Les aventures d’une famille franco-anglaise

 At last we have made it as far as Cornwall! The six hour drive was so worth the wait. It was sunny and warm so the girls could hardly wait to go to the beach. The water is so blue! They said it wasn’t the best place for body boarding as the waves were better in Westward Ho! And sand sledging on a body board was not a success but there was so much to explore! Apparently there are a lot of caves but the tide was too high for us to see. However me and my teenager had an adventure swimming. Quite an adventure I mean, because we went so far apparently that the lifeguards asked us to come back before he was not sure he could help us should we find ourselves in difficulty. Oops ! It really motivated me to carry on with wild swimming though. I can actually swim at a temperature just below 20 degrees Celsius and without a wetsuit. Even if the waves can be a nuisance as I kept swallowing water.  I will talk about the caves in a later post as they were completely flooded over when we ar...

Yes to another bike ride, this time not even in Derbyshire, but just at the border with Staffordshire! The name Manifold is that of the river that is known to disappear underground at some point as you can see here. At first, I thought the ride would be a tad bit disappointing, but I quickly changed my mind when I saw the water reappearing near Wetton where there is a tea room   I also realised that there were some caves! We decided against leaving our bikes to visit Tor Cave, but we stopped at Nan Tor and were not disappointed!  As the sun came out, we even saw the opportunity for a paddle. We stopped for our lunch at Hulme End, where the track stops. All for a total of 27 km (about 19 miles) return. My husband said it was his favourite ride so far. My nine-year-old said it was nice but a bit too long for her...

 Yes I've done it. Camping! Can you believe it? For a bit of background, I have very little experience in camping as a kid as my mum has always been very sensitive to cold, and my dad vowed never to sleep under the canvas again after his national service, unless WW3 was to erupt in his lifetime. 😏 I (unintentionally) got out of a family camping trip in Whitby 2 years ago due to a fracture, but last bank holiday week end, beautiful weather was forecast, so we HAD to go to the sea side and why not make it two days?  You may know that Skegness is one of our favourites as it is the nearest resort, and I do not agree with popular opinion, that it is mediocre or overly tacky. The idea came to me at the 11th hour so I knew that it would be hard to find a place to stay overnight but as it was hot, I thought camping would be nice and I had to try it.  At last the sea!  Skegness Pier I love that idea, even though I no longer have a dog Oh I love those rock pools when the ti...

Last summer when we had our annual trip to Devon, we decided to make use of our roof top bike rack. unfortunately, we could not use much of our bikes. We thought of Northam Burrows Country park , but unfortunately, we can only visit it on foot. As cycling there to Appledore (for crab fishing) was not an option, we decided to go back another day on foot and it was definitely worth the walk and fun for the kids. I was most impressed by the Gray Sands as we approached Appledore! As for our animal loving younger daughter, there was a lot to see. On our last but one day, as the weather was not the greatest, we chose to go for a hike just at the top of the village. The views were great although it was recommended to be there at low tide, but that day, it was not quite possible for us, we were still impressed! We were so close to a helicopter taking off, we had to stop and watch, despite the noise! We obviously went to the beach loads of times, as we had a mostly sunny week. We even stayed tw...

  Comme nous vivons à Nottingham, si l’on veut profiter d’une journée chaude pour aller à la plage, la plus proche est Skegness! Cette station balnéaire parfois surnommée « le Blackpool de la Côte Est » a plutôt mauvaise réputation, possiblement dû au fait qu’elle est plutôt fréquentée par la classe ouvrière. Néanmoins, de nombreuses familles y font comme nous, l’aller retour dans la journée, peu importe le milieu. Ceux qui connaissent Blackpool ne seront pas dépaysés, notamment en voyant les manèges et les casinos. Quand j’ai rencontré mon mari britannique en 2006, je crois que c’était l’une de nos premières escapades ensemble. Nous y sommes retournés de nombreuses fois depuis. Une chose que j’ai un peu honte d’avouer est qu’à l’époque, j’étais à mille lieues de penser voir des gens se baigner là bas. Dans la mer du Nord! L’eau ne doit pas dépasser les 15 degrés en été ! Et puis en Angleterre, la mer devait être toujours grise! Petite, j’avais beau habiter Paris, je ne s...

 Now that Saturday French school is off for summer, and with last Saturday proving a scorching hot day, I suggested we went to Rutland Water, partly for the beach, but also partly for a lovely bike ride as a family. We parked near the beach (Sykes lane), which was convenient as it meant we did not have to carry our packed lunches in our backpacks, but it also meant we could not go all around the peninsula as I would have liked as we were out of time. As it was hot, it was not ideal to continue pedalling past midday. Maintenant que mes filles n'ont plus école française le samedi matin pour le reste de l'été et que la météo de samedi dernier s'annonçait très ensoleillée, j'ai suggéré d'emmener la famille faire encore une balade à vélo à Rutland water, où se trouve également une plage! Nous nous sommes garés près de la plage (Sykes Lane), ce qui nous a permis de laisser nos paniers repas dans le coffre de la voiture. Néanmoins, sa position éloignée de la péninsule du ...