Toff spotting

Todays trip was to North Norfolk. Holkham Hall in fact. A Paladian MANSION.....a bloody GIGANTIC stately PILE.

It's only an hour & a bit away from where we live but I've never been before. Richard's not that keen on the homes of the rich & rich. "Come the revolution" etc etc.

We were just in time for the daggy audio tour, but soon forgot our touristy look as we shuffled from room to amazing room, looking at Van Dyks & Poussins.

It's been great going to these places with my big Sis as she is completely entranced by the soft furnishings just like I am. Yesterday in the first grand room at Sandringham we were conspiring in a corner trying to find the joins in the silk wall coverings....a guide came up to us and asked " What ARE you two looking at?"

This goes for kitchens too....

They had cupboards full of ice cream moulds. There must have been 1000 or more deer under the trees. You can just see them here....

All weathers

Today's little sojourn was to Sandringham. (You may have noticed that we have returned to (cloudy) England, still lovely in all weathers)

The best part about going to Sanders is that everyone else is a lot older than you. In fact everyone looks like the Queen & Prince Phillip.

Ricardo & I went there at the same time last year but we missed the scary stuffed head room...

Even though Thomsey & I have grey hair we were still the youngest people we saw all day.

Makes one glad to have ones own teeth really. (Small mercies). We didn't have our sprigged muslin dresses on. Just poofy coats today.

It's so GREEN.
When w got home, Richard told us of this lovely poem. Don't you just love google.

Thomas Hardy: Weathers

This is the weather the cuckoo likes,

And so do I;
When showers betumble the chestnut spikes,

And nestlings fly;

And the little brown nightingale bills his best,

And they sit outside at 'The Traveller's Rest,'

And maids come forth sprig-muslin drest,

And citizens dream of the south and west,

And so do I.

This is the weather the shepherd shuns,

And so do I;

When beeches drip in browns and duns,

And thresh and ply;

And hill-hid tides throb, throe on throe,

And meadow rivulets overflow,

And drops on gate bars hang in a row,

And rooks in families homeward go,

And so do I.

St Cirq Lapopie and the Peche Merle caves

In fairy tales I read when I was small, the houses all looked like these ones in the beautiful village of Saint-Cirq Lapopie. The village is perched on a cliff 100 m (330 ft) above the river Lot and is one of the major beauty spots of the Lot valley. It said something on the village sign about being "Un des plus beaux village de France".

There were lots of roses out and things to smell...
Lots of cutey French dogs too...

Richard's friend Keith has an amazing connection with other worlds....he suggested we make a trip to Peche Merle.

This incredible cave was discovered in 1922 by 2 boys aged 15 & 16 years old. There had been an upper level already discovered at the turn of the century but the boys found a deeper level, one which had paintings from 25,000 years before. Bison, mammoths & hyena roamed these parts of the world & even though the cave has always stayed at a temperature of 12 and a half degrees C when the ancient people left their drawings & footprints it would have been minus 30 outside.

Can you imagine these boys with a candle & a knife, scrabbling from cavern to cavern, uncovering stuff that had been sealed off from the world since the last ice age?

This picture is from the caves website and is of the clearest painting. Two spotted horse with hand prints around them.

The Lot

Today we took a little off shoot trip to visit Richard's friend's Keith & Miranda, in the Lot valley near the Dordogne. WOW & wow again.

They were so welcoming even though Richard hasn't seen Keith for 30 years. Keith & Richard used to work on horse drawn vehicles & painting fairground rides together in Suffolk years ago. They have a gallery, Gallery Pomie. At the moment it has an exhibition called 'Icons'. Clever combinations of weird & wonderful stuff including a whale calling conch from the Arafura islands an Andy Warhol screenprint of Mao signed to Miranda & her sister and some Ronnie Wood prints

Keith is an amazing guy with a wealth of stories about strange & wonderful things. He used to organise rock concerts & their special effects for big rock acts including Pink Floyd. He told us tales of hiring a spitfire to fly in low over the crowd as they blasted fake stacks of amplifiers made of foam with machine gun fire, that then shattered all over the audience.

The weather has been sensational...we thought these were roses but they were actally Peonies.

Better & better

Just when you thought life was fantastic as it was yesterday it went up a notch.
After finally picking up Le Sac from the airport,

we went on a little sojourn to the Spanish border. To the pass where Hannibal crossed through with 80,000 soldiers & 40 elephants in 218BC.
There is a fort there called 'Bellegarde' that lives half in France & half in Spain. It wasn't open but we circumnavigated it mostly in the moat and didn't see a soul.There were Cork trees and Camomile. It was eerie & beautiful. In the garrison further down the hill, there was the smell of Pennyroyal and wild thyme as we hopped over a wall into another age. Crumbling buildings we would kill to preserve in Australia, some roofless & some vaulted. The view was spectacular, what a great place to see the enemy coming.

We also went to Ceret. A beautiful small town with statuesque Plain trees like huge giraffes standing in the streets. we bought VERY EXPENSIVE cherries and ate almost the whole box in the car on the way home.

We managed to save some though for our nightly card game....here is a picture of the very happy winner.....

Still sunny here in Colliore....

We are having SUCH a nice time.

The weather s perfect...not too hot, not too cold.This morning we went to the next little bay around from Collioure called Port Vendres. There is a fish market there and we bought the makings of Bouillabaise for tonight's dinner. Not really sure what fish we got though. What is Sea Wolf in Australian?

We found King Neptune's chair too....

My luggage still hasn't arrived though and Ricardo & Thomsey are beginning to walk a little further away from me as we promenade along the beach front. By the time my new bikini comes, I'll be too fat to wear it (all those croissants and NO Buns de steel..)

Last night we decided to treat ourselves Royally and go to dinner at 'Le Neptune' a fabulous restaurant up on the cliff at Colloure, here is Ricardo looking Fab in his velvet jacket from Miss Clarissa.... no pics of me I'm too stinky .

There is webcam to look at but we may not be on it yet!!!! the link is here...

Ther was an election here a couple of days ago but the wrong person won.......

Jacques the Shark

On our way to Sunny France, Richard feels compelled to sing a ittle ditty....and then show you his new Shark face.....

Where in the world do you think we are?

Ricardo has a new face...It's called "The Shark". I have taken a little movie...it will pop up soon if I can manage to figure out the Wifi connection back at the beautiful Ranch.

Sorry Kelly this may send you an even deeper shade of green.

Its been a long time coming...but here we are in the SUNNY south of France.

To make it a little more tolerable I could tell you about the lost luggage fiasco....(if you look closely, in all the photos you will see here, I am wearing the same clothes.)..........Or maybe the lost hire car fiasco.......Or theincredibly scary drive to Collioure from the airport at Perpignan on the wrong side of the road...

It's all forgotten now as we sit in a cafe squinting from the sun. I just checked the weather in Norwich....its 11 degrees.. and cloudy.

Giggling shoes video

Just proving that we are really in the same place at the same time and still having fun.....(Comments welcome all you lurkers!!!!You know who you are)

Post Party Post

We're all knackered now.