I know, a freshen up in the sink in the corner of the room (What no water??) oh well time for bed. In the morning went to the bathroom thought nice hot shower (what no hot water??)

After a nice refreshing cold wash we packed up, paid the bill and ran to the car. Time to hit the road. This is one we will be talking about for a long time.

Breakfast (Home made goodies)

Breakfast was served in a vast dining hall complete with open fireplace and huge long table. We looked lost just the two of us.

I have never seen such marvellous food. Fresh strawberries from the garden, homemade bread, homemade yoghurt and Jam’s (made by Monsieur Le-Varlet’s Mother)

I can see Rosemary will not be pleased with me on my return. I should explain I have been going to the Rosemary Conley diet and fitness classes at our local school for quite some time, to say I have read the book and got the t-shirt is an understatement!

Oh well you can’t diet on holiday can you? and I have heard the French do take offence if you do not eat their food. (I will touch on this subject again later) Lets just add that I never go anywhere where I am going to be eating a meal without taking a rather large handbag.

After we had had more than our fair share of croissant, bread, jams, yoghurts (I could go on) we decided it was time to hit the road again.

First night at ‘Le Temple’ Passy-Grigny

I cannot believe we have arrived, thought we were never going to get out of Lille!! First impressions were very promising as we pulled down the long drive. The farm is called ‘Le Temple’ as it used to be a church it looked like a typical French farmhouse.

We pulled up outside only to realise that there was no one home, so we got out of the bus (our affectionate name for our Renault Kangoo) and stretched our legs. The weather was gorgeous, we decided to sit on the conveniently placed chairs and table outside the farmhouse. I thought it was a good idea to brush up on some French language while we waited for the owner to arrive, deeply engrossed in our French dictionary we were interrupted by Monsieur Le Varlet welcoming us in his excellent broken English (much better than our broken French)

We were shown to our room on the first floor, a splendid room called the pink bedroom.

Prettily decorated and furnished, I think we are going to be very comfortable here.

Satellite Navigation does not like Lille

Our TomTom Satellite Navigation system has been working well, but it does get a little confused when we travel around the roundabouts in the opposite direction, tells us to take the third exit when it should say the second, it never suffers from this problem in the UK. All was going well until we hit Lille, we seemed to be going past the same roadside workmen more than once.

Our suspicions were confirmed when we passed them again, then the Sat Nav started saying “turnaround when possible” every turning we took it said the same thing, we tried every exit from the roundabout numerous times. Eventually we decided to take one exit and keep travelling in the same direction until the Sat Nav realised where we were, that will teach us not to look at the map and at least have some idea of where we were.

GRPS First Stop

Well we had a pleasant and uneventful trip through the tunnel. Just arrived at our first stop in France, time for a quick coffee and croissant, lets hope they understand our pigeon French!!

Feel better for a petit-déjeuner, time to try out the GPRS and check our e-mails and orders. All went smoothly, looks like we will be able to keep in touch quite easily.

Leaking car window

I always think that a car goes better when it is clean, so I decided to wash our car on Tuesday evening. We have only had the car since early April so was not expecting to see water running down the inside of one of the back windows, especially as these were of the non-opening bonded type, oh well, we would have to sort that out on our return. Time to fit the headlight deflectors and GB plate.

Cat or Train

So we had decided when we were going to leave for our ‘Tour de France’

However Wendy was waiting for a delivery from her supplier in Germany. I should mention that Wendy runs a website called The Gifted Goat selling unusual gifts, including a large range of educational wooden toys.

We decided to delay departure until the parcel arrived from Germany, when it did not arrive by Tuesday 8th June (we were expecting it last week) we decided that we could not wait any longer and should book a channel crossing. We tried to book the Seacat but Hoverspeed required 48 hours notice prior to time of travel. So we tried Euro Tunnel, they were far more accommodating and said they could get us on the 7am train from Folkestone to Calais the next morning, so this is the choice we made.