It rained all night long. Pitter patter and at times, hammer hammer, on the roof of the Tandy and when it finally stopped at 10am we realised it had been raining non-stop for 40 hours. Worse, for those on the mountains though, where the rain turned to snow. Not surprising then that it was pretty chilly all day, exactly as forecast, the temperature barely made double figures. No surprise either, therefore, that we decided to forgo a swim in the tempting campsite swimming pool. We didn’t rush to get up but waited until the rain eventually fizzled to a stop. We found our way to the lake, across the road from the campsite and down a couple of roads, and went for a walk along it. Would be really beautiful with a blue sky and white ... read more

What a lovely day and a good part of it spent several thousand metres up in the mountains. Bob had already unloaded the scooter out of the Tandy garage so we used it to get to the “Aiguille du Midi” station in Chamonix, this being the cable car ride up to the top of Mont Blanc. This is the “must do” attraction and the cable car was packed full, so much so that the driver told people to take their backpacks off to make room for the last couple he pushed in before shutting the doors. Chamonix may be a very popular winter snow destination but there were plenty of summer sun visitors today. The 20-minute ride up the mountain, courtesy of just a long length of very flexible cable, was in two parts. The first ... read more

Lovely and sunny day but after chill of yesterday we took our jackets with us when we went into Lyon city for the day. Campsite is excellently located as the bus stop is just outside and it runs every 20 mins. Caught the bus into the city and from there took the metro to the Cathedral St Jean stop in the old city. All very easy. We had no idea of what there is to see in Lyon but a quick check on our tourist map showed the Basilica, accessed via a funicular, from where there are superb views across the city. Then the old city below with the Cathedral and between the two rivers (Saone and Rhone) is Presque L’Il (almost an island as that is what it is) which has quite an upmarket shopping ... read more

Not quite as sunny a day but perfect for a day of city sightseeing. We decided to take the bus into the city rather than walking and managed to negotiate the ticketing system, not something we do often as we so rarely use public transport. Found Troyes to be a delightful city. Just the right size for a day’s visit and so much to see. Fantastically decorated and colourful half-timbered buildings everywhere we looked as well as some large, very ornate stone mansions as this was a very wealthy and thriving city of trade in the 1500s. We visited the cathedral and several churches all of which were superb with features of delicately carved stonework and vibrant coloured stained glass windows (I note that the pictures in the many of the windows were painted rather than ... read more

Seem to have spent rather a lot of time out of England recently. Almost as soon as we returned from our lovely motorhome trip to Brittany in September last year, I was packed and off again. Leaving husband Bob with a lot of meals in the freezer, his season ticket for Stoke City and his decorating plans, I abandoned him for 5 weeks while I flew off to Melbourne, Australia to see my daughter, Jenny and granddaughter, Isobel. Got there just in time to meet my new grandson, George Alexander, who was born just 8 hours after I landed. I flew home again 5 weeks later, after a very busy and lovely time, straight back to the freezing cold of the 2010 winter. The poor garden didn’t stand a chance as by the time I got ... read more