Monday, June 29, 2009

In search of the Canal du Midi

Nancy and Sasha were leaving today and as Dad was keen to see the Canal du Midi, we all headed south together, stopping at Mazamet for lunch and then going onto Carcassone where there is a gorgeous medieval village. We had a look around, did some shopping, had an ice cream and went inside the cathedral.

On the way out Tieve had a ride on the carousel, first with Sasha and then with Mum and Seren.

We then split from Nancy and Sasha and went in search of the Canal du Midi. We soon found it, took some photos and headed for home for a swim.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

A boat ride into Castre

After a leisurely start to the morning we took a boat ride from the campsite into the town of Castre. It was only a 10 minute ride but was very picturesque and just long enough to put our sunblock on. Being 1pm it was then time to ear as restaurants serve between 12 and 2. The owner was lovely and charmed both the girls, giving Seren a big cuddle when she was grizzly. We then took a little wander around the town and found a small park where we sat in the shade and chatted while Tieve played on the equipment.

As it was so hot, we stopped to wet our hats on a fountain on route to the park. On the way back, Tieve ended up taking it a step further and ended up completely drenched but nice and cool. We had planned to have a bbq but due to the lack of fuel in the site?s bbqs we just grilled the meat but still had a lovely meal.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Meeting some Cousins

Yesterday was a very long day, up at 6.30, away at 10 and arrived at the campsite in Castre at 10pm where we managed to talk our way into a meal at the restaurant. The girls were very good though with not one complaint or winge from Tieve and I managed to finish my book, reading 3/4 of it in one day. Today was therefore a well deserved rest day.

The girls were a little hungry this morning and got tired of waiting for breakfast so decided to help themselves.

Seren still seems pretty happy but the rash is worse and is now also at the tops of her arms and legs. Mum and I spent several hours at McDonalds looking up rash illnesses and checking our email and grocery shopping while the boys looked after the girls.

Dad's cousin Nancy and her Russian husband, Sasha joined us with their tent and we all had a lovely dinner at a restaurant 10 min walk away as the park restaurant was fully booked.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Spotty Seren

Today Seren woke up rather spotty. She seems much better and is pretty chirpy but as the day went on the rash that started on her front, slowly worked its way around her sides and up her back.



Thursday, June 25, 2009

On a hunt for Tinkerbell

We were a little tired this morning as Seren had been ill again in her bed during the night so had then spent a rather sleepless night in bed with us. It was our last day in the Paris area though so we either had to go to Disney today or not at all so decided to risk it. Dad dropped us and went to do some errands and, having the girls with us, we decided our first stop should be Fantasyland. Tieve first went on the Carousel with Glen and then the "flying ephalants" aka Dumbo ride, with Gran. By this time we had been at Disney for about two hours so decided to stop for lunch. I was keen, having just watched so far, to go on Space Mountain. We wandered over to Discoveryland to meet Dad, have a quick bite and join the 45 minute queue. We had been lining up for about 15 minutes when the queue stopped moving. We could hear announcements inside but could not understand them where we were, still outside the building. Slowly, people started getting frustrated with the wait and left, moving us up the line. After about half an hour and a couple of test runs the ride was up and running again and the line then moved quite rapidly as it would appear that many people from inside had also given up. Space Mountain was better than I had remembered and my fears about my recently developed motion intolerance were for nothing and I felt no worse afterwards than I ever really had after a rollercoaster. I think in some ways, not being able to see anything actually helps with the motion illness as there is not horizon to move!!!!

We came off just in time to race and see the parade, although, unfortunately, we didn't manage to meet up with Mum and the Girls but did take lots of photos. We found them when the parade was over and we then, as planned due to our long day tomorrow, headed for the shops to buy some souvenirs and head back to the campsite. Just as we hopped into the car it started raining so I definitely think we left at the right time.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

The Palace of Versailles

Today we were to see Versailles, which was Mum's choice but having seen Marie Antoinette, despite how appalling the movie was, I was keen to see it too. Our first stop was at McDonalds to check email and have a drink and then we parted with Dad who had to go and find a new tail light for the car. It would appear that summer holidays must have already started in Europe as the queues here were really bad too. We decided that with the long wait to get tickets and the number of people who would be inside, we would not see inside the Palace but, instead, see the gardens.

Surprise, surprise, our first stop was for some lunch as it was now 3 (who knows why we didn't have any when doing the emails as it was 1 then). Dad joined us just as we were finishing so we split up and Glen and I took the girls to look around the grounds. The gardens are huge and 3 of the sections on one side were closed for work so we headed right down to the end of the garden and then made our way back through the sections on the left side.

Eventually, as it was time to leave, we once again found Mum and Dad and as we were all pretty tired we headed back to the car and our site.

Seren had been pretty cranky all day and had not being given much to eat or drink but water due to the risk of being ill again. We had given her several doses of panadol as she was still pretty warm and on our return to the caravan she was 38.4 OC. We had planned to go to Disneyland tomorrow but have decided to bring our rest day forward to give her a day to recover.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Off to Grand Paris

After a rest day that consisted of sitting, reading and doing washing we were all set to hit Paris today. After going via the train station in Fontainebleau, we decided that we were best to drive in. Dad found a great park right in the centre of the city, 10 minutes walk from the Notre Dame. We walked there, took photos of the outside and then bought some lunch to sit and eat in the gardens behind the Notre Dame (where a group of nuns were also doing the same). The decision as to whether to go in or not was decided by the large queues that were snaking around the building. As was becoming custom for us, we then got on a hop on, hop off bus to see the sites. Paris is a beautiful city, all the buildings being similar architecture and height. There are few highrise buildings and they are all clumped together away from the centre of the city.

The tour took us past all the major sites within the centre, the Louvre, Champs Elyse, Arc de Triumph, The last stop for us was the Eifel Tower and we here we hopped off to have a look around and climb the tower. The queues were horrendous and it was lucky that I had already decided that I wanted to take the stairs (all 670 of them) as most people took the lift so our route was considerably quicker and much better for us. Mum and Dad stayed down the bottom in the park with the girls while Glen and I went up. Once we got to the second floor we had to buy another ticket in order to go all the way to the top which had to be done in a lift. The view from the top is spectacular and we managed to find all the places we had been past on the bus. We treated our selves to an ice cream and water before making the journey back down again. On the second floor we looked out over the park trying to see M, D, T & S and I thought I may have seen them but it wasn?t until we were down on the first floor that I was sure it was them so took a photo.

The last leg of the tour was rather slow due to the riduculous Paris peak hour traffic which seemed to have no real structure in parts.


While we had been gone, Dad had been reading his guide book for France and picked out a spot for dinner that was a block from the car. Le Boulanger was basically an old butchers and I stared blankly at the menu until the waiter eventually said that they had menus in English if we would like them. I was quite disgusted to realise what the guys next to us were eating. It was raw mince with fries. The chips I can cope with, raw mince, I can not!!! I had a fillet of beef which was lovely and Glen had half a duckling which I think had been fed a few steroids going by its size. Seren was unfortunately ill while we were in the restaurant so we dressed her in her jumper with Tieve?s on her bottom half and then changed both the girls into their pjs when we got back to the car. When we were dressing her she was pretty warm and after taking her temperature back at the campsite to find she was 39OC gave her some panadol before putting her to bed.