To Bordeaux and Beyond – 23 August 2011

Even though the storm predicted by the camp receptionist was pretty much a non-event, the strong winds and grey threatening skies were enough to get us up promptly in the morning. This was probably a good thing, as the rest of the day fitted together nicely, with enough time for everything.

First up, we stopped by the remote walled medieval village of Brouage, once a thriving port, but as the sea receded and left it miles inland, it's prosperity declined. The village is built on heaps of ship's ballast thrown overboard over many years. This provided good foundations to build this maritime city.

The walls are still intact, and make a marvellous circular walk. Its regular grid of streets and neat and tidy original houses are still lived in and the whole place has a very monochromatic cream stone look.

From here we travelled south to Bordeaux. The old city is now a UNESCO site, and definitely worth a visit, with an 18^th century heart, built along the river bank. But modern enhancements have improved it, in particular, the Place de la Bourse has a shallow flooded area, fed by small fountains in a cycle of off and on. This provides endless fun for children (and older), and great photo opportunities!

Bordeaux also provided us with the best ever ice-cream experience. A shop advertising it's wares with a picture of an ice-cream flower, attracted our business, on a very hot afternoon. The deal turned out to be that you paid for the size of cone you wanted and then could choose any number of ice-cream/gelato flavours, which after they were selected, were fashioned into a flower. Delicious and an art-work!

We dragged ourselves away from Bordeaux, before rush-hour traffic, and travelled west to Saint-Emilion. This wonderful town is situated in the heart of Bordeaux wine country. The drive there passed some chateaux, for which the area is famous. Saint-Emilion is a stunning little town. There is nothing particular to do there, apart from purchase bottles of Bordeaux as every second business seemed to be selling the local output. However, we climbed a tower to admire the town, before walking the town and of course buying a bottle of famous Bordeaux for a picnic tea.

This proved to be a good idea, because we next purchased bread, cheese, ham etc to make up our picnic, and set off for a camp ground in the next town. This seemed pretty straightforward, but after cruising the town twice and following signs that lead to nothing, we resorted to the GPS to find us a campground. Following this method was even more alarming, as we got onto more remote and narrow roads, and wondered if there would even be a campground at the end.

Finally we reached the spot and discovered the campsite did exist, and what's more, it was right beside the Dordogne. Our picnic tea provisions were then critical, as there was no nearby town to eat in, and we had the perfect setting for a picnic; sitting in the sunshine on the riverbank. A little church beside us kept reminding is of the time, as we sat below a chateaux and enjoyed the last of the sunlight; a perfect end to a wonderful day.

From Brittany to Ile de Re – 22 August 2011

After packing up our campsite, just as the rain moved in, we had coffee in the fabulous walled town of Guerande. The drive from here to our next stop of La Rochelle, had little of interest. But by doing a detour inland, we were able to explore the area of Marais Poitevin around the town of Coulon.

The inhabitants of the area have reclaimed the land by digging a series of canals. These provide the area with attractive waterways, which are now a tourist attraction. We enjoyed driving around the area, and in particular, the town of Coulon.

Saint Martin-De-Re on the Ile De Re, is an attractive town built within one of Vauban's forts. The idea of camping inside a Vauban Fort had real appeal, but the guide books all agreed that there are no camp sites (or hotel/chambres de hote beds) available in July or August, without booking ahead. We decided we would try for the Municipal Campsite, which is sited in two arms of the actual fort.

The sign on the gate said 'Complete', but we decided to play the part of ignorant foreigners, and see if they had room for one small tent for one night, and in fact, they had one site left. But we had no sooner checked in and paid, when the receptionist told us to tie the tent down well, as they were expecting a storm to come through tonight. That was discouraging, but as it turned out, pretty much a non-event.

We enjoyed walking around the town in the hot sunshine. The island is said to have a special microclimate, second only to the Cote D'Azur. We certainly found this to be true, as we had left the mainland threatening to rain, for the island enjoying hot sunshine.

Within the Vauban Fort is the port, and surrounding that were lots of cafes. The whole town has a wonderful holiday (and very touristy) feel. There is a great view of the town and harbour from the top of the church tower. As we enjoyed the view, we noticed a bride in an amazing gown walking along the road, with accompanying groom and photographer. We took a few photos of her walking far below, looking remarkably like an ostrich at that angle.

Shortly after, they appeared at the top of the tower looking extremely hot and bothered, quite a feat in a beautiful long wedding gown, to have photos with this brilliant background. We enjoyed the rest of the afternoon walking around, and a great meal on the harbourside; really a memorable spot.

Brittany – 21 August 2011

Brittany has always seemed an exciting destination,but the problem is the volatile weather. The forecast was pleasant and fine for the weekend only, so we decided to explore Morbihan. This department in Brittany has some beautiful walled towns, with medieval castles.

Sadly, Fougeres was still overcast when we left, and our next destination, Vitre, was no better. Both towns have wonderful castles, walls and old towns. They were very picturesque, in the sunshine they would have been even more amazing.

The low cloud and mist cleared as we drove to Josselyn. This town is very captivating, with fine old town centre and a stunning castle. The sun was out in force and we enjoyed the beautiful summers day.

From here we travelled south to the coast, to Vannes. This is another old town with most of its medieval walls intact. The town is lovely, but more impressive are the wonderful gardens around the walls on the south side of the town.

Vanne is on the Gulf de Morbihan. This large Gulf is flooded with water from the Atlantic through a narrow channel, and there are many islands in the Gulf. We decided to visit the fishing village of Le Bono. The is one of the many villages on the coast around the Gulf. The village was cute, and we nearly spent the night there, but as there was plenty of afternoon left, decided to push on towards tomorrow's destination.

This meant that we came upon an unexpected beauty spot, the medieval town of Guerande. This has the circular town walls and moat intact, with the original town gates. We totally fell in love with this town, and after exploring, found a camp site nearby.

Britain to Brittany in 12 hours – 20 August 2011

A 6.45am departure from home got us to Dover for the 9.55am check-in, and by 6.45pm we were checking into a campsite in Fougeres in Brittany.

The GPS said non-toll roads would take us 6 hours, but toll roads would only take 4.5 hours. We decided to pay the €30+ tolls and get to Fougeres in time to visit their medieval castle. But we now know that toll roads have drawbacks.

There were queues at all toll booths, both to collect your toll ticket at the start of the toll portions and then to pay the toll at the end. Some of these were extremely slow moving, and worst of all was the fairly new suspension bridge over the Seine near Honfleur. The queue to pay the toll went on for several kilometres, and added another 40 minutes to the journey time. The total time for the journey was 5.75 hours; we may as well have saved the €30.

Fougeres is a lovely town. There was enough time to put up the tent, have a brief look around before eating at a delicious creperie. We had just started eating when the lightning and thunder heralded the arrival of rain. As the day had been super hot, this was not surprising. Fortunately it stopped just before we were ready to leave the restaurant, but it had done very little to cool the air. It was definitely a night were we could sleep comfortably, but felt sorry for those indoors.

Blooming heather again - 13,14 August 2011

Heather is blooming again, and although we have previously travelled to other parts of England, such as Yorkshire and the Peak District, to enjoy it, we hoped for better weather than last year to explore the heather right on our doorstep.

Cobham Common is the largest National Nature Reserve in southeast England, and said to be the best example of lowland heath.

We took Clara for a spin and then enjoyed a 7 mile walk all around the heather clad heathland. This was at it's best, and what can only be described as a totally bleak and barren landscape for the rest of the year, comes alive with the slopes covered in purple flowers.

The week of the London Olympic showcase to the world, as it ran trial events, was also the week of the worst riots since the 1980's, and the worst skyline for burning buildings since the blitz.

Today we drove through one of these events, although we were unfortunately unable to see anything, as we journeyed to Sussex, through the London to Surrey practise long-distance cycle race.

Sunday continued the heather theme. We took this as potentially our last chance to see the heather in bloom at Ashdown Forest, also the home of Winnie the Pooh. Last year we attempted this, but low cloud and drizzle forced us to abandon it. Today, the clouds rolled away to leave a pleasant day.

Our drive started in East Grinstead, a town we have often driven through, but today we stopped for coffee on the lovely terrace overlooking the church, and had a proper look around the town. The High Street is full of wonderful old Tudor buildings.

After leaving East Grinstead, we were into Ashdown Forest. In places there are great view points, and everywhere masses of purple heather. Ashdown is of course famous for the Winnie the Pooh stories, and we did a walk which took in some of the famous spots from the walk – 'The Enchanted Place' (enchanted because Christopher Robin said no one could be sure if there were 63 or 64 trees), the 'Heffalump Trap' (this large hole was supposedly dug by piglet) and Roo's favourite 'Sandy Place'. It was a wonderful nostalgic trip to remind us of hours spent reading those wonderful stories to our children.

Lunch at Duddleswell Tea Rooms followed, and this is a must for anyone in the area. The tearooms are very attractive, set back from the road with wide lawns and lovely flowers. The cream teas are delicious and a meal in themselves, but we had to go for their Pooh Bear Tea, which not only had one of their giant scones with honey and clotted cream, but also our choice of a piece of cake.

Making that choice wasn't easy, as they had an amazing range of great home-made cakes, and when our choice (pavlova full of cream and strawberries and raspberry roulade) was served, the sizes were enormous. Although, as Pooh once said, “My tummy is feeling a little eleven o'clockish.”, we could easily have shared a Pooh Tea. But we made it through eventually, and decided a salad would be all we should allow ourselves for dinner!

We continued a circular drive, through a variety of interesting towns, finishing once again in Ashdown Forest. Walking around a few a few towns as well as Bentley Wildfowl and Motor Museum, helped overcome the 'I've eaten far too much' feeling.

Bentley happened to be on the route, and as the entry price was modest and the day was so lovely, we decided to visit. We actually enjoyed it because it was so different to normal country houses, with a very varied range of attractions.

In addition to visiting the country house and garden, there was a huge area of ponds (admittedly rather green) and heaps of different wild water birds, including two from NZ that we don't remember every seeing before, a ride on railway just like our children loved 30 years ago, craft shops and a Motor Museum. Basically something for everyone, and their tearooms served the best ever Pimms!

So after walking the extensive grounds, and visiting a few village churches, we felt able to do justice to dinner, keeping to our plan of a salad, but the 'Red Barn' have very delicious imaginative salads, the perfect end to a great day out!

Home through the Cotswolds – 8 August 2011

Monday morning gave us time to browse the shops and visit Ludlow Cathedral, known as the Cathedral of the Marches. (after the area – not walking) It is a beautiful example of the Perpendicular architectural style with wonderful stained glass windows, elaborate tombs, but best of all are the wonderfully carved misericordes. As well as pious scenes, there are carved scenes of everyday life.

We travelled south to re-visit Hampton Court gardens, which we first visited in the autumn last year. The water features looked great in the autumn, but summer sees gardens at their best, and we enjoyed seeing the yellow and mauve wide border gardens and the vegetable gardens, arranged artistically, to even make vegetable look appealing.

From here we plotted a route along the B roads and byways straight through the Cotswolds to London: enjoying a drive through many appealing villages; with a lunch stop at the classic favourite of Broadway.

Ludlow – 7 August 2011

As we have travelled around England, we've seen many wonderful historical towns, with exciting looking old Tudor or other era buildings, and often said 'it would be wonderful to come back and stay there'. This weekend we actually did this for the first time.

Ludlow has always stuck in our mind as one of the most beautiful towns in England. A guidebook said it had the most Michelin Stars per head of population outside of Paris. (We don't believe that however, as Bray is smaller and has 3 times as many Michelin stars.) We booked into the Feathers Hotel, one of the most beautiful Tudor buildings in the town and when we checked in, we discovered they had upgraded us to the honeymoon suite, so our plans for a special weekend suddenly got better.

We set out for Ludlow, stopping off at Deerfield, a tiny town which has two pre-Norman churches. The oldest is from Saxon times, 'lost' for years as a house was built onto and “over” it.

Tewkesbury is another stunning town, with a huge Abbey, and streets of wonderful old buildings.

North again we visited Spetchley Park Gardens. These were not at their best for borders, but had many wonderful roses, all labelled, so we noted some which looked and smelt the best. The church on the estate is definitely worth a visit, with a very elaborate tomb near the altar.

Our next exciting find of the day was marked on the map as a tithe barn. This turned out to the oldest cruck-framed barn in the UK. It is an amazing structure, with each huge floor to roof cruck beam is one continuous piece of an oak tree, selected and felled for its special shape.

Before reaching Ludlow, we stopped at Berrington. This palladian stately home gives a look at how life in the country used to be. The entire house is open for viewing, and affords a very comprehensive look at the roles of the servants below stairs.

Sunday is the day for an antiques market in the Ludlow castle square. We browsed the markets, walked down to the river and the silk mill, and then visited the castle. The castle dates back to Norman times, but is now just a ruin, with several towers which can be climbed. We enjoyed wandering around it in the sunshine and seeing the rare circular Norman chapel.