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!

Domaine La Castage

Days exploring the French countryside

After our canal boat adventures, we had a farm house booked for 10 days. This was very much a time to relax and wind down after our travelling. Mum was with us for the whole time; also our niece Sarah Sugars joined us for three days, from London. 

We can't remember how we chose Domaine la Castagne, a farmhouse just outside of the village Montmaur,  as we looked at so many places! We are certainly glad we did as it is a very comfortable gite (french word for accommodation), with everything we needed, including a great outdoor eating area and pool. It made it very easy to enjoy 10 days of down time. The countryside was filled with fields of sunflowers. Most of these were now dead, but not yet harvested. They are primarily grown for the oil in the seeds, so the sunflowers are grown and left until they are very black before they are harvested. There are still some fields where the sunflowers are yellow and they are stunning to admire.  This photo above shows a field of sunflowers on the left, with our farm house on the right. 

Our gite in the background

As big as Lach's head!

The sunflowers grow in the most barren ground. It is really just dirt! They are so tall - many were taller than Sophie ... and the heads of the sunflowers are bigger than the heads of our children! Lots of sunflower seeds in there!

We have spent our time exploring some of the local villages, which I'll expand on in the next few days. We are loving the "quaintness" of them; the lack of commercialism; the simplicity of the exterior of the houses and constantly wondering why people live where they live!

We (the children) also spent lots .... and lots .... and lots..... of time in the pool! The children have loved it and with the temps hovering around 28-30 degrees, its been a perfect way to spend the day. With some reading, eating and sleeping thrown in, we have all relaxed significantly. The gite has several other guests also, who are often ready to chat and share stories of what they've done and new suggestions.

We (the adults) have drunk lots ..... and lots .... and lots.... of French wine! At about 5 euros a bottle ($AUD 7.50), how could we not? Topped off with local cheese and a fresh baguette for lunch each day, we are really enjoying the gourmet side of France. We aren't quite eating croissants daily, but still regularly! We had a night out, thanks to the owner of our gite for providing some babysitting. We sampled some of the local specialities, which included the roasted camembert, foie gras and the main one, a cassoulet. More on food in another post!

The weather is cool in the morning and evening; just giving us a hint of autumn which is on the way. The trees have a slight tint in them also but haven't started to fall just yet. The days are hot, with a clear blue sky - very much like an Australian sky. Temps are around 28-30 degrees, so just perfect. Mum is very content ... she's completely forgotten about that plane trip home!

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!

Visiting the Henges

Avebury Henge and Stonehenge

Avebury Henge

On our drive from Bristol to Southampton, we visited Avebury Henge and Stonehenge along the way. Avebury Henge is the lesser known henge, only 40 minutes from Stonehenge, free to visit,  allows you to walk amongst the stones as well as touch them. This differs to Stonehenge which costs money, requires advance bookings and keeps you quite a distance from the stones. We missed the tours at Avebury however, so didn't come away with much knowledge about the how and why of these stones. 

The grey sky tells what is coming!

Tony and I have been to Stonehenge before, but I don't recall coming away with much knowledge about it. For this visit, we got the free audio tour (I'm sure it wasn't available ten years ago!). We also knew we wouldn't be able to answer the children's questions, so we needed to hear from the experts!

Love the audio guides!

Our visit to these two locations completely frustrated Lachlan. He is such a 'facts' person and thrives on being able to recall details. There is so much unknown about the henges: how the stones came to be; how they got there and what their significance was to the people of the time. This annoyed Lach - he really wanted answers! Even after the audio, he still was coming up with his own answers and couldn't deal with how much is unknown about this history. A great insight into his character and personality also! It was a very cold and windy day and we just avoided rain at Stonehenge ... we were glad to be leaving as we watched everyone get wet!

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!

Stockholm city

As the previous post said, when planning to visit Stockholm we really just wanted to catch up with people.  We knew we would spend very little time exploring the city. To be honest, the children were ready for a break from exploring and much preferred the days of swimming and playing.

Great colours on the buildings

We did however, spend one afternoon exploring. The main tourist feature in Stockholm is Gamla Stan, which is the old city. The old city dates back to the 13th century and is full of narrow streets, cobbled roads and great architecture. We made lots of comparisons with Quebec City's architecture and there are some common influences.



Cute courtyards and streets ....

Walking back towards the city

We ate some traditional Swedish food ... pittipana, which is fried potato and sausage, served with an egg on top and a side of beetroot; then meatballs with liggonberries (actually available at Ikea!). The traditional food was finished off later in the afternoon with a Swedish version of a hotdog - korv med bröd, but much nicer sausage than what is in our hotdog!

 A little souvenir shopping, as we do love Swedish designs (and we found some Pippi Longstocking merchandise) and we were done!