Saturday 23rd May
A BIG WELCOME TO KIELAN!!
Awoke this morning to a call from Brooke saying that Kielan Alex has arrived, a very healthy 9 pound 2 and all well – we are feeling a long way from home today but what a great place we are in.
We are in Canet Plage just south of Perpignan 30kms from the Spanish border – we are parked up right on the beach with the Mediterranean Sea at our doorstep – we dipped our toes in the water, it was very fresh and the weather whilst pleasant hasn’t tempted us enough to go any further.
Wow what a trip we had getting from the west coast to the east coast of France – we drove through the coastal surfie town Biarritz where the weather was pretty cool so we headed inland and ended up at a place called O’loron-St- Marie. It was 32 degrees when we arrived and then we had the biggest thunder and lighting storm we have ever encountered, hail marble size also – thank goodness that Brent’s Mum and Tash weren’t with us. After drying out the next morning we headed towards Lourdes. Lourdes is a heavily religious town where it was said that a 14 year old girl saw the vision of the Virgin Mary, it has since become a mecca for those who are wanting ailments cured/relieved. The latest success of this was said to be in 2005 when a woman was cured of arthritis. The day we were there was an annual holiday for the French ‘Ascension Day’ (40th day after Easter) so a very very busy town with lots of nuns, priests and people praying. We said one for everyone!!!
We then drove onto a town called St Girons – Rae thought her French was getting better however she ended up with an orange juice instead of a wine and two pizzas instead of one!! Brent did talk to a drunk Frenchman at the next table, they couldn’t understand each other but somehow Brent was interpreting everything he said for Rae, I’m glad no one else spoke English (hopefully) as I doubt most of Brent’s interpretation was even close!!
St Girons was an interesting town, it was very beautiful due to the big river running through the middle of it – however it is very populated by gypsies and the not so wealthy – we were cheaply entertained by the locals! Dogs get preferential treatment here – they sit on the chairs at the cafes, travel in pushchairs, get taken into the bakeries, butchers and toilets – believe it or not! The locals come into town to get their daily bread, let their dogs out of the cars to their “business”, then just drive away again. No wonder we are continually doing the sidewalk shuffle, absolutely incredible.
We drove around the lower part of the Pyrenees to get to Canet Plage on the east coast of France – we reached 2000 meters above sea level at the highest point and we were on the lower part!! It was a scenic tour that took us hours longer than we expected and meeting lots of traffic and not to mention the big trucks in the very very narrow village streets/alleys. We don’t have any additional paint work on the camper this time!.JPG)
We have today purchased a couple of bikes which we have been looking at for a while - Brent’s is a fast red one with sporty pink tyre rims and Rae’s is a stylish black one with a basket on the back!
Just as are thinking that we are getting the hang of the French ways we are going to head into Spain in the next couple of days so our next blog will be from there.
We are heading out tonight to wet Kielan’s head.
Sunday 24th Au Revoir France
Well woke up to a warm morning and much cloud. We think after updating our blog at the local café we might cross over into Spain.
A little recap of our thoughts of France from this leg of our journey
One-liners ? Possibly heaps of them but we couldn’t understand them.
People? We heard before we left NZ that the French were quite arrogant to tourists. Well we haven’t seen that, the language barrier tends to ensure that are not overly welcoming or friendly but not arrogant. We have tried to speak as much French as we can and they appreciate this. The French people seem to be very stylish in their appearance, very animated and loud in their conversations. They seem to like to talk, it doesn’t matter if there is a queue behind they will chatter for ages..and ages…and ages… and of course Brent is really so patient….yeah right.
Dogs? Dogs everywhere, we swear every French person has at least 1 dog. Dogs in handbags, bike carriers, apartments, shops, dogs everywhere. And with that the famous “sidewalk s#*t shuffle”, it is everywhere. The owners just don’t care where, middle of footpaths seem to be a favorite place, shoot the inconsiderate dog owners I say.
Outlook? The French seem to enjoy their life and make an effort to spend time with their family & friends. Family time extends to most businesses as the majority close 12.00pm – 2.30pm, try and get a supermarket open in that time. It’s hiliarious, everything literally shuts down. We bet you’ve all heard the rumours of French men being great lovers, don’t know about great but definitely have the time for quantity.
Food? The bread, the pastries, the cheese, the wine…. Did we mention the cheese and bread? It’s a laugh a minute when traveling through villages, cities and lanes, everyone has a baguette, literally everyone, “it is ze French way, voila”. Staying in a Aire (a carparking area) where there may be 50 campers and all quiet at 9am until the bread van comes in tooting its horn, the place awakens with people in their PJ’s lining up for their baguettes and croissants. Restaurants and cafes everywhere, food is a major part of their lives
Pubs? Moreso cafes and restaurants and lots of them.
Scenery? Fantastic, awesome, from country villages to the cities to the Pyrenees Mountains to the Mediterranean.
Useless information? We’ve heard dogs have their own passports if bringing into France from England, guess the French don’t care about the people but don’t want foreign dogs unaccounted for.
Roads? Most main roads excellent condition, really weird traveling along on the open road then straight into narrow roads flanked with very old houses in a small village. Tend to drive only a few k’s and another village, then another village, there are thousands of them. French drivers while reasonably courteous are speed freaks and can park anywhere, if there is a gap on the footpath right on the corner it is fair game. “bump” parking we think is a national sport.
Services etc ? Extremely well structured for visitors, rubbish bins everywhere, places to fill up our water tanks, excellent Tourist offices with very helpful staff (EXCEPT at St Cyprien Plage). Rae missing a toilet seat as most don’t have them (or paper).
Other French traits!!! Kissing, men kissing men..hmmmm, so many plastic tablecloths usually with their lunch outside of wine, cheese etc. Smoking, smoking, smoking, so many smokers here, thankfully they have had the sense to ban it from restaurants etc. but everywhere, absolutely everywhere so many French people smoking. More smokers than dogs, yes believe it.
All in all France another great place to visit and look forward to another leg of our journey here in a couple of months. Now to start thinking about another language, road signs, food, culture etc
A bientot
Grandad Brent and Nana Rae
A BIG WELCOME TO KIELAN!!
Awoke this morning to a call from Brooke saying that Kielan Alex has arrived, a very healthy 9 pound 2 and all well – we are feeling a long way from home today but what a great place we are in.
We are in Canet Plage just south of Perpignan 30kms from the Spanish border – we are parked up right on the beach with the Mediterranean Sea at our doorstep – we dipped our toes in the water, it was very fresh and the weather whilst pleasant hasn’t tempted us enough to go any further.
Wow what a trip we had getting from the west coast to the east coast of France – we drove through the coastal surfie town Biarritz where the weather was pretty cool so we headed inland and ended up at a place called O’loron-St- Marie. It was 32 degrees when we arrived and then we had the biggest thunder and lighting storm we have ever encountered, hail marble size also – thank goodness that Brent’s Mum and Tash weren’t with us. After drying out the next morning we headed towards Lourdes. Lourdes is a heavily religious town where it was said that a 14 year old girl saw the vision of the Virgin Mary, it has since become a mecca for those who are wanting ailments cured/relieved. The latest success of this was said to be in 2005 when a woman was cured of arthritis. The day we were there was an annual holiday for the French ‘Ascension Day’ (40th day after Easter) so a very very busy town with lots of nuns, priests and people praying. We said one for everyone!!!
We then drove onto a town called St Girons – Rae thought her French was getting better however she ended up with an orange juice instead of a wine and two pizzas instead of one!! Brent did talk to a drunk Frenchman at the next table, they couldn’t understand each other but somehow Brent was interpreting everything he said for Rae, I’m glad no one else spoke English (hopefully) as I doubt most of Brent’s interpretation was even close!!
St Girons was an interesting town, it was very beautiful due to the big river running through the middle of it – however it is very populated by gypsies and the not so wealthy – we were cheaply entertained by the locals! Dogs get preferential treatment here – they sit on the chairs at the cafes, travel in pushchairs, get taken into the bakeries, butchers and toilets – believe it or not! The locals come into town to get their daily bread, let their dogs out of the cars to their “business”, then just drive away again. No wonder we are continually doing the sidewalk shuffle, absolutely incredible.
We drove around the lower part of the Pyrenees to get to Canet Plage on the east coast of France – we reached 2000 meters above sea level at the highest point and we were on the lower part!! It was a scenic tour that took us hours longer than we expected and meeting lots of traffic and not to mention the big trucks in the very very narrow village streets/alleys. We don’t have any additional paint work on the camper this time!
.JPG)
We have today purchased a couple of bikes which we have been looking at for a while - Brent’s is a fast red one with sporty pink tyre rims and Rae’s is a stylish black one with a basket on the back!
Just as are thinking that we are getting the hang of the French ways we are going to head into Spain in the next couple of days so our next blog will be from there.
We are heading out tonight to wet Kielan’s head.
Sunday 24th Au Revoir France
Well woke up to a warm morning and much cloud. We think after updating our blog at the local café we might cross over into Spain.
A little recap of our thoughts of France from this leg of our journey
One-liners ? Possibly heaps of them but we couldn’t understand them.
People? We heard before we left NZ that the French were quite arrogant to tourists. Well we haven’t seen that, the language barrier tends to ensure that are not overly welcoming or friendly but not arrogant. We have tried to speak as much French as we can and they appreciate this. The French people seem to be very stylish in their appearance, very animated and loud in their conversations. They seem to like to talk, it doesn’t matter if there is a queue behind they will chatter for ages..and ages…and ages… and of course Brent is really so patient….yeah right.
Dogs? Dogs everywhere, we swear every French person has at least 1 dog. Dogs in handbags, bike carriers, apartments, shops, dogs everywhere. And with that the famous “sidewalk s#*t shuffle”, it is everywhere. The owners just don’t care where, middle of footpaths seem to be a favorite place, shoot the inconsiderate dog owners I say.
Outlook? The French seem to enjoy their life and make an effort to spend time with their family & friends. Family time extends to most businesses as the majority close 12.00pm – 2.30pm, try and get a supermarket open in that time. It’s hiliarious, everything literally shuts down. We bet you’ve all heard the rumours of French men being great lovers, don’t know about great but definitely have the time for quantity.
Food? The bread, the pastries, the cheese, the wine…. Did we mention the cheese and bread? It’s a laugh a minute when traveling through villages, cities and lanes, everyone has a baguette, literally everyone, “it is ze French way, voila”. Staying in a Aire (a carparking area) where there may be 50 campers and all quiet at 9am until the bread van comes in tooting its horn, the place awakens with people in their PJ’s lining up for their baguettes and croissants. Restaurants and cafes everywhere, food is a major part of their lives
Pubs? Moreso cafes and restaurants and lots of them.
Scenery? Fantastic, awesome, from country villages to the cities to the Pyrenees Mountains to the Mediterranean.
Useless information? We’ve heard dogs have their own passports if bringing into France from England, guess the French don’t care about the people but don’t want foreign dogs unaccounted for.
Roads? Most main roads excellent condition, really weird traveling along on the open road then straight into narrow roads flanked with very old houses in a small village. Tend to drive only a few k’s and another village, then another village, there are thousands of them. French drivers while reasonably courteous are speed freaks and can park anywhere, if there is a gap on the footpath right on the corner it is fair game. “bump” parking we think is a national sport.
Services etc ? Extremely well structured for visitors, rubbish bins everywhere, places to fill up our water tanks, excellent Tourist offices with very helpful staff (EXCEPT at St Cyprien Plage). Rae missing a toilet seat as most don’t have them (or paper).
Other French traits!!! Kissing, men kissing men..hmmmm, so many plastic tablecloths usually with their lunch outside of wine, cheese etc. Smoking, smoking, smoking, so many smokers here, thankfully they have had the sense to ban it from restaurants etc. but everywhere, absolutely everywhere so many French people smoking. More smokers than dogs, yes believe it.
All in all France another great place to visit and look forward to another leg of our journey here in a couple of months. Now to start thinking about another language, road signs, food, culture etc
A bientot
Grandad Brent and Nana Rae
Congratulations Grandad Brent and Nana Rae. Little (or not so)Keilan is soooo cute. You must be so proud. Really enjoying reading about yr travels so far. Beautiful day here today....sun is shining, first time in a week. YAY. Have looked up on map at yr travels so far, a few miles have been travelled !! Keep up the great writing, look forward to logging on every 10 days or so and finding a new report :o)
ReplyDeleteHi guys isn't he just gorgeous, sorry to tell you this but you have spelt Kielan's name wrong. According to Brooke's facebook it is Kielan not Keilan. I see you have got quite a few more photos on now i have had a quick look this morning it looks like you are having a ball, i will have to go back and have another read and work out what the photos relate to. It is a great blog but hard to keep up with. You guys should have been journalists you write great stories. Keep enjoying xx
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