Sunset from our campsite

English beauty on a French rock

Our Eloise reading. Our overburdened car had to carry a vast number of books for her and Abby to read.

Alfred Hitchcock statue in Dinard

A seagull on top of a statue of a seagull on top of a statue of Alfred Hitchcock on the sea front at Dinard on the other side of the Rance estuary from St Malo

lovely Breton Galette

The local Galettes proved popular with our family although it may be true to say that the crepes covered in chocolate or caramel sauce were even more popular!

St Malo

The walls of the very lovely St Malo. We were staying on a campsite on the green hill in the background.

The gîte we stayed in

A steam train ride

This is the steam engine that took us for a ride. Zoë enjoyed it but it was a pretty slow ride and not that exciting but okay.

Me in the stocks

...but about to escape!

Abby in the stocks!

medeival display

We went to one of the local chateaux, at Tiffauges and they demonstrate various siege engines, ride around on horses and pretend to fight. It was a good day out. Zoe enjoyed the horses a lot. We also got to listen to some very good and animated story telling in French. I understood some of it...

Locals having a scrap

and they take it very seriously round here!

French church on Sunday

 

This photo is taken at the end of church as everyone was leaving. It was a nice enough service but of course all in French, so some bits of it lost me a bit. One thing that intrigued me was the very prominent organ that's right behind the altar and yet it wasn't used at all. All the music was unaccompnied singing led by a cantor. it was okay music but it did seem strange to have no organ at all.

Zoë in the pool

Enjoying the pool at our gîte

We've got a lovely pool here. Not big but big enough. Abby was enjoying it so much she even let me take this photo!

Our Gîte

The gîte is very lovely in a quiet French hamlet outside of a town called Les Herbiers. There's a huge Hyper U not far away that sells everything we could possibly want and yet we're in the countryside enough to be surrounded by horses and cows etc. les herbiers is in the Vendée which is an area of France just south of Brittany.

lovely flowers at the Palace of Versailles

Lovely flowers and a beautiful sky.

visiting the Palace of Versailles

I think if my tax was being spent on something like the palace of versaille as a private residence I'd want to start a revolution! It was spendid but OTT. Worth visiting though.

Evening on the camp site

Notre Dame

The boats on the Seine were very popular with some people

Hopefully all the boat passengers enjoyed being waved at by Zoe every time we crossed a bridge!

Quiet Paris Picnic area

We needed to find somewhere for a quiet picnic and found this rather charming little place.

Us on the Eiffel Tower

This is us on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower.

On the Eiffel Tower

Eloise and Abby admire the view. The queue was long but the view was good. Zoe really enkjoyed the whole experience of going up in the lift too.

Camping at Versailles

Our first stop in France was at a lovely campsite in Versailles on the outskirts of Paris. The train into Paris took about 20 minutes and the train station was less than 10 minutes walk away.