Rewind

Hi bloggettes and bloggies, well I know it's September but the kids are just going back to school and it's the first time I have had chance to catch up, or even get the computer to myself, so I am going to rewind on my hols for a bit - apart from anything else it cheers me up to think of them, so here's the fist instalment of my rewind.

Well we set off at the beginning of August on my birthday with the car totally heaving, my hubby always moans I pack to much (I don't know what he means I left the kitchen sink behind!) and drove down to the Channel Tunnel and over to France, unfortunately we got about 50 miles into France when disaster struck - yes the kids DVD player broke down - catastrophe! the only way we do these drives without strangling the kids is with one of these, without it they resort to teenage bickering that drives every parent bonkers (if you haven't experienced teenage years, book yourself a 7 year vacation for your sanity). We have tried everything in the past i-pods,gameboys, even the revolutionary thing of trying to get them to appreciate the scenery etc., in order to get them to stop them niggling at each other and moaning and the DVD usually works a treat. Luckily my other son had packed his portable one so hubby managed to buy a lead at a service station that meant it could run off of the car, not ideal but it got us through.

We drove down to Dijon in the middle of France, where we had a quick overnight stopover, must admit there was not much to see and the weather was gloomy so we just had a lovely french meal to celebrate my birthday and crashed ready for the next days drive.

Off we set in the morning only to have torrential rain after about 10 minutes into the journey, oh no we thought not again, last year's holiday had been one of the wettest ever, but low and behold as we approached the South of France blue skies appeared and the temperature shot up from about 11 degrees to 29 - wonderful, it is pretty easy to drive in France although quite expensive with the toll roads, it was great to see the changing scenery from the Champagne regions in the north, down to the Cote D'Azur in the south.

We stayed in a mobile home with the boys, it is easier than a hotel room with them, so few in Europe or the UK have accommodation for more than 1 child and many are for children under 12 which is no use for us, they also won't let you book 2 rooms as an adult has to be in each room and it doubles the expense as they also charge for under-occupancy.

The place where we stayed was lovely, there was a big lake with a huge red coloured hill at the far end which looked great at sunset. It was small and quiet, but just what we needed, although once we ventured out that all changed - twice we tried to drive to St. Tropez and after spending over an hour both times in traffic jams, we thought St.Tropez can wait, although we did take several trips along the coast to St. Raphael, Frejus, Nice and Cannes, the coastline is very pretty, with red cliffs and hills contrasting with a bluey, turquoise sea, we could see why it was aptly named Cote D'Azur.

In contrast to this we could also see along some of the roads the damage done by the forest fires the area suffers in the summer months, there were many charred tree stumps, but amongst them it was also heartening to see the new growth already springing up around them, it's funny you would expect the area to be dry and barren due to the heat of the summer months, but it is very lush and green in many areas, I love the mix of the mountains that seem to frame the area together with the sea it's so pretty on a sunny day with blue skies.

However, where we have been spoilt in other areas of France and Italy with large sandy uncrowded beaches,it was hard to get a parking space anywhere near a beach there, and the beaches were small and crowded (they were also full of stick thin people in unbelievably small bikini's or posing pouches for the men - why do men wear them? they are sooo not a good look, I must admit in the UK men tend to wear ultra baggy shorts, the other extreme and the tighter,lycra show everything you have got and had for dinner look is more favoured on the continent).

In our case we decided to stick to the lake beach or the pool where we were staying, and I could lay there with my middle aged spread in all its glory in peace.

Hubby and the boys also spent a couple of days canoeing down the river to another lake, while I chilled and did my crosswords or read (I'm not good on water, I like to be near it and look at it, but green is often my shade when on a boat and I like to have something with an engine - it's just a thing I have about unpowered boats! and I also hate getting on and off them, it's the wobbling about - both me and the boat!).

After a week it was time to leave and move onto glorious Italy, so off we set to drive along the coast and then up through Italy and over to Venice. However first we decided to stop off and go through Monaco/Monte Carlo (you can't tell that one is supposed to be a place in the other), boy the were not kidding when they said it was a tiny Principality! first we had to drive in a slow moving traffic jam down the hill into Monaco - for a very, very small place it seemed to have lots of roads and traffic.

The place obviously drips loads of serious money, but the only way I can describe it is a bit like a postage stamp at the bottom of a cliff, along part of a coastline, it really is tiny and all that it at the front of it is a very tiny harbour, jammed packed with yachts, for all the money that is there it must be a very claustrophobic place to live, all the buildings are tall and everywhere crowded.

Hubby duly drove around without moaning, which I thought was a bit strange as he usually hates towns and prefers the motorways, we wound round this little place which can only be a mile (if that) across, and he didn't say a grumble or word , that is until he pointed out to our sons some things on the route, which is when the penny dropped with me - he was driving the Monaco Grand Prix circuit route!! (although I think he would have preferred to do it in a Ferrari, or Porshe and not a fully loaded family people carrier) and there was me thinking aaah he is putting up with me doing some sightseeing in the middle of our 450 mile drive! but he said although he wasn't in a sports car it was one of the things ticked off of his things to do list! so mission accomplished.

We then left Monaco and the route out was almost vertical, straight up! and off we set for the Italian border, sun still shining and looking forward to seeing our friends in bella Italia.

I'll stop here and my next installment will be on Italy and meeting up with the my great mate FG.

Hope you are all well whereever you are and have a great weekend - Hugs D xx


PS To our american friends I have a quicky on language, I have just noticed that I used the word "route" several times, we pronounce it "Root" in the UK but on the American TV programmes and films it seems to be pronounced "Rowt", the thing that puzzles me is on Chuck Berries hit he sings "I get my kicks on route (root) 66) I was just curious what the difference was and why, and does it vary from area to area on how it is pronounced?