Relaxing at L'Orangerie

 Hanging out at Chateau Parkeau

After wine tasting and cooking French food, we needed lots of time to relax! We've enjoyed time by the pool; sitting and drinking coffees and wines; and getting to know new friends.

While we've been at L'Orangerie, we've met Jacqui; Brett; Fred; and Susie and Malcolm. The fun thing about meeting these people is that everyone has a different connection to Bec, but we've not known each other. We've spent lots of time sitting around together and sharing the wine each night has been a highlight!

Jacqui

Lach & Brett

Fred

Susie & Malcolm

We've explored more local markets and bought all sorts of interesting goods - strange looking mushrooms (which became a yummy mushroom linguine), pumpkins, fresh bread, fresh pasta, roasted chicken, proscuitto, veggies, and jewellery! We've marvelled at many other things also but haven't had the need to buy them- the spices in particular. 

 We are enjoying coffee (and often with a croissant also) in the town squares; then coming home and eating lots of cheese and drinking wine!

The view from our terrace, where we've eaten most meals. 

Meals have been a highlight - both the food and the setting! With lots of people here, and not a busy agenda, cooking yummy food has easily happened.

Lunch in the village of St Emilion

We've explored a few local villages, but often just on market day. St Emilion was an exception: it is well known as a wine area around Bordeaux. As a day out we went, but wine tasting with children doesn't go so well. We enjoyed a yummy lunch in the village square, then had a tour around some of the wineries - the area truly is beautiful, but we didn't taste the wines there on this occasion.

Fresh crepes at the markets

a view of L'Orangerie

Looking into Chateau Duras

Duras Castle is the local tourist attraction and it is located directly behind us. The castle dates back to the 11th century and has been held by both the French and English at various times.  L'Orangerie was once part of the castle and where oranges where held, to keep them fresh. The photo above is taken from the castle, looking down onto L'Orangerie. The large green tarp is on our roof as a result of some flooding that happened at 4am one morning! We were at the castle one day when scenes from history were being re-enacted. There was lots of fighting involved, but as the commentary was in French, we didn't understand much more!


Our time at L'Orangerie is almost over. We head to Paris tomorrow, for 4 days, before heading home. We arrive home next Wednesday, 1 October, which will be one week short of 9 months away. We are looking forward to it!

Wine and cooking

The essentials of French life

To get into the true sense of french life, we decided to had to learn more about the essentials of France: wine and food!


We found a wine tour where we could spend several hours at the winery, chat with the wine growers, learn the process, help out with jobs on the vineyard, taste the wine and enjoy lunch! We loved the sound of this, plus the children were welcome, so off we went!

The winery, La Tour de Chollet, was a small, family owned organic winery. Kirsty and Paul moved from England about 10 years ago, deciding on a "French-change" - having not grown grapes or made wine previously, they went about learning then decided to settle and have their family in France. We had a walk around the vines and learnt the process of growing grapes, seeing merlot, sauvignon blanc and semillon grapes.





The grapes are only a week or so off being harvested, so the vines were heavy. One of our jobs during the day was to walk along the vines and clear leaves away from the bunches of grapes, to allow maximum sun onto the grapes. We also had to snip off any small, underdeveloped grapes.





Our other job was to empty oak barrels of the 2012 red wine, then clean out the barrels. We all got to have a go and it was fun. We tasted their wines and made several purchases! Kirsty and Paul then prepared lunch for us, which was a great spread of baguettes, salads and cheeses ... plus a great choice of wines!

Team photo for the day!

Inspecting the vines and pruning some leaves

Then there was the French food! 

the girls starting the chocolate
lollipops

Learning the tricks with choux pastry

We arranged to have a chef come to our house, who helped us prepare some canapés for our dinner. Our savoury dishes included foie gras lollipops with a fig dressing; toffee tomatoes with pesto tarts; parmesan bread with duck; and fish mousse on toasted baguette. For sweet canapés, we had double chocolate lollipops with roasted pear; lemon and basil tarts; and choux pastry with hazelnut filling. All yum, yum yum!!

Filling the choux pastry

Stirring lemon curd

The cooking and preparation took about 4 hours, but it was fun afternoon, chatting and learning new skills. We all got to have a go at preparing the dishes and learnt many new tricks along the way. 

Jac de-boning the fish

Whether or not we can recreate them when we get home is another issue!

Foie gras on the end of those sticks!

Sprung!

toffee tomatoes with pesto pinwheels
on top!

the result of the choux pastry -
profiteroles!

 





















 After our afternoon of preparation, we decided that such fancy food needed a fancy occasion: so a dress standard for dinner was introduced. Lipstick and high heels was the dress code!

The savoury results of our cooking class


We all did the best we could, with our limited travelling wardrobes, but all scrubbed up well. We started the evening with champagne, proceeded to eat our specialities, then ended up dancing to Olivia's playlist! Sophie's quote the next day was: "we didn't even sit at the table to have our dinner!" It was great fun and will be a highlight for all of us.

Bec and I

and the dancing starts!

The Wilsons dressed up for the evening ... one of the few times I've worn lipstick and heels!

Southampton, Hampshire

Trying to learn about the First Fleet

When we decided to come to Portsmouth, Olivia was very keen. She knew about this area from her studies about the First Fleet when in Yr 4. She was keen to follow up on her learning at school. Unfortunately, there is very little about the departure of the First  Fleet from Portsmouth. Being a government activity, all the information pertaining to the ships is located in the National Archives in London. We did however, find a memorial to the First Fleet in the the harbour area.

The Spinnaker Tower

The Spinnaker Tower is the main landmark around Southampton. Lach and Sophie were able to walk and lie on the glass platform and admire the water 100 metres below!

Comfortably looking at the water 100m below!

Southampton is the city where the Titanic departed from in 1912. The sinking of this ship had a major impact on the city because as many as 75% as many of the crew were from Southampton. The museum as excellent and the children were able to do many fun activities. 

We caught up with some family friends, who live near Southampton. Felicity and Tim Leather, along with Amy and Kiera, welcomed us into their house for a yummy home cooked lasagne and great family dinner around the kitchen table. Fliss (Gorman) was a family friend of the Friedliebs while we were growing up and it was lovely to catch up on their exciting family news and see the next generation coming through. Amy and Kiera could be renamed "mini-Fliss"! In looks and personalities! Such a lovely evening.

We are all getting tired. The children have been asking for a day "at home", which means without doing touristy things. We have been reluctant as we can see how many things there are to do around the cities and towns we've visited. Herein lies the challenges of travelling with children! I think the children are ready for routine once again; for familiar things and for friends and family.

In Southampton, we have a beautiful apartment, and with dull weather today, we decided to have a day off (after doing parkrun, that is). Tony was unable to complete parkrun this morning due to an on-going injury, so he was happy to have the rest of the day at home to ice and rest his foot. One of the main activities that the children wanted to do "at home" was making more looms - the trend that we feel we've followed around the world! Its popular everywhere!

We have found Southampton to be underwhelming ... its very much a port city and in dull, grey, nothing weather (not rainy, not sunny, not warm, not cold, about 18 degrees ... = dull). We have enjoyed time off tourism, some healthy food once again thanks to a great kitchen and some free time. Happy kids = happy parents!

We meet up with my Mum tomorrow (Sunday) night at Gatwick airport, then head to France together for 2 weeks - we are excited about that!

London

We're off to visit the Queen ....

Lizzy didn't invite us in!

Just resting in Trafalgar Square

We flew from Göteborg to London, where we had an airbnb apartment for 6 days. Accommodation in London was so hard to find - small, expensive and some questionable areas. The apartment is fine and we actually have great space, but the surrounding areas are not very pretty. But, fine for a few days.

You'd think after 9 days of relaxing and spending time with friends in Sweden, we'd be feeling refreshed.... but we weren't so much! We took London very gently and just explored a few areas at a time.

The children with familiar with some of the highlights of the city, which made it exciting as we stepped out of Charing Cross Station and instantly met Lord Nelson overseeing the city. They loved seeing Big Ben, London Eye and watching the activities on the Thames.

Sophie did her usual trick of sleeping in an
odd place - a restaurant at lunch time!

Thanks to Sarah (Tony's niece), we've been finding out the colloquial names of some of the more unusual buildings in London town. The photo to the left shows the "cheese grater", the "gherkin", and in the foreground on the right, part of the "walkie-talkie". The kids are highly amused about all these!

As the next post will explain, we have also spent quite a bit of time visiting people. These have been other highlights in themselves and get a post of their own!