Pâques!

WEEK ONE of the holidays and it's already been jam packed full of lovely things! I'm extremely lucky to have been invited chez Caroline for the first ten days of my holiday and my gosh it's been fab! First, we went as a family to Tréport Normandie! It was the perfect day for weather...I even got a little bit sunburnt! We arrived at the top of the cliff faces and had a huge walk round to see the views. It was a little windy but still very pleasant, it was great to see such magnificent sights for the start of spring too!

We arrived on a day where there was jet ski competitions too, which was pretty cool to watch! The beach was full of people as everyone was wanting to "profiter" with the sun and the sea! I'm still not sure it was warm enough at 25 degrees for the sea though!The top of the cliffs was a great start to the holiday, with beautiful scenes of the whole town! We then went down the cliff on a railway/monorail system

After a big walk round, we decided it was soon time for lunch - after a few hours of driving I think it was definitely well deserved for Caro and her husband!!! This was also a perfect opportunity to see the jet skiers and crazy water sports up close!

We ate in a seaside restaurant, which was very carefully picked out! It was surprising to see that despite some restaurants claiming to be "home cooked" food, they would use frozen fish - despite being that close to the sea! Instead of these "fake" restaurants we found a lovely, real sea food one to delve into! I had escalope with potatoes and veg! I really thought it was terrific, one of the best sea food places I've been to!

The afternoon was more beautiful walks around the town and beach, soaking up that vitamin D the North had been lacking for a long time! I had a fantastic time with the family chatting and seeing some of the most spectacular sights! It was the most perfect way to start the holidays, especially with the most fantastic boat trip! It was Caroline's idea and a huge thank you to her and her family for having me (and putting up with me) it was an amazing little holiday away from home!

 The boat trip took us all around the cliffs and around by the big cathedral that was part of the town.  

A holiday wouldn't be a holiday without ice-cream!

It was one of the best holidays! I think we were all well and truly shattered at the end of it, but it was a perfect place for weather, food and family! After our trip to Normandie, we went on a trip near Paris this week - to Parc Astérix!

For those who don't know, Astérix is an extremely famous French cartoon, and they've made a whole theme park out of the idea! It was brilliant - it was like a French version of Disney! We began the day with the 'Grosse splash' ride, getting soaked but when its 20 degrees + who cares! We also went on a log floom and I don't think I've ever screamed so much in my life!

Eloïse and I got to meet Obélix and Astérix too so that was lots of fun! I think by the looks of the picture we caught the sun a bit too much that day too...oops

We had a fantastic family day out, enjoying all of the rollercoasters!

WEEK TWO was my trip to Lyon which I organised with Julia! So straight away Lundi Pâques I was off on a train to pack my bag in Douai, then off to Julia's house! We started our holiday off properly with cocktails in Lille and then accidentally had very long conversations on the night...we had to be up the next morning at 4! So after 3 and a half hours later...with huge huge rucksacks we arrived at 9am in Lyon! 

Our first stop was the Parc de la Tête d'Or, a good twenty minute walk or so from the station (claims google) but we were faster than that in excitement - I think the chocolate croissant helped! Arriving at the park is stunning, it has its own botanical gardens and free zoo! We warmed up in the Southern sun and really appreciated the monkeys!

 

We couldn't check into our apartment until 15h, so we decided to do the most as possible before then! My idea that I'd found through a friend at school, was the Institut Lumière - the museum of the famous French film directors: the Lumière brothers. I'm sure anyone at Nottingham will remember the long first year lectures on photography and film, but this museum was fantastic. We got to see so many different film clips, cameras and how film truly had began (MERCI LA FRANCE!)

 

 
 It was safe to say at this point, 14h, we were both creamed crackered. The day had been huge and it wasn't over yet! We'd walked nearly 10km at this point too so we decided to get an Uber to avoid around 2 miles of walking (which honestly wouldn't have bothered us but our bags were murder!!) to our apartment. We decided to have a hot chocolate in a near by café that easily became our favourite of the holiday after that!

  Our next move, after sorting out our apartment with the famous "Tommy", was to explore Lyon and it's old town - Vieux Lyon. We took to the streets and my gosh it was stunning. I wish I could put more and more photos on my blog but I'll upload them to Facebook and Instagram too so follow it there! 

One thing you have to know about myself and Julia, is that we can and WILL talk about books until the sun goes down. Finding a beautiful, second hand book shop was a little gold-mine that day for us!

 


It was lovely to delve into different shelves - and find soooo much amazing French critics and novels! Little did we know this would be the start of a lot of bookstores...

Dinner that evening was in an official Lyon restaurant so I took it upon myself to try their specialities! We call the salad a bit of a 'mystery meat' one, as I literally had no idea which meats I was eating...was very nice though! I then had a Quenelle: this is a small mixture of creamed fish or meat with a light egg binding and then cooked - usually by poaching. Sounds weird right? IT WAS AMAZING. Julia also had lamb, which honestly gave me food envy!

The next day was another early start...5am! We were off to Annecy. My friend from uni Emma lives in Annecy and her photos always look incredible, so I was dying to see it for myself! Annecy is known as the little Venice of France...I think you can see why!

 It's lovely little canal like streams lead into a huge lake - which thanks to our amazing boat ride we found out was the third largest lake in France. Pretty cool! First we ventured into the Annecy Castle - which wasn't bad at all. I really enjoyed the latest exhibit on a comic-book styled artist! Afterwards I can truly say thank god for Julia's amazing ideas, we got on an hour long boat cruise around the lake, it was gorgeous!

As you can see, we even started getting a glimpse of the mountains too. What a perfect place to start in Annecy! I'm very jealous of Emma getting to live here!



After the boat ride, we headed back around the town, hunting out restaurants for food and eyeing up all the ice-cream shops! It's strangely a little like Italy in that way, sooooooo many icecream shops and sooooo much choice!

But first it was time for dinner. We were both desperate for some good old French cheese and decided to treat ourselves to tartiflette - which is like a huge block of cheese melted onto potatoes and bacon and OOOOOO IT'S THE BEST!








We spent the rest of our afternoon exploring the town, buying souvenirs and probably too much ice-cream. I joke. You can never have too much of a good thing.





Unfortunately with Ouibus times, at 15h30 it was time to leave. When we'd arrived at 8am it wasn't bad at all though! We decided to have a lovely relaxing evening in the apartment before another busy day!

Our last full day in Lyon was another stunning one. Full of culture too! The first thing we decided to do was enter a little book shop just across the river, on our way to climbing the giant hill to the church.

Can you spot the book shop? (It's on the left! Past the bridge!)

This was the official highlight in our literary eyes. Hundreds upon hundreds of French lit, all at low low prices...what was even better we got discounts too - merci au vendeur! 

This picture below is just a snapshot of the balcony they have right at the back of the shop, up the stairs. There's books on every wall, on almost every part of the floor in this shop! Glad they gave us space to walk!

Instead of taking a cable cart up to the top of the hill, we prepared ourselves for a treck! But it really wasn't half as bad as it looks - coming from me who has a fitness level of 0!!!


The church inside was stunning and so worth the climb. It even had a huge mosaic of Jeanne d'Arc so of course I was more than happy! The church was also the most perfect photo stop ever! Merci!

We then carried onto the Roman museum, which for 2.50 euros, was amazing. I don't know what I loved more, reading all the descriptions in French and not having to translate into English, or all the amazing artefacts the museum held! The rest of our day was spent in the old town, and the new, discovering more of Lyon's beautiful wonders. I'm envious of anyone who's got to live here!

So now? NOW I'M HOME! Well I'm home in Douai! Tonight Isabelle, Philippe, Marie, Chacha and Julien are coming to have a meal with me and then it's go go go again! Saturday morning I'm off to my tutee's house to spend the weekend with them! Then Monday night I'm back at Caroline's as I start my last week of work.

YES LAST WEEK OF WORK...Crazy right?!?!
I'm finishing my work as an assistant soon...but my travels in France are not over yet. More about this soon!

Catch you later

JR

xxxx