Parlez Vous Francais?

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Bonjour!!

J'adooooooorrrreeeeee FRANCE!
What a beautiful country. Am yet to find anything that I don't just love, love, love about France!

But first of all, just to recap, before leaving for France on Monday on the Eurostar mum, Alissa and I spent Saturday and Sunday having a 'girls' weekend out, it was fab! Saturday was spent wandering through the Notting Hill markets and then we found a new hair salon that had just opened so we all went in and had our mullets trimmed. I had a fringe cut in and am feeling so much better, it's funny how a new hair cut can lift morale! Anywho, we met the boys on the Thames, after we'd had a quick (aka expensive) shop at Selfridges, where a festival was taking place, once the whole clan was together we headed on down to Ping Pong (definitely sounds like something that takes place in Thailand, no?) for some Dim Sum. It was so delicious and the decor was absolutely fabulous, a much more modern take on traditional dim sum, but very good all the same.
Sunday was spent with Alissa's bff Sal (what a darl!) at the flower market which was so much fun. The day started with cream tea (two scones with clotted cream, jam and a pot of tea) then we wandered in and out of the boutiques that line the streets of the farmers market, then we walked down the middle of the market. It was such a great atmosphere and the shops were beautiful. Mum, Dad and Sal then headed to Lizzy's crib for a tour while Alissa, Ham and I caught the tube home to prepare for dinner, but not before a quick pint at the pub on the way to the tube.
Wayne was already well on the way with the cooking of the Bri (or Bry?) the Saffa version of a BBQ, cooked with coals -NOT Gas!! That's blasphemy to the Saffas apparently! The meal was so great, ribs, sausages, salad, garlic bread... nyom nyom nyom. I love me a bbq!
Moving on. France, France, FRAAAAAAAANCEEE!
Mum, Dad, Ham and I caught the Eurostar to Lille where we (after much run around) picked up our car, practiced a bit of bonjour, oui, si vous plait etc on each other on the car ride to our hotel. Dumped our bags, jumped back in the car and headed to Belgium- gotta love how small Europe is.
After driving around in circles for a good ten minutes we finally found Menin Gate where The Last Post is played at 8pm every night in honour of the fallen soldiers from WWI. A very moving experience set amongst a war memorial and a lot of people turned out for the event, imagine the last post being played every single night at 8pm for 100 + tourists, it really was incredible. From there it was on to dinner for a massive feed. Between broken Belgian and English we managed to order a very delicious meal. And might I just add that the small amount of Belgium we saw was absolutely beautiful! We did hope to hit up Bruges over the next couple of days but unfortunately time just did not allow it.
The next day our task was 'The Western Front' so our first stop was Villers Bretonneux the site of the Australian WWI Memorial which was very touching and also devestating. So many lost lives but we can take solace in the fact that the Australians are being honoured on such a well designed and maintained memorial. Once again, a very moving experience. From there we saw a couple more war memorials and a museum from Poziere to Albert before arriving in the very beautiful seaside town of Hon Fleur.
Hon Fleur was incredible and we had the most amazing accommodation which I think polished off the whole experience. The first night we stayed there we stayed in an awesome loft above an old building. A very chic-rustic place which was so homely and very comfortable. The next night was even better, we moved just down the street to a B&B where Ham and I had our own room- more like two rooms. I scored the double bed and Ham got the single, we had a hallway and two doors separating us and it was BLISS! It's been a long time since we've slept in separate rooms so the privacy and solitude was appreciated by both parties! Besides all that the B&B was only a mere 2 months old which meant everything was brand spanking new, so clean and the bed and linen was to die for, all in all a sublime night's sleep was had!
Hon Fleur itself was just gorgeous, mum and I spent the first day wandering the streets, ducking in and out of shops at our leisure, eating crepe and generally just sucking up a whole lot of fabulousness while the boys swanned about on a cruise around the river. Oh and did I mention mum and I took a ride on a double story carousel overlooking the mariner and restaurant hub. How I loveeeee carousels!
We had an early start this morning, much to my dismay as my delux bed was just too comfy to leave, but alas one can't keep France waiting, oui?! This morning our mission was to see the D-Day beaches, we managed to see 99% throughout the course of the day and spent a couple of hours at the WWII museum in Caen where I learnt an over whelming amount about the war and Hitler and everything in between.
The story of D-Day and the beaches is incredible, is it ignorant of me to say I had no idea before today what it was all about? And can I just say it was so nice to see a real beach with real ocean (the beaches in London are pebbles on the side of the Thames) and I got some great photos of all oour travels throughout the day.
Now I am the first person to stand up for our soldiers and our freedom but after 3.5 straight days of war memorials (more than I can count on two hands) and museums and audio tours I am well and truly ready for a little war-rest, lucky for me tomorrow brings the longest tapestry in the world (that's a whole lotta carpet as dad would say, did I mention we're in Bayeux?) then we make our way to Mont St Michel- YIPPEE!
Mont St Michel (other than Pariii) is one place I have been dyyyiiinnng to see on my overseas trip and I absolutely cannot wait to get there, let's just hope we don't get stranded on the island and miss our train to Paris?! I'd die.
So Saturday bring Paris and anyone who knows me will know that Pari is my love, having not yet been there it's a big call but some might say that if Paris was willing and able, I would indeed marry it.
My next reporting shall be from Paris (providing we have wifi, it's few and far between in France) where we will be having dinner in the Eiffel Tower, a cruise on the Seine then onto the Moulin Rouge for the show. Ahhh life is tough and I love every minute of it.
Off to bed now, but not before organising some flights- the way Ham and I are going it looks like we're walking to Oktoberfest and that would cut in to some serious drinking time.. We won't allow it!
Au Revoir my cherubs.
One last thing: we just turned to TV on and the weather woman was reporting on the weather in Hobart! I didn't even think Australian news channels outside of Tas reported on our weather! Hilarious.

With love from France..

xx

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