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Published: June 25th 2013
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Friday 21st June As we left our hotel in Italy this morning I opened my handbag and found the small religious book that had been in our room. George thought it was mine and had put it in my bag, I had to run back to the hotel reception to apologise. It was an easy mistake for George to make as I don't normally go anywhere without St Luke's Gospel - in Italian!!!
Having another interesting day driving all around the bay of Genoa, very pretty with houses set into the hillside and again the heady scent of jasmine everywhere. This smell will now always remind me of this trip. We drive right through Genoa and witness some very reckless driving, on two separate occasions we see someone nearly knocked down on a zebra crossing. We drive through San Remo and out of Italy using a mixture of autoroute and smaller roads. Back in France we skirt Monaco and then head north at Nice. We drive about 15 miles up into the Alps some of the hairpin bends take two attempts to get round and we begin to wonder where the sat-nav is taking us. Eventually we reach Le
Mas Fleuri Hotel in Levens. We have a delicious French meal at the hotel sitting outside; it is much cooler now and by the end of the meal, around 10.30pm, we need jumpers on.
Saturday 22nd June Today we are in the French Alps, the scenery is really beautiful but the mountain passes can be scary. We visit the medieval village of Touet sur Var which is set high up in the mountainside and we walk all the way up to the top climbing a mixture of steps and slopes. Many of the houses have beautifully painted front doors. It is a hot day, much warmer than we expected the Alps to be, we buy some fruit and have a picnic lunch amongst the alpine flowers. Onwards and upwards we reach Haute-Provence, through Sisteron and to our hotel Les Tilleuls at Clamensane, we had to look on a tourist map as it wasn’t on the sat-nav. Lovely hotel room with 2 big picture windows we can see the Alps while we are in bed. We go back into Sisteron for a meal about 8.30pm and we eat at a Creperie which is very good, back home about 11pm.
Sunday 23rd June It is our younger grandson’s birthday today so Happy 2nd Birthday Indiana. The day starts with petit dejeuner alfresco, our hosts are very friendly and we sit with the other guests on one long table. Before we leave we are given a bag of regional products from Provence; honey, biscuits, cider and lavender oil. We are so lucky to have met some really lovely people this trip. Everywhere is very quiet on the roads this morning until we reach Grenoble which is busy. We join the autoroute to get around Lyon stopping at an Aire to have a drink; the temperature climbs to 25 degrees. We reach our destination of La Casa Colorada at Bonnaisod which is very much off the beaten track down several country lanes. A lovely and unusual large house, there is a recreation room we can use with a computer, lots of books and games plus a kettle with tea, coffee and biscuits. There is also a microwave and a fridge, although we do not use either of them it is very nice to know they are available. Our host’s name is Yves and his wife, who is in
Touet sur Var
George having a rest after climbing all the steps Geneva until tomorrow is Olivia. Go into Lons le Saunier to eat and have a walk around, get back to the hotel around 10pm
Monday 24th June Walk down a spiral staircase from the recreation room into breakfast and we meet Olivia, who was born in Columbia but raised in Switzerland. We leave around 9.30am and the day is quite cool only about 14 degrees. Drive to Saint Dizier and the Balladin Hotel the day doesn't get any warmer and the sky is very grey. We are in an area of large shops and we take the opportunity to get a couple of T-shirts for our granddaughters and a present for grandchild number five due in two months. We have already bought our little grandsons some brightly coloured shorts. We go to the E.Leclerc Supermarket and buy a couple of dozen bottles of wine to take back home. We have been eating very late while the weather has been so hot but now it is much cooler we go out to eat around 7pm which is early by French standards. Our waitress, Karin, has been working in England at Centre Parcs and she keeps popping back to see
us as she is enjoying speaking English which she does perfectly. She also speaks a bit of Italian, Spanish and Polish. She is very friendly and leaves us a nice message on the bill, completely wasted working as a waitress.
Tuesday 25th June No breakfast at the hotel today so we try the supermarket, we manage to get some good coffee although the waitress forgets to give us the tokens to put in the machine which makes it all fairly difficult. We travel through Chalon en Champagne, Reims, Laon and Saint Quentin to Bruay la Buissiere calling at a supermarket to buy cheese to bring home. The weather has gradually improved as the day has progressed and the late sun is very welcome.We stop to take a photo of Mont-Saint-Eloi near Arras which looks very attractive in the afternoon sun surrounded by poppies. Arrive at our hotel which is called La Dolce Vita, and is also an Italian restaurant. The manager speaks no English at all just very fast French. We eat in the restaurant but the menus he gives us have no prices on and when we ask about this he gives us some more menus that
bear no relation to the ones we have been looking at. When the waitress arrives we ask her for a price but she also does not understand what we are saying even when we try our modest French! Anyway eventually we order and enjoy a fabulous terrine and then a very good lasagne for George and spaghetti bolognese for me with plenty of vin rouge. Then have trouble connecting to the internet in the room so I’m now sitting in the bar on my own.
We have had a lovely holiday with many highlights, the hotels we booked were mostly small family businesses and it has been a complete joy to meet such nice people. Lake Garda was also a highlight for both of us and we certainly plan to return to Italy one day; the Italian people we met were so friendly. We have learned a lot as well, not least is to make sure we confine our
city visits to the cooler months. We have an hour’s drive to the Channel Tunnel in the morning and then straight home, looking forward to seeing everyone and the next exciting event will be the birth of our fifth grandchild
due in August, a first child for our daughter Amy and her husband John.
Bonne nuit tout le monde!!
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Amy
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Found your blog!
On the day you arrive home, I finally check my emails & find your blog. Bad daughter! Looks amazing, can't wait to hear about it. xxx